Wooldridge Presents at Conferences

Blue Wooldridge, D.P.A., participated in the Social Equity Leadership Conference held at the Baruch College, CUNY, on June 12-13. In his presentation, he described how he integrates concepts of social equity into the Government Budgeting and Financial Management course.  As the chair of the Standing Panel on Social Equity in Governance of the National Academy of Public Administration, which cosponsored the conference along with Baruch College, he was asked to introduce one of the plenary speakers, J. Phillip Thompson, professor at MIT and deputy mayor for strategic policy initiatives for New York City.

On June 21, he gave the keynote address to the summer conference of the Virginia Local Government Managers Association, “Promoting Equity and Justice in Our Workplaces and Communities.” 

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights’ Dear Colleague Letter reinvigorated the application of Title IX to campus sexual assault and changed the way campuses are handling these incidents. This article by Sarah Jane Brubaker, Ph.D., chair of the Wilder School's doctoral program, explores Title IX from the standpoint of campus-based victim advocates working within the formal system of higher education and compares this approach to campus sexual assault with historical tensions between feminist grassroots activists and the criminal justice system. Advocates’ mixed allegiances to both the institution and to feminist ideals of survivor empowerment produce conflicts and identify needs for system advocacy.

Howell Posts on London School of Economics American Public Policy Blog

Kathryn Howell, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Wilder School’s Urban and Regional Studies and Planning program, recently published on the London School of Economics American Public Policy Blog, “How we can preserve assistant housing in the context of gentrification and constrained federal resources.” The blog is based on an article she recently published in “Urban Studies.” In the blog, she writes of the need for local tools, data and multi-sector collaboration among tenants, service providers, advocates and government agencies to preserve affordable housing. 

Harper-Anderson Presents at Conference

Elsie Harper-Anderson, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Wilder School’s Urban and Regional Studies and Planning program, attended the 32nd International Conference on Business Incubation in Dallas, Texas. On April 23 She participated on a panel titled, “Creating Inclusive Ecosystems and Practices for Growing and Scaling Minority-Owned Businesses. 

Gooden Participates on Panel

Susan Gooden, Ph.D., professor of public administration and policy at the Wilder School and past president of the American Society for Public Administration, participated in a panel, "Racial Inequality in Health and Economic Outcomes," at Columbia University in New York on April 20 as part of a public forum to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission report.

The event was sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, The Eisenhower Foundation, The Roosevelt Institute and The American Assembly. Also participating were William Spriggs, chief economist to the AFL-CIO, Professor of Economics at Howard University and former assistant secretary, Office of Policy, U.S. Department of Labor; William Rodgers III, Professor of Public Policy and Chief Economist, Heldrick Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University; and Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor, Columbia University, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and also named by Time Magazine in 2011 as one of the most 100 influential people in the world.

URSP Faculty Present Research

Four members of the Wilder School’s Urban and Regional Studies and Planning program presented research at the 48^th Annual Urban Affairs Association conference, held April 4-6 in Toronto. Presenting were Elsie Harper-Anderson, Ph.D., assistant professor; Kathryn Howell, Ph.D., assistant professor; Ivan Suen, Ph.D., associate professor; and Ben Teresa, Ph.D., assistant professor.

Brubaker Chosen to Participate in Institute for Research on Poverty Workshop

Sarah Jane Brubaker, Ph.D., director of the Wilder School’s doctoral program in public policy and administration, has been selected to participate in the Institute for Research on Poverty’s Teaching Poverty 101 Workshop, which will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison June 12-15.

Teaching Poverty 101 is a workshop that offers strategies and resources for instructors developing college-level courses and lessons on poverty and inequality. Brubaker, a sociologist and associate professor, is also the director of the Wilder School’s gender violence intervention certificate.

The workshop brings together college faculty and instructors from across the United States for several days of intensive, collaborative work during which they will share their own teaching expertise and develop a model course syllabus.

Raskin Co-Organizes Panel, Presents Paper

Sarah Raskin, Ph.D., a medical anthropologist, assistant professor at the Wilder School and a member of the VCU Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation Oral Health Core, co-organized a panel and presented a paper for the Society for Applied Anthropology annual meeting, which took place in Philadelphia from April 2-7.

 Her paper, presented on April 4, was titled, "Examining the Governance of Translation: Toward Ethnographies of Policy in an Applied Anthropology of Implementation." Drawing on the case example of Smiles for Children for Moms, which provides dental coverage for low-income pregnant women in Virginia to two months post-partum, she examined the conceptual limitations of a major Implementation Science framework with regard to the policy conditions surrounding "readiness" to translate evidence-based innovations into practice, and identified four key areas in which ethnographic research can contribute to Implementation Science.

 She presented the paper on a panel that she co-organized with Cathleen Willging of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation entitled "Medical Anthropology of, in, and through Implementation Science." Scholars reflected academia, research institutes, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She and Willging also collaborated with a "sibling session" in the afternoon that also examined Implementation Science and Anthropology, with scholars representing collaborations with institutions of higher education, the U.S. Marine Corps, and community-based organizations in Latin America.

Harper-Anderson Publishes Article in Economic Development Quarterly

Elsie Harper-Anderson, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Wilder School’s Urban and Regional Studies and Planning program, recently published an article in Economic Development Quarterly titled, “Intersections of Partnership and Leadership in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Comparing Three U.S. Regions.”

Entrepreneurial ecosystems have become a focal point for regional innovation and growth. Much of the scholarship on ecosystems has focused on identifying key components and understanding factors influencing the entrepreneurial process. While scholars have acknowledged the importance of connection as the means through which information, knowledge, and resources are shared, most of the discussion has focused on entrepreneurs as the unit of analysis with limited attention to connections between entrepreneurial support organizations.

 This comparative analysis examines partnership and leadership among entrepreneurial support organizations in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Richmond. The author argues that differences in partnership practices across the cases are in part a function of the unique leadership models shaping each ecosystem’s cultural and institutional norms. Understanding the role of leadership could be critical for shaping the collaborative environments for which most ecosystem stakeholders are hoping.

Burke Reappointed to Governor's Commission  

James 'Jim' Burke, Ph.D,  director of the Wilder School's Performance Management Group, was recently reappointed to the Virginia Commission on Higher Education Board Appointments by Governor Ralph Northam. The seven member commission reviews and evaluates potential appointees to the governing bodies of Virginia's public institutions of higher education, the State Board for Community Colleges and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Burke was previously appointed to the commission in 2015. 

Elsie Harper-Anderson Elected to Governing Board of the Urban Affairs Association

 Elsie Harper-Anderson, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Wilder School’s Urban and Regional Studies and Planning program, has been elected to the governing board of the Urban Affairs Association. She will officially take office during the association’s 48th annual conference April 4-7 in Toronto.

The association is the international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers, and public service professionals. It’s dedicated to creating interdisciplinary spaces for engaging in intellectual and practical discussions about urban life.  Through theoretical, empirical, and action-oriented research, the UAA fosters diverse activities to understand and shape a more just and equitable urban world.

Jay Albanese, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Wilder School’s Criminal Justice program, is recipient of the Senior Scholar Award from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime (IASOC) for lifetime contributions to the field.  The contributions include research, books, articles, lectures, mentoring, and his work at the National Institute of Justice and United Nations. He will receive the award at the IASOC ceremony held during the 2017 meetings of the American Society of Criminology in Philadelphia.

Founded in 1984, IASOC is a professional association of criminologists, researchers, working professionals, instructors and graduate students.  IASOC works to promote greater understanding and research about organized crime in all its manifestations. The organization sponsors a journal Trends in Organized Crime (published by Springer), holds annual meetings in conjunction with the American Society of Criminology, and host panels at other professional meetings, as a forum to disseminate the latest knowledge and research about organized crime.

Sarah Raskin Contributes to Book

Sarah Raskin, Ph.D., assistant professor, is a contributor to a newly released book, “Stigma Syndemics: New Directions in Biosocial Health.” The book explores the linkages of social stigmatization, structural conditions and how these societal forces affect human health. The authors examine new areas in which biosocial health can be better understood by looking at how social and biological interaction are driven by stigma, through a syndemic framework.

Avrum J. Shriar Coauthors Article

Avrum J. (A.J.) Shriar, Ph.D., associate professor, has coauthored an article, Transfer of development rights, growth management, and landscape conservation in Virginia, with Alissa Akins of the Congress for the New Urbanism. 

Urban sprawl in Virginia has led to the loss of wildlife habitat and agricultural land, reduced water quality, and to severe traffic congestion. They conducted a survey to identify the tools being used by the state's localities to manage growth and protect land from development, and the factors that influence interest in particular planning goals and strategies.

More specifically, they sought to explore the level of interest in using the transfer of development rights (TDR). Almost every locality in Virginia has stated goals of protecting green space and agricultural land but very few have pursued a TDR program since it became legal to do so in 2006. However, the main tools being used by planning departments are of limited effectiveness, particularly with regard to ensuring permanent or even long-term land preservation. More broadly, they are reflective of a reactive response to individual development proposals rather than a proactive, comprehensive approach to planning.

 Rissler Publishes Article in State and Local Government Review

Patrick G. Lowery, Ph.D., assistant professor of Criminal Justice, has published an article in Feminist Criminology, “Plea Bargains Among Serious and Violent Girls: An Intersectional Approach Exploring Race in the Juvenile Court.”

There exists much scholarship on the decision-making process in the juvenile court. While a variety of processes in the juvenile court, types of offenders and theoretical frameworks have been analyzed to better understand the decision-making processes, there are some gaps, particularly in the use of an intersectional framework in explaining the plea bargaining process among serious and violent girls. Given the paucity of research on this subject, the present study pays homage to intersectionality by exploring the aforementioned process and group in the juvenile court.

Public administrators at all levels are discussing implications of President Trump's proposed budget. While eventual outcomes remain uncertain, a recent interview of a panel of local government practitioners highlighted that when such reductions occur, local governments often operate as "first responders" in serving the most vulnerable residents within their respective communities. They run toward the potential equity crisis rather than away, in part because they see those affected as neighbors. In essence, their focus on social equity includes an emphasis on direct services as well as trust building. The panel also highlighted the importance of trust building and leadership for sustainability of social equity work and noted assessment and performance improvement as a key opportunity for academic/practitioner collaboration.

 Adopted at the conclusion of the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Doha Declaration highlights the importance of education as a tool to preventing crime and corruption. It emphasizes that education is fundamental in promoting a culture that supports the rule of law, crime prevention and criminal justice.