Fall 2023

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Accomplishments and achievements

The Wilder School produces outstanding scholarship, service and leadership — locally and nationally

Dhara Minesh Amin, Ph.D. (P.P.A.’10, M.S.’14/ CJ), and Darrion R. Holloway, Esq., (’13 B.S./ CJ), are the recipients of the VCU 10 Under 10 Awards, which recognize the distinctive achievements made by alumni who earned their first VCU degree within the past 10 years. Amin works as a managing consultant in the State and Local Government division of consulting group Guidehouse. She combines her public service experience with private sector tools to help governments be more effective. Holloway works in personal injury litigation and serves with two other VCU graduates on the board of the 3E Program for Social Justice and Change.

Homeland security and emergency preparedness students welcomed a visit from the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell for a fireside chat and presentation on increasing equitable access to disaster relief. Criswell, who is the first woman to lead FEMA, shared lessons learned from disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, that have shaped her leadership of putting the needs of people first. She explored the ever-broadening scope of emergency planning and response, and how multiplying factors compound response — especially the disparities that impact underserved communities, which are less likely to recover without more access to resources. During the visit, FEMA representatives conducted a recruitment fair aimed at filling 1,500 positions across multiple career sectors and professions.

Doctoral student Amidu Kalokah was a recipient of the 2023 Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Summer Program Scholarship in Quantitative Methods. The program, held at the University of Michigan, offers in-person and online classes and is designed to fulfill the researchers’ training needs. Kalokoh’s current research explores the intersections of criminal justice, homeland security, and emergency management. He is focused on improving law enforcement engagement with school safety and security arrangements, disaster and emergency management, mitigating money laundering, fighting financing terrorism, and democratic governance. His research interests developed through his experiences growing up amid a civil war and post-war conditions in Sierra Leone.

Wilder School criminal justice faculty instructor and triple VCU alumnus Brad Lehmann, Ph.D. (EDU’22, M.S.’11/CJ, B.S.’05/CJ), received the 2023 Oxford University Summer Research Institute. While at Oxford, Lehmann expanded his research on the historical foundations of justice and society through access to the Bodleian Law Library, which hosts a unique collection of criminal justice and legal materials not readily available in the United States.

The Wilder School was honored to receive Dame Karen Pierce DCMG, British Ambassador to the United States, during a stateside diplomatic visit. She met with Gov. Wilder and VCU leadership and hosted a presentation entitled “Democracy and Diplomacy: Cultivating Our Future” to provide Wilder School students with an in-depth look at the intricate collaboration and partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom. “It was fantastic to meet Governor Wilder and to witness his vision in action; the breadth and ambition of the Wilder School is extremely impressive,” Amb. Pierce said. “It was a privilege for me — and our traveling team of British embassy diplomats — to engage with such a diverse range of young leaders and thinkers at VCU.”

Urban and regional planning graduate student Nadya Syazsa (at far right) took home the Plan Off! 2023 grand prize for her presentation “Designing an Eco-Resilient Community in Brentwood, Washington, D.C.,” a project prepared for the District of Columbia Office of Planning. She and 11 of her peers competed by pitching their solution to a real-world planning, public policy, or management problem before a panel of expert judges. The event was held in partnership with Virginia Housing at the Richmond offices of PlanRVA.

Laurin Henry celebrates a century, plus two years to grow on

As professor and fifirst dean of VCU’s School of Community Services — which later became the Wilder School in 2013 — in 1978, Laurin Henry, Ph.D., has built a living legacy on education for good governance. In the spring, leaders from the Wilder School and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) proudly met with Henry to reflflect on his renowned career. During the visit, Henry, who served as president of NASPAA, described NASPAA’s rise. Henry shared that its fellows program “put NASPAA on the map in the university world.” Today, NASPAA is the leading global accreditor of graduate degree programs in public administration, public policy, public affairs, and related spheres. As Henry looks to the future, he views young people as agents of change in the public sector. “Public service is a great activity with its own intrinsic rewards, and there are enough varied forms of public service — you can be a scientifific type, an engineering type, or a managerial type,” he said. “If you go to the right kind of school, you will also get a grasp of what the world is about in terms of society and politics … It’s to grasp the fundamentals of society, the nature of politics, and the nature of democracy.”

Susan Gooden receives prestigious Rutledge Award

Internationally renowned scholar Susan T. Gooden, Ph.D., Dean and Professor of the Wilder School, was honored with the prestigious 2023 Philip J. Rutledge Social Equity Award. Bestowed by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), this award underscores Gooden’s commitment of over 20 years to advancing social equity. The Rutledge Award emphasizes Gooden’s enduring dedication to promoting social equity, a commitment planted during her tenure at Virginia Tech, where she established the Race and Social Policy Research Center. At the VCU Wilder School, in addition to being on the public administration faculty, she created the nationally recognized Wilder Fellows program and served as executive director of the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute before ultimately becoming the school’s dean. Gooden has also served as president at both the American Society for Public Administration and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration, and as editor and author of fifive books, including “Race and Social Equity: A Nervous Area of Government,” recipient of the Herbert Simon Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association.