Get to know some of our accomplished alumni...
Fred banks
Fred Banks, D.P.A. ’20, was born and raised in Washington, DC. Fred graduated from Bishop McNamara HS in Forestville, MD and went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Sociology from Morgan State University in Baltimore Maryland. Fred began his career with Maryland’s state government as a program manager with the Department of Parole and Public Safety. He transferred to become a program monitor with the Governor’s Office for Children, Youth and Families, identifying obstacles for child wellness and monitoring statewide programs geared towards providing services to youth across Maryland.
Fred returned to Morgan State as the Associate Director of Admissions to focus on data to identify and recruit youth as potential college students. He also worked with several community and national partners to increase access to higher education for youth with limited resources and guidance.
In 2009, Fred Banks joined the Maryland Park Service (MD Department of Natural Resources) to become the Program Director for the Civic Justice Corps (currently known as the Conservation Jobs Corps / CJC) where his focus is providing experiential learning and environmental service opportunities for youth across Maryland. In 2014 Maryland Park Service expanded the program director’s role to include supervision of the Maryland Conservation Corps and the Veteran’s Conservation Corps. Working with several state, county and national partners Conservation Corps have grown to serve youth, young adults and veterans to continue to be an integral part of improving conditions of the Chesapeake Bay and state parks and other public lands.
Fred hopes to continue to utilize data to provide insight for obstacles facing young adults in identifying access and opportunities to improved quality of life.
Dissertation title: The Effect of Access and Exposure on Occupational Segregation for Women and Minorities
Lyndsay Bates
Lyndsay Bates, D.P.A. '23, is a graduate of the Doctor of Public Administration program with a research focus on structural inequality and re-development efforts in Baltimore City. As a student, Lyndsay was awarded three competitive awards, including the ASPA Founders Fellowship, a research fellowship for her doctoral scholarship, and a distinguished staff award for her professional work. Lyndsay's leadership was exemplified by her support of several social justice initiatives at the University of Baltimore, including: the Court Navigator Program , an access to justice project supporting tenants seeking legal action against landlords; the Maryland Equity and Inclusion Leadership Program , a professional development program aimed at making the workplace equitable and inclusive; as well as co-chairing the 2018 Northeast Conference on Public Administration (NECoPA) annual conference, with a theme that explores blind spots in public administration. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication from James Madison University and a Master of Arts in Legal and Ethical Studies from the University of Baltimore.
Dissertation title: Citizen Representation in Democratic Government Processes: A Study of Baltimore City’s Central Business District (CBD) Redevelopment from 1950-2007
Antonio L. Borrego
Antonio Borrego, D.P.A. '20, was born in California and has lived across the United States, however, he considers Raleigh, North Carolina his home. He received his undergraduate degree in business management from North Carolina State University in 2002 and was awarded a Master of Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma in 2007.
Antonio commissioned into the Marine Corps in 2002 and has served eleven years of active duty and five years in the reserves. While in the Reserves, Antonio worked in human resources for the State of North Carolina in the Departments of Juvenile Justice and Agriculture. Antonio is a logistics officer by trade and deployed as a strategic planning officer managing procurement for the Afghan Security Forces in 2009. During this deployment, he was tasked to determine the cost to increase the size of the Afghan Forces to 240,000 from 120,000. His work resulted in the Secretary of Defense and President of the United States allocating an additional $20 billion to the growth of the Afghan forces; helping to lay the foundation for the 2011 exit of US forces from Afghanistan.
In Antonio’s most recent work he was responsible for managing the manpower needs for the Marine Corps’ Active Reserve Program. His work there and career successes resulted in his selection to attend Naval Postgraduate School to earn a master’s degree in manpower systems, an econometrics focused curriculum, with follow on orders to serve as the senior reserve manpower plans officer for Reserve Affairs, Headquarters Marine Corps.
Antonio’s research interests include military manpower, national budget issues, and public policy. He is a member of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA).
Dissertation title: Honor, Courage, and Varying Forms of Commitment: A Quantitative Study into the Career Affiliation Decisions of United States Marine Corps Active Reserve Officers
luiz octavio coimbra
Luiz Ocatvio Coimbra, D.P.A. '22, has spent the last two years doing research on anti-money laundering (AML) policies in Brazil. In his dissertation, "Conditioning Factors of AML implementation in Brazil," he assessed and discussed the determinants that act upon the implementation of the transnational AML regime in Brazil – mainly the influence of the US external policy, political domestic interest and a network of judicial, criminal, and public safety agencies.
"I am grateful to the faculty and colleagues of the doctoral program for the extraordinary learning experience and the academic environment that I had the opportunity to enjoy during my years as a student," said Luiz. "I always had a strong personal and professional interest in public policies and social issues, and my academic experience in Baltimore strengthened my skills to understand, assess, and implement public policies to achieve the objectives of social development."
Luiz has an academic background in sociology, a master’s degree in history and a doctorate (ABT) in public health. He has worked for over 28 years in the Organization of American States (OAS) where he participated in projects such as demobilization of former guerrillas in Central America, and Observatories of Violence in the Caribbean. Since 2020, he has served as representative of the OAS in Belize. "I have been fortunate to have added the deep academic background provided by The University of Baltimore to a wide range of experiences at the national, regional, and international levels."
Dissertation title: Conditioning Factors of Anti-Money Laundering Implementation in Brazil
lorena de leon
Lorena de Leon , B.S. '10, MBA '13, D.P.A. '20, has over 25 years of clinical and operational experience including program development, strategic planning, digital health and technology, and affordability/cost savings. She is currently the Sr. Director of Population Health and Social Determinant of Health for Maryland Physicians Care, the third largest Medicaid managed care organization in the state of Maryland. She has worked for and lead initiatives for organizations including United Healthcare, Optum, Johns Hopkins, and the Office of Healthcare Quality. Lorena holds a bachelor’s degree in business management, an MBA in healthcare management, and a Doctor of Public Administration from The University of Baltimore. She also holds a Certificate in Value-Based Care from the University of Houston and is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
Dissertation title: Diabetic Foot Exams: A National Study of Social Equity Disparities in Quality Based on Patient, Provider and Practice Characteristics and Policy Implications
stephanie dolamore
Stephanie Dolamore (she/her), D.P.A. '18, is a public servant and scholar with a focus on social equity and disability justice. Stephanie identifies as an individual with disabilities and is passionate about ensuring government and nonprofit organizations actively include, and promote equality for, people with disabilities.
Professionally, Stephanie has a rich background working in public organizations, nonprofit organizations, and higher education. Currently, Stephanie is an assistant professor of public administration at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. She teaches using American Sign Language and English for D/deaf and Hard of Hearing students in the bilingual Master of Public Administration program. Stephanie is also a consultant for the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council and works as the Director of Policy Initiatives. Her work for the Council focuses on improving the diversity outcomes, broadly defined, in policy and grant projects for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities throughout the state of Maryland.
As a scholar, Stephanie explores the intersection of social justice, disability justice, and organizational culture in the public sector. Her work has been published in academic, peer-reviewed journals and she has presented at national and international conferences. A summary of her recent publications can be found here in the links below. She is also the lead editor of Organizational Culture and Social Equity: An Experiential Guide, a forthcoming book by Routledge in 2023. Her dissertation utilized content analysis of archival materials from 1936-2006 at the Housing Authority of Baltimore City to examine the connection between the artifacts of organizational culture and empathy, an important public service value.
More information:
- Stephanie Dolamore on LinkedIn
- Stephanie Dolamore on Google Scholar
- Dissertation title: Toward a Framework for Detecting Empathy in Public Sector Organizations
Diane Flint
Diane Flint, D.P.A. '19, also holds an A.A. degree from Carroll Community College, a B.A. in English from the University of Baltimore, and an M.S in Emergency Health Services (EHS) with a concentration in Administration, Policy, and Planning from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
Diane is an active paramedic and emergency medical services (EMS) instructor for basic life support, advanced life support and critical care disciplines, including pediatric and advanced cardiac life support. She is also the EHS undergraduate program director and clinical assistant professor of EHS management and an EHS academic adviser at UMBC in addition to serving as adjunct faculty at the Community College of Baltimore County in their paramedic education programs. She is a site evaluator for the Committee on Accreditation of EMS Programs (CoAEMSP) and is a member of the National Association of EMS Educators (NAEMSE), where she serves on several committees.
Diane’s research interests are grounded in EMS and public health, specifically how proper policy administration can play a key role in healthcare cost reduction and how International EMS systems can be integrated to provide greater cost effective care. Her dissertation was titled, "The Systemic Impact of Integrated Mobile Healthcare in a State-Wide Emergency Medical Services System."
Dissertation title: The Systemic Impacts of Integrated Mobile Healthcare in a State-Wide Emergency Medical Services System
Ashley gavin
Ashley Gavin, D.P.A. '20, is a public servant who works to bring evidence and research to life by testing new policies to improve the health and well-being of children and families at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In her role as program lead of the Innovation Center’s first pediatric Medicaid model, she became interested in how the interactions between two types of public servants—political appointees/politicians and administrators/bureaucrats—influence the implementation of public policy. Her desire to understand the institutions and norms by which governing takes place led her to focus on the impact of governance dimensions on international development as a doctoral student of public administration.
Ashley’s experience teaching English in a public school in South Korea and serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia prepared her to study issues through multiple paradigms influenced by culture and language. She is interested in comparative studies across countries’ governance systems that can yield evidence to strengthen governance through context-specific problem solving.
Ashley holds a Master of Public Health in Global Health from Boston University and Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Spanish from Norwich University.
Dissertation title: Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Civil Service Reform in Latin America 2004-2013 Through a Development Lens
Jasmine Greene
Jasmine Greene , D.P.A.' 20, has lived in several states but calls South Dakota home. While earning her bachelor’s degree in Political Science at Emporia State University (Emporia, KS), Jasmine was awarded a grant and used the funds to launch and coordinate a community service organization, Getting Involved in Volunteering in Emporia (G.I.V.E.), geared toward international students interested in exploring American volunteerism. She coordinated teams of up to 35 diverse volunteers and managed project budgets. G.I.V.E. is still operating with a ten-year track record of community impact.
Jasmine’s love for volunteerism and community service blossomed into a passion for ethical public service. She was awarded a graduate assistantship for both years of her master’s and earned her Master of Public Administration from Kansas State University. She interned with the Deputy City Manager at the City of Manhattan, KS, and provided administrative research support for municipal government policies and Tax Increment Finance (TIF) districts. Jasmine was honored with the Kansas Association of City/County Management Scholarship in 2014. In addition to her scholarship, she organized professional panels of state and local government officials and assisted with the recruitment of future masters students.
After graduating from Kansas State University, Jasmine accepted a position with South Dakota State University in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. She was promoted in less than two years and competently managed a wide range of duties including managing ~$2.5M in state, federal, grant, indirect and revolving cash budgets; coordinating the USDA Northern Plains Regional Climate Hub sub-award program; developing and incorporating data collection and utilization processes to improve strategic planning for the department; substantially supporting faculty annual reviews and supervising full- and part-time employees; significantly improving alumni and donor relations; and advising approximately 200 graduate and undergraduate students across multiple degrees.
Determined to continue growing as an exceptional public servant, Jasmine began her Doctor of Public Administration program in the spring of 2018. She accepted a graduate fellowship with the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore in the fall of 2018 and was hired as a full-time research analyst at the Schaefer Center within six months because of her excellent performance and valuable skillset. As an analyst, Jasmine provided substantial research support for a variety of research projects. She developed and administered surveys and conducted secondary source reviews; analyzed data with advanced qualitative and quantitative techniques and software; managed project timelines, finances, and tasks for research teams; coordinated graduate fellow tasks and assignments; and facilitated the Maryland Certified Public Manager® Program.
Jasmine’s research interests include social and economic justice, urban agriculture, and public policy.
Dissertation title: (Food) banking on networks: Social network analysis of Maryland food networks
dylan hayden
Dylan Hayden, D.P.A. '21, serves as a Program Analyst at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Originally a New Yorker, his career in public service began in the U.S. Navy, where he served for six years as a cryptologist and Naval Aircrewman, earning an associate degree in Arabic from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and being awarded the Air Medal for reconnaissance flight operations in Afghanistan.
After receiving his Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, he served for two years in the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, taking leading roles in various policy initiatives, including the development of NYPerforms—a statewide performance management system, coordinating a workforce program for recent parolees, and serving on the Regional Economic Development Council assessment team. After concluding this appointment, Dylan entered the federal government as an Administrative Officer with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at the Palo Alto medical center in California. There, he orchestrated the Lean transformation of the prosthetics service, improving workload scheduling and purchasing contract compliance. Since joining HUD in November of 2014, Dylan has worked to assist high risk and troubled housing authorities to improve their performance and now works to ensure fair and equitable housing opportunities for all. Dylan has been awarded multiple merit scholarships from the University of Baltimore, The Universities at Shady Grove, and the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers, as well as the Fels Institutional Service Award. He lives in Towson, Maryland with his wife, Emily, and their two daughters, Madeline and Eliza.
Fun facts: Dylan is a certified private pilot, SCUBA diver and mixologist.
Dissertation title: The Social Determinants of Public Housing Performance
Cassandra r. Henson
Cassandra R. Henson, D.P.A. '16, also holds an MBA in Finance from Morgan State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from West Virginia University. Henson has held leadership positions in the corporate finance, local government, healthcare and defense contracting industries. Her areas of specialization are financial analysis, budgeting, project management, contract pricing and negotiation, auditing, compliance and strategic planning.
Henson is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Towson University. She teaches a myriad of courses including Healthcare Ethics and Law, Healthcare Financial Management and Healthcare Organization Management. She discovered her love for teaching while instructing clinical and other non-financial managers on how to properly prepare budgets and financial reports. Now she conducts and presents in-depth research, as well as teaches students the practical applications of these techniques as they apply to healthcare policy and the industries impacted.
Henson has been active with the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) since 2012, her second semester of doctoral study. She is the president of the ASPA Maryland Chapter, chair elect for the Section on Health and Human Services Administration and general member for the Section on Public Administration Education. Her research interests include: local government performance measurement and management, healthcare administration pedagogy, public administration pedagogy and health economics.
Dissertation title: Effective performance measurement of state and local inspectors general: a multi-methods analysis of current operations and a scorecard for future application
david Juppe
David Juppe, M.P.A. ’88, D.P.A. ’11, currently works for the Prince George’s County Office of Management and Budget as a Revenue Analyst. In this role he is responsible for forecasting County revenues, staffing the Spending Affordability Committee, overseeing the tax differential process, and coordinating fiscal estimates of legislation. Prior to that he spent 30 years with the Maryland General Assembly’s Department of Legislative Services. For 22 years he was the Operating Budget Manager, responsible for coordinating the analysis of the Governor’s annual budget. He holds a bachelor’s in Political Science from Towson University, and Master and a Doctor of Public Administration degrees from The University of Baltimore. He taught as an adjunct faculty at The University of Baltimore and Penn State University.
He was president of the National Association of Legislative Fiscal Offices and received a Legislative Staff Achievement Award. He presented papers on public budgeting at various conferences and co-authored an article in Public Budgeting and Finance. Juppe trained the national parliamentary staff on budget analysis and fiscal note preparation in Maputo, Mozambique, testified before a congressional subcommittee and the Canadian Parliament on Social Impact Bonds, and visited Amman, Jordan to recommend improvements to the Parliament’s review of the national budget.
Dissertation title: Tax and expenditure limitations as a tool of counter cyclical fiscal policy: post-2001 recession fiscal strategies in three states
J. Howard "jim" Kucher
J. Howard "Jim" Kucher, MBA '01, D.P.A. '14, is an Associate Professor of Social Innovation in the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where he directs the groundbreaking Master of Science in Health and Social Innovation program. An internationally recognized thought leader in social entrepreneurship, Prof. Kucher previously led the Baltimore Social Enterprise Collaborative–a program that was nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum and helped over 60 area nonprofits develop new models for meeting the needs of their constituents while increasing the sustainability of their organizations. He has successfully secured over $70m in working capital on behalf of mission-oriented enterprises and assisted over 100 area nonprofits and social enterprises in developing new models for meeting the needs of their constituents while increasing the sustainability of their organizations. Prof. Kucher earned his MBA from the University of Baltimore's Merrick School of Business in 2001.
Dissertation title: A comparative examination of the revenue structure of social enterprises and traditional nonprofits in Maryland
Shermaine Malcolm
Shermaine Malcolm, B.A. '11, M.A. '13, D.P.A. '23, is a graduate of the Doctor of Public Administration program. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence and a Master of Arts in Legal and Ethical Studies, both from The University of Baltimore. Shermaine also serves as a board member for a nonprofit organization. She is a public servant who currently works as the human resources director for the State Board of Elections. The agency is responsible for promoting free and equitable elections in Maryland. Shermaine’s research interest focuses on emotional intelligence in the public sector, particularly the role of emotional intelligence on job performance. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and trying new cuisines.
Dissertation title: An Examination of the Relationship between Supervisors’ Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Subordinates’ Work Performance."
jude mutah
Jude Mutah, D.P.A. '21, serves as a program specialist for Africa at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). In his role, he works closely with the West Africa director and Africa center vice president to design and implement projects/programs in West and Central Africa, including in Nigeria, Cameroon, among others. He is also an adjunct professor in The University of Baltimore's School of Public and International Affairs and teaches courses on global affairs and human security. Jude is a Penn Kemble Fellow, a prestigious fellowship program sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy that promotes bipartisan conversation among young foreign policy leaders in Washington, D.C. Jude previously worked as a consultant for the legal department of the International Monetary Fund and as a research assistant for the Africa program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, both in Washington, D.C. In 2013, Jude founded the JM Foundation for Youth Advocacy, a non-profit, charitable organization supporting underprivileged young people in Cameroon by providing educational and other material support. Mutah holds a bachelor’s degree in law (LL.B) from the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; a master’s degree in peace and conflict transformation from the University of Basel, Switzerland; a master's of law (LL.M) degree from the George Washington University Law School, Washington, D.C, and a doctorate in public administration, concentrating on global affairs and human security, from The University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland. His dissertation examined the role of transnational cooperation in combatting terrorism, using the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) against Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin, Africa, as a case study. The study provides practical recommendations to institutions, governments, and organizations struggling with the menace of terrorism. His research interests include terrorism and counterterrorism efforts, identity politics, governance, and conflict prevention.
Dissertation title: Transnational Cooperation to Combat Boko Haram: The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF)
JOel nantais
Joel Nantais, D.P.A. '22, is a public servant, currently serving as the Operations Director in the office of American Citizen Services and Crisis Management at the Department of State which is responsible for the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. It is in this role and others where he has seen the need for the government to leverage data and machine learning techniques to more nimbly and accurately provide services to citizens. In many cases when the government is the main or sole provider of important services, reducing the applications process and processing times for eligibility determinations can have outsized impacts, and can quite literally save lives.
Joel holds a Master of Science in Public Policy and Analysis from the University of Central Florida, a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a Graduate Certificate in Data Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Joel also volunteers with Code for America and DataKind, two nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving the public sector through data science.
Dissertation title: Towards Reduced Administrative Burdens: Performance Management, Machine Learning, and Evidence Building in the Federal Government
awa ndiaye
Awa Ndiaye, D.P.A. '20, is originally from Senegal (West Africa) where she grew up and left, after attaining her high school (Baccalaureat) diploma, to attend university in Nice and Aix-en-Provence (France). Awa holds an MBA with a concentration in management, and a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from UMBC. She currently works for the Social Security Administration as a program/project manager in the Enterprise Program Management Office. Awa's doctoral research focused on evaluating the effects targeted International policies on indenture bear on minority citizens in Baltimore and Senegal, a former French colony.
Awa is the proud and recent founder of AwAction Network Inc. a non-profit organization that is focused on empowering youth and women. Awa’s care for public services and minorities’ welfare, her background in program administration, program management, and IT makes her versatile and fit to lead program initiatives that span across many domains. Her goals are to create and lead programs that are evidence-based to help shape the outcomes of the community she serves.
Dissertation title: Mercantile Racism: Labor, Currency, Economics, and Race in Maryland and Sénégal
Meghan Norris
Meghan K. Norris, D.P.A. '18, holds a master's degree in Public Administration and Athletic Coaching Education from West Virginia University and an undergraduate degree from Wheeling Jesuit University. Her research focuses on the impact of varying leader culture types on organizational change initiatives. Meghan is a Project Manager and an Organizational Change Management (OCM) with Leidos in Bethesda, Maryland. At Leidos, Meghan manages 10 projects for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) OCM program, which delivers custom Information Technology (IT) software applications for federal scientific and administrative personnel. Meghan and her team conduct organizational change management methods using the Kotter process and support end user system adoption through various communication and training mechanisms. Adoption and system effectiveness are measured through quantitative surveys and semi-structured interviews. Instructor-Led Training, Over-the-Shoulder training, desk-side support, user guides and computer-based videos are developed to help end users learn and adopt the new applications. Meghan looks forward to expanding her customer base and sharing her organizational change management and culture knowledge to other federal and non-federal organizations.
Dissertation title: The Impact of Varying Leader Culture Types on Organizational Change Initiatives
Soyoung park
Soyoung Park, D.P.A. '17, holds a master's in public policy analysis from American University and a bachelor's in environmental science from Korea University. Her research interests lie in public budgeting and finance.
She is from Korea. Currently, she works as an assistant professor at Inchon National University in Korea. Before starting the academic job, she worked as a research associate at the Korea Public Financial Information Service, which is an agency affiliated with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in Korea. Prior to her studies in the United States, she served as a consultant at BearingPoint consulting firm.
Dissertation title: Effects of Budgetary Priorities on State Fiscal Stability during Times of Boom and Bust
yinglee tseng
Yinglee Tseng, D.P.A. '18, is the founder and chief operating officer of Citizens Power Social Enterprise, established in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and is an advisor at the Open Knowledge Foundation, Taiwan Chapter. Tseng also serves as the managing director of Grassroots Diplomacy Council (GDC), a nonprofit organization registered in Maryland, and is the program manager at Institute of Taiwan-American Studies (ITAS). Tseng has abundant experience in strategic management for government, businesses, civil society organizations and non-profit or non-government organizations internationally. She specialized in managing political and public participation projects and facilitating international relations exchanges between Taiwan and the United States. She has devoted herself to grassroots/citizen participation activities and urged the Taiwanese government to join the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2010.
In addition to her D.P.A., Tseng holds dual master’s degrees in economics and law as well as international trade policy from George Mason University. Tseng is a multi-linguist who speaks English and Japanese fluently as well as her native languages of Mandarin and Taiwanese.
Dissertation title: Public Administrators’ Attitudes toward Citizen Participation: Case Evidence from the Water Resources Agency in Taiwan
william ward
William Ward, D.P.A. '23, came to The University of Baltimore with a Juris Doctorate from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Southern California. Since 2012, William has been a dedicated civil servant for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Washington, D.C., working extensively in both immigration policy and information technology. Before coming to Washington, D.C. and UBalt, William had a varied and exciting history. He worked in Iraq as a senior governance advisor with the U.S. State Department's Provincial Reconstruction Team in Fallujah, Ramadi, and Baghdad from 2010-2011. Immediately before the U.S. State Department, William spent a career in the U.S. Army as both a non-commissioned officer in military intelligence and later as an officer in field artillery. He was deployed during the surge in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2007-2009 in Mosul and the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan.
William’s research interest involves work he has been doing over the past 20 years: U.S. foreign policy with an emphasis in the Indo-Pacific Asian region, public policy, U.S. immigration policy and organizational leadership.
Dissertation title: The Exclusion of Filipino Amerasians from the 1982 & 1987 Amerasian Immigration and Homecoming Acts
Cherry L. Wilcoxon
Cherry L. Wilcoxon, D.P.A. '19, holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from The University of Texas at El Paso, and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Jacksonville State University.
Cherry is currently a Defense Intelligence Senior Executive and serves as the senior advisor/chief financial officer for the Defense Security Service (DSS). In this capacity, she is the principal advisor to the Director of DSS in financial programming, programming, budgeting, regulatory compliance, and other enterprise-wide financial matters. She directs the financial management activities of the DSS enterprise and provides leadership across the spectrum of agency operations, integrating support elements into the overall mission planning, budgeting, and execution.
Cherry's research interests combine the fields of finance, organizational management and public policy. She plans to use her D.P.A. credentials to influence the advancement of the Department of Defense's efforts toward financial auditability and demonstrate accountability and good stewardship of taxpayer resources.
sahar zafar
Sahar Zafar, D.P.A. '17, also holds a master's degree in biotechnology with a concentration in biodefense, and has over 15 years of experience regulating federal and Department of Defense (DoD) human subjects research (HSR) policies and HSR operations.
Currently, Sahar is the Director of Science and Technology at Snaplytic, where she provides project management consulting to the Department of Defense (specifically the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA), Federal Government and the Private Sectors in Biotechnology/Biodefense research compliance and regulatory affairs. She provides clinical and medical regulatory compliance in the area of Human Subjects Research (HSR), and has extensive experience in developing policies, guidelines and trainings on compliance and ethical governance of research involving HSR.
She regularly participates as a subject matter expert on Under Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering Directorate (USD R&E) panels for federal and defense human subjects research policies, ensuring DoD policies are developed at the highest bioethical standards.
Previously, she worked as a human subjects protection scientist at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), where she demonstrated deep knowledge of HSR and DoD policies and their application. Sahar has assisted multiple Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), Headquarters Level Review IRBs, and other domestic and international research ethical committees in obtaining approval and maintaining regulatory compliance for a variety of research activities. Her ethical and regulatory experience is further complimented by her certifications, work experience, and educational background.
Sahar completed her doctoral dissertation in 2017. Sahar has been a member of the Neuroethics Women Leaders since October 2016. She wants to focus on developing and analyzing policies and strategies in the field of research, science, health, and bioethics.
Dissertation title: Agency Assessment of Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications of Neuroscience and Technology Research and Its Relationship to the Presidential BRAIN Initiative
Lauren Zyriek
Lauren M. Zyriek, D.P.A. '20, strongly believes that analyzing facts and evidence is the best approach to ensuring good government. She always strives to be part of the decision-making process to advance ideas and guarantee that forthcoming policies are mindful of the demographics they serve.
Her career has included representative to the United Nations, specialist at the U.S. Census Bureau, and deputy county clerk in Bergen County, New Jersey, where she had the distinction of being the first Latina in her position. Currently she is employed as the director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the New Jersey Department of State.
Lauren’s research interests are in social equity and ensuring constituents' full participation in the governmental process. Her dissertation focused on the impacts on voter turnout, specifically on voting rights, and voting restriction and expansion legislation.
She also holds a master's degree in administrative science, an Executive Education Certificate in Cybersecurity from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and she is a New Jersey registered municipal clerk.
Dissertation title: Impacts of Voter Turnout: Voting Restriction Laws, Voting Expansion Laws, and the Political Culture of States