• Trauma Academy Director, Delaware State University

    Kim GrahamWhat inspires you?

    The butterfly is my personal metaphor for change and transformation. A caterpillar has to actually ‘unbecome’ as part of its metamorphosis. I love to create spaces that foster transformative moments. When I see the ‘aha’ or ‘aahh’ moment in someone’s eyes or experience its articulation in words, movement, or sound – I am inspired.  

    Like our ever-expanding understanding of neuroplasticity, the human soul has amazing capacity to grow, change and evolve. I am moved when I have the opportunity to bear witness, and even the more when I can play a role in being a provocateur of change.

    What makes a great leader?

    A great leader is like a pot of gumbo. They bring a unique set of ingredients, all in the right proportions – and the spice if just right.  That pot has to simmer and marinate to allow all of the components to marry. A lot of tasting goes on, which allows for modifying portions to see if anything is missing. I’ll call that practice of taste-testing and modifying reflective agility in the context of leadership.  A great leader must have core capacities to vision, to delegate, to develop, to persist, to reflect, and to pivot. 

    Early in my professional life, my Myers-Briggs inventory showed me to be an ENTJ. It fit. Sounded just like me. I took great pride in being task-oriented – always with the goal in mind. I had the perfect justification for why I exalted the goal above those needed to fulfill it.  Some of my most significant lessons have come from areas where I have fallen short and taken the risk to evolve. I had to learn that relationships matter. Connections count. All in the proper proportions.

    Leading requires you to have a relationship with where you are heading, the path or context you are following – and most importantly – a connection to those who follow. You must ‘taste-test’ often: where are we, how are we, what do we need? The art and skill of reflective agility allows for a leader that knows themselves to determine which traits, approaches, and practices are necessary to ensure that everything in the pot (people, processes, goals, outcomes) has come together to form a cohesive experience for those who will take part.

    Tell us about a time you felt truly proud of your work. What did you accomplish?

    When I think of accomplishments that bring me a sense of pride, I think about my opportunity to develop a program called The Arts Integration Institute.  This program was developed at Christina Cultural Arts Center in Wilmington, Delaware. It was designed to be a tool to close the achievement gap amongst black and brown learners. The program pairs teaching artists with classroom teachers and assists the teachers in learning how to integrate arts learning into academic areas of language arts, math, science and social studies.  In the model, the teacher-artist pairs co-plan lessons that initially the artist will implement with the support of the teacher. The goal is to progress to co-leading lessons to eventually, the classroom teacher leads and the artist supports. 

    That program is nearing 20 years in operation and is still operational, though I am no longer with the organization. The program has trained educators from pre-k through high school. Our most significant impact has tended to be in the pre-k though 8th grade space.  The program has impacted 1000’s of students and hundreds of educators and teaching artists. Because the program also addressed social emotional learning and cultural awareness, all participants experienced a growth that superseded academic growth.

    Tell us about your most difficult challenge and how you overcame it.

    One of my most favorite words is Kujichagulia, a Swahili word than means self-determination: defining yourself, our selves, and defying the definitions others place on us. One of my most difficult challenges was a phase in my life where I allowed how others saw me to become how I saw myself. On a deeper level, this became a self-fulfilling prophesy and tainted my vision – which resulted in me sometimes seeing judgment where it didn’t exist or at levels that didn’t exist. I had to go inside. I had to own my faults and mistakes. And then I had to remind myself of who I am – why I inhabit this place called earth. I had reconnect with my purpose and my vision for myself. The result was a shift in careers, a realignment of focus, and a more graceful acceptance of my whole self – both the thorns and the rose.  

  • Associate Professor and Director of the MPA Program
    Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware

    Alisa MoldavanovaWhat inspires you?

    I am most inspired by my interactions with students. I prefer to teach through engagement rather than lecture. My goal is to create a space where learning can happen for them, and for me. I learn a lot from my students. They open my eyes to fresh ideas and the issues we are facing.

    I am also inspired by team-based work, shared responsibility, and engaging with people. I don’t think I am particularly strong in any area but I am able to convene people who have a variety of skills to work together.

    I also get inspiration from the faculty we have at the University of Delaware and centers within the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration. The people and the work accomplished in the school is impressive. I appreciate working at a land grant university where we have an opportunity to make a difference in our community.

    What makes a great leader?

    It is absolutely essential for higher education leaders to have a commitment to future generations and lead us to a more sustainable society. Universities are where research occurs and policies are born. We need to commit to excellence and ethics and advancing the public good and we have to share and uphold these values and transfer them to future generations.

    Tell us about a time you felt truly proud of your work.

    I feel proudest when my students get awards and job placements. It is amazing to have a student move from a research assistant position to a tenure line at a university. It has an immediate impact.

    I’m always excited about the research process and outputs. I’m also excited to publish the research results and share them with the community and others in the field. My role as a researcher is to translate what others do into lessons and best practices.

    This year I am publishing a book based on 10 years of learning about sustainable management in the field of arts and cultural. The Overlooked Pillar Making a Case for Cultural Sustainability offers an original perspective on the sustainable-development discourse by emphasizing the importance of culture and cultural institutions in facilitating societal sustainability goals.

    Tell us about your most difficult challenge.

    Change and instability are always a challenge. Coping with change that is due to re-organization or a pandemic creates unique challenges. It is important to see the big picture and adapt. As a leader you have to provide stability, but also guide organizations though change and adaptation by facilitating mutual learning about change. Both adaptability and change require strong leadership and a vision.

    In view, any crisis should be viewed an opportunity to learn and grow. Challenges are really opportunities to create something new and re-invent what we are doing. They offer us a chance to learn something new and go to the next level.

    BIO

    Dr. Alisa V. Moldavanova is Associate Professor and Director of the MPA Program at the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. Dr. Moldavanova’s work has been published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, The American Review of Public Administration, Public Management Review, Administration and Society, Public Administration and Development, Journal of Public Affairs Education, International Journal of Public Administration, and International Journal of Sustainability Policy and Practice.

    She is the coeditor (with David H. Smith and Svitlana Krasynska) of The Nonprofit Sector in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia: Civil Society Advances and Challenges.

    Dr. Moldavanova’s research investigates organizational sustainability in the context of public service organizations, the role of inter-organizational networks and other forms of social connectedness in enabling sustainable organizations, as well as how nonprofits and other public service organizations foster sustainable development in their local communities. Dr. Moldavanova also is conducting research on the role of civil society and nonprofit sector organizations in advancing democracy. Her research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Paul A. Volcker Endowment for Public Service Research – American Political Science Association, and Ford Fund (CommunityCorps Program).

    Dr. Moldavanova’s degrees include:

    PhD (2013, Honors), Public Administration, School of Public Affairs and Administration, The University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS)

    MPA (2009), School of Public Affairs and Administration, The University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS)

    PhD (2007), Psychology, Institute of Psychology of the National Pedagogy Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine)

    BS (2000, summa cum laude), Psychology, Institute of Mathematics, Economics, and Mechanics, Odesa National Mechnikov University (Odesa, Ukraine)

  • Vice President for Academic Affairs, Delaware Technical Community College

    What inspires you?
    The students who attend Delaware Technical Community College, where I serve as the Vice President for Academic Affairs, inspire me everyday. Although my interactions with students are more limited in my current role compared to when I was a faculty member, I am still able to connect with them through events and activities, like our Presidential Student Leadership Academy, one of my favorite responsibilities during the academic year. Each year, I meet and help lead a group of students, who represent all of our students. They have diverse backgrounds, life experiences, goals, and dreams, and in many cases have overcome significant adversity and are now thriving as college students. I admire their belief that education is a path to improve or enhance their lives and the lives of their families, a belief I also share. I am inspired and awestruck by the grit, determination, and perseverance our students demonstrate every day. They inspire me to be the best I can be in my role.

    What makes a great leader?
    Many qualities and skills can be attributed to great leaders and expanders whom I admire and aspire to be like, but perhaps my top three traits are authenticity, empathy, and inspiring others. I think authenticity is difficult, especially for women because of societal or personal expectations that convey we have to look a certain way or be a certain way in leadership. However, I have learned over the years that the best version of me is when I fully show up as my authentic self. When I finally learned to let my guard down with others, became confident in who I am, and realized it was okay for me to be different from other leaders/mentors I admired
    and gave myself permission to do things my way, I began showing up more authentically in my professional and personal life.

    In my current role, my primary priority is increasing student success while not losing sight of the needs of faculty and staff who support those efforts. This work requires empathy because it is not easy, and at any given time, there are challenges, emotions, and frustrations to be worked through with others. I find myself having to toggle between vision and strategic direction and assuaging concerns at the operational level. This balancing requires a great deal of empathy to understand all stakeholders’ needs and perspectives.

    Finally, a great visionary leader is able to inspire others, bringing them into the fold to accomplish the goals. After conducting collegewide collaborative forums and workshops that drove the focus of our Achieving the Dream action plan–increasing student success and overall degree completion–we communicated the vision to the College community and began the process with faculty and staff to redesign our college placement policies and our developmental education program, among other initiatives. By creating and communicating the vision, and inspiring others to believe in the vision, we have made progress toward our goals, and in fact,
    earned the Achieving the Dream Leader College award because of the good work we have done in these areas.

    Tell us about a time you felt truly proud of your work. What did you accomplish?
    In my 25 plus years working with Delaware Tech, I have been a faculty member, a coordinator for a department, a chairperson, a grant director, a vice president, and the list continues when I think about committee work, internal and external, and beyond. It is hard to say when I was most proud of my work because in each of these roles I have been proud to represent the College and do the very best in the job I was hired to do at the time. In the classroom, I excelled as a teacher, planning my lessons, being creative, attending to students, and doing what I could to ensure their success. In my roles as instructional coordinator and department chair, I worked hard to build course schedules that met the students’ and College’s needs, support faculty while balancing my accountability to administration and the strategic vision, and making necessary improvements to courses to advance student success. In my grant work, managing millions of federal dollars, and collegewide projects, I was able, with the help of the entire grant team, to align curricula and practices, outfit programs/campuses with new equipment, and arrange for students to be trained for jobs with industry-recognized credentials. And finally, over the last nine years, in my current role, I have been proud of many priorities that have been accomplished by the wonderful team I work with. Perhaps one accomplishment that rises to the top of the list is our placement policies redesign and our math and English redesigns that have allowed more students to enter Delaware Tech college-ready and our developmental /remedial students to take college-level math and English at the same time they are taking their support (developmental) courses which help them to stay on track in terms of completing their degrees.

    Tell us about your most difficult challenge and how you overcame it.
    In my 25 plus years with the College, I have had some challenges but nothing like the life-changing COVID-19 pandemic years. As the chief academic officer, not only did I lead many aspects of our transition to distance learning, I also managed other large, innovative initiatives, like our Achieving the Dream work, that we introduced and scaled up during this time. During this time, there were personnel concerns, the workday hours grew, and the checklists multiplied. While the work was challenging, I also had two teenagers who were learning remotely and managing the negative social aspects of the pandemic. Moreover, in 2020, I began my doctoral program. To say these years were the most difficult of my career is an understatement (and I know so many can relate and probably agree).

    I do not think this was a situation anyone could overcome; instead, it was a situation I chose to push through and manage. Of course, I was surrounded by supportive, caring, talented people who made the work more manageable or who offered me the break I needed personally. I am a determined individual and stalwart in my belief that our students should have the best instructional and student experiences we can offer, so that certainly kept me going. And I wanted to be a constant for my colleagues, my team, and the faculty and staff who were pushed to their limits in many ways. In large part, I would say my overall saving grace was my faith and knowing that “This too shall pass” as my wise grandmother would say.

    BIO
    Dr. Justina Thomas has served as the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Delaware Technical Community College since 2015, providing collegewide oversight for instruction, student affairs, workforce development and community education, the office of research and analytics, financial aid, international education, dual enrollment, collegewide grants, articulation, accreditation, institutional effectiveness and planning, and the Center for Creative and Instructional Technology. She serves as the College’s representative on a number of education, government, and community boards, such as the Vision Coalition of Delaware Leadership Team, the P-20 Council, and the Delaware Workforce Development Board.

    She began her career at Delaware Tech in 1997 and served as a full-time instructor, instructional coordinator, department chair, Teaching Resource Center coordinator, and principal investigator and project director for the two of the College’s U.S. Department of Labor Federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grants. She holds a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Leadership from Wilmington University, a Master of Instruction from the University of Delaware, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Secondary Education from Salisbury University. She is a graduate of the College’s 2006 Leadership Development Program and recipient of the College’s Excellence in Student Success Award and Excellence in Teaching Award.