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Tidings Quarterly Reflection

The "Contempt" Virus and Democratic PoliticsBY MAX STEPHENSON JRDirector, Institute for Policy and Governance

Since the Institute’s inception nearly 15 years ago, we have dedicated ourselves principally toresearch, education and outreach aimed at serving the vulnerable in society. History teachesthat democratic majorities have too often denied dignity, standing and rights to minorities intheir midst, their vulnerable populations, and the American experience sadly attests to thattruism. I am reminded of these realities as I contemplate a spike in drug and alcohol usageamong those who struggle with addiction or have lost their livelihoods or worse during thispandemic. One must also witness the thousands of U.S. citizens, otherwise healthy and wellpositioned, flouting the pleas of government officials to follow basic public health guidelinesto protect themselves and their fellow Americans from the deadly pandemic now ragingacross the country. Our efforts here at the Institute to serve vulnerable populations will likelyprove still more difficult as we move ahead, and even more necessary.The hyper-individualistic view noted above, the sense of angry entitlement that suggests thatone owes nothing to others that has animated so many citizens during the present pandemic,is not simply the product of the individual imaginations of those evidencing it. It is, instead,the result of a decades-long campaign by the Republican Party to undermine even a minimalwelfare state in the name of empowering a small minority of businesspeople to rule thenation. In this they have very nearly succeeded, led most recently by Donald Trump. Trumphas shown little but contempt for his followers and detractors alike and will leave officehaving repeatedly disgraced himself, the presidency and those who would support him. Hehas done so while maligning vulnerable populations and governance while working

assiduously and corruptly to enrich himself, his key wealthy supporters, cronies and familywhenever possible.Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California atBerkeley, wrote an essay for England’s The Guardian newspaper recently in which he arguedthat the willingness of millions of Americans to accept Trump’s behavior and to refuse to holdhim accountable for it will constitute his “vilest legacy.” Here is how he put the challenge,underpinned by a profound and continuing governance crisis,

Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding awrecking ball to the most precious windowpane of all—Americandemocracy. The message? A president can obstruct special counsels’investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to dig up dirt onpolitical rivals, fire inspectors general who find corruption, order the entireexecutive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet withfake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns,accuse the press of being ‘fake media’ and ‘enemies of the people,’ andmake money off his presidency. And he can get away with it. Almost half ofthe electorate will even vote for his re-election.(1)

This deliberate and very public embrace of undemocratic impunity is the central questionfacing not only U.S. self-governance, but also many other would-be democratic regimesaround the world. The issue of why millions of Americans, for example, claim to believeTrump’s lie that he won an election that he lost by more than 7 million votes due to awidespread conspiracy that neither he nor his enablers have ever, in fact, explained or proven,provides a critical lens into a psychology that would sacrifice freedom and democracy in thename of fealty to an obvious charlatan. The ongoing concern this situation raises is whyotherwise reasonable people from all walks of life would accede to such a Faustian bargain.

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EVOLVING COLLABORATIONS

Our faculty is now exploring several community-based partnerships in the area of recoveryhousing based on the previous work the Institute has been doing in the local region. We willbe working in the coming months to align grant and other funding opportunities to recoveryhousing needs in the Roanoke and Piedmont regions of Virginia. We are also working with anonprofit organization in Floyd County, Safe Surfin' Foundation, which has developed acurriculum for children and adolescents to keep them safe while using the internet. Internetcrimes against children are skyrocketing with everyone working and attending school fromhome, so the Foundation is keen to share its teaching strategies and to explore additionalmechanisms to improve children’s safety. Institute faculty are assisting the organization’sleaders as they define their short, mid and long-term goals and objectives. Thereafter, we willseek to identify additional Virginia Tech faculty who can help in these efforts. If you have

interest or expertise in recovery housing or internet crime and security, and wish to beinvolved in these evolving partnerships, please contact us at ipg@vt.edu

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

VTIPG Senior Research Associate David Moore has collaborated with Roanoke-based TotalAction for Progress (TAP) since 2016. TAP is a community non-profit organization, foundedin 1964, which has worked since, in a variety of nationally-recognized ways, to fight povertyand to build resilience and opportunities for residents of low-income communities. TAPpartners with low-income residents directly as they identify steps to address their perceivedneeds. The non-profit now offers an array of programs in education, employment training,family services and more.

Since 2016, Moore has helped TAP expand and deepen its workforce and labor related workin his role as Project Director of the organization’s SwiftStart program. That initiativeassists unemployed and underemployed parents with child care responsibilities to accesstraining to prepare for careers in health care, information technology or advancedmanufacturing. It does so by bundling substantive education with tuition assistance and childcare as well as other supports and intensive mentoring to help ensure that participantssuccessfully prepare for new employment.

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS

ASPECT PhD student Molly Toddreceived a grant through The Center Planning, Governance and

Globalization Doctoral Student Zuleka

for Peace Studies and ViolencePrevention Program, to support herdissertation research. Her project'sworking title is “Borders, Art, and theDecolonial Imagination.” She isworking with Professors MaxStephenson, Jr. and Laura Zanotti asco-chairs of her advisory committee.

Woods, who is collaborating withseveral Institute affiliated faculty andstaff in the planning of an internationalsymposium on Decoloniality andDecolonization slated for March 2021was recently awarded a prize for herpoems, which she had submitted to theRoots and Resettlement project, amixed media art collection addressingdisplacement, resettlement, place andbelonging hosted by The Center forRhetoric in Society at Virginia Tech.Congratulations to Zuleka! Zuleka isalso connected to VTIPG by the factthat Dr. Max Stephenson is servingas Chair of her doctoral advisorycommittee.

Congratulations to Raj Kumar GC ofthe SPIA Planning, Governance andGlobalization PhD program! Rajsuccessfully defended his dissertationon November 30, 2020. His effort wasentitled, “Exploring the Potential ofMultiple Use Water Services forSmallholder Farmers in the WesternMiddle Hills of Nepal.” ProfessorRalph Hall of SPIA chaired Raj’sadvisory committee. Other committeemembers included Professor MaxStephenson, Jr., SPIA, and VTIPGDirector, Professor ShyamRanganathan, Department of Statisticsand Professor A.L. Hammett,Department of SustainableBiomaterials. Congratulations Dr. RajKumar GC!

Dr. Jake Keyel’s article, “TheCountry is Completely Destroyed:Toward a National Project ofRecognition, Reparation andReconciliation for the AmericanWar Against Iraq," was published inthe September 2020 issue of the PeaceStudies Journal. Jake received hisdoctoral degree from the Planning,Governance, and Globalizationprogram in the School of Public andInternational Affairs at Virginia Techin 2019 and now serves as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with theCalhoun Center in the Honors College.

Congratulations to Nada Berrada ofthe ASPECT (Alliance for Social,Political, Ethical and Cultural Thought)PhD program! Nada successfullydefended her dissertation on December14, 2020. Her effort was entitled,“Contextualizing Everyday Practices ofAgency: Young Moroccans NavigatingLife Spaces.” Special thanks to Nada’sdoctoral committee members, whoincluded Professor Suchitra Samanta,Department of Sociology, ProcessorLaura Zanotti, Department of PoliticalScience and Professor Ni Zhange,Department of Religion and Culture.Professor Max Stephenson, Jr.,SPIA, and VTIPG Director, chairedNada’s advisory committee. Nada is the36th doctoral student closely affiliatedwith the Institute to complete theirdegree since the Institute’s founding onJuly 1, 2006. Congratulations Dr. NadaBerrada!

Dr. Anna Erwin, an alumna of thePlanning, Governance andGlobalization (PGG) program in theSchool of Public and InternationalAffairs at Virginia Tech, published twoarticles recently, "Intersectionalityshapes adaptation to social-ecological change" in the February2021 issue of World Development and"Outsourcing governance inPeru's integrated water resourcesmanagement" in the February 2021issue of Land Use Policy. MaxStephenson, Jr. served as heradvisor during her time at VirginiaTech. Congratulations, Dr. Erwin!

Congratulations to Lindy Cranwellof the SPIA Planning, Governance and Congratulations to ASPECT PhD

student Molly Todd, who successfully

Globalization PhD program! Lindysuccessfully defended her dissertationon December 17, 2020. Her effort wasentitled, “University ComprehensiveInternationalization (CI): FacultyMeaning-Making, Motivations, andPerceptions for Engaging Globally.”Professor Max Stephenson, Jr.,SPIA, and VTIPG Director, chairedLindy’s committee and ProfessorDenise Simmons, Department of Civiland Environmental Engineering,University of Florida, served as co-chair. Other committee membersincluded Professor Ralph Hall, Schoolof Public and International Affairs andProfessor David Knight, Department ofEngineering Education. Lindy is the37th doctoral student closely affiliatedwith VTIPG to complete their degreesince the Institute’s founding on July 1,2006. Congratulations Dr. Cranwell!

defended her dissertation proposalentitled “ Borders, Art, and theDecolonial Imagination” on December8, 2020 ! Special thanks to hercommittee members, Professor DanilleChristensen, Department of Religionand Culture, Professor Desiree Poets,Department of Political Science, Co-Chair, Professor Laura Zanotti,Department of Political Science andCo-Chair, Professor MaxStephenson, Jr., School of Publicand International Affairs and VTIPG.Kudos to Molly, who is also an activemember of the Institute’s CommunityChange Collaborative!

PROJECT UPDATES

CCC Guest Speaker Series: Alia Malek

In November 2020, the Community Change Collaborative (CCC) welcomed Alia Malek for apresentation and panel discussion with guests Katherine Randall, Nadine Sinno, and JakeKeyel. Professor Malek’s talk was entitled, “When Home is Unattainable, What Replaces it?”and the group explored questions regarding the meaning of home, as well as relevant local,national and international policies and programs, positive and negative, that affect refugees.The event was co-sponsored by VTIPG’s Community Change Collaborative, the VT Center forRefugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies and the Center for Rhetoric in Society.

In 2015, Malek traveled from Greece to Germany with a group of Syrians fleeing theircountry’s civil war. The refugees whom she accompanied met while marooned on a rafttogether in the Aegean Sea. Each had fled a different part of Syria and they also came fromdifferent socio-economic classes. Their sights were set on seeking asylum in Sweden and theNetherlands. Some, however, were forced by circumstances to request asylum in Germany.Malek has been reporting on their lives and displacement as part of a 10-year project.Drawing on this work for her talk, Professor Malek considered what replaces the idea of homewhen home itself becomes unattainable and its permanence illusory.

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PACE to Recovery Program in Martinsville and Rocky Mount,VA

VTIPG researchers Mary Beth Dunkenberger, Associate Director and PrincipalInvestigator, and Lara Nagle, Community-Based Learning Projects Manager, have assistedwith program messaging and project management for the development of a continuum ofcare for people with substance use disorders (SUDs) who are admitted for treatment at SovahHealth – Martinsville and Carilion Franklin Memorial hospitals to longer-term care at theregional community service board, Piedmont Community Services (PCS), in the Martinsville,VA region. The continuum is modeled after a successful initiative called the Bridge toTreatment, operated by Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, in an effort to link emergency department(ED) patients with SUDs more effectively to longer-term treatment and supports. Preliminaryevaluation of the Bridge model suggests high treatment retention rates among those withSUD. Peer recovery specialists play a unique role in facilitating coordination of the individualpatient’s needs with an array of healthcare providers. Increased medical peer engagement andeducation among ED professionals concerning medication assisted treatment (MAT) and thebiology of addiction has contributed to the program’s initial success.

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Virginia Tech Study of New River Valley Adult Drug TreatmentCourts Finds 4 to 1 Return on Investment (ROI) for LocalGovernments Annually

A research team led by Sarah Lyon-Hill with the VT Office of Economic Developmentincluding Mary Beth Dunkenberger, Lara Nagle and Neda Moayerian of the VTInstitute for Policy and Governance, and Sophie Wenzel of the VT Center for Public HealthPractice and Research, presented the results of their six-month study of the programmaticand fiscal impacts of four adult drug treatment courts in the New River Valley (NRV) (in

Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski Counties) to the NRV Drug Court Advisory Committeein November 2020.

The adult drug treatment courts are an alternative to a traditional sentence for offenders withnon-violent, substance use-related charges. Drug court participants undergo intensemonitoring, supervision and treatment. Each is also required to complete specific communityservice and employment requirements in order to graduate from the program with a reducedor expunged sentence. The program typically takes individuals 18-24 months to complete.The drug court teams in each locality are comprised of law enforcement, criminal justice,treatment and case management and peer support stakeholders. All members work togetherto provide a supportive and positive participant experience.

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Call for Student Editorial Board Members for CommunityChange Journal

Community Change (https://www.communitychange.ipg.vt.edu/) is an online, peer-reviewed, graduate student journal that seeks to explore multiple approaches to democraticcommunity development and change. This interdisciplinary journal examines the practices,processes, and individual and collective struggles that produce change at all levels of society.Community Change has adopted a broad definition of community development that includesissues relating to public policy, democratization, collective action, physical and socialinfrastructure developments, agency and efficacy. Apart from contributing to knowledge in itsfield, Community Change aims to provide opportunities for graduate students from allrelated disciplines to become acquainted with academic publication processes. The journal is currently seeking dedicated graduate student editors for its editorial board. Theboard is responsible for crafting calls for papers, soliciting manuscripts and reviewingsubmissions. All editors work with peer-reviewers and authors to provide substantive andconstructive feedback to authors, oversee revisions of submitted work and to selectmanuscripts for publication. A rotating Executive Editor is responsible for facilitatingmeetings and overall issue flow. The Managing Editor coordinates the journal email andwebsite, informs the board about submissions and ensures that authors and peer-reviewersmeet deadlines.

Students with editing and publishing experience are preferred, and/or those who can commita minimum of two academic years. If you have questions or are interested to attend aninformational meeting in early Spring 2021, please contact Lara Nagle: lkn4187@vt.edu.

Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC)Project

A research team from VTIPG and VT’s Center for Public Health Practice and Research(College of Veterinary Medicine) continued to provide ongoing data management andoutcomes and process evaluation services for the Certified Community Behavioral HealthClinic (CCBHC) expansion program for New River Valley Health Services (NRVCS) this pastfall. The CCBHC project serves adults with serious mental illness, substance abuse or co-occurring disorders and children with severe emotional disturbance. The project seeks toexpand capacity and provide more comprehensive care to this population of NRVCS adultsand youth who are medically under-or-uninsured.

Funded by the national Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA),NRVCS’ two-year grant was awarded in fall 2018. During that period, the VT research teamhas assisted NRVCS in collecting data and processing more than 4,000 surveys concerningmore than 1,700 individuals receiving expanded services supported by the grant. The teamhas delivered regular activity and quarterly updates to NRVCS’ staff, two annual reports withsummary presentations to the NRVCS grant advisory group and agency board and is nowworking on a final report summarizing NRVCS SAMHSA activity, compliance rates andoutcome data.

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Federal Reimbursement Unit (FRU)

The Federal Reimbursement Unit (FRU) team continues to work remotely with great successand will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Fairfax County has provided the groupwith County-owned laptops and cell phones in order to continue working remotely. Year todate, the FRU team's workload has continued to increase as the number of youths in receiptof foster care and Children's Act services has increased. The team stays in regular contact byreplying to the Project Manager's daily emails, texting one another, phone calls and via Zoom.According to Melony A. Price-Rhodes, the Project Director and PI, "The team is quitesavvy when using technology to communicate with one another not only during businesshours but after the traditional workday has ended. They are all making the best of achallenging environment.”

COMMENTARIES & ESSAYS

SOUNDINGS

A commentary series authored by VTIPG Director Max Stephenson

December 21: “An Indelible Stain” (1)

December 7: “Decency, Democracy and ‘Big Lies’”

November 9: Reflections on a Historic National Election

October 26: ‘Assumptive Worlds’ and American Democracy’s Greatest Test

October 10: Treacherous Inequality and ‘Appalachian Fall’

RE: REFLECTIONS & EXPLORATIONS

Online essay series hosted by VTIPG and edited by Professor Max Stephenson Jr., written by

graduate students across the University to reflect on their ongoing work in governance and

policy related concerns.

October 29: Can agroecology bring justice to international agricultural

development policy?

October 15: Revisiting the Impacts of the Green Revolution in India

October 8: Strategizing Expert Involvement In Rulemaking

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Dr. Nneka Logan is an Associate Professor with the Virginia Tech School ofCommunication. Dr. Logan’s research and teaching focuses on public relations,organizational communication, corporate social responsibility, race and diversity. Her workhas been published in the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review,Public Relations Inquiry, the Journal of Business Ethics and in other scholarly outlets. Priorto earning her doctorate, Dr. Logan worked in a variety of communication roles for amultibillion-dollar corporation and its subsidiaries where she managed internal, external andexecutive communication strategies, tactics, projects and programs. She has presented herresearch at national and international conferences and has won several awards for heracademic and industry work. She is especially passionate about pursuing projects that make apositive contribution to society. She is affiliated with VTIPG via serving as PrincipalInvestigator on the "MAT Messaging for Detention Center and Drug Court StakeholderAudiences (MMDC2)" grant awarded by the Virginia Higher Education Opioid Consortium(VHEOC). She is collaborating with Mary Beth Dunkenberger and Lara Nagle on thisgrant/research project, which has created comprehensive technical and messaging guidanceregarding medication assisted treatment (MAT). The research and resulting communicationmaterials have been tailored for those in the criminal justice and corrections systems, andtreatment providers who work with individuals suffering with SUD and who can benefitMAT in their path to recovery.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Katie Hanton is currently a Virginia Tech Master’s student in the Urban and RegionalPlanning program at Virginia Tech. She is a Graduate Research Assistant with IPG workingon the C2C and CCBHC projects, alongside Mary Beth Dunkenberger and Liz Allen. Whileworking on the C2C and CCBHC projects, she has loved the opportunity to help others andhopes to see positive changes to the current opioid epidemic in the area through theseinitiatives. She completed her undergraduate degree in real estate and worked in the residential propertymanagement field for 2 years before returning to Blacksburg to complete her Master’s degree.She has always had a passion for real estate and giving back to the community and has foundthat those two interests nicely aligned in local government planning. She hopes to bringpositive change to her hometown once she graduates in the spring.

Institute for Policy and Governance201 W. Roanoke StreetBlacksburg, VA 24061

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