A New Leader for the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy
UMass
Boston’s “New Chapter” Opens with Convocation
September
11: UMass Boston Reacts to National Tragedy
Students
Organize Donation Drive
College
of Management Convocation Features Jack Beatty
McCormack
Institute Senegal Partnership Receives New Support
Gerontology
Institute Studies Elders in Housing
A
New Leader for the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy
A
Best Practice: Biology Advising
University
Welcomes Back Students
Two
Days of Fun at the Boston Folk Festival
New
Life-Long E-Mail Accounts for Students
Arts
on the Point Brings Columbia Point History to Campus
Campus
Center Changing UMass Boston Landscape
By Elena Sarikelle
On
August 26, Carol Hardy-Fanta was appointed the new director of the Center
for Women in Politics and Public Policy in the McCormack Institute.
Following a national search, Hardy-Fanta was the committee’s unanimous
recommendation. As she begins her tenure, her vision is to build on
the strengths of the program’s 30-year past. The center’s
mission is to encourage the participation of women in public life and
to provide leadership in public policy research and outreach on issues
of concern to women in the Commonwealth. Hardy-Fanta looks forward to
the center’s renewed commitment to its mission and forward movement
on a variety of new initiatives. “I want to reinvigorate the center’s
connection as a resource for women on campus and throughout the community,”
said Hardy-Fanta.
Her initiatives include reinstating the internal advisory board, strengthening connections with women in Massachusetts government, and bringing in community scholars to do research projects. One such project would look for ways to foster excitement within young women that would lead them to become political activists. Hardy-Fanta’s also plans to turn the current center’s library into an information clearinghouse where women can gather, from both the campus and community, to research data and reports. Hardy-Fanta said, “My goal is to take all voices of women to determine the center’s educational and research agenda.”
Hardy-Fanta earned her Ph.D. in public policy from Brandeis University in 1991; she served as the research director for the center for five years and then served as the chair of faculty in the Masters’ in Public Affairs Program. She is an active scholar with two books and numerous articles that focus on a wide variety of public policy, gender, and race issues.
The debut of the “new” center will be on Friday, November 2 at the State House. The center, along with Mass Action for Women, also will release the results of the research project “Connecting for Change: Results of the Mass Action for Women Audit.”