O’Neill’s Magee focused on helping victims of gun violence

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Leslie Wells

O’Neill Assistant Professor Lauren Magee

O’Neil IUPUI Assistant Professor Lauren Magee spent six years working at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department as a crime analyst. When she left to pursue her Ph.D., she wanted to learn more about the disparities among those who experience gun violence.

“There is an unequal victimization of people who experience gun violence when it comes to location, race, and access to health care and social services,” Magee says.

She started studying nonfatal shootings—and what she found was a lack of information.

“We still don’t fully understand what leads up to nonfatal shootings or the effects they have on the victims and communities,” Magee explains. “Surviving a shooting sometimes comes with physical disabilities and psychological trauma for the victim, their family, and the community.”

Magee says that while there is plenty of data on fatal shootings, there’s no national dataset for nonfatal shootings, and what data is available is limited. She cites a lack of federal funding during the past 30 years as one of the reasons there’s so little research on the topic.

But she hopes to change that—and learn whether taking a public health approach to prevention could make a difference.

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Learning to L.E.A.D. with IU Executive Education

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Leslie Wells

People sitting at a table in a meeting typing on computers

Once a month, nearly two dozen city employees in Indianapolis step away from their desks and briefly set aside their tasks to spend a day focused on becoming more efficient leaders. They’re all part of the 2021 Leadership Education Accelerated Development Class (L.E.A.D.) run by IU Executive Education.

“When organizations invest in developing leaders, they can run agencies more effectively which benefits the people they serve,” says IU Executive Education Director Sara Johnson.

L.E.A.D. is one of the many consulting programs developed by Executive Education that focus on governance, organizational assessments, executive leadership and development, and/or strategic planning.

“We take pride in how well we work with our partners to develop a curriculum that best meets their needs,” explains Johnson. “Our consulting faculty are experienced practitioners with many years of real-world experience prior to joining our team. They use their experience to develop engaging programs for organizations across the country and even internationally.”

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O’Neill and IUPUI Sustainability partner to offer Solutions for Climate Change course

Posted on November 8, 2021 by oneillindy

Photo of climate protest with lots of protest signs

IUPUI Sustainability and the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI have partnered to offer a course aimed at equipping students with the skills necessary to tackle one of the most daunting challenges facing humanity—climate change.

Jessica Davis, director of IUPUI Sustainability, will teach “Solutions for Climate Change” in February 2022. The class will train students on the most important and marketable skills for sustainability professionals: measuring and assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and sources using the tools and techniques commonly employed in the sustainability industry; identifying strategies to mitigate GHG emissions; and creating and critiquing climate action plans across sectors. Students will leave the course with sufficient knowledge to qualify for the entrance exam of the Climate Change Professional® (CC-P®) Candidate Program.

This 1 credit hour special topics course is open to all IUPUI undergraduate and graduate students. The course is cross-listed as SPEA-V 260 and SPEA-V 550. The class will meet on February 4, 11, and 18 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“The best way to learn sustainability is to do it,” Davis says. “Our office utilizes the campus as a living laboratory for sustainability to teach students, engage researchers, and encourage our community to make sustainable decisions in their daily lives at home and work. I’m thrilled by the opportunity not only to teach these real-world skills but also to mentor and empower IUPUI students to leave a legacy of sustainability right here on campus. Some of IUPUI’s best sustainability initiatives come from our students.”

Sustainability is embedded into IUPUI’s DNA across its academic, research, operations, and engagement programming. Led by IUPUI Sustainability, in collaboration with many supportive partners across campus, IUPUI has received state, national, and global recognition for its sustainability performance:

Ranked No. 2 in the United States and 28th in the world for its commitment to advancing the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings
Most sustainable campus in Indiana with an AASHE STARS Gold rating
Tree Campus Higher Education designation since 2012
Bee Campus USA certified since 2017
Committed to LEED-certified new construction and major renovations, including seven LEED Silver and two LEED Gold certified buildings
A campus fleet that is 36% fully electric
GHG emissions reduced by more than 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from 2018 to 2020
Procurement of more than 20 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy annually
Led efforts to make the 2021 March Madness and Men’s Final Four the first operationally carbon neutral tournament
Invited to represent all of higher education at the VISION 2045 Summit in Scotland
Sixteen degrees, 10 certifications, and 575 courses focused on or related to sustainability

CRISP Research and Evaluation Clinic opens applications

Posted on November 1, 2021 by Leslie Wells

image of papers, charts, graphs, and text

Students from IUPUI can put their research and data analysis skills to use to make real change for community organizations in Indianapolis.

Applications are open now through November 7 for students to join the research team at the Center for Research on Inclusion and Social Policy’s Research and Evaluation Clinic in the spring 2022 semester.

The team of student researchers is overseen by CRISP’s Director of Evaluation and CRISP Clinic Director Roxy Lawrence.

Roxy Lawrence, Director of the CRISP Research and Evaluation Clinic, Director of Evaluation for the IU Public Policy Institute’s Center for Research on Inclusion and Social Policy (CRISP)

“Joining the CRISP Clinic team provides students the opportunity to make a tangible difference in our community,” Lawrence explains. “These students aren’t waiting until they’ve graduated to make an impact—they’re gaining real-world research and evaluation experience, building their networks, and contributing to efforts to make Marion County a more equitable place.”

Those selected will work in teams to learn about local issues and conduct an original community-engaged research or evaluation project. Each project includes work with a community partner who is actively addressing major social issues in Marion County. Students will have the opportunity to develop relationships with community leaders and learn more about how issues of social policy and equity intersect and affect people living in Indianapolis.

More information for students is available at this link. A limited number of scholarships are available.

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National Student Exchange program lets students study and travel

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Leslie Wells

woman stands in front of snowcapped mountain by frozen lake — O’Neill sustainability major Valerie Pokorny traveled to Alaska to spend a semester studying with the National Student Exchange program.

Valerie Pokorny and her friends were on a midnight walk. They quietly crept through the trees, keeping their eyes fixed on the Alaskan night sky. They had received an app alert that it would be a good night to see the northern lights.

She was in a place quite unlike Indianapolis—and that was just what she had been looking for.

“I wanted to go somewhere very different,” she explains. “The United States is huge and has so much to offer—why not look here?”

Pokorny, an O’Neill Sustainable Management and Policy major, was spending her spring 2021 semester at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau thanks to IUPUI’s National Student Exchange program.

They’re called “study away” programs—a more domestic version of study abroad opportunities—and they allow IUPUI undergraduates to spend a semester or academic year at one of its partner schools around the country, in U.S. territories, and in Canada.

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