Outgoing Graduate School of Social Service Dean Honored at Conference

Elaine Congress, Peter Vaughan and Allan Luks

Fordham’s Center for Nonprofit Leaders, a joint venture between the Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) and the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS), honored GSS Dean Peter Vaughan for his vision and leadership at a conference on Wednesday, May 1.

The gathering, which was held at the Lincoln Center campus, attracted over 100 attendees.

In a speech, Vaughan  who is retiring at the end of the year, explored the eight skills of nonprofit leaders coined by Dennis Young, Ph.D., the Bernard B. and Eugenia A. Ramsey Professor of Private Enterprise and Director of the Nonprofit Studies Program at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

They are:

- Developing a Sense of Mission;
- Problem Solving;
- Applying Creativity and Ingenuity;
- Identifying Opportunities and Good Timing;
- Analyzing Risks;
- Consensus and Team Building;
- Mobilization of Resources, Persistence.

Since 2010, over 300 students from the fields of business, social work, law, education, and public administration have graduated from the center’s intensive certificate program, which is overseen by Elaine Congress, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, and Francis Petit, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration.

Allan Luks, executive director emeritus of Big Brothers, Big Sister, and a visiting faculty member at the Graduate School of Social Service, serves as director.

The center’s certificate programs are offered three times a year—two times at the Lincoln Center campus and once a year at the Westchester campus. Its newest initiative is a 30-credit masters degree program in nonprofit leadership.

For more information about the center, visit www.fordham.edu/nonprofitswww.fordham.edu/nonprofits. 

—Patrick Verel