Andrew Sharp has a broad and diverse experience in higher education – having served in faculty and/or leadership positions at the University of Virginia, College of William and Mary, University of Richmond, South University, and Virginia Commonwealth University – and in state and local government in Virginia and Ohio. He received his PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK) and holds graduate degrees from the University of Virginia and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. He has published his own independent research (with Brill, Routledge, Oxford University Press, etc.) in the fields of international relations, religious studies, and global ethics and has managed collaborative research efforts in higher education and the public sphere. At the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture he managed the Thriving Cities Project, which looked at how history, education, public health, and government systems impact American cities. In positions with state and local government, he utilized research and design thinking models and leveraged strategic collaborations to author Virginia’s first Refugee Resettlement Program Manual, write over 100 staff policy and procedures for 165 social services employees across the Commonwealth, and offer in-service training sessions on ethics, leadership, and teamwork skills. Andrew comes from a family of teachers and enjoys working directly with students as an instructor or trainer using active learning approaches in traditional, online, and hybrid environments. He has helped undergraduates learn the fundamentals of research and served as an advisor for doctoral dissertations. He has dedicated much of his life and career to multicultural engagement, interreligious dialogue, and deep listening with compassion, which he believes are key components of a thriving civil society.

Dr. Sheryl Bailey has nearly 30 years of experience in administration and finance as a senior executive in state and local government and the private sector, including gubernatorial cabinet and state authority director experience in Virginia, as well as extensive higher education experience. She currently serves as Visiting Professor of Practice and Adjunct Faculty in the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech and as Principal of Forward Strategies Consulting, LLC. At Virginia Tech, she has taught several graduate courses since Spring 2014 in the Public and Nonprofit Financial Management (PNPFM) Graduate Certificate Program and the Center for Public Administration and Policy and served on the founding advisory committee for the PNPFM program. Also, Dr. Bailey has provided regular Economic Update presentations since April 2020 to the statewide Local Government Finance Network currently hosted bi-weekly by Virginia Tech; designed, organized, recruited panelists, moderated, and presented in several professional development training workshops and webinars conducted by Virginia Tech on behalf of the Virginia Government Finance Officers Association; and served as a presenter in the Virginia Public Sector Leaders Program.

Dr. Bailey formerly served on the Board of Directors of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, with approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She has been active for many years in the International City/County Management Association, the Government Finance Officers Association, and the National Forum for Black Public Administrators and their state affiliates, having held leadership positions, served on several national and state task forces and committees, and presented regularly at national and regional conferences and programs. Dr. Bailey achieved her Bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in Economics from Norfolk State University and her Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Economics from Harvard University. She has served as a Visiting Economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and on the faculties of Harvard, Virginia Commonwealth, Old Dominion and Hampton Universities; the College of William and Mary; and Virginia Tech.

For 30 years, Cecily has been involved with programs that seek to address equity and access in the human services sector. Currently, she designs and implements interventions to advance social equity in public sector management. Additionally, she is one of several members of the SPIA Richmond Campus team who works to shape and manage state government and non-profit research initiatives and program evaluations. Along with her duties as manager for applied research, she also teaches courses related to social equity and policy evaluation at Virginia Tech’s Center for Public Administration and Policy. Previously, she was the Director of Refugee Health Services Division at the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. She was responsible for executive leadership of grant and contract-related planning and implementation for new state health and wellness programs. Prior to that Cecily was the Director of the Office of Health Equity Advancement and Workforce Development at Virginia DBHDS. There, she led the agency’s response to disparities in behavioral health and developmental services. 

Cecily is a recognized equity and diversity expert with national certification as a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE) from the Institute for Diversity Certification. She is a member of the SAMSHA supported National Network for the Elimination of Disparities (NNED) Steering Committee and serves on the Executive Committee for the Certification Board of the Institute for Diversity Certification.  A graduate of the Virginia Local Government Equity Clinic at UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center and the Programme on Global Compact for Migration, she has degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech and a Professional, Health Insurance Advanced Studies (PHIAS®) Designation.

Andrea Briceno – Mosquera was appointed as a Postdoctoral Associate for the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) on the Richmond campus. The Postdoc role focuses on quantitative and qualitative analysis protocols related to original research of the SPIA Richmond Principal Investigator. The research includes implementation science studies and longitudinal evaluation of succession management activities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Andrea holds her Ph.D. in Public Administration and Public Affairs at the Center for Public Administration and Policy (CPAP) at Virginia Tech. In both her academic and professional trajectories, she has focused on quantitative and qualitative analyses examining policy-making processes and evaluations from an equity and inclusion approach. She has taught courses in economic foundations and policy design and served as a research program coordinator at private Colombian universities. During her professional work with the Colombian government at the national and local levels, she evaluated policies aimed to address several needs from minority groups. At the international level, she interned at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C., supporting the evaluation of projects addressing practices of inclusion, diversity, and equity across Latin American countries. Andrea was named a 2019 Equity and Inclusion Fellow of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM).
Andrea holds a master’s degree in Government and Public Policy from the Externado University of Colombia in partnership with the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) of Columbia University, NY, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the National University of Colombia.

Hilal Yalcin was appointed as a Research and Administrative Coordinator for SPIA on the Richmond campus. The role focuses on event and administrative coordination protocols related to different programs provided by SPIA. She holds a B.Sc. in Psychology from George Mason University (GMU) and has a passion for mental health awareness and organizational psychology.

During her studies at George Mason University, Hilal assisted in research at The Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!), a graduate research lab. During her time at ACE!, she assisted Graduate students with many research studies and reports such as the JDRDC Organizational Trauma Assessment Report.

After graduating from GMU, Hilal started her journey working in customer service for CFA Institute, a financial certification institute. Hilal then progressed to the position of a Consumer Research Team Lead at a pharmaceutical research company, Celerion. She is now happy to share her diverse background in education and research with SPIA.