Turning local leadership into statewide impact

When Lipscomb’s Master of Arts in Leadership and Public Service (MLPS) was first established in 2019, the underlying purpose was to bring local leaders from Tennessee’s three Grand Divisions together to share ideas and collaborate to advance the state as a whole.

The effort is already paying off as the capstone projects of two 2022 program graduates are already influencing public policy proposals.

Rep. Mark White, director of community and government outreach at the College of Leadership & Public Service, has already drawn from the projects of two alumnae to inform a bill he has proposed in the Tennessee legislature.

The Promising Futures bill would combine agencies that provide early literacy instruction with child care agencies to create childhood literacy centers across Tennessee using state money from the sports betting lottery. White got the idea from two of the LPS students, Allison Woodward (MLPS ’22) and Keeli Allen (MLPS ’22), whose capstone research projects both explored the obstacles to women entering the workforce.

Research is an important part of a skill set that allows local leaders to have a positive impact on the whole state, said Laura Encalade, executive director of Lipscomb’s School of Public Policy.

“With the goal to better understand and solve pressing community issues, we provide the skills to engage in qualitative and quantitative research and use that research to serve future constituents,” said Encalade. “When our students face leadership challenges in the future, we want data and research to be at the forefront of their solutions.”