Laura Ruth Johnson has a new, albeit temporary, title: acting director of NIU’s Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies.
Johnson, professor in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, will hold the office for a year while a search commences to replace former director Alicia Schatteman.
She was asked to take on those responsibilities by Robert Brinkmann, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and recommended by Marc Schuller, last year’s acting director who is currently on sabbatical for the fall and spring semesters.
“This was actually very much a surprise to me,” Johnson says. “I’ve been affiliated faculty with NNGO for a number of a years and was involved in some of their activities and in their strategic planning, but I was still surprised, as well as honored, to be asked.”
And, she adds, after 18 years teaching research to NIU graduate students along with serving on, and advising, dissertation committees, “it’s nice to have a little change.”
“I joke, and I’m very open about this, that I’ve kind of actively avoided administration during my 18 years at NIU. I’m very happy in my faculty role,” she says.
“But this was posed to me – that folks thought I would be good for the position, that I had some skills and expertise that would be good for the position and that, generally, affiliated faculty and staff supported that,” she adds, “so I saw this as an opportunity to learn and to gain more skills that I could use to maybe bring about some kind of broader change at the university on issues that are important to me.”
Now Johnson is eager and in place to gain a deeper understanding of NNGO, acquire and develop new professional tools, meet new people and associate with Huskies taking undergraduate courses in the center’s major, minor or certificate programs.
Doing so will allow her to tap into her network with nonprofits in Chicago.
“We had our welcome event for students; a lot of our students are from Chicago and are currently working with nonprofits. We were talking, and I said, ‘Oh, I know that executive director’ or ‘I used to work with that person,’ ” she says.
“Many of our classes here provide hands-on projects for students so that they can apply the knowledge that they’re learning in classes to working with nonprofits,” she adds. “I already put one of the organizations that I work with in contact with the grant-writing class, and then we’re working to put one of the organizations where I serve on the board in touch to give some experiential learning to the students in the board-development class.”
Meanwhile, Johnson feels camaraderie with affiliated faculty and students conducting international research. She’s studied university-community partnerships in Taiwan and Puerto Rico and maintains a strong presence with organizations in Chicago’s Puerto Rican community.
She also views this new role as well aligned with some of the university community engagement initiatives she has participated in more recently at NIU: “Over the past few years, I’ve started to get involved in some of the community engagement work at NIU, such as the engagement roundtable and working on NIU’s Carnegie application for community engagement elective classification, and NNGO has been a key leader and partner in this engagement work”
An online introduction from Johnson pledges to continue the center’s “great work” and, “in some instances, expanding center initiatives.”
“Our ‘Real Talk and Big Ideas’ series this year will focus on issues of migration. Titled ‘People on the Move,’ this series will explore non-governmental organizations’ role in and responses to migration, bringing together experts and scholars from a variety of disciplines,” she wrote. “We are also looking forward to engaging with alumni to provide professional development to nonprofit leaders and staff in the region.”
What these months will bring is exciting, she says.
“The challenges have been the administrative tasks, and it’s given me insight into how much it takes to run this. A department? A center? The university? It’s lots and lots of work,” Johnson says.
“People over here in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been really generous with their time, knowledge and experience – very supportive – and answering all of my questions when I’ve had them, and I’ve had a lot,” she adds. “I’m really lucky. People have been so welcoming.”
Johnson promises to reciprocate.
“As I learn more about the center, I continue to be impressed by its extensive and robust network and inspired by the enthusiasm, passion and dedication of students, alumni, staff and faculty associated with the center,” she posted in her message. “As a community, region, and world, we face many challenges and obstacles, but also opportunities to engage in collective efforts to make the world a better place.”
