Executive Director: Jim Langford
Jim Langford, Executive Director of the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP), brings many years of business, public service and nonprofit experience to the organization and its efforts to transform poverty studies in the United States. In recent years, Mr. Langford has served as the co-founder and President of the Georgia Meth Project and the Georgia Prevention Project. Both organizations focus on reducing the first-time use of dangerous drugs and other substances among teens and young adults.
Mr. Langford is also the founder and Chair of the Substance Abuse Research Alliance (SARA) – an organization that fosters substance misuse research and collaboration among academic institutions, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations in Georgia. SARA also assists elected officials and governmental agencies in crafting legislation and setting public policy agendas.
A native of Calhoun, Georgia, Mr. Langford has been appointed by five Georgia governors to a variety of commissions and boards in the state. He also served as the State Director of the Trust for Public Land where he conceived and implemented the connected park system of the Atlanta BeltLine. He is the founder of three other land conservation, greenway and archaeology education organizations. Mr. Langford has been named by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of Atlanta’s 100 most influential people.
In his business life, Mr. Langford founded and managed successful high technology companies over a 20-year period. Prior to his high technology career, he was an executive of The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, New York, Puerto Rico and Argentina. He serves as a member of the Board of Councilors of the Carter Presidential Center and the Board of Advisors of the Ivan Allen College at Georgia Tech, and he is a former member of the Georgia Board of Natural Resources, the Georgia Humanities Council and the Emory University Board of Visitors.
Mr. Langford earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and his MBA from the Harvard Business School. jim.langford@shepherdconsortium.org
Academic Director: Stephanie Rolph
Stephanie Rolph joined SHECP in July 2017 as its first academic director. She is Associate Professor of History and Director of Experiential Learning and Strategic Initiatives at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. A native of Mississippi, Stephanie received her Ph.D. from Mississippi State University in 2009. An active scholar of the post-1945 American South, her work has appeared in The Right Side of the Sixties, Journal of Women’s History, and Journal of Southern History. Her first book, Resisting Equality: The Citizens’ Council, 1954-1989 (Louisiana State University Press, 2018) was recognized as the 2019 Book of the Year by the Mississippi Historical Society. She has also been awarded the Humanities Scholar Award by the Mississippi Humanities Council, and the Rabbi Perry Nussbaum Civil Justice Award. rolphsc@shepherdconsortium.org
Internship Director: Amy K. DeHart
Prior to joining SHECP in October 2014, Amy was Assistant Director for Conferences, Programs, and Marketing for the Virginia Military Institute – Center for Leadership and Ethics, 2009–2014. This position capped her 15 year association with conference and program development for the Institute. She previously served senior account executive for Kearns & West, Inc., a national public affairs consulting firm; assistant press secretary for a U.S. Presidential campaign (1988); and a press assistant for a Vice-Presidential Campaign (1984). In between, she raised two children and held a variety of interesting part-time jobs, including working for a start-up internet provider and taking photos for a weekly newspaper.  She and her husband and partner of more than 35 years, Morris Trimmer, live in Lexington, Virginia.  She earned her B.A. from Earlham College. dehartak@shepherdconsortium.org
Alumni Engagement Specialist: Danielle Breidung Quat
Danielle Breidung Quat is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and an alumna of the SHECP program. During the summer of 2011, she completed a SHECP/Kemper internship at Mujeres Latinas en Acción, a Chicago-based organization that strives to empower Latinas through service and advocacy. In Lexington, Danielle was a Bonner Scholar, a regular volunteer at the Campus Kitchen Project, an English tutor with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and a Spanish teacher/volunteer coordinator at Fairfield Elementary School with the Rockbridge Teacher Education Consortium. In 2011, Danielle conducted a community-based research project about Latinos’ access to social services in Rockbridge County, VA that informed her poverty and human capability studies capstone. Since graduating in December 2012, Danielle has been busy exporting superfruits from the Brazilian Amazon, serving with AmeriCorps VISTA, consulting nonprofit organizations in South Carolina, participating in fellowships in Asia, visiting all 50 U.S. states, and pursuing additional education in the fields of international higher education, social work, and nonprofit management. Danielle is passionate about empowering women and girls. She is currently a member of Wellspring Living’s Young Professionals Board, a CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocate for Children), and a volunteer at the Mediation Center of the Coastal Empire. Danielle previously served as president of the Rotary Club of Bluffton. danielle@shepherdconsortium.org
Work-study Students
Alex Woodward
Alex Woodward is a Senior at W&L who is majoring in Global Politics and Religion and minoring in Poverty and Human Capabilities Studies. She enjoys serving as president of the W&L chapter of Alpha Delta Pi and on Campus Kitchen Leadership Team. As a Shepherd student she has enjoyed interning with other non-profits in South Africa and in Lexington. She hopes to go into political think tank or non-profit work.
Governing Board
Immediate Past Chair: Alan Tinkler, Ph.D., Missouri State University, AlanTinkler@MissouriState.edu
Acting Chair: Brian Doyle, Ph.D., Marymount University, brian.doyle@marymount.edu
Vice Chair: Kristin Harper, Birmingham-Southern College, kharper@bsc.edu
Secretary: Mindy Wilson, Centre College, mindy.wilson@centre.edu
Treasurer: Atin Basu Choudhary, Ph.D., Virginia Military Institute, BasuChoudharyA@vmi.edu
Richard Cancelmo, Bridgeway Capital Management, dcancelmo@bridgeway.comÂ
Larry Connolly, Connolly Family Foundation, jlconnolly9092@gmail.com
Margaret Finucane, Ph.D., John Carroll University, mfinucane@jcu.edu
Andrew Hogue, Ph.D., Baylor University, andrew_hogue@baylor.edu
Andrew Kumpuris, MD, Cardiologist, Little Rock, AR, dkumpuris@aol.com
Tiffanie Spencer, University of Vermont, tiffanie.spencer@uvm.edu
Howard Pickett, Ph.D., Washington and Lee University, picketthy@wlu.edu
SHECP Council
Nina Banks, Ph.D., Bucknell University, nbanks@bucknell.edu
Atin Basu Choudhary, Ph.D., Virginia Military Institute, BasuChoudharyA@vmi.edu
Kevin Blair, Ph.D., Niagara University, blairkd@niagara.edu
Lauren Bowen, Ph.D., Juniata College, bowenl@juniata.edu
Katy Gray Brown, Ph.D., Manchester University, klgraybrown@manchester.edu
Richard Cancelmo, Bridgeway Capital Management, dcancelmo@bridgeway.comÂ
Joel Clark, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Madison, jclark24@wisc.edu
Larry Connolly, Connolly Family Foundation, jlconnolly9092@gmail.com
Kim Cosgrove, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, cosgrove@kennedykrieger.org
Brian Doyle, Ph.D., Marymount University, brian.doyle@marymount.edu
Cindy Ferguson, University of Lynchburg, ferguson_cd@lynchburg.edu
Margaret Finucane, Ph.D., John Carroll University, mfinucane@jcu.edu
David Gandolfo, Ph.D., Furman University, david.gandolfo@furman.edu
Kristin Harper, Birmingham-Southern College, kharper@bsc.edu
Sean Herring, Ph.D., Missouri State University, seanherring@
Andrew Hogue, Ph.D., Baylor University, andrew_hogue@baylor.edu
Elyssa Klipsch, Millsaps College, klipsem@millsaps.edu
Brooke Krause, Ph.D., The College of Wooster, bkrause@wooster.edu
Andrew Kumpuris, MD, Cardiologist, Little Rock, AR, dkumpuris@aol.com
Matthew Lawrence, Middlebury College, lawrence@middlebury.edu
Connie Snyder Mick, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, cmick@nd.edu
Cathy McConnell, Ph.D., The College of Wooster, cmcconnell@wooster.edu
Kelly Nichols, Woollard Nichols & Associates, Austin, TX, kelly@woollardnichols.com
Rebecca Todd Peters, Ph.D., Elon University, rpeters@elon.edu
Howard Pickett, Ph.D, Washington & Lee University, picketthy@wlu.edu
Stephen J. Scanlan, Ph.D., Ohio University, scanlans@ohio.edu
Tiffanie Spencer, Ph.D., University of Vermont, tiffanie.spencer@uvm.edu
Alan Tinkler, Ph.D., Missouri State University, AlanTinkler@MissouriState.edu
Christina Willemsen, Hamilton College, cwillems@hamilton.edu
Sara Whipple, Virginia Military Institute, whippless@vmi.edu
Mindy Wilson, Centre College, mindy.wilson@centre.edu
Andrea Woodward, Ph.D, Berea College, woodwarda@berea.edu
Ana “Monica” Yepes-Rios, MD, Â Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, yepesra@ccf.org
Updated January 21, 2021