The Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP) is pleased to welcome its new governing board chair, Dr. Louwanda Evans, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Millsaps College in Jackson Mississippi.
“I believe in and support the power and necessity of the SHECP program in that it provides opportunities for students to understand the complexities and dimensions of poverty, as well as our collective roles in economic inequality, through the combination of course work and community engagement,” said Evans.
Evans served as the governing board’s vice chair prior to her new role and has been involved with the nonprofit since 2013. SHECP is a collaboration among 26 colleges and universities that integrates classroom study of poverty with summer internships and co-curricular activities nationwide.
“Dr. Evans background, knowledge, and desire to make a difference is testament to the impressive breadth and depth of the SHECP academic community. She has a deep understanding of the complexities of poverty in the United States and we are so excited to have her as our governing board chair as we enter 2019. She is truly a leader,” said Dr. Brett Morash, SHECP executive director.
At Millsaps, Evans teaches Introduction to Sociology, Research Methods & Statistics, The Many Dimensions of Poverty, and numerous other courses that focus on social inequality and criminology. Her research focuses on issues of race/ethnic relations, emotions and emotional labor, and the intersections of race, class, and gender, primarily in the workplace.
Evans joined Millsaps because of the great opportunities, like SHECP, it offers students to learn and grow though community engagement. Her courses center on conceptual discussions in which students engage the material in a way that creates deeper connections between sociological concepts and the real world.
At Millsaps, “I have the opportunity to bring students into the local community to understand the connections between our social lives and our social outcomes,” said Evans, who obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas-Arlington, and her doctorate from Texas A&M University.
SHECP would like to thank Dr. Rebecca Todd Peters, of Elon University, the outgoing chair for her leadership and commitment to SHECP. Despite reaching the conclusion of her term last fall, Peters remained in the role until Evans returned from maternity leave. Peters will continue to serve on the board and on the personnel committee.
To learn more about SHECP and how you can support its mission to transform poverty studies, visit shepherdconsortium.org.
About the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty: The Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP), is a consortium of colleges and universities that are committed to the study of poverty as a complex social problem, by expanding and improving educational opportunities for college students in a wide range of disciplines and career trajectories. SHECP institutions support undergraduates toward a lifetime of professional and civil efforts to diminish poverty and enhance human capability. For more information, please visit ShepherdConsortium.org, or follow us on Twitter at @TheSHECP.