From intern to employee: State Fairgrounds offers chance to learn real-world lessons

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Leslie Wells

A man stands outside in front of the midway sign at the Indiana State Fair. The sky is blue with a few clouds. He's wearing a public safety uniform. — O’Neill Criminal Justice major Tyler Adams stands outside the midway at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

O’Neill Criminal Justice major Tyler Adams started his first college internship before he even started classes. It was summer 2022 and he had just finished high school.

“In previous years, I would be in conditioning for the next school-year sport, but that was over,” he says. “And I’m just not a person who can sit and do nothing.”

Even though he was still three months away from beginning his courses with O’Neill, Adams was already plugged in. He received an email from the O’Neill School with an opportunity connected to his major: an internship in emergency management with the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

“It connected with working in public safety and gave me the opportunity to help and meet new people in a new environment while gaining experience for my future career,” he explains.

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Courtney Page-Tan: Preparing communities and students for the future

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Leslie Wells

A woman stands against a white wall with her hand on her hip. She's wearing red glasses and a red blazer. — O’Neill Assistant Professor Courtney Page-Tan.

When disaster strikes, a community’s resilience is put to the test. Whether the cause is natural, political, man-made, or technological, Courtney Page-Tan works to understand how communities can withstand, recover from, and even thrive amid and after disasters.

Her interest in community resilience can be traced back to a single moment, one the entire world witnessed: the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that devastated parts of Asia.

“That event catalyzed my interest in how we can build community resilience and potentially address the resilience inequities that exist in some of our most vulnerable communities,” Page-Tan explains.

She says—now more than ever—it’s critical to build community resilience because of increasing and new threats due to climate change.

“If we can build systems and communities that are more resilient to issues like urban heat and flooding, we can potentially mitigate some of the worst outcomes of these stressors,” Page-Tan says.

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IU Executive Education reaches milestone with IHA Management Institute

Posted on July 17, 2023 by Leslie Wells

Two women sit at a table together laughing and smiling. — The IHA Management Institute celebrated its 50th cohort in early 2023.

Tom DeCoster was there for the first Indiana Hospital Association Management Institute cohort in 1990. At the time, he was the founding director of IU Executive Education and helped create and teach the Management Institute.

Thirty-three years later, the core lessons he taught then still ring true for leaders today. DeCoster now serves as professor emeritus for Executive Education, helping leaders better understand themselves and their work. In the context of employee engagement, the mantra he tries to instill in them: “I do not need to be—nor should I be—the source of solution to every challenge.”

He says many participants must learn to let go to be more effective—a lesson that comes with maturity, experience, and a better understanding of themselves as leaders. That’s where the Management Institute comes into play.

Since its inception, more than 2,500 health care leaders have made their way through the program, including the 50th cohort in early 2023.

Group of individuals stand on a stage holding certificates. — The 50th cohort of the IHA Management Institute

“The fact that IU Executive Education has sustained such a strong and positive relationship with more than 50 cohorts speaks well to our commitment to growing leaders, to superior classroom instruction, and to our partnership with IHA,” DeCoster says.

For current Director of IU Executive Education Sara Johnson, the 50th cohort represented a milestone not only for the IHA Management Institute but also for health care in Indiana.

“Together with IHA, we have trained thousands of managers who serve health care organizations across Indiana to the benefit of their patients and communities,” she says.

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Vernise Estorcien: Reaching youth through police mentoring

Posted on July 3, 2023 by Leslie Wells

A woman wearing glasses stands in front of a red and white background, smiling. She's wearing a navy blue blazer and a white shirt. — Vernice Estorcien joins the O’Neill School in summer 2023.

Vernise Estorcien is a long way from her hometown of Nassau, The Bahamas. After earning her Ph.D. in Florida, she’s now even farther north—1,138 miles from home, to be exact—and will join the O’Neill School faculty for the 2023–24 academic year.

Estorcien says she came to the O’Neill School in Indianapolis because she knew it would have the resources to allow her to stay engaged with the community and with students all while advancing her career and research.

“I knew it was a place where I could thrive as a researcher, a teacher, and a public servant,” she explains. “Joining a department that is both receptive to the type of research I do with marginalized groups and that embraces teaching as much as it does research was a key reason why I decided to come to O’Neill.”

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Kathy Koehler honored by IU Alumni Association

Posted on June 26, 2023 by Leslie Wells

Two women stand on stage smiling while one presents the other with an award. — Kathy Koehler volunteers her time to help build and maintain the O’Neill alumni network.

When Kathy Koehler (MPA’98) came to O’Neill, she was already entrenched in the working world. She had earned her undergraduate degree in psychology because she wanted to help people.

“I started out wanting to help children,” she says. “In learning more about what kids were going through, I saw issues in the educational system and decided it would be more effective to try to change government systems rather than help individual children.”

That led her into state government where she worked for multiple agencies before eventually joining Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration.

“I really felt the human services area was a way to help children and all people, which is what I had been searching for,” she explains. “I’m a government nerd and think we should provide good government services and safety nets to make sure people are alright.”

But she knew she would need a robust policy knowledge base to be as effective as possible. So, while she worked in state government during the day, she returned to the classroom by night.

“I was looking at grad schools for public policy, and I was very conscious of who’s the best and wanting to go to the best programs,” she says. “O’Neill was right at the top of the list and it was here at home. I couldn’t have planned it better.”

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