Faculty

Dr. Candice Pippin Bodkin

Co-Director

Associate Professor, Department of Public and Nonprofit Studies

Candice Bodkin is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Studies. Her research interests exist at the intersection of three broad areas of public administration: local government management, human resource management, and social equity, diversity, & inclusion in public organizations. Specifically, she is interested in innovation in local government services, programs, and policies that support more inclusive, sustainable, and just communities. 

In her work with the Institute for Vibrant and Engaged Communities, Dr. Bodkin assists communities facing increasing threats from climate change, urbanization pressures, and inequality, to employ tools to accurately assess and activate community assets toward positive collective action. She works with government, nonprofit, and community groups to define and investigate issues of importance to the community and implement and assess possible solutions. 

She holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration from North Carolina State University and teaches courses in the MPA program in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Studies. 

Dr. Jayce Sudweeks

Co-Director

Assistant Professor, Department of Public and Nonprofit Studies

Dr. Jayce Sudweeks is a Founding Co-Director of the Institute for Vibrant and Engaged Communities and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Studies at Georgia Southern University since 2019.

He was raised in Twin Falls, Idaho and attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology in 1992 and a Master of Science degree in Molecular Biology in 1995. During this time he owned a comic book and game store. Upon completing his master’s degree, he worked 15 years for a global supply chain management company in various positions including call center representative, process engineer, business account manager, computer system analyst and IT production support manager.

In 2013, he left the private sector and enrolled in the Doctor of Philosophy program in Public Administration at North Carolina State University. During his time as a Ph.D. student, he was awarded an interdisciplinary National Science Foundation Fellowship to study the societal implications of genetically modified organisms. He also worked as a research assistant at the Institute For Nonprofits where I was the editor for the Philanthropy Journal. During the final year of his PhD. program, he worked at a Canadian nonprofit organization, Genome BC, based in Vancouver, British Columbia collaborating with biologists interested in genomics to help them understand the societal implications of their research. He earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration in 2019 from North Carolina State University.

His current research interests revolve around the management and leadership challenges faced by nonprofit organizations and how communities build resilience to shocks and stressors in order to create vibrant communities where people would like to live. He is especially interested in the factors that allow community members to collaborate and increase the likelihood of effective collective action.

Dr. Helen Rosko

Executive Faculty 
Assistant Professor, Geosciences Program in the School of Earth, Environment, and
Sustainability

Dr. Rosko is an Assistant Professor of Geography in the School of Earth, Environment, & Sustainability at Georgia Southern University. As a human-environment geographer her research program is situated at the intersection of international and domestic development processes, climate change adaptation, and livelihoods (rural). Working with vulnerable populations in the Global South (sub-Saharan Africa) and the United States (the Southeast and Central Appalachia), Dr. Rosko employs a critical lens to understand how wider development processes are conceived, implemented, and intersect the everyday lives of individuals and communities. Her driving research goal is to better understand the individual, community, and institutional contexts of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity to explore practical pathways for more sustainable and just futures. Dr. Rosko is excited to be a member of the core executive committee of the Institute for Vibrant & Engaged Communities (IVEC) at Georgia Southern. She views the mission of the institute directly relates to her professional research interests and personal goals to be an active, engaged, and empowering part of her community here in Statesboro, Bulloch Co., and South Georgia more broadly. Dr. Rosko plans to utilize her skills as a human geographer to contribute to the mission of IVEC and positively work to bridge the gaps between scholarship and public engagement.

Dr. Kristina Patterson

Executive Committee
Assistant Professor, Department of Public and Nonprofit Studies

Dr. Patterson received her Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a certificate in Nonprofit Leadership. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in History from Virginia State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Virginia. She centers community voice in her research, which focuses on opportunities for the development of civic identity, skills, and knowledge, particularly for members of historically marginalized groups. Her work bridges scholarship and practice, facilitating collaboration across organizations and sectors to build capacity to meet community needs. Dr. Patterson is the Co-PI of Project REACH (Racial Equity to Achieve Community Health), which is a community driven project to find policy solutions to address racial disparities in health outcomes. Dr. Patterson is very active in the Statesboro community, serving as the co-chair of the Statesboro Youth Commission, President of Habitat for Humanity Bulloch County, and as a member of Bulloch County Beloved Community. Dr. Patterson was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Statesboro Village Builders Initiative, a comprehensive initiative to support youth and their families in becoming the best version of themselves, which was awarded the 2024 Visionary City Award by the Georgia Municipal Association.

Dr. Stetson Rowles

Executive Committee
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering and Construction

Dr. Stetson Rowles is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction. He aims to bring technical expertise alongside a demonstrated commitment to building capacity for community resilience through collaborative, culturally-informed approaches to environmental challenges. His research embodies community-centered approaches to addressing critical water and sanitation challenges, particularly in underserved areas. He has a deep commitment to engaging local perspectives and traditional knowledge in developing sustainable solutions. While an undergrad in civil engineering at the University of South Carolina, he became interested in addressing water access issues. During his PhD and MS at University of Texas at Austin, his work focused on improving functionality of point-of-use water filters using with Navajo pottery techniques and studying water access in off-grid communities. During his postdoctoral studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he focused on navigating the sustainability of novel sanitation systems. He co-founded the Clean Water Science Network, which provides mentoring and research opportunities for students from underserved communities in Latin America. At Georgia Southern, he aims to develop research and teaching programs that actively foster the next generation of community-engaged engineers.