This Month's Spotlight is on... Leon Singletary, Dr. Ginamarie Ligon and our 5-Year Program Students

Leon Singletary Presented with Distinguished Award

The Philadelphia Business Journal and Sponsors celebrated the 2009 Minority Business Leader Awards on September 24th.  One of the recipients of the distinguished award was Leon Singletary, SPHR, who graduated from Villanova with his M.S. degree in Human Resource Development (HRD) in 2005.  He earned his B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations form Cornell University.  

Leon is the principal and founder of First Contact HR which specializes in employment background screening.  Leon is also president of the Greater Valley Forge Chapter of SHRM, which supports individuals with career advancement through advocacy and networking.

Prior to launching his own company, Leon held HR leadership positions – from small emerging companies – BTG International, to fortune 50 companies - including Director of Human Resources at Bristol Myer Squibb

Dr. Ginamarie Ligon Honored with Best Paper Award

Ginamarie Ligon, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and human resource development, was recently honored with The Leadership Quarterly Best Paper Award.  Dr. Ligon was awarded for her 2008 paper, The Development of Outstanding Leadership: A Life Narrative Approach.

The Leadership Quarterly received 250 manuscript submissions for 2008, of which only thirty-five were chosen for publication.  The editorial board then selected the top five papers to compete for the Best Paper Award. “The other four finalists were very senior in the field,” Dr. Ligon shared. “Their papers were just outstanding. I was very humbled to even be included in their list.” But Dr. Ligon was not simply included on the list, she was voted as the top submission.

                “I think this paper had more impact this year because there is a real interest in looking at how experiences shape leaders,” commented Dr. Ligon.  The winning paper, The Development of Outstanding Leadership: A Life Narrative Approach, was part of a program of research on the cultivation of leadership development through life events.  With co-authors Samuel T. Hunter of Pennsylvania State University and Michael D. Mumford of the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Ligon studied 120 outstanding leaders’ late education and early career events. Examples of leaders studied include John F. Kennedy, Rupert Murdoch and Sam Walton. The goal was to discern whether there was a pattern within these events that might help predict what kinds of leadership types these individuals adopted in future years.  The research did, in fact, indicate a link between developmental events, leadership type and orientation. 

The Best Paper Award is co-sponsored by the Center for Creative Leadership and The Leadership Quarterly journal.  The CCL offers leadership development opportunities for individuals and organizations around the world.  The Leadership Quarterly is one of the leading publication venues for leadership and management research.  Dr. Ligon was awarded a cash stipend for continued research and an expense-paid trip to the CCL to present her research during the annual board meeting.  “The best part about winning was the opportunity to go to CCL and meet so many dominant researchers in the field of applied psychology,” shared Dr. Ligon.

On Monday, August 31, Dr. Ligon travelled to Greensboro, North Carolina to attend the CCL’s Research Awards Ceremony and Colloquium.  She attended a dinner in honor of CCL research awardees, where she sat with President and CEO, John R. Ryan, Chairman of the Board, Ingar Skaug and Executive Vice President of Research, Innovation and Product Development, David G. Altman, Ph.D. “The opportunity to speak with them about the field and current research questions was invaluable and perhaps once in a lifetime for me,” she shared. On Tuesday, September 1, Dr. Ligon presented her paper to a colloquium of 60 individuals, including CCL members of the board, CCL research faculty and invited guests.

Dr. Ligon joined the Villanova community as a faculty member in the fall of 2006. She is currently an assistant professor for the Human Resource Development graduate program and for the Department of Psychology. Her research interests include leadership, innovation, work-life balance, and violent and non-violent ideological organizations. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Oklahoma in 2004.

Graduate Human Resource Development 5-Year Program

In the fall of 2008, the Villanova Human Resource Development graduate program initiated its 5-year B.A. in Psychology/M.S. in HRD program. The program was developed as an addition to the thirty-year-old M.S. program in HRD, which prepares students to enter the workforce as human resource professionals, providing a comprehensive and strategic background in basic human resource competencies.

Four senior Psychology majors from Villanova signed on as the first 5-year students – Erica Bruno, Melissa Doran, Osayi Osunde and Lisa Panik. They were permitted to enroll in 3 graduate HRD courses that would count both toward their undergraduate and graduate degrees.

The four students graduated from Villanova in May 2009 with B.A. degrees in Psychology. They began their fifth and final year this semester, and all plan to graduate with their M.S. degrees in May 2010.

Erica, Melissa and Lisa have also spent time conducting research with Ginamarie Ligon, Ph.D., an assistant professor for the HRD program. Their research focused on Work/Life Balance, particularly for working mothers. In May 2009, they travelled to the Association for Psychological Science’s Conference in San Francisco to present their work.

Osayi Osunde interned this past summer at Radian insurance company in Philadelphia. His primary focus was on creating and implementing an alternative work arrangement policy for employees. He is currently the Captain of the Villanova football team.

Erica Bruno is currently interning at Bentley Systems, a global infrastructure software company. Melissa Doran is interning at Shire Pharmaceuticals. And Lisa Panik is an intern at Siemens Healthcare.  

2009 HR Person of the Year Award

Congratulations to our Alumni nominated for the 2009 Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year Award!

Sarah Andzulis, SPHR, AIS, ACS (Nationwide Insurance) * Nominee

Heather Dromgoole, SPHR (Access Group, Inc.) * Nominee

Ellen Johnston, PHR (Siemens Medical Solutions) * 2009 HR Person of the Year Award Recipient

Leon Singletary, SPHR (First Contact HR) * Nominee

This Month’s Spotlight is on…Vince Stango and Alana Ferreira da Silva

Vince Stango  

Congratulations to Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year nominee Vincent Stango, SPHR.

On May 8th, eighteen HR Professionals were honored as nominees and winners of the prestigious HR Person of the Year Awards Dinner at the Radisson Valley Forge Hotel. Three-hundred and sixty HR professionals from the Greater Delaware Valley attended the event and 100% of the proceeds from the silent auction were presented to Ranch Hope Inc., the designated charity for 2008.

The Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year Award was developed in 2001 to celebrate the Human Resources Industry and to recognize those in the HR profession who exemplify outstanding achievement within our local human resources community.

Vince is Vice President of Human Resources & Administration at the National Constitution Center and a 2007 graduate of the Master of Science Degree Program in Human Resource Development (HRD). Vince also graduated with a M.S. degree in Public Administration form Villanova.

Attending the event from Villanova were: Patricia Russell, HRD Program Coordinator and HR Person of the Year Planning Committee Member, Dr. David Bush, Director of the HRD Graduate Programs, Brenda Grove, Director of Development, and HRD graduate students Cherise Stewart, Alana Ferreira da Silva, and Sheena Suite.

Alana Ferreira da Silva

Alana Ferreira da Silva, a first year student in the Graduate Programs in Human Resource Development (HRD), received the annual Michael R. Losey Graduate Merit Scholarship Award from the Greater Valley Forge HR Association. The association's College Night and Scholarship Awards Ceremony, held April 22nd, was capped by the presentation of a $3,500 scholarship to Ms. Ferreira da Silva.

The scholarships are named for Michael R. Losey, past president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management and a 30-year veteran of the profession. To be eligible, a graduate student must be enrolled in an MBA or MS program with a concentration in human resources, organizational management or industrial relations. The scholarship process is competitive and granted to the applicant who is best able to demonstrate a working knowledge in HR.

The recipient of the scholarship, Ms. Ferreira da Silva, is very involved in the Villanova community. She is an active member of the Graduate Student Council and serves as the Villanova SHRM Chapter Secretary and Director of Campus and Community Service. Professionally, her international background and command of foreign languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and French) has assisted her at Siemens AG, where she is currently working as an intern in the Strategic Leadership & Development department.

Please join the HRD Program in offering our congratulations to Alana Ferreira da Silva for this and her many other professional accomplishments.