Our Featured Fellow for December 2022 is Tihara Richardson Sommers, who is a Professor of Practice at Tulane University in the School of Professional Advancement.

Tihara joined the Bill Anderson Fund as a Fellow in 2020. She served on the Lightning Talks Committee from 2020-2021 and presented her paper, ‘Resident Safety During Disasters: Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Hampton Roads Area Nursing Homes’, at the 46th Annual Natural Hazards Workshop. She served as the Lightning Talks Committee Chair for 2021-2022, where Bill Anderson Fund Fellows were featured during the Public Communication of Science Lightning Talks plenary session. 

Tihara has worked in the public and nonprofit sectors for more than 15 years. Her professional experience in the public sector includes administrative work with the Superior Court of California, the Florida Board of Nursing, and the Fairfax County (VA) Department of Tax Administration. Tihara performed investigative work with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and Consumer Services Unit in the Florida Department of Health. She also has experience in the non-profit sector through her work in residential therapeutic group homes. 

Tihara holds an MPA from UT Arlington and an MPP from George Mason University. She is also a proud Rattler, who earned her B.S. in Journalism from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Tihara is a doctoral candidate at Old Dominion University in the Public Administration and Policy program. She plans to defend her dissertation entitled, ‘CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule: Examining the Relationship Between Nursing Home Facility Characteristics and Regulatory Deficiencies,’ in Spring 2023.

Tihara was the co-recipient of the 2020-2021 Outstanding Doctoral Student in Public Administration & Policy award; the 2020-2021 Wolfgang Pindur Endowed Scholarship in Applied Research recipient; the 2021 recipient of the Academic Scholarship for Studies in Public Administration from the Hampton Roads Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration; the 2021-2022 Graduate Diversity Scholars and Leaders Professional Development Scholarship from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA); and the 2022-2023 Mercatus Center Don Lavoie Fellowship.

The new Mrs. Sommers married her husband, Jimill, in August 2022. She is also celebrating the centennial year of her sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. In her spare time, she likes to relax with her husband and two doggie babies Max and Scooby.

You can find Tihara’s publications here and connect with her on LinkedIn here. 

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Community Resilience, Healthcare Policy, Health Equity, and Long-Term Care Facility Response to Natural Disasters.