Join the Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise on Tuesday, November 12 at 1 p.m. to hear from Dr. Thomas Bryer about his methodological innovations and early findings from a year-long research project on volunteerism in the U.S. national parks.
Research on volunteerism in national parks is rare. According to the National Park Service, in the 50-year history of the Volunteers-in-Parks (VIP) program, there has been no systematic research undertaken about the management, motivation, or impact of volunteers serving in these parks.
As part of his project, Dr. Bryer is serving as a volunteer, or embedded, in four national parks: Cumberland Gap in Kentucky, Prince William Forest in Virginia, Gulf Island National Seashore in Florida, and the Home of FDR in New York. Additionally, he is engaging volunteers and staff in more than thirty national parks across the country, including eight parks in Virginia. For more information, visit Dr. Bryer’s project website here.
Dr. Bryer is a pegasus professor, which is the highest recognition granted to a professor, in the School of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 2007. In that time, he served as director of the Center for Public and Nonprofit Management, director of community-engaged scholarship at UCF Downtown, director of the public administration track of the interdisciplinary public affairs PhD program, and director of the Master of Nonprofit Management program. He currently serves as founding co-chair of the Center for Social and Civic Prosperity.
Dr. Bryer is author or editor of ten books and the principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on grants valued at more than $4 million. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Lithuania from 2015 to 2017 and a Fulbright Specialist in Russia in 2018.
Dr. Bryer’s seminar will take place in room 121 in Van Metre Hall at George Mason University’s Arlington campus. Light refreshments will be provided. Attendees can register for the event online.