INSTITUTE for GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICE

Dr. William "Bill" Shendow
Director of the INSTITUTE for GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICE

Shendow to Step Down as Director of INSTITUTE for GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICE

Dr. Bill Shendow, the first and only director of the INSTITUTE for GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICE for Government and Public Policy since its inception in January 1997, has announced he will step-down as director of the Institute, effective August 1, 2007. Dr. Shendow will remain at Shenandoah University as chair of the undergraduate program in political science and coordinator of the public management graduate certificate program.

Under Dr. Shendow’s leadership, numerous programs were adopted by the Institute in fulfillment of its mission to “serve as a regional policy resource center and instructional institute for practitioners and students of government and an initiator of programs that promote citizenship, public service, civility and participation in the political process.” Among those programs developed by Dr. Shendow in support of the Institute’s mission were: the annual Public Service Awards Banquet, a fall and spring series of International Topics Forums, a Kids Voting program, a Student Citizenship Program, a Distinguished Lecture Series, a Constitution Day Celebration, a Baltic Exchange Program, a Quad State Emergency Preparedness Program and the Kuykendall Legal Lecture Series.

To provide advice and support for these programs, Dr. Shendow organized an honorary and active advisory committee. The advisory committee currently has more than 50 members. The committee is chaired by Richard R.J. Morin, president of the Page-Shenandoah Newspaper Corporation. The former deputy director of Mount Weather, Carolyn Glaize, serves as vice chairman of the advisory committee. During the period of transition, university officials have tapped Dr. Travis Sample, a member of the advisory committee and professor in the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, to serve as interim director of the Institute.

Biography

Bill Shendow is a native of Winchester, Va., who graduated from Handley High School in 1959. In the fall of that year, he entered Wake Forest University on an athletic scholarship. At Wake Forest, Bill majored in political science. Following graduation from Wake Forest in 1963, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Bill received a deferment to attend Georgetown University's Graduate School. His work toward a masters degree at Georgetown was interrupted in the early winter of 1964 when he was called to active duty. A two-year tour of duty, included a year stint as an Intelligence Officer in Vietnam, for which he was awarded a Bronze Star. He was honorably discharged in December 1966. The following year, Bill completed his degree work at Georgetown and received a masters degree in international relations.

In 1967, Bill returned to Winchester and entered his family's retail apparel business. From 1967 to 1986 he was vice president of Bell Clothes, Inc. In March 1986, he was selected executive director of the Winchester-Frederick County Chamber of Commerce and executive secretary of the Industrial Development Corporation.

Bill has been active in numerous civic and business organizations. He served as a member of the Winchester City Council from 1976 to 1983. In 1983, he began instructing government courses at Shenandoah University on a part-time basis. In August 1991, Bill received a doctorate detree. in public administration from the Center of Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech.

In January 1997, Bill became Director of the INSTITUTE for GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICE for Government and Public Policy at Shenandoah University. As director, Bill works toward establishing Shenandoah University as a regional educational and public policy resource center for public sector managers and students of government. He also serves as acting chair of the Political Science Program in the college of Arts & Sciences. He teaches public administration and political science related courses at both the undergraduate and the graduate level.

Bill and his wife Kitty reside in Winchester. They have one married daughter, Stacey Francisco, and a granddaughter, Mary Katherine.

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