EMAIL:
ldowney@roosevelt.edu
TEACHING:
I teach public administration, political science, and health science and administration.
HOMETOWN:
I have lived all over the world so no hometown.
COLLEGE:
I have gone to lots of colleges such as Lancaster University in the United Kingdom; Syracuse University; and the University of Illinois to name a few.
UG MAJOR/MINOR:
Medicine, Politics, and Philosophy
WHY YOU CHOSE THE MAJOR/MINOR:
To paraphrase John Muir, when you tug at a single thing, “health,” in the universe you find that it is attached to everything. Health impacts every aspect of an individual’s life from education to family, community, economic, and global well-being. When we protect people’s health, we save lives and enable them to use the gifts they were born to give to the world.
EXTRACURRICULARS DURING UG (CLUBS, ORGS, JOBS, INTERNSHIPS, VOLUNTEER WORK, ETC.):
Oxfam, UNICEF, Amnesty International (president), United Nations, Save the Children, Debate, ACT UP (high school and UG), worked on three political campaigns, CARE, pre health care, Medicins Sans Frontiers, Live 8
WHY YOU CHOSE TO WORK AT ROOSEVELT:
To educate socially conscious citizens for active and dedicated lives as leaders in their professions and their communities. And why I stay is because Roosevelt’s students have a global view that the actions of individuals, societies, global actors and nations’ behaviors affect the whole system. Their understanding of this interpersonal reliance equates to a responsibility to and for each other. They also bring an understanding of social justice which translates into a reciprocal obligation for everyone — no matter their age, race, gender, social class, ethnicity, religious beliefs, physical abilities or sexual orientation — to have equal access to succeed in life. I am the adviser for three student organizations.
PHILOSOPHY:
First of all that we belong to and with each other. All lives have equal value. Secondly, that when we give people a chance to help improve the health and lives of others, one sees the best part of them. It is a privilege to be able to see people’s better angels working a multitude of ways on a daily basis.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Get an amazing education, and then use it to make your works an expression of your gifts. Those gifts that are given to you are not for you alone, or for our own self-improvement, but they are actually to be offered to for the needs of the community.
What advice would you give someone who wants to make a difference in the world?
The measure of our compassion lies not in our service of those whom may seem on the margins, but in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship with them. Find a way to connect your ideas to others even if it seems like they have nothing in common with you. Also, activism is not just raising an issue, but also requires involvement and engagement with working on policies to affect change.
What kind of world do you want to see in 2030?
A world where we all see ourselves as global citizens in an interdependent world, with a society where everyone has equal access to succeed in life, with an idea of diversity that respects and understands that each individual is unique and important – built on an understanding of universal human rights that belong to all people.