CPACS Alumni Awardee Recipient | Destynie Sewell | Hubert Locke Award Recipient | B. J. Reed

Destynie Sewell | Goodrich Scholarship Program

Destynie Sewell, MBA, J.D., states that her dedication to giving back is motivated by all she has ever known — God, family, and service. Growing up, Sewell’s mother would sometimes work three jobs to support the two of them. The women in her family were always committed to community and public service. Her mother and grandmother worked in the community support field.

Sewell was motivated by the lessons she learned in childhood to pursue her education at UNO. She simultaneously earned a BS in business administration (with concentrations in banking, finance, and investment science/portfolio management) from the College of Business and a BA in French from the College of Arts and Sciences. She earned her MBA in 2007. She received her JD from Creighton University in 2011.

Sewell worked with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs prior to starting her career with UNO. She is a member of the La Vista Civil Service Commission, serves as an ethics guest speaker for local organizations, and is engaged with her church. She is currently an assistant professor of business and ethics for the UNO College of Business.

Sewell credits several mentors as instrumental to her success (Dean Louis Pol, Ph.D., and Professor Imafedia Okhamafe, Ph.D., to name just two of the many). Sewell is committed to continuing the trend of inspiration and support she received from her mentors. She has seen many success stories but one in particular stands out — one of her students wrote her a thank-you note at the end of the semester. The student, a minority, thanked Sewell for providing minority representation at the college. He said he never previously had an African American professor in the College of Business. She hopes her presence will change the perspective of who a college professor is. She supported students in the Goodrich Pre-Law Society and, in 2016, played a major role in helping the society to win the Nebraska Bar Association’s Diversity Award. Sewell says she is proud to encourage diversity in the field of law, which is starving for minorities and faces a particular lack of minority representation in Nebraska.

B. J. Reed | Hubert Locke Distinguised Service Award

B. J. Reed, Ph.D., has been on the faculty of the University of Nebraska at Omaha since 1982 and served as chairman of the (then) Department of Public Administration from 1985 to 2000 and as dean of the College of Public Affairs Community Service from 2000 to 2011. He also served as executive associate to the chancellor from 2006 to 2012. In 2011, he was named interim senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs at UNO and appointed permanently in 2012.

Reed has published in numerous journals including Public Administration Review; The American Review of Public Administration; International Journal of Public Administration; Public Productivity and Management Review; and Public Budgeting and Finance. He is the author of several books on diverse topics including economic development, strategic planning, budgeting, financial administration, and intergovernmental management.

Reed served as president of the Association of Chief Academic Officers in 2017-2018 and now serves as past president. He served as 2003-2004 president of the National Council of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration; and chair of its Council on Peer Review and Accreditation, co-chair of its Data Task Force Committee and chair of its Social Equity Committee. He served as a member of the National Council of Pi Alpha Alpha, the public administration honor society. Reed participated as co-chair of Mayor Fahey’s Police-Fire Study Commission and chaired the City of Omaha’s Charter Commission. Reed was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2005 and recently completed a six-year term as member of the board where he served as its secretary and a member of its executive committee.

His community service includes boards of directors of the Love Jazz Arts Center; Live Well Omaha (chair for four years); Omaha Community Partnership (chair for three years); and Midlands Latino Community Development Corporation. He has been a member of the training coordination board for Omaha Neighborhood Builders. He is past president of The Dundee Memorial Park Neighborhood Association and served on the 30th Anniversary Committee of Leadership Omaha.