Virginia Lee Lussier is a professor emerita of political science at California State University, Northridge. The proceeds from her fund will support the Center for American Women and Politics’ flagship Ready to Run® New Jersey program and the Ready to Run® National Network. Ready to Run® is a nonpartisan campaign training program created to address the under-representation of women in political leadership in America. Currently, it serves women in 21 states and Puerto Rico and has trained over 5,000 participants to run for office, seek appointed positions, and manage campaigns.
The amount available for spending each year will be divided evenly between the flagship program and the national network. For the flagship program, funds will be used to support personnel costs for program development, program planning, recruitment, logistics, conference costs, and related needs. For the national network, funds will be used to support personnel costs for partner recruitment, curriculum development, training, travel, partner program consultation, and related needs.
A first-generation college student, Ginny Lussier has spent over 40 years working in academic and senior administrative positions in various universities, including the University of Maryland (College Park), the University of Delaware, Rutgers University (New Brunswick), Saint Louis University, and California State University, Northridge. She began her professional career in 1973, as assistant director of the Project on Academic Collective Bargaining, funded by the Carnegie Corporation and sponsored by three higher education associations. She retired as emerita faculty in political science from California State University (CSUN) in 2014.
A PhD in political science, Ginny received a doctorate and master’s degree from Maryland (1973; 1972). She also received a master’s in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania (1965) and an MBA from the Executive MBA program at Rutgers University (1983). Her undergraduate degree, also in political science, is from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland (1963). A Fulbright scholar in 1965-66, she attended law school in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Lussier has co-authored two books – Women’s Lives: Perspectives on Progress and Change and Women, the Arts & the 1920’s in Paris and New York – and authored numerous papers and articles published in journals, such as the Labor Law Journal, The Journal of Higher Education, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution. She has received significant support from foundations and government agencies for conferences, speaker series, workplace training, and educational diversity and advancement, most focused on women. These professional activities have examined the positive events that have changed women’s lives as well as the struggle women still have to gain acceptance, opportunity, and status in the public sphere.
This is especially true of women seeking public office who, running for office, face challenges such as fundraising, gaining endorsements from interest groups, organizing campaigns, and mobilizing voters, among others. The Center for American Women and Politics Ready to Run® programs focus on changing this situation, thereby advancing the political equality of women in America.
To donate to the Virginia Lee Lussier Legacy Fund, please contact Sue Nemeth at (848) 932-8593, or gsnemeth@eagleton.rutgers.edu.