In the fall of 2006, Grady, chief of police at Northern Illinois University, began a yearlong advisory position as counsel to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and to the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. His job: advise the ministry on the development of Iraq’s civil defense forces, including the national police, border enforcement, and immigration control services.

 

While Grady has served in similar roles over the years in Kosovo and Israel with great success, his diagnosis for Iraq is that the country will not be able to grow democratically with only the help of experts who are guiding the new administration. He says success will only come with hard work at the grass-roots level—by garnering support for this new form of government one individual or one village at a time. “The good citizens of Iraq are the most underutilized resource in the country,” says Grady. “Occupation will never settle and stabilize the country.We need the heart of the Iraqi civilization [to succeed].”

 

 

Grady’s statement is not political. Over the course of a nearly 30-year law enforcement career that began in the military, Grady has developed a definitive policing vision—called “Integrated Model of Policing”—that is used throughout the United States. At its core, the model is about changing society so that policing is a natural act by all citizens, not just a police force. In Iraq, Grady says, implementing the model means removing corruption from police forces and establishing an environment where members of the general population feel safe to monitor their own neighborhoods and work with the police.

 

“When it comes to policing, the original model is the best: The police and the people are the same,” Grady says. “The version you see on television when a crime happens and you go out and find the bad guy—the whodunit—that’s a lousy model of policing. The higher purpose [of policing] is for safety and order for everyone in all the various facets of society.”

 

Grady says it is entirely possible for Iraq to become a stable nation as long as there is sufficient help from outsiders who take the time to understand the Iraqi culture. This, he says, will allow Iraqis to eliminate systemic problems that currently prevent the country from solidifying. “A successful policing institution equals social change,” says Grady, linking his current work back to Walden’s mission.

 

In addition to the flexibility of Walden’s degree programs, Grady says he decided to pursue the doctoral stage of his academic career with Walden because the university’s principles dovetail with his previous undergraduate work in management and his professional work that aims to change society. “Walden was the finest institution in the country that enabled me to move where I needed and continue my career,” Grady says. “Walden put an enormous emphasis on quality and making certain the experience is meaningful.”

 

The quality education of other law enforcement professionals is equally important to Grady, who has returned to his position at Northern Illinois University. He is in the conceptual stages of an international police training institute designed specifically for struggling democracies. Grady does not know, though, if he will return to Iraq.

 

“I have no idea what life has in store for me from here: Africa, Europe, Central America—who knows?” he says. “When opportunities arise, you have to make the decision if you will live to your potential or not, and make an impact on the world.”

 

 

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This realization changed her life, as well as her educational path at Walden University. In fact, Jumper’s dissertation is focusing on education and business capacity building to help ensure economic and social stability in Afghanistan.

 

 

During Jumper’s visit to Afghanistan, education was repeatedly stressed by locals as the best hope for a nation where the average household earns less than $400 a year. Jumper was particularly moved by Roshanak Wardak, a female physician in her 50s who operates a makeshift clinic at her home on weekends, and travels during the week to Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul for parliament sessions as one of 68 female legislators.

 

“I asked her what was the most important thing that could help Afghans,” Jumper recalls. “With her being a doctor, I expected to hear something like medical supplies, but instead she said, ‘Education is the key. This helps more than care packages.’”

 

Upon her return from Afghanistan, Jumper became involved with Ariana Outreach, a Washington, D.C., group that funds projects in Afghanistan that support basic education, women’s empowerment, and youth leadership development. She is particularly inspired by business-startup programs that encourage new forms of economic development. “When people are invested in their lives and their government, there is less eagerness to go to war. Economic opportunity gives people a stake in government and a stake in society.”

 

Another field trip—this time to a Kabul work-study school (run by the group Aschiana) where children earn money through school projects for their families— taught her that “encouraging economic development and ultimately social change on a small scale are key to developing peaceful government on a large scale.”

 

Jumper says her experiences in Afghanistan and at Walden make her feel like a different person. “I’m changing people’s lives now through positive means, without all the negativity of fighting in court. I always knew I wanted to do my dissertation on something that I could personally see and experience. I didn’t want to just write about what I’ve thought; I wanted to meet people and get a rounded view, and Afghanistan has given me that.”

 

 

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When the United States deployed troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, though, he and the Army came up against emotional issues from combat not seen in at least a generation.

 

“The U.S. military hadn’t done a long-term war since Vietnam, and, then, that was a different type of Army,” says Frutiger, chief of staff for U.S. Army, Europe. “Previous information about re-integration hadn’t been written since 1945. Now we had soldiers serving 12-, 15-month tours, and we had to figure out how to bring them back together with their families.”

 

 

Frutiger quickly realized the need for an education program about re-integrating soldiers upon their return from duty. And it was imperative, he says, to focus on a soldier’s entire family, not just the service member.

 

“We like to say that a ready family is a ready soldier,” Frutiger says. “Soldiers perform better when they know their families are taken care of.”

 

Frutiger and his staff of 50 at the human resources department in Germany created the Big Blue Box, a 3-inch-deep plastic container of booklets, CDs, and DVDs about current military life and resources given to all U.S. Army personnel stationed in Europe. Frutiger, who earned a Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences with a specialization in Leadership and Organizational Change, drew from his Walden dissertation, in which he explored the importance of communication between military branches, and consulted with military psychiatrists and physicians to write books and pamphlets about issues such as preparing children for a parent’s deployment and the emotional battle wounded soldiers face. Frutiger himself wrote the booklets on re-integration, survivor’s support, and redeployment preparation.

 

“For me, Walden took off the blinders that one can get staying only in their field,” he says, noting that the university’s emphasis on sharing knowledge is similar to that by NATO, which pushes relationship-building between national forces and sharing information. “Walden is important because of the associations that you make. You can learn from others outside of your field and go back and engage and really make a difference in the world. [With NATO] the guy you’re working with today may be your buddy in a foxhole in the next war.”

 

To date, upward of 185,000 Boxes have been distributed, and the project has won the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2006 Human Capital Leadership Award. In addition, Frutiger oversees an online Big Blue Box Web site that attracts about 17,000 visitors each week. Military families can submit personal questions—like how to handle a child who has stopped talking since his parent was redeployed—and receive responses within 24 hours.

 

“DUIs, suicides, crime, and family violence have been drastically reduced since we started with the Box and the Web sites,” Frutiger says. “We believe these programs have paid huge dividends.”

 

 

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Hamzaee was born in Iran in 1951 and earned an undergraduate degree in economics from what was then The National University of Iran before departing for America to pursue graduate education. But despite growing up in Iran and returning there for professional and personal trips, the country puzzles Hamzaee— economically, at least.

 

 

Because of its massive oil supplies, Iran has recently experienced an average 5 percent increase in economic development each year, which is well above the average 2.5 percent growth rate of most Western countries. However, the country’s inflation rate hovers between 18 and 25 percent and its unemployment rate runs 15 to 20 percent. Typically, with constant growth, these two statistics would be low, Hamzaee says.

 

One of the issues Hamzaee attributes to the conflicting economic trends and overall social development stagnation of the oil-rich nation is “brain drain”—that is, when educated youth leave Iran for Western universities where research funding and alternative worldviews are more widely available. Despite economic growth, the academic elite are still leaving the country because of a lack of educational and professional opportunities. The result is a shortage of workers and educators needed to continue to grow the economy and affect public policy.

 

Hamzaee and his five siblings are themselves examples of Iran’s “brain drain.” They each left the country to pursue higher education. Hamzaee has written about this subject, and the solution, he says, is to establish economic and infrastructure programs and projects in the country to retain the brightest minds.

 

One of the solutions, says Hamzaee, is foreign direct investment. The 56-yearold travels to Iran up to twice a year for 14 to 40 days to teach in settings such as the Tehran Stock Exchange, professional M.B.A. programs, and the Industrial Management Institute. Hamzaee’s lectures focus on insider trading, the benefits of an autonomous central bank (Iran’s is not), research methods, and governing finance. One thing his lectures are not, however, is political.

 

“We are not there to change the system; we are there to educate,” Hamzaee says of himself and others who want to effect social change in Iran. “Education serves a huge purpose. We are not politicians, soldiers, or military agents. We are supposed to be able to help the largest number of people in a positive way with no conflict with the political systems. It’s better that we have support from the authorities in order to do something good for the people at large.”

 

 

 

 

 

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