Pamala Wiepking, Ph.D., will be the inaugural Visiting Stead Family Chair in International Philanthropy and visiting associate professor of philanthropic studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Wiepking is the first scholar selected to hold an endowed chair at the school that is dedicated to increasing knowledge of international philanthropy. She previously was an assistant professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
In her new role, Wiepking will conduct original research, translate new knowledge into improvements in the practice of international philanthropy and educate new philanthropic leaders for the international arena. Beginning this fall, she will teach courses in international philanthropy and fundraising. She is a member of the advisory board of the school’s Global Philanthropy Indices initiative, which recently released its first report, and a member of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute’s research committee.
“Philanthropy plays valuable roles in every country and culture,” said Amir Pasic, Ph.D., the Eugene R. Temple Dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy said in a press release announcing the appointment. “At a time when philanthropy is increasingly international, deepening understanding of the ways it is practiced within and across cultures is necessary to address the world’s most pressing issues,” he said.
Wiepking said that she looks forward to working with the scholars and students affiliated with the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and with researchers from all over the world. “From different cultural and disciplinary perspectives we will together further the knowledge on global philanthropy, and with that knowledge we will help to create more generous societies,” she said.
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy, of which Wiepking is co-editor, won the 2016 Virginia A. Hodgkinson Book Prize awarded by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). She received the 2017 UMD SPP Do Good Institute-ARNOVA Award for Global Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership for her leadership in international philanthropy and nonprofit research. She also earned the 2016 Association of Fundraising Professionals Emerging Scholar Award for outstanding scholarship related to philanthropy and fundraising.
Wiepking serves on the board of Nederland Filantropieland (formerly Dutch Fundraising Institute, IF), which allows her to incorporate academic research on philanthropy into the work of philanthropy professionals to help then do their jobs better. She is among the founding members of the European Research Network on Philanthropy and the Center for Global Generosity.
The Stead Family Chair in International Philanthropy, a gift from Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, generates opportunities for new global partnerships and helps ensure that the school is at the forefront of the study of international philanthropy. Stead is a lifetime member of the school’s Board of Visitors.
Wiepking is a member of the editorial board for the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly and the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Majority. She earned her Ph.D. in philanthropic studies from VU University Amsterdam and her master’s degree in sociology at Utrecht University, both in The Netherlands.