User:Ryan Lanham

My name is Ryan Lanham. My primary interests are social innovation, social entrepreneurship, community foundations, borders and boundaries, non-governmental organizations, civil society in Africa, and budget matters of all sorts. I am also interested in Wikipedia as a theory of democratic governance. I have been fleshing out the section on public administration and related topics.

At present (2006), I am a graduate student (PhD candidate) in public administration and policy at Virginia Tech. My dissertation is on organizational theories of community foundations. My bachelors degree is from Johns Hopkins University where I mostly studied the History of Science and Technology.

I have worked at Virginia Tech as a professional political geographer at the Center for Regional Strategies. I am affiliated with the Institute for Governance and Accountabilities.

Prior to being a mid-career graduate student, I was a entrepreneur who raised venture capital for a firm called Blue-Suit. We licensed the Star ATM brand name as a vehicle to provide financial services online through small banks. I was also a product manager at IBM and a computer consultant in various manifestations including working for Roger Schank as a Technical Director for a time in his Northwestern University artificial intelligence lab--Jorn Barger once worked for me! In another avatar, I helped automate the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa in 1996.

I have a family that includes my wife and two sons and myself.

email: rlanham@vt.edu