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Dr. Virginia Beard joined Hope鈥檚 faculty in 2007. Dr. Beard specializes in comparative politics focused on Africa, and public policy focused on poverty and housing. Her courses include Introduction to Global Politics, African Politics, Public Policy and Administration, and Political Geography. She also teaches senior seminars that explore conflict, peace and reconciliation 鈥� both on campus during Hope鈥檚 regular semesters, and in travel study courses in Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as Hawaii during May Term.

Dr. Beard also oversees political science majors鈥� state and local internships in Michigan or in students鈥� home cities elsewhere. She advises two student groups: the Hope chapter of the political science honor society Pi Sigma Alpha, and the Hope Running Club, whose members she works to connect with running opportunities in the Holland area.

In nearly every semester since she joined the Hope faculty in 2007, Dr. Beard has done collaborative research with students. In one project, she and two student research assistants worked with the City of Holland and a local nongovernmental organization on affordable housing, land use regulations and homelessness. In 2023, Dr .Beard earned funding through Hope's Global Water Research Institute (GWRI) to take a student with her to conduct research on water projects in Kajiado County, Kenya. Dr. Beard is again taking two students to Africa to conduct collaborative research in Zambia on water issues, summer 2025.

From 2015 through 2018 Dr. Beard directed Hope鈥檚 Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies program.

From 2018 through 2022, Dr. Beard served as a Faculty Trustee on 暗网TV鈥檚 Board of Trustees.

Dr. Beard鈥檚 research centers on two areas. One involves African political and community development, focused both on identity politics and democracy as well as assessment of community development interventions. Dr. Beard鈥檚 second area of research and writing focuses on poverty and public policy, specifically exploring access to housing and factors causing homelessness. She works with local community organizations not only for scholarly purposes, but also to make an impact on these issues in the greater Ottawa and Kent County areas. Dr. Beard formerly served as a Commissioner on the Ottawa County Housing Commission and currently serves as a Board member on the City of Grand Rapids鈥� Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board.

Education

• Ph.D., political science, Michigan State University, 2006
• MPPA, Michigan State University, 2005
• B.A., political science, Calvin College, 2000

Honors, Grants and awards

• Faculty Student Research Grants 鈥� 暗网TV Jacob E. Nyenhuis Award 鈥� Do Religious Organizations Contribute to Nation-Building and Democratic Strengthening? The Case of Kenya; 暗网TV Global Water Research Institute 鈥� Maji ni Maisha (Water is Life): Assessing Water and Health Interventions Among At Risk Communities in sub-Saharan Africa, Zambia, 2025
• Best chapter award, Pi Sigma Alpha Et Kappa Chapter, 2024
• Political Science Department Renze Hoeksma Global Research Award 鈥� Maji ni Maisha (Water is Life): Assessing Water and Health Interventions Among Indigenous, Rural Communities in Kenya (Student: Makayla Wilson; Mark Krudy), 2023
• Faculty Student Research Grant 鈥� The impact of large-scale, household based interventions on public health: 暗网TV, Aquora and Bucket Ministries work with Sawyer Water Filters in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya (Student: Makayla Wilson), 2022
• Faculty study tour to Kenya, Great Lakes Colleges Association Portal to the World Grant, 2019
  GLCA-funded participant in collaborative teaching initiative with colleagues in Pune, India, Great Lakes Colleges Association, 2018
• Convocation speaker, 暗网TV, 2015
• Invited to deliver the 鈥淟ast Lecture,鈥� 暗网TV Mortar Board honor society, 2013
• Library of Congress Digital Humanities Grant, Great Lakes Colleges Association, 2015
• Participant in Conflict, Peace and Reconciliation workshop at Corrymeela Peace Community (Northern Ireland), Lilly Endowment fellowship, 2012

Current Projects

• 鈥淒o Religious Organizations Contribute to Nation-Building and Democratic Strengthening? The Case of Kenya,鈥� new project with Dr. Tracy Kuperus, Calvin University; literature review, creation of data collection index and survey instrument, summer, 2024; interviews and additional data collection, summer, 2025; publication submission, fall 2025.
• 鈥淒emanding Democracy and Rejecting Autocracy: The Role of Religion and Regime Experience,鈥� updated data and added additional cases, AY 2023鈥�2024 due to new coup d鈥檈tats in states under consideration, which impacts explanatory variables; presented at MPSA, April 2024; revising paper alongside book revisions, AY 2024鈥�2025; publication submission, summer 2025, Journal of Modern African Studies
• 鈥淗omelessness: A Survey of Homeless Shelters and Service Providers鈥� 鈥� No comprehensive data exist regarding individual level decisions and experiences across homeless shelters and service providers. There is also no complete, accurate dataset of the almost 15,000 such providers. This project is a followup to findings and data from Dr. Beard鈥檚 forthcoming book. Database of homeless shelters and service providers, begun with student researcher, summer 2024; data collection to continue through spring 2025 and summer 2025; survey creation, summer 2025; survey collection, AY 2025鈥�2026; data analysis summer 2026.

Selected publications

• 鈥淪uccessful Student Scholars: Student Learning Through Long-term Embedded Librarian Work in Political Science Courses,鈥� with Todd Wiebe, in Teaching Information Literacy in Political Science, Public Affairs, and International Studies, Rachel Olsen and Kimberly MacVaugh, eds., final revisions accepted September 2024, publication in 2025, from ACRL
• 鈥�,鈥� with Nathan L. Tintle et al., Archives of Clinical and Biomedical Research, 7, 2023
• 鈥淭he Lost Sheep, God鈥檚 Body, and Housing: Renewing Hearts and Minds into Renewed Communities,鈥� Journal of Faith and Economics, 78, fall 2021
• 鈥�,鈥�  Journal of Poverty & Public Policy, 14.1, December 2021
• 鈥淩eexamining Current Breast-Cancer Screening: An Analysis of the 2009 U.S. Preventative Services Task Force Guidelines for Breast Cancer Screening,鈥� with C. Beard, Women & Health, 2016 
• 鈥淩esearch as Pedagogy: Using Experimental Data Collection as a Course Learning Tool,鈥� with P. Booke, College Teaching, 2016 

Outside the College

Dr. Beard has been a long-distance runner, with her 15 marathons including the 2011, 2013 and 2014 Boston Marathons. She also is a certified level 1 CrossFit trainer. She is from Mississippi and Texas, and her family of origin, including her identical twin sister, still live in the Houston area. Her husband is a University of Michigan law graduate and practices law in Grand Rapids.