Melony Price-Rhodes

• Ph.D., Public Administration and Policy, Virginia Tech, 2009
• M.P.A., Public Administration and Policy, Virginia Tech, 1998
• Diploma of Polygraph Science and Methodology, A. Madley Academy of Polygraph Science and Methodology, Charlotte, N.C., 1984
• B.S., Criminal Justice, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 1983

• Human Service public policy
• Child welfare, revenue maximization, foster care and child protective services
• Federal, state, and local regulations affecting child welfare
• Interagency Public Policy Collaboration
• Contracting
• Data and Project Management
• Organizational Development and Program Evaluation
• Strategic Planning
• Capacity Building
• Program Assessments and Evaluation

From Collaborative Creation to Implementation:  The Evolution of a Contract for a Model Program to Finance Child Welfare 

My research explored the evolution of a long term contract between a state university and a local county through collaboration among university, county and private sector stakeholders to implement a unique national model program to maximize revenues for a local county from federal entitlement and state programs.  Second, the research examined selected elements from the New Public Management (NPM) form of governance and the collaboration that occurred during the implementation and evolvement of this model project.

• 2008-present: Special Research Faculty/Senior Program Director/Principal Investigator and Project Director Federal Reimbursement Unit, Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance
• 2002-2008: Special Research Faculty/Senior Program Director, and Project Director, Federal Reimbursement Unit, Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance
• 1998-2002: Court Specialist and Court Specialist Supervisor, Federal Reimbursement Unit, Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Public Research
• Fiscal impact for the county since 2001 exceeds $80M
• Between 2003 and 2019 multiple grant awards to the university over $6.1M

• Guest Lecturer - 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
  Marymount University, Criminal Justice Program,
  Criminal Justice Management
  Arlington, VA
• Lecture on modern management characteristics in public and private sector organizations with emphasis on the necessity to collaborate across and within multiple organizations
• Provide practical guidance for managing public and private sector criminal justice oriented organizations
• Workshop Facilitator
  Guest speaker at Virginia’s DCSE Continuing Education at the retreat to Virginia’s DCSE’s Special Counsel and Assistant Attorneys General
• Presentation topic:  Overview and Benefit to the State in Obtaining Child Support from Non-Custodial Parents When Their Children are in Foster Care
• Co-Instructor 2002-2003
  Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Center for Public Administration and Policy, National Capital Region, Complex Public Organizations and Government Administration I: Behavioral Skills for Public Administrators
  Falls Church, VA

• Multiple weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, and procedural manuals, desktop guides, and reports delivered in a variety of formats (descriptive, graphic, spreadsheets and tables including qualitative and qualitative data) to university, state, county, and corporate management and staff
• A small sample includes:
  • FY 2002-2019
  • FY 02-present              VT Federal Reimbursement Unit Annual Report presented to Fairfax/Falls Church Children’s Services Act (CSA) Program Senior Management Team, Fairfax County Dept of Family Services (DFS) Senior Management Team, Fairfax County Dept of Administration and Human Services (DASH) Management,
  • FY 03-present              VT Third Party Revenue Report presented to Fairfax/Falls Church Children’s Services Act (CSA) Program Senior Management Team, Fairfax County Dept of Family Services (DFS) Senior Management Team, Fairfax County Dept of Administration and Human Services (DASH) Management, Fairfax/Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) management
  • FY 12-present              Quarterly CSA Parental Contribution Reports presented to Fairfax/Falls Church Children’s Services Act (CSA) Program Manager
  • FY17-present              Quarterly Report of Research and Analysis for Judicial Support Orders established by the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court and referred to that office for enforcement and collection case management distributed to the Fairfax District Office Manager
  • FY 02-present              Preparation and modification of the annual FRU Standard Operations Procedures Manual to include detailed VISIO flow charts illustrating not only all the processes required for the FRU to perform the team’s work, but also an extensive document directory
  • FY15-present                   Contribute articles, information and job aids for inclusion into a county program’s newsletter
  • FY 12-present                   Collaborate with program management and staff to create/modify program training materials, handouts, and PowerPoint presentations
  • FY 10-present                   Create and distribute to county program stakeholders a monthly report detailing information about specific child support issues
  • FY 02-present:             VT Third Party Revenue Report presented to Fairfax/Falls Church Children’s Services Act (CSA) Program Senior Management Team, Fairfax County Dept of Family Services (DFS) Senior Management Team, Fairfax County Dept of Administration and Human Services (DASH) Management, Fairfax/Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) management 
  • FY 02-present: Collaborate with program management and staff to create/modify program training materials, handouts, and PowerPoint presentations

Multiple courses, in-depth seminars and workshops in SLR, DSLR, and mobile digital photography, digital photography processing, and printing techniques to include formal structured courses in high school, college and other venues, taught by professional photographers to include current and retired career National Geographic photographers, photo processing software developers and leading industry representatives (Adobe, Lightroom, Topaz, Canon, Nikon) and corporate printing experts throughout the country and overseas

Advanced knowledge in many types of photography (black and white, color, and infrared)-travel, astrophotography, home inventory and other documentation for electronic record creation and maintenance, a variety of lighting and weather related environments (night, low light, in climate weather conditions), aerial, macro, landscape, floral, outdoor, street, animals, private music venues, safaris, bird migrations, urban/inner-city, portraits, underwater, High Dynamic Range (HDR), and military ceremonies (Retirement, Change of Command, military flight operations, christening, commissioning, and decommissioning of Navy ships  etc.)

Photographs have been on exhibition as solos work and with others (described below)

• Active Member Hawai’i State Society of Washington DC
• Active Member Hawai’i State Society’s Ukulele Hui, Musician, Metropolitan DC region, 2015-current
• Active Member of Hawai’i State Society’s Ukulele Hui
  Performed at venues to include:
  • US Capital
  • Air and Space Museum
  • Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
  • Multiple community and private events
• Active Member University of Hawai’i National Capital Region Chapter Alumnae Association Board of Governors
• Active Member University of Hawai’i National Capital Region Chapter Alumnae Association