Dr. Virginia (Ginny) Lee Lussier is a distinguished alumna of the Department of Government and Politics, having received both her master's degree and her Ph.D. from the department. She is now a professor emerita of political science at the California State University at Northridge. During her time in GVPT, Ginny worked with Dr. Jonathan Wilkenfeld as a graduate assistant, spent two years as a Maryland Fellow, served as President of the GVPT Graduate Student Association and was an active participant in the Chancellor's Graduate Student Advisory Committee. These activities, combined with academic achievement, led to an appointment on the U.S. Commissioner of Education's Advisory Committee on Accreditation and Institutional Eligibility and a one-year internship in Maryland's Chancellor's office. Beyond UMD, Lussier earned a B.A. from Washington College, an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Executive M.B.A. from Rutgers. Lussier was also a Fulbright Scholar in Bolivia. 

Throughout her more than forty year career in academia, Virginia (Ginny) Lussier has continually served in full-time, high level administrative positions, while simultaneously pursuing her academic research interests.  Although she began her academic career specializing in International Relations and Latin American Area Studies, her administrative positions expanded her research interests to include international political conflict, academic collective bargaining, employment and women’s issues, workplace literacy, and civil aviation.

Ginny co-authored two books: Women’s Lives: Perspectives on Progress and Change (with Joyce J. Walstedt) and Women, the Arts, and the 1920’s in Paris and New York (with Kenneth W. Wheeler).  The first book focuses on the many positive events that have changed women’s lives and on the personal experiences of women who are prominent in their respective professions, and who, despite their achievements, have had to confront continuing discrimination.

The second book focuses on the 1920’s, a period of great creativity and sudden liberation for women.  Most of the activity took place in Paris and New York, the unrivaled hubs of the world’s intellectual and cultural life.  Women, the Arts, and the 1920’s in Paris and New York examines the role of women from three perspectives: an evaluation of the historical, cultural, and societal factors that produced such a remarkable flowering of talent; the contributions of women, both as artists and catalytic agents in promoting new expression and concepts in the field of dance, theater, music, film, and publishing; and an examination of the individual lives and works of notable women authors to determine how thy viewed themselves and the world around them.   

In addition to her two co-authored books, Dr. Lussier wrote 38 journal articles and conference papers, served as a discussant or chair on 20 national/international academic conference panels, and wrote and administered 17 grants to support various projects.  Her journal articles were published in Contemporary Review (London), Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Higher Education, Labor Law Journal, and the Association of Governing Board of Universities and Colleges.  

Her speaker series programs at Delaware and Rutgers were supported by the State’s Humanities Forums, and at Rutgers by the Joe and Emily Lowe Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.  Grants from the Federal Aviation Administration supported training programs and seminars for its employees.  The two major grants, she received, were from the U.S. Department of Education.  The first grant, for $550,500, was to support a Workplace Literacy Project for Rutgers University and two New Brunswick, New Jersey hospitals.  The second was a five-year, $2.6 million project at CSUN and its partner institution, Glendale Community College, to increase the number of Hispanic students moving through the educational system from high school to a four year college degree.