Perspectives from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Leadership and Learning in Nevada
The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact on Nevada
The State of Nevada was among the hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the public health crises, the implementation of stay-at-home orders and the shuttering of large swaths of the economy resulted in significant social and economic dislocation.
Effects were particularly acute in Southern Nevada due to the region’s overreliance on tourism, gaming, and entertainment and its under-capacitated healthcare infrastructure. The pandemic also created unanticipated challenges for private and public organizations, as well as opportunities for organizational learning and community-based collaborations.
About the Project
To understand how public policy actors and private and public organizations responded to the pandemic, researchers at The Lincy Institute at UNLV interviewed leaders across sectors to document their perspectives, assess lessons learned, and evaluate how communities continue to be transformed by the COVID-19 experience.
The project’s research outputs examine the qualitative effects of the pandemic on governance, communication, housing, mental health, and higher education to understand how the pandemic challenged and reshaped organizations, leadership, and policymaking.
Drs. Kelliann Beavers and Magdalena Martinez served as the project’s primary researchers, with generous assistance from Taylor Cummings and Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio. This project stems from research initiated in 2021 through a partnership between the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and The Lincy Institute. Additional researchers included Peter Grema, Saha Salahi, Kristian Thymianos, and Madison Frazee-Bench whose work was guided by Brookings Institution senior fellow, Dr. John Hudak, and nonresident fellow, Dr. Makada Henry-Nickie.
Project Deliverables
“Conversation to Transformation” Podcast Series
In the podcast series “Conversation to Transformation: Possibilities Borne from the Pandemic,” members of the research team collaborated with interviewees to discuss how the pandemic shaped their leadership practices and how they view the future.
Conference Papers and Presentations
Throughout the course of the project, members of the research team presented at conferences and colloquia to share findings and gather feedback. To request more information on these deliverables, please contact Kelliann Beavers.
Commentary
The researchers’ blogs and opinion editorials highlight emergent policy challenges and recommendations.
Interview Archive
Over 80 policymakers and stakeholders across numerous sectors were interviewed to document their perspective and experiences leading, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. These transcripts are available through the UNLV Special Collections and Archives portal.
Collaborations
The research team created a Virtual Community to sustain a network of scholarship rooted in learning via the Western Political Science Association.
Pandemic Inequity Virtual Community
The global impacts of the pandemic are also localized and disparate. The goal in creating a virtual community is to exchange ideas with other scholars about how they approach equitable pandemic research in other places. This knowledge exchange helps broaden understandings about individual conditions across geographies and demographics. The COVID-19 pandemic will be studied for decades to come, and this virtual community is intended to allow for a cross-pollination of insight.