Meet Dr. Otilia Iancu

Dr. Otilia Iancu, chair of the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs is the recipient of the 2024 Educator Award Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

The walls in Dr. Otilia Iancu’s office, just off the first-floor atrium in the Social Sciences building, are covered with collages of pinned-up notes, photos, and keepsakes celebrating her former students. For the first-time visitor, it’s an invitation to lead with questions.

On the wall to the left of the door, there is a Georgia Senate press office postcard showing the face of Senator Derek Mallow. Next to it, one sees a business card belonging to Kelvin Bryant, director of police administration for the Savannah Police Department. An image of Eunicia, communications director for the City of North Miami, is there. The face of Aaron “Adot” Whitely, Chatham County commissioner for District 6, is also visible. One also finds Antwan Lang, Southeastern United States government affairs lead for Lime, makers of electric scooters and bicycles. The common thread? All are graduates of SSU’s master of public administration program. All were, at some point, taught and mentored by Iancu.

“The success of my students is what keeps me here,” said Iancu, who chairs the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs. “It is very rewarding to invest in them and watch them become leaders in their field.”

She points to another photo on the wall showing Schonn Franklin, a 2020 political science graduate who participated in the Model United Nations/African Union program and attended the South Regional Model United Nations Conference in 2017.

“Schonn won the Rangel Fellowship in 2020, went on to Penn State and helped to revamp the Model African Union student organization there,” said Iancu.

Today, Franklin serves as a diplomat in the U.S. Embassy in São Paulo, Brazil. In a text message he sent to Iancu on Oct. 23, 2024 he wrote: “Hi, Dr. Iancu! I’m ok. A lot has happened since we last spoke…I moved to São Paulo, Brazil. I will do consular work for a year…it is intense work as we are the world’s busiest consular section.”

In the opposite wall, she keeps a collection of awards and recognitions she has received over the years. The most recent, propped on a shelf, is an “Educator Award” from Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. with a date of February 25, 2024. Also visible is a certificate of appreciation from the Delta Nu Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta presented on March 13, 2024. Iancu is also the recipient of the inaugural 2017 President’s Faculty Award for Innovation and Excellence.

A native of Romania, Iancu has served as interim chair and chair of the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs since 2018. She migrated to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1997 and earned her master’s in public administration from the University of Kansas in 1999 and her Ph.D. in public policy in 2010 from the University of Arkansas. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2024.

Living in Romania in the 1980s under the rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Iancu and her family focused on education. Her father is a national poet of Romania and her mother was an artist and a radio announcer.

“We valued education and we dreamed of living in a free world that recognized merit,” she said. “We were fascinated with America and living the American dream.”

For Iancu, that dream is very much alive today.