While delivering her retirement speech in May 2023, UDC Professor of Political Science Shiela Harmon Martin, Ph.D., turned to a favorite quote by Mother Teresa: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” As she expressed her “great love” for her students, colleagues, friends, family and the University of the District of Columbia, Harmon Martin added, “My purpose-driven life journey continues!”    

Shortly after her official retirement on August 15, 2023, Harmon Martin launched the Dr. Shiela Harmon Martin Political Science Opportunity Fund, designed to support a wide range of financial needs for political science majors designed to support a wide range of financial needs for political science majors. The fund’s primary goal is to gather financial donations for future political students at UDC through outreach to political science alumni. To create the Opportunity Fund, Harmon Martin partnered with the Office of Institutional Advancement/UDC Foundation. The fund has already garnered more than $25,000 in donations.  

Harmon Martin was also named a professor emerita by the UDC Board of Trustees on February 6, 2024. Her former student and current president of Spectrum Management, LLC, George “Ty” Simpson (Class of 1992), pledged $10,000 annually over a five-year period to the Opportunity Fund. According to Harmon Martin, Simpson’s advance payment of $20,000 is “fulfilling my dream of UDC students supporting UDC students.”   

Harmon Martin’s dream became a reality when, with the assistance of Jasmine Yarish, Ph.D., UDC assistant professor of political science, students attended the annual meeting of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists March 13-17 in Los Angeles. UDC students Abbie Ferguson, Daniela Tinajero Ortiz, James Lennox and Corey Shaw Jr. shared their academic research projects through presentations on a panel titled, “Insights on Racial Reconciliation from Student-Scholars Across Two U.S. Capital Cities.” They also enjoyed scholars whose work they had studied, networking with students from both Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and predominantly white institutions (PWIs), attending a documentary film screening on late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I and touring Def Jam Recordings at Universal Music Group headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif. 

Harmon Martin is dedicating her purpose-driven retirement to making a difference in the educational experience of future generations of UDC political science majors by remaining connected to the many students who are continuing to advance her mission of academic excellence and community support.