(APN) ATLANTA -- Dwanda Farmer, a community activist who has previously run for City Council and Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education, has completed her PhD.

She is now one of the few individuals in the country to have a PhD in Community Economic Development.  She completed her degree long-distance through Southern New Hampshire University, although her dissertation committee included two local academics, Deirdre Oakley and Erin Ruel, both Associate Professors of Sociology at Georgia State University.

Farmer successfully defended her dissertation on Friday, April 06, 2012.

Her dissertation was titled, “EXPLORING THE IMPACTS OF THE HOPE VI PROGRAM ON RESIDENTS AND SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE CITY OF ATLANTA.” 

(END/2012)