James-Christian Blockwood

Blockwood has taught Maxwell students in the nation’s capital since 2022 and served as executive vice president at the Partnership for Public Service. He also previously served in the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

Blockwood will succeed Terry Gerton, the Academy’s longest-serving leader.

“In our search for our next president and CEO, the board of the Academy was looking for a combination of broad and deep experience in public administration, outstanding leadership skills, and a demonstrated commitment to the Academy’s unique role and mission,” says Janet A. Weiss, Academy board chair. “Terry Gerton has been an extraordinary leader for the Academy and in James-Christian Blockwood we have identified a leader we believe will build on Terry’s legacy, the reputation of the Academy and our capacities for the future.”

As one of only two congressionally chartered institutions of its kind, the Academy has a mandate to advance the field of public administration and provide nonpartisan expertise to Congress and the next presidential administration.

The Academy has 1,000 fellows from all levels of government, academia and the private sector. Fellows include public managers and scholars, business executives, current and former cabinet officers, members of Congress, governors, state legislators and diplomats. Among them is .

Van Slyke said Blockwood advances the field of public administration through his work with the University. “He helps students and executive professionals hone critical skills and prepares the next generation to be the future leaders our country needs,” Van Slyke says, adding that his course on strategic foresight is a valuable experiential learning opportunity for students and builds on his strong reputation in strategy, management and public affairs. “He is very well-equipped to lead an organization focused on advancing the practice of public administration.”

Blockwood says it is a “privilege to have the confidence of the board of directors to lead the Academy into its next era—especially with the Academy’s 60th and our nation’s 250th anniversaries as milestones ahead.”

The Maxwell School Centennial Celebration will be held in the Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 18. The event will begin with a hors d’oeuvres reception, followed by the presentation of Centennial Scholar Awards to students, Dean’s Centennial Citations of Excellence to faculty and staff, and Changemaker Awards to four alumni.

“As we gather on campus to celebrate a century of service and shared commitment to making the world a better place, it’s my privilege to recognize these stand-out individuals,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Whether through their government, nonprofit or business leadership, or their scholarship, teaching and administrative support, each embodies the spirit of 100 years of Maxwell dedication to engaged citizenship.”

Students to be recognized with scholar awards are:

• Adam Baltaxe ’25, a senior majoring in international relations and Spanish language, literature and culture;
• Jorge Morales ’26, a junior majoring in history and anthropology;
• Anna Rupert ’26, a junior majoring in economics;
• Nathan Torabi ’26, a junior majoring in political science; citizenship and civic engagement; and law, society and policy;
• Mariana Zepeda ’26, a junior majoring in policy studies and environment, sustainability and policy;
• Ferdinand Eimler, who is pursuing a master’s degree in international relations as part of the Atlantis Dual Degree Master’s Program;
• Benjamin Katz, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in political science;
• Julia Liebell-McLean, who is pursuing a dual master of public administration and international relations degree; and
• Kaythari Maw, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in economics.

The following staff will receive Dean’s Citations:

• Sarah McLaughlin ’04 (Arts & Sciences), assistant director of advancement operations;
• Dan Nelson ’04, director of accelerated learning and global engagement;
• Amy Schmidt ’14, assistant director of the Citizenship and Civic Engagement Undergraduate Program; and
• Deborah Toole ’12, administrative specialist for the Geography and the Environment Department. Faculty recipients are:
• Devashish Mitra, professor and chair of the Economics Department and Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs;
• Jennifer Karaz Montez, University Professor and Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies;
• Chie Sakakibara, associate professor of geography and the environment; and
• Baobao Zhang, assistant professor of political science.

The four alumni Centennial Changemaker Awards will go to:

• John Mandyck ’89, ’92, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Urban Green Council; City of Syracuse Deputy Mayor
• Sharon Owens ’85;
• H. Lewis “Lew” Rapaport ’59, founder and CEO of the firm Component Assembly Systems; and
• Kathryn Ruscitto ’92, former president and CEO of St. Josephs Health.

The Centennial Celebration caps a year of festivities and events celebrating the school’s founding by Syracuse University alumnus, trustee and entrepreneur George H. Maxwell. Then called the School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, it opened in Slocum Hall on Oct. 3, 1924, and offered an undergraduate citizenship course, a weekly seminar in political science and a one-year graduate program in public administration—the first of its kind in the nation.

In the 100 years since its founding, Maxwell has greatly expanded its footprint: it boasts over 38,000 alumni around the world and is home to more than 3,000 students, 200 faculty and nearly 100 staff who learn and work in 12 departments and 15 research centers and institutes. It offers a range of highly regarded undergraduate, graduate and midcareer degrees and professional programs across the social sciences and public and international affairs—including the nation’s top-ranked public affairs graduate program, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report.

Maxwell has marked its milestone with an array of festivities and initiatives. Several accomplished alumni were honored in May 2024 during a celebration at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Throughout the year, the school has invited alumni to reconnect and share what motivates their work on an created to celebrate the centennial and show Maxwell’s global impact. Those who participate in the map are asked to share what they “ever strive” for—a nod to the opening of the Oath of the Athenian City-State that is inscribed on the wall in the school’s first-floor foyer; it calls for individuals to “transmit this city not only not less but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.”

The ever strive theme resonates in another centennial endeavor—a professionally edited that tells the story of the school’s founding with archival photos and videos and narration by alumnus Ronald Taylor ’15.

In addition to the Oct. 18 Centennial Celebration, other upcoming events include:

• An Otey Scruggs Memorial Lecture Featuring historian Maeve E. Kane from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, in room 220, Eggers Hall. Kane will share how Haudenosaunee women used clothing to define and protect their nations’ sovereignty.
• Birthday cake with Otto and the dean from 2 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10, in the Eggers Hall Commons.
• State of Democracy Lecture: Election 2024 from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, in room 220, Eggers Hall.
• Talk by Arthur C. Brooks: “How to Get Happier in an Unhappy World,” 5 to 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 30, in the National Veterans Resource Center, K.G. Tan Auditorium. Brooks is a Harvard professor, New York Times bestselling author and one of the world’s leading experts on the science of human happiness.
• Phanstiel Lecture: “The People Who Built the Pyramids—How We Know,” 5 to 6:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1, National Veterans Resource Center, K.G. Tan Auditorium. Mark Lehner, director and president of Ancient Egypt Research, will lead the discussion.

For more information, visit the .

Saba Siddiki

The funding is provided by the NSF’s Smart and Connected Community program and aims to foster a Community-Responsive Electrified and Adaptive Transit Ecosystem to tackle challenges that arise in the planning, operations and management of public bus fleet electrification.

According to Siddiki and fellow project researchers, public bus fleets—including transit and school buses—represent a prime opportunity for transportation electrification and associated improvements in environmental quality and health benefits in impacted communities.

The widespread adoption of electric buses has been hindered by an array of complex and interrelated planning, operational and managerial challenges, they say. Among them are range limits, long charging time, expenses, low bus utilization ratios, equipment downtime, an underdeveloped workforce, and diverse stakeholder interests and priorities.

The research team seeks to overcome these hurdles with a holistic approach that includes the integration of intelligent technology development with community needs. Sustainability and transportation access will be focal points in their research and solution design.

The project will involve the development of intelligent tools for effective and data-driven decision-making regarding bus electrification. The project will also assess collaborative governance in public bus fleet electrification planning and policymaking. In addition, in collaboration with industry and community partners, the project will contribute to the development of a workforce to facilitate a sustainable future for electrified public bus transportation.

“Through these various activities, the project aims to support a scalable, transferable and sustainable path for bus electrification,” says Siddiki.

Siddiki co-authored a paper published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition in August 2023 that presented findings on research related to the topic of transportation electrification. She and fellow writers examined pathways in American cities with varying degrees of plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) adoption and policy activity took to encourage PEV adoption in the late 2010s. They found that transportation electrification in cities was streamlined through the work of PEV advocates that collaborated across sectors.

This recent work builds on previous projects Siddiki has conducted examining public sector policies to encourage electric vehicle adoption as well as factors informing individual vehicle uptake.

Siddiki is the Chapple Family Professor of Citizenship and Democracy and director of the master of public administration program and the Center for Policy Design and Governance. Her research focuses on policy design, collaborative policymaking, institutional theory and analysis, and regulatory implementation and compliance.

“Professor Siddiki’s leadership of the Center for Policy Design and Governance and her broader interdisciplinary work, collaborations and scholarship elevates the visibility and relevance of the research being done as well as the diverse audiences that are impacted by the outcomes and the external funding being prioritized to support evidence-based policy and implementation,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke.

The project research team is led by principal investigator Jie Xu of George Mason University. In addition to Siddiki, it also includes Wenying Ji, Ran Ji, Vivian Motti, David Wong and Fengxiu Zhang, all of George Mason University, and Jundong Li of the University of Virginia.

David Popp

David Popp, professor of public administration and international affairs and Caroline Rapking Faculty Scholar in Public Administration and Policy, is helping lead a National Academy of Sciences committee studying the role and impacts of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs at the U.S. Department of Energy.

The ad hoc committee will study how the SBIR and STTR programs stimulate innovation and engage with small businesses.�� They will evaluate the Department of Energy’s outreach to potential SBIR/STTR applicants, with the goal of better understanding the potential applicant pool and the challenges faced by of women-owned and minority-owned businesses. The committee will consider barriers to and opportunities for collaboration among small businesses and research institutions.

Popp is co-chair of the committee, along with Timothy B. Folta, professor at the University of Connecticut. The group recently convened for a two-day meeting with guest speakers in Washington, D.C. They will produce a consensus report with their findings and recommendations.

“Professor Popp’s selection to co-chair this committee is an honor that speaks highly of his expertise and leadership,” says Shana Kushner Gadarian, associate dean for research and Merle Goldberg Fabian Professor of Excellence in Citizenship and Critical Thinking. “His contributions will not only support the National Academy of Sciences’ work but will also bring benefits back to Maxwell as he will be able to share this important policy conversation with students and colleagues.”

Popp is a senior research associate for the Center for Policy Research and the Center for Environmental Policy and Administration. Additionally, he is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research network member in the Energy and Climate Economics Research Group of CESifo.

He researches environmental policy and the economics of technological change. Much of his work focuses on the links between environmental policy and innovation, with a particular interest in how environmental and energy policies shape the development of new technologies that may be relevant for combating climate change.

His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, and has been published in a variety of economics and policy journals, including American Economic Review, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Nature Energy, Research Policy, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Rosalind “Roz” Rudolph

The Maxwell School is proud to share its 100th birthday with alumna Rosalind “Roz” Rudolph ’44 of Los Angeles, California.

Born on July 30, 1924, she was just three months old when the school was founded by entrepreneur George H. Maxwell. Some 18 years later, Rudolph—whose maiden name is Millinger—left her home in New York to attend the school, which fostered her lifelong interest in world affairs, politics and government.

A few years after earning a bachelor’s degree, she returned to Syracuse for a homecoming weekend, where she met her future husband, Seymour Rudolph. They married six months later and remained in Syracuse for 60 years. The couple had three children: Andrea, Alan and Ellen. Seymour, known to loved ones as “Si,” died in 1987.

Ellen Rudolph says her mom was always “a curious and adventurous person at heart,” who was eager to explore the world with her family. One of their first excursions, in the mid-1950s, was a trip to South Africa, which included a safari. In 1972, the Rudolphs celebrated their 25th anniversary with a trip around the world, first picking up Ellen from a year abroad as a high school exchange student in Japan. They made stops in China, Thailand, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Italy and Greece. In the 1980s, they visited Russia, China and South America. Over the years, they also visited Scandinavia and New Zealand and hosted several foreign exchange students.

Rudolph was passionate about keeping active and loved outdoor sports, especially golf and tennis. She won at least one club championship at Lafayette Country Club, Ellen says, and continued to play regularly well into her 90s—often with friends who were 20 years her junior.

A tireless volunteer and a member of several boards, she helped run the Syracuse Community Nursery School and supported the Everson Museum as a gift shop promoter and buyer. She was also an avid patron of the arts in Syracuse and Rochester, where she resided for seven years prior to moving to join Ellen and her family in California in 2018.

Rudolph is exceedingly well looked after in an assisted living residence, says Ellen. She is known for her humor and warm nature and is proud to be a grandmother to three and a great-grandmother to two.

In their varied pursuits, the four individuals above have represented the Maxwell School’s commitment to engaged citizenship and making the world better for all. For their efforts, Wally Bobkiewicz ’89, Cathy Daicoff ’79, Anuradha Gupta ’07 and Ken Pontarelli ’92 will be honored with centennial awards at the planned for Friday, May 31, in the Smithsonian Institution’s

The event will mark the Maxwell School’s 100th anniversary and serve as a gathering for alumni and friends to connect and celebrate. “We are thrilled to honor these four highly engaged and accomplished individuals who have, in a variety of ways and across sectors, demonstrated a commitment to Maxwell’s ideals,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke, who will serve as the event’s emcee.

The centennial celebration includes five additional honors: will go to alumni B. Ben Baldanza ’84, Carlisha Williams Bradley ’09, Mary Margaret Graham ’78, Lia Miller ’03 and Jessica Sun ’09.

The centennial award honorees are listed below.

Centennial Champion Award

Wally Bobkiewicz ’89

Wally Bobkiewicz

The Maxwell Centennial Champion Award recognizes dedicated volunteer engagement and philanthropy in support of the school, and there is no greater champion of the Maxwell School’s local government initiatives than Wally Bobkiewicz.

A career city manager who has worked in local government for more than 30 years, Bobkiewicz tirelessly channels his passion for public service to uplift communities as well as the careers of countless Maxwell students and alumni. For decades, Bobkiewicz has been a powerful force behind the scenes, working to nurture relationships, create professional opportunities and galvanize support among Maxwell alumni. He is de facto host and connector at annual local and city management conferences and networking events; and he inspires others to invest their time and money to support career development opportunities for students.

Since 2019, Bobkiewicz has served as city administrator of Issaquah, Washington. He was previously city manager of Evanston, Illinois, and Santa Paula, California, and worked in local government for Novato, California, and Long Beach, California. He is a former president of the Syracuse University Alumni Association and served on its board of directors from 2001-10. He is the recipient of the 2024 American Society for Public Administration National Public Service Award.

Centennial Steward Award

Cathy Daicoff ’79

Cathy Daicoff

For significant engagement, volunteer service and philanthropic support that have sustained the continued excellence of the school, Maxwell School Advisory Board Vice Chair Cathy Daicoff is the recipient of the Centennial Steward Award. A dedicated supporter of the school since earning an M.P.A. in 1979, Daicoff has served as a member of its advisory board for more than 25 years and maintained an increasingly generous level of giving throughout this time.

Daicoff’s gifts, including her $1.2 million endowment to establish the Marguerite Fisher Faculty Research Fund and a major gift for the creation of the Daicoff Faculty Scholars award, help the school attract and retain world-class faculty. In addition, she shares her expertise in domestic and international finance with the board and as a trusted career advisor to students and alumni interested in the field.

Daicoff retired in 2016 as a managing director at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services after 38 years with the company. Her career spanned management responsibility in U.S. domestic operations, Canada, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and global positions. She was the company’s first senior policy officer and director of policy training for Ratings Services, and she served for more than 20 years on the firm’s Analytics Policy Board.

Centennial Luminary Award for Global Health Equity

Anuradha Gupta ’07

Anuradha Gupta

For her profound impact in spearheading global initiatives that improve public health and increase equitable access to vaccines, Anuradha Gupta is the recipient of the Centennial Luminary Award for Global Health Equity.

Gupta’s work has helped to save and improve millions of lives. Currently, she is president of global immunization at Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington, D.C., an organization dedicated to strengthening immunization in communities most affected by infectious diseases, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Prior to this, she served as deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2014-22) in Geneva, where she oversaw programs across 73 countries and partnerships with WHO, UNICEF and The World Bank. She introduced the pivotal concept of zero-dose children, bringing inequities into global focus.

Previously, Gupta served in the Indian Administrative Service for 30 years, holding leadership positions in a wide range of areas including health, education, nutrition and finance. As mission director of the National Health Mission of India (2010-14), she ran the largest public health program in the world, achieving several public health feats which include polio eradication and a steep reduction of maternal and child deaths in India.

Centennial Luminary Award for Sustainability

Ken Pontarelli ’92

Ken Pontarelli

For his leadership and dedication to developing solutions that balance the economic need for growth with environmental sustainability, Ken Pontarelli is the recipient of the Centennial Luminary Award for Sustainability.

As a Syracuse University trustee, Pontarelli lends his deep expertise in financial markets and sustainability investing, earned over a 30-year career at Goldman Sachs, to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, resulting in environmental policy research that is grounded in a realistic understanding of markets and financial mechanisms. Together with his spouse, Tracey, he established the Pontarelli Professorship of Environmental Sustainability and Finance at the Maxwell School, currently held by Professor Jay Golden, founder and director of the Dynamic Sustainability Lab.

Pontarelli graduated from Syracuse University with a dual degree in economics, from Maxwell, and finance, from the Whitman School of Management, where he now serves on the advisory board. In 2018, Pontarelli founded Mission Driven Capital Partners, a New York City-based firm focused on sustainability investing. Two years later, he returned to Goldman Sachs, where he serves as partner and managing director and leads its sustainable investing group.

Miranda Peterson

As a policy advisor for U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., Miranda Peterson G’23, an alumna of the , provides analysis and recommendations on top issues like energy, the environment and disaster preparedness.

“You never know what you are going to get each day,” says Peterson, who earned an executive master’s in international relations. “You might be doing deep research for a bill to further one of the congressman’s long-term goals, meeting with colleagues to form a response to the news or troubleshooting constituent casework with a federal agency.”

Peterson says the expertise she gained from the Maxwell School helps her excel in the position. She was working as a legislative assistant on Pallone’s staff for just over a year when she decided to begin her studies through Maxwell-in-Washington, based at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“Maxwell has a serious reputation for its high-caliber focus on foreign policy and security studies, so I knew it would be the right school to help me put a lens on the problems that matter to me,” says Peterson. “I made all of my coursework about energy, climate change and natural resources, and it really worked for me.”

“What happens out in the world affects our domestic politics, but also what we do here at home affects America’s standing in the world and ability to lead. This degree program helped me feel like I have better context for the choices our leaders make, whether I support them or feel that they are shortsighted,” Peterson says.

Flexible scheduling enabled Peterson to complete her academic work while continuing her position on the Hill. She appreciated that, and the perspectives and expertise offered by the unique mix of scholars and practitioners who teach in Maxwell’s D.C. programs. They include Danica Starks, senior U.S. commercial liaison and advisor to the World Bank’s U.S. executive director; Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States; and Bejoy Das Gupta, chief economist for eCurrency.

“If you let me, I could honestly say positive things about every class I took,” Peterson says.

Peterson also appreciates the access she and fellow students had to experts at the highly regarded think tank CSIS, which has partnered with Maxwell for just over 10 years. For instance, policy and communications strategists provided her with feedback to shape her capstone project that examined India’s climate strategy and suggested ways the country’s leaders could develop state-level green banks to augment country-wide action to spur new, more inclusive clean energy financing.

Environmental issues have always been important to Peterson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Virginia Tech in 2010. Before going to work in the Capitol, she worked on infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security and on climate change and environmental justice for the Center for American Progress, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

While working in advocacy, Peterson developed a greater interest in policymaking. She counts herself “incredibly fortunate” to be part of Pallone’s staff, especially as he serves as the lead Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Her colleagues include Maxwell and Newhouse alumnus Andrew Souvall ’95, director of communications, outreach and member services for the committee.

One of her most memorable moments came in August 2022 when Pallone joined President Biden at the White House to sign into law the Inflation Reduction Act; the historic legislation includes climate provisions originally authored by Pallone or advanced through his Energy and Commerce Committee.

“The climate and biodiversity crises are terrifying and counting myself as part of the community of people here in Washington and around the world working toward a better future is deeply fulfilling,” says Peterson. “I’m a big believer in using your powers for good.”

John Zogby

While the candidates are nearly neck and neck in recent polls, Zogby says a high percentage of voters remain undecided, “not because they don’t know anything about Joe Biden or Donald Trump.” He added, “they’re undecided because they’re not sure they’re going to vote.”

Zogby shared this perspective during a March 1 State of Democracy lecture organized by the Maxwell School’s Campbell Public Affairs Institute. Titled “Campaign 2024: Super Tuesday and Beyond,” the event was held over Zoom and, in addition to Zogby, featured a panel of Maxwell political science faculty members: Shana Kushner Gadarian, professor and associate dean for research; Baobao Zhang, assistant professor; and Mark Brockway, assistant teaching professor.

Grant Reeher, professor of political science and Campbell director, moderated the 90-minute conversation, starting with a question for Gadarian: “What do you think is the most important thing that our viewers should have at the forefront of their minds, at this point in the election cycle—something that they should remember or keep an eye out as we head into Super Tuesday?”

Gadarian said voters ought to consider what issues are important to them and help steer the conversation among candidates to those issues. “One of the things that would be good to keep an eye on are what are the policies that voters say they care about,” she said, later adding, “It’s not simply about who’s ahead in the polls, it’s about the policies that American government can affect.”

Brockway echoed the sentiment. “Politicians want you to pay attention to issues that they want you to pay attention to, not necessarily the issues that are important to your life and the lives of people around you,” he said.

Zhang said she is concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence on the election “and lots of other elections going forward.”

“I don’t want to give you a doomsday scenario saying AI is going to ruin everything, but it will make certain things more challenging,” said Zhang, who is a senior research associate with the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute and one of 15 scholars from across the U.S. chosen to serve in the inaugural cohort of AI2050 Early Career fellows. “For instance, recently in New Hampshire, we have seen this case where someone used a robocall to spoof President Joe Biden’s voice telling people to abstain from voting.”

While the Federal Communications Commission has since banned such calls, Zhang said the issue of deep fakes and false information will no doubt play a role in the campaign season, especially on social media. She encouraged voters to “stay vigilant, check the source,” and, “if it seems like a viral thing that is becoming increasingly popular, make sure that before you hit the share button, to verify that it’s actually factual information.”

Zhang, who recently received U.S. citizenship and registered to vote, then pivoted to voter turnout. “Neither of the candidates are really super popular among the public right now,” she said.

Later in the conversation, Zogby shared the response he received from fellow Arab Americans, polled in Michigan ahead of Super Tuesday. They were in a “hell no, we won’t go” stage, he said. “In this instance you hear Arab Americans saying, ‘We voted for Joe Biden and we like his stance on infrastructure and the money that has come into Dearborn, you know, we like his stance on this and we like his stance on that, but we’re not going to vote for him this time because of his stance on Gaza.’”

Gaza, Zogby said, has become a “wedge issue,” even among Democrats. “Just on that issue alone, we have folks that are going to say, ‘We don’t have a candidate out there,’” he added.

Reeher pointed out that this is the first election in which both frontrunners have held the nation’s highest office. “We’ve got two four-year records to compare,” he said, asking the panelists if it changes the dynamics of the election in any way.

Zhang said she teaches statistics and noted that accurate comparisons are impossible when conditions are not controlled. Because of the public’s tendency to be biased toward more recent events, voters may be more focused on what has occurred during Biden’s presidency, she said.

Brockway agreed, adding that Trump has an advantage in being able to shape the narrative about his more distant presidency. While she agreed that Trump may benefit from voters’ “memory hole,” Gadarian said the Biden campaign can benefit from comparisons in how both handled COVID-related policies pertaining to health and the economy.

Zogby said he used to be able to “go to the bank” on the polling question “Are things generally headed in the right direction or the wrong track?” But hyperpolarization has persisted since the election of George W. Bush. He said since the election of Trump and through the Biden presidency, a high percentage of polled Americans say we’re on the “wrong track.”

Reasons run the gamut. “While there is indeed economic growth and all the economic indicators that we’ve traditionally relied upon are pointing in a very positive direction, there’s the Dobbs decision—Roe v. Wade; there are climate disasters; even with FBI reporting that crime—especially violent crime—is going down, the perception is different,” Zogby said.

The top issue among voters, currently? “Today it is immigration,” he said. “I don’t know what the No. 1 issue is going to be six months from now.”

Organized by the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at the Maxwell School, the Lecture Series provides a forum for meaningful discussions of public issues that cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries. The next event in the series is March 22 and will feature Pratap Bhanu Mehta, the Laurence S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University, for a talk titled “Democracy, Authoritarianism and Nationalism: India in Comparative Perspective.”

Stephanie Moon

A new that was launched in the fall by the Sociology Department at Maxwell seemed a perfect complement to Moon’s interests. She learned about it through a pre-law listserv and is now among its 40-plus majors.

As an integrated learning major (ILM), the bachelor’s degree program requires a base major. The numerous options at Maxwell and the include sociology, anthropology, history, political science, policy studies, philosophy, African American studies and psychology, among others. Other base majors are offered by the , the , the and the .

After selecting a base major, students who enroll in the ILM choose one of two areas of concentration: law, crime and society in the U.S. or comparative and international law.

Moon added the ILM to her sociology and citizenship and civic engagement (CCE) majors at Maxwell.�� “While I am passionate about the social issue dialogue that I participate in through sociology courses, I wanted a pathway to apply those social issues in a legal and policy way,” Moon says. “With this major, I hope to apply my sociological perspective and utilize the intersections to my internship and action plan that I will pursue in my CCE major.”

Sophia Burke

First-year student Sophia Burke added the new ILM to her dual majors in advertising and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at Newhouse and the , respectively. “I have a growing interest in law since learning more about intellectual property and business law in my courses,” Burke says. “Even if I decide not to go on to law school, I believe the knowledge I will gain through the law, society and policy ILM will broaden my critical thinking and worldview. These important skills will help me gain further perspective on all the societal factors that influence the how and why laws are made, which can have a tremendous impact on advertising and business industries.”

Nadia Lyngdoh-Sommer

Junior Nadia Lyngdoh-Sommer is majoring in sociology and says she was drawn to the new program because of her interest in pursuing a law degree with a focus on criminal justice and immigration. “I really liked the law focus in the courses, but also the inclusion of an internship,” Lyngdoh-Sommer says, referring to its 3-credit internship requirement that can be completed in the local community, through the Maxwell-in-Washington program or through Syracuse Abroad. “I like that it’s a part of the program so that I can combine theoretical and practical training to prepare myself for the fields I want to work in.”

Nathan Torabi

Nathan Torabi, a sophomore majoring in political science, CCE, and law, society and policy, also aspires to work as an attorney with a focus on LGBTQ+ rights. “This major intrigued me with its focus on how law, society and policy are all intertwined and affect one another,” Torabi says. “For my future goals, it is extremely important that I understand this relationship to make sure the laws I want to implement are inclusive and will stand the test of time due to how society is in a constant state of change.”

The new ILM is directed by , associate professor of sociology.

“Within sociology, specifically, there has been a consistently strong interest in courses pertaining to the criminal legal system,” Purser says. “Developing the ILM was a way to capitalize on the expertise of a wide variety of professors at Syracuse University and provide interested students with an interdisciplinary curriculum in the field of law and society.”

Current and prospective law, society and policy students are invited to an event from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5. Held in Room 204 in Maxwell Hall, it is intended to support networking among those who’ve enrolled and provide information for those interested in learning more about the program.

Administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the is a flagship leadership development opportunity for advanced-degree candidates who, if selected, receive two-year appointments within federal agencies. The program attracts and selects the best possible candidates, particularly those with the greatest potential to become government leaders.

Three current Maxwell School students will join four recent alumni as finalists for the highly competitive 2024 Presidential Management Fellowship Program.

The seven Maxwell community members are among selected from a pool of 7,193 applications. The finalists represent 102 unique academic degree programs and 264 academic institutions worldwide. Approximately 14 percent are veterans.

The three student finalists are Andrew Gasparini and Ryan Lamson, who are both enrolled in the dual master of public administration and master of arts in international relations program, and John Nipper ’23, who earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations and is pursuing a master of public administration degree.��Gasparini was also selected as a Robertson Foundation for Government Fellow for the 2022 academic year.

The four alumni finalists are: Michelle Duke G’24 (international relations); Roseanne Gerin G’21 (executive master’s degree in international relations); Shannon Isaacs G’23 (executive master’s in public administration); and��Sefa Secen ’22 (Ph.D. in political science).

“It is gratifying to see so many of our students and alumni among the finalists this year,” says Kelli Young, director of the at the Maxwell School. “Maxwell has a long history with the Presidential Management Fellowship, which prepares our students and alumni to move into management-level positions in the federal government, where they can further develop the leadership skills they learned here at the Maxwell School to contribute to the public good.”

Program alumni include University Professor and Phanstiel Chair in Leadership Sean O’Keefe G’78 (master’s in public administration). A four-time presidential appointee, O’Keefe was selected to the first class of presidential management interns after the program was started by former Maxwell Dean Alan K. “Scotty” Campbell, who was the first director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Catherine Herrold.

Using the $10,000 grant, Herrold will pursue a research project titled “Civil Society Thrives in the Kafana: Locally Led Development and Grassroots Civic Engagement in Serbia.” The award will fund her summer 2024 fieldwork in Serbia as she continues to investigate how grassroots groups and philanthropic entities outside of professional Non-Governmental Organizations mobilize and sustain initiatives for social change.

The project is based on research Herrold began in 2023 on Serbians’ local initiatives, such as sustainable agriculture, cultural festivals and community development projects. Supported by a U.S. State Department Fulbright Scholar award, she lived, worked and interacted with residents, spoke with staff of foundations and government agencies, and collaborated with scholars at the University of Belgrade’s Laboratory for Philanthropy, Solidarity and Care Studies.

Herrold spent five years doing similar research in Egypt and Palestine for her award-winning book “Delta Democracy: Pathways to Incremental Civic Revolution in Egypt and Beyond.”

Each year, ARNOVA’s annual conference presents 13 awards and six scholarships for achievements in nonprofit, philanthropic and voluntary action research.

Herrold is a senior research associate for the Middle Eastern Studies program and the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration. Her research focuses on global civil society, international development, democracy promotion and nonprofit management. She received a Ph.D. from Duke University in 2013.

The recently launched Carnegie-Maxwell Policy Planning Lab brings together emerging national security leaders, subject matter experts and seasoned policy professionals to provide a six-month program for emerging foreign affairs leaders.

Program participants will attend two weekend-long, in-person workshops where they will analyze contemporary regional and functional issues, identify challenges and formulate policy. In addition to the workshops, the program includes an online seminar focused on developing management and leadership skills organizers say are critical as foreign policy experts progress in their careers.

Each cohort can accommodate up to 20 participants; there are no associated costs, as the lab is supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a grantmaking foundation established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie to support the “advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.”

The $400,000 Carnegie award is provided through its Bridging the Gap initiative, which seeks to connect policy and academic communities to positively impact foreign policy decision-making.

Michael John Williams

Michael John Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs and director of the master of arts in international relations program, was awarded the funding on behalf of Maxwell and serves as the lab’s founding director. The lab will be situated in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Maxwell.

“We’re grateful to the Carnegie Corporation for its support and recognition of the critical role this lab and training will provide those working in the field of foreign affairs,” says Williams. “This is a wonderful opportunity to connect busy policymakers who are inundated with challenges with scholars who have time to study issues in-depth and mull through opportunities for the future. Bringing them together in this format will allow younger policymakers not only to think differently about the challenges they face, but also to form lifelong relationships with scholars working on issues germane to their interests.”

Williams says a quote by former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson underscores the lab’s objective. In the early years of the Cold War, Acheson said the purpose of policy planning is to “anticipate the emerging form of things to come, to reappraise policies which had acquired their own momentum and went on after the reasons for them had ceased, and to stimulate and, when necessary, to devise basic policies crucial to the conduct of our foreign affairs.”

The Policy Planning Lab’s training program will be especially beneficial for those who have roughly five-to-seven years’ experience working in government, such as State Department employees and policy advisors in Congress, says Williams. Those interested in participating may apply or can be nominated by a colleague, supervisor or other professional affiliate.

Each cohort will focus on a timely international topic. The first program’s theme is “Postwar: Europe, Ukraine and the Future of European Order.” It begins with an in-person workshop at Syracuse University from April 19-21; the second in-person session will be held at the University’s Minnowbrook Lodge in the Adirondacks from Aug. 17-20.

Williams brings expertise to the topic; he recently returned from a , funded by a Fulbright-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Security Studies Award. Based at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Brussels School of Governance, he examined NATO, Russia and the enduring war in Ukraine.

Policy Planning Lab participants will likewise benefit from Williams’ Moynihan Institute colleagues, who bring a range of perspectives and focus areas. Tetiana Hranchak, for instance, is a visiting assistant teaching professor who fled her home in Ukraine following the Russian invasion because she was at risk due to her research on the politics of memory. Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute, authored “The Code of Putinism” (Oxford University Press, 2018), which shows how the mentality of Russian President Valdimir Putin has shaped the country’s politics over the past two decades.

“The Policy Planning Lab aligns with Moynihan’s mission to support scholarship, training and practice in global affairs,” says Taylor. “It addresses a critical need, providing an opportunity for younger policymakers to step outside the day-to-day and think deeply about global challenges, and an opportunity for scholars to gain insights and perspective from program participants who are on the frontlines of these issues.”

The Carnegie funding supports the lab for the next two years. Williams says additional support is possible to ensure its longevity. “We are open to additional sponsorship by organizations that believe in the necessity of connecting the knowledge of scholars with policy formulation,” he says. “No matter where you look in the world today, from the current conflict in the Middle East, to the rise of China in Asia and the surge of organized crime across Latin America, there are any number of problems where policymakers could well utilize in-depth academic knowledge.”

Other initiatives funded by Carnegie’s Bridging the Gap program include the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University and the Teaching, Research & International Policy lab at the College of William and Mary. The original Bridging the Gap program began at American University (AU) under the leadership of James Goldgeier and Bruce Jentleson; Williams is an alumnus of the AU program.

Additionally, Bridging the Gap sponsors a book series, for which there is another Maxwell School faculty connection: Catherine Herrold’s “Delta Democracy: Pathways to Incremental Civic Revolution in Egypt and Beyond” (Oxford University Press, 2020) is among its supported works and was awarded the Virginia A. Hodgkinson Research Book Prize in November 2021.

Held in early November, the conference drew hundreds of college and university students from around the world. They discussed issues at the forefront of international relations and participated in debates designed to mimic how the UN navigates international issues such as security, the environment and development.

The Syracuse University delegation, comprised of mostly Maxwell School students, was led by Lily Collins, a senior majoring in citizenship and civic engagement and political science; Alana Auchmoody, a junior majoring in international relations; and Chenglu Jiang, a junior majoring in international relations.

Student participants in the Model UN conference included, back row, left to right, Gustavo Madero Carriles, Sofia Abdullina, Bretton Kohler, Alana Auchmoody and Kristen Wohrle, and, front, left to right, Chenglu Jiang, Yitian Li, Lily Collins, Huiwen Ding, Megan Harris and Ellie Rachev. Advisor Adrienne Kinne, a graduate student in the history department, is shown on the far right.

“The Syracuse delegation diligently prepared for the conference by studying China’s history and politics as well as the important role it plays in the United Nations system,” says Osamah Khalil, professor of history and chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program. “Serving on the Model UN team provided the students with an excellent opportunity to understand Beijing’s perspective on a range of global issues.”

Most of the Syracuse delegation were first-time Model UN participants. They were joined by advisor Adrienne Kinne, a graduate student in the history department.

In addition to the delegation leaders, participants included:

• Sofia Abdullina, a junior majoring in international relations and magazine, news and digital journalism
• Huiwen Ding, a senior majoring in economics and international relations
• Meghan Harris, a sophomore majoring in political science
• Bretton Kohler, a sophomore majoring in chemistry and forensic science
• Yitian Li, a junior majoring in international relations and psychology
• Gustavo Madero Carriles, a sophomore majoring in political science and public relations
• Ellie Rachev, a sophomore majoring in international relations and psychology
• Kristen Wohrle, a sophomore majoring in international relations and forensic science

Kohler was among the honorees, winning an Outstanding Position Paper award for the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The Syracuse delegation will represent Japan at the Model UN conference in New York City this spring.

It Started Here

Model UN holds special importance for Syracuse University as it was the host of the very first such gathering on a college campus in the United States – .

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]]> /blog/2024/01/19/maxwell-professors-research-on-racial-and-ethnic-exclusion-supported-by-russell-sage-foundation-grant/ Fri, 19 Jan 2024 20:56:10 +0000 /?p=195786

Thomas Pearson

, assistant professor of economics in the , is part of a team of scholars who have been awarded $195,000 from the Russell Sage Foundation to study the exclusion and expulsion of minority groups from U.S. towns and cities between 1850 and 1950.

Their project, “The Geography of Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Uncovering a Hidden History of Expulsion and Exclusion,” will result in a nationwide dataset detailing the expulsion and exclusion of minority groups that occurred locally, even if illegal at the federal level.

The team aims to identify understudied forms of exclusion such as “sundown towns” to characterize both the causes of racial/ethnic exclusion and its consequences for affected groups and places. They hope to identify systematic factors driving these events and impacts on affected populations. They also seek to reveal demographic, cultural and economic changes in the identified places, with a focus on African Americans, Chinese and Mexicans who were most affected.

The funding is awarded by the Russell Sage Foundation’s program on Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration, which supports innovative research that examines the roles of race, ethnicity, nativity, legal status—and their interactions with each other and other social categories—in the social, economic, and political outcomes for immigrants, U.S.-born racial and ethnic minorities, and native-born whites.

In addition to Pearson, the team includes Samuel Bazzi of the University of California at San Diego; Eric Chyn of the University of Texas at Austin; Andreas Ferrara of the University of Pittsburgh; Martin Fiszbein of Boston University; and Patrick Testa of Tulane University. Bazzi is leading the project.

Pearson previously collaborated with teammates Bazzi, Ferrara, Fiszbein and Testa. “The Other Great Migration: Southern Whites and the New Right” was published in the August 2023 issue of Quarterly Journal of Economics, while “Sundown Towns and Racial Exclusion: The Southern White Diaspora and the ‘Great Retreat’” appeared in the American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings in May 2022.

Before joining Maxwell in 2022, Pearson served as an instructor, teaching fellow and research assistant at Boston University and as a research associate in Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. He also served in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. He earned a Ph.D. from Boston University in May 2022.

Yulia Bychkovska was in Boston in February 2022 when Russian missile attacks struck a mostly residential area west of her home in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Though she was in the U.S., she learned of the invasion before her mother.

“I had to call my mom and wake her up to tell her the war had started,” said Bychkovska, who had recently completed a bachelor’s degree at Columbia College in Missouri. “I was very worried because I didn’t know what was happening on the ground. All I knew was this terrible news.”

Yulia Bychkovska is shown at a Boston rally that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of her home country, Ukraine, in February 2022.

In the days that followed, she would call family just before she went to bed to check on them, and then do the same as soon as she woke up. “I didn’t know if I would see them again,” she said.

Around the same time, Bychkovska learned she had been accepted to the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs to pursue dual master’s degrees in public administration and international relations. It was a dream realized, but she knew she couldn’t begin her studies that July unless she returned to Ukraine to see her loved ones.

Without telling them, she boarded a plane for Poland and then embarked on a 16-hour bus ride home. The arduous route took her past the remains of shelled buildings and other signs of war. Though it was painful to see the destruction, she was relieved to be home. “I wanted them to know I didn’t abandon them,” she said of her family. “Also, in some ways it gave me peace of mind because I knew what my parents were doing, how society acted in war, and that they had some protections in place like the warning sirens.”

Bychkovska’s mother made her promise she would cut her visit short and return to the U.S. if their city was attacked. The day dozens of bombs exploded nearby, Bychkovska’s mother said, “It’s time to go.” She packed her bags and quickly returned to the U.S.

Soon after, Bychkovska began her Maxwell studies.

Nearly two years into the invasion in Ukraine, she and other students from the embattled country carry what few of their classmates can comprehend—worry for their loved ones back home, and sometimes, feelings of guilt for having been afforded such opportunity.

But they find refuge joining a community of scholars with a long history of supporting those impacted by war and the unique opportunities to collaborate, research and influence policy in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Veterans Bridge

The Hon. James E. Baker is shown during an appearance on a Ukrainian news station during a visit last summer to the embattled country. During the interview, he advocated for the care of the growing population of Ukrainian veterans to bolster national security. Seated on the right is Nataliia Kalmykova, one of Ukraine’s deputy ministers of defense.

The US-Ukraine Veterans Bridge brings experts from the U.S. veterans’ community together with officials in Ukraine to support its bourgeoning veteran population and build national security. The leading academic partners in the relatively new coalition are two Maxwell professors, the Hon. James E. Baker and Vice Admiral Robert B. Murrett (U.S. Navy, retired).

Baker, a highly regarded national security lawyer, policy advisor and former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and Murrett, a principal investigator of the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence, are aligning resources from Syracuse University and offering their expertise. The coalition works with the Ukraine Veterans Foundation (UVF), and it includes veterans from the U.S. and Ukraine and leaders in areas such as health care, benefits administration, education, employment, reintegration and family.

The professors, who serve as the director and deputy director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, invited Bychkovska and fellow Ukrainian student Eduard Gusak to participate in meetings where they get to witness and take part in international collaborations to build their country’s national security.

“The students bring important perspective to our work in support of Ukrainian security, both in terms of direct contact with counterparts in Kyiv and in assisting Maxwell students in relevant research and programs dealing with the effects of the Russian invasion,” said Murrett, professor of practice of public administration and international affairs. “For example, both Yulia and Eduard have a role in a current master of public administration workshop, a semester-long student research effort which evaluates comparative veterans’ support programs and is sponsored by the UVF.”

Veterans Bridge meeting participants sometimes include Nataliia Kalmykova, a Fulbright scholar who became executive director of the UVF weeks before the Russian invasion. Now one of Ukraine’s deputy ministers of defense, she visited Syracuse University last spring and met with Baker, Murrett, Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke, Ukrainian students and numerous other University representatives, including from the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

The students have gained experience in international collaboration and crisis response as well as a deeper understanding of the relationship between the care and treatment of veterans and national security.

“A society of demobilized veterans can be a force for good, as the World War II G.I. Bill boom demonstrated in the United States,” Baker explained in a position paper he recently shared with the U.S. government and Ukraine’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs. “It can also result in instability if those veterans are alienated from society or government and subsequently mobilized as a political movement or military force,” he wrote.

‘A way of paying it forward’

Mark Temnycky G’17 joined an alumni panel, “What is a public service perspective?” during a colloquium for incoming master of public administration students this past July. From Ukraine, he shared how he advocates for his home country in his work as a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and as a freelance journalist.

Last July, Eduard Gusak and other incoming M.P.A. students began their year-long academic journey with a two-day colloquium that serves as an in-depth orientation and networking opportunity.

One of the colloquium events, “What is a public service perspective?” included a Ukrainian-American, Mark Temnycky G’17.

Temnycky, who is a defense contractor, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a freelance journalist, writes about the war for major outlets like The New York Times and recently received the Ukrainian World Congress’ inaugural “Ukrainian diaspora 30 under 30” award. He was also recognized by the International Sports Press Association for his coverage of the Russian invasion. He shared some of the pivotal opportunities he took advantage of while studying at Maxwell, including an internship with NATO and work for the Ukraine Parliament. “I always had this desire for public service,” he said.

Of his writing, he added, “It is a way of paying it forward and informing people what’s happening.”

Gusak was inspired by Temnycky and fellow panelists. He appreciates the opportunities he has been afforded, for instance joining the US-Ukraine Veterans Bridge meetings and working as a research assistant to Murrett.

Murrett and other faculty often ask him to consider how he might apply what he learned back home. “For now, I have experienced the hardest period in my life, but on the other hand, I am being provided opportunities to learn from people with an enormous amount of life experience and a willingness to help,” said Gusak. “The reason why I came here is because of the opportunity to gain this experience to influence Ukraine’s future.”

In the U.S. for two years through a program called “Uniting for Ukraine,” Eduard Gusak is pursuing a master of public administration at Maxwell and hopes to return to Ukraine to help it gain independence from Russia and rebuild from the war.

Gusak was home in Kyiv when Russia invaded. Shortly after, his parents asked him to bring his older sister to Slovakia, where she would be safer. While there, he received a call from Gennady Bratslavsky, a family friend who is chair of the urology department at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse.

Gusak told Bratslavsky he considered returning to Ukraine, but as a young man he knew he would return to a higher level of responsibility while his country was at war. He didn’t expect he would be called to service in the military; a supporting role in government seemed more likely given his background—he’d received a bachelor’s degree in political science and government from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Bratslavsky told Gusak about a new program that enables Ukrainians to come to the U.S. with the support of a sponsor. He mentioned opportunities at Syracuse University and the Ukraine 1991 Foundation, a nonprofit he co-founded that provides humanitarian aid to the frontlines.

In August 2022, Gusak relocated to Syracuse to stay with the Bratlavskys. He enrolled at the English Language Institute in the College of Professional Studies to improve his fluency, and applied to Maxwell.

When he learned he’d been accepted, he said he “almost jumped to the sky” from excitement.

The Maxwell School is a community of faculty who research the rule of law, international politics, and peace and security, and are helping build networks of scholarship and training to support democracy in Ukraine. To read the full story, visit the .��

Tetiana Hranchak

On Feb. 24, 2022, Tetiana Hranchak awoke to the sound of explosions near her home in Kyiv, Ukraine. She expected Russia’s invasion and knew once it happened that she would leave her home country for the United States. Given her activism and scholarly research, she feared for her safety.

Hranchak and her husband, Yurii Gryga, packed their most basic needs—clothing and personal care items—and a few of their most precious treasures into a duffel bag and two backpacks. They traveled to the western border and, in an arduous, two-week journey, traveled to Hungary and Iceland before landing safely in Chicago.

In addition to their family and friends, the couple left behind a recently remodeled home they adored. “We left everything because life was more precious,” says Hranchak.

This fall, Hranchak joined the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs as a visiting assistant teaching professor. Her stay is made possible by Syracuse University’s participation in the Scholars at Risk Network, a nonprofit international program that provides academic visiting positions to threatened scholars. The University joined the program following the Russian invasion; Hranchak is the first participant.

“Given our profile as a University and a school committed to global engagement, her presence provides a unique opportunity for our students to learn about a country that has dominated international news for the past two years,” says Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs where Hranchak’s position is based.

He says, “She has brought to life the history, culture and traditions of Ukraine, shared her expertise in the politics of memory and candidly shared her experiences since the invasion. Faculty and students are learning from her and are inspired by her passion for Ukraine. We are grateful to her, and to University Chancellor Kent Syverud and Vice Chancellor and Provost Gretchen Ritter for their enthusiastic support for our participation in the Scholar at Risk Network.”

Tetiana Hranchak and her husband, Yurii Gryga, pictured, left Ukraine in February 2022.

Hranchak spent two decades as a researcher at the VI Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, and she has published more than 90 scholarly works including the 2012 monograph “Library and Political Communication.”

At Moynihan, Hranchak is continuing her research on media literacy, countering misinformation and propaganda and the role of libraries in the politics of memory. The latter is of particular interest and what made her feel vulnerable amid Russia’s invasion; the “politics of memory” refers to political influence over organizations, as well as the preservation and transformation of collective social memory.

Hranchak also engages with faculty and students on issues related to Ukraine. She launched the Ukrainian Culture and Conversation Table—a place where students can learn more about Ukraine in an informal setting, and this spring she will teach a course focused on her country’s history and culture. She hopes to spread understanding and appreciation for her home country as more than the target of Russia’s siege.

This is Hranchak’s second appointment since arriving in the U.S. She was previously supported by the Indiana University-Ukraine Nonresidential Scholars Program. Like the Scholars at Risk Network, it supported her research and provided a teaching opportunity—she developed and taught a course this past summer, “Libraries and the Politics of Memory,” that has been replicated elsewhere, including in Ukraine.

The Syracuse Scholar at Risk opportunity came at the right time, just as the Indiana position was coming to an end, says Hranchak. “I’m extremely grateful that the University connected with this organization and decided to host someone who needs help—that person was me,” she said.

Cars line up at the Ukraine border.

Nearly two years since Hranchak’s world was upended, the tears still come easy. Sometimes, they arise from her despair for the continued destruction and lost lives in Ukraine. She has also cried in gratitude for the many acts of kindness and generosity she and her husband have encountered in the U.S. Their first home, in Toledo, Ohio, for instance, was offered rent free for months.

Hranchak and Gryga have helped community groups gather donations to support refugees and Ukraine. The work has brought a sense of empowerment amid the continued uncertainty and worry for loved ones back home, who include their two grown sons.

The assistant teaching position ends this May. Hranchak isn’t sure yet what’s next, but she and Gryga have become adept at embracing each day as it comes. “We try to value what we have,” she says. “I find my sense of stability in people.”

Ryan Monarch

Dozens of scholars convened at the Maxwell School earlier this month to delve into complex, timely issues related to international trade, including the impact of increased imports from China on racial and ethnic inequality, the role of large firms in South Korea’s economic growth, and the relocation of global value chains to Mexico.

The 30th annual Empirical Investigations in International Trade Conference was jointly hosted by the Department of Economics, the Maxwell School, the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and the Whitman School of Management. Held Oct. 13-15, it featured topical sessions led by subject-area experts, including faculty from U.S. universities such as Georgetown, Purdue and Tufts, as well as the University of Nottingham in England and the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto in Canada.

Speakers also included representatives from the Bank of Canada, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the U.S. Census Bureau. Teresa Fort, associate professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, provided the keynote address. Fort researches international trade and industrial organization; her current work analyzes how technology affects firm-level offshoring and production fragmentation decisions, and the impact of these decisions on domestic employment and innovation.

“The Maxwell School economics department has a long history of excellent scholarship and research in the field of international trade, including our Trade, Development and Political Economy (TDPE) seminar series, and we were a natural host for the conference, which rotates annually,” says Ryan Monarch, assistant professor of economics and director of the TDPE Working Group. “It was a spectacular opportunity for faculty and students throughout the Maxwell School.”

Monarch organized the event with Tibor Besedeš of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Jon Haveman of the Forum for Research in Empirical International Trade. The conference’s program committee was composed of Kristy Buzard, associate professor of economics and Melvin A. Eggers Economics Faculty Scholar; Devashish Mitra, professor and chair of economics and Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs; and Shafaat Yar Khan, assistant professor of economics.

Monarch, Buzard, Mitra and Khan chaired sessions at the conference. Buzard, Khan and Monarch additionally discussed papers on the program.

Nataliia Kalmykova, a Fulbright scholar who became executive director of the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation weeks before the Russian invasion, is shown (center) with Syracuse University faculty during a recent visit. From left are, Richard Naperkowski, researcher with the Institute for Security Policy and Law; Elizabeth Kubala, teaching professor at the College of Law and executive director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic; Laurie Hobart, associate teaching professor at the College of Law; Kalmykova, the Hon. James Baker, professor of law in the College of Law and professor of public administration and international affairs by courtesy appointment at the Maxwell School; Robert Murrett, professor of practice of public administration and international affairs at Maxwell and principal investigator of the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence; and Maria Cudowska, Faculty Fellow at the College of Law.

Since the 2022 Russian invasion, Ukraine’s veteran population has increased from roughly 500,000 to over 1.2 million and counting, yet the country’s ability to support its servicemembers has declined due to the war’s impact on the economy and infrastructure.

Two Maxwell School scholars say this dichotomy threatens the national security of Ukraine and other states on the frontlines of Russia.

The Hon. James E. Baker and Vice Admiral Robert Murrett (U.S. Navy, retired), the director and deputy director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, respectively, are leading academic partners representing the University in a coalition that seeks to address the crisis by forging connections between U.S. and Ukraine veterans’ organizations.

Called the US-Ukraine Veterans Bridge, the coalition is comprised of U.S. veterans’ organizations and human rights advocates united in supporting Ukraine’s emerging veteran community. In partnership with the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation (UVF), the Bridge connects American and Ukrainian veterans, leaders and experts in areas such as health care, benefits administration, education, employment, reintegration and family. “In Ukraine, the treatment of veterans is an immediate national security concern as well as a humanitarian one,” says Baker, who additionally leads an interdisciplinary network of scholars from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia’s frontline states called “Ring Around Russia: Partnership for Law and Policy.”

Baker outlined the connection between the care of veterans and national security in a position paper he recently shared with the U.S. government and Ukraine’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs. He wrote, “A society of demobilized veterans can be a force for good, as the World War II G.I. Bill boom demonstrated in the United States. It can also result in instability if those veterans are alienated from society or government and subsequently mobilized as a political movement or military force.”

Baker and Murrett are connecting Bridge organizers with resources at Syracuse University and offering their expertise in the pipeline, sharing best practices and guidance gleaned from their own experiences. A highly regarded national security lawyer, policy advisor and former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, Baker is professor of law in the College of Law and professor of public administration and international affairs by courtesy appointment at Maxwell. Former director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Murrett is professor of practice of public administration and international affairs and is principal investigator of the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence.

In addition to the Institute for Security Policy and Law, Veterans’ Bridge is supported at Syracuse University by the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Maxwell and the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF). The University’s involvement with Veterans Bridge follows campus visits this past spring by Nataliia Kalmykova, a Ukrainian Fulbright scholar at the University of Buffalo who became executive director of the UVF weeks before Russia’s invasion.

Kalmykova met with Baker, Murrett, Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke and numerous other University representatives and Ukrainian students. She has since convened weekly Zoom meetings to coordinate resources from the University in support of Ukrainian veterans. “Our involvement is important because the Ukrainians deserve whatever support they can have from us at Syracuse University to ensure a better future and to restore the territorial integrity of their country,” says Murrett. The connections are mutually beneficial to students. Murrett points out that a group he teaches in Maxwell’s master of public administration program, for instance, is exploring Ukraine’s challenges related to security and governance in a fall semester workshop inspired by Veterans Bridge.

The Hon. James Baker is shown during an appearance on a Ukrainian news station during a recent visit to the embattled country. During the interview, he advocated for the care of the growing population of Ukrainian veterans to bolster national security. Seated on the right is Nataliia Kalmykova, a Fulbright scholar who became executive director of the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation weeks before the Russian invasion.

Similarly, Baker says the related Ring Around Russia initiative he leads provides faculty and students with opportunities to collaborate with scholars and students in the frontline states on pressing global issues. For Ring Around Russia, he has coordinated scholars from 11 universities in the U.S., Ukraine, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania and Slovakia who are committed to using national security law and values to enhance European security. The goal is to develop national competencies and capacities in intelligence oversight, national security decision-making, the regulation and use of emerging technologies, and responding to Russian disinformation.

Baker was inspired to develop Ring Around Russia following a series of remote lectures he provided in February 2022, two weeks before the full-scale Russian invasion. His audience included academics, lawyers and government officials in Ukraine. “During each question-and-answer period, the question participants returned to was: ‘Does law matter when a nation faces an existential threat?’” says Baker. “I had heard the question before, in the U.S. government. When I left the sessions, it occurred to me that these were messages that warranted emphasis throughout the frontline states.”

He has since traveled throughout frontline states to meet with university scholars, government officials and civil society groups. “Many of these countries are evolving from post-Soviet systems,” says Baker. “Our network of scholars is trying to spread the word. Good process leads to better results and the good faith application of law protects democracy and enhances our physical security by making our security services more professional and effective. My vision is to have this network of professionals to offer best practice guidance on how to build a national security architecture committed to democracy and law as well as security.”

Baker’s travels this past year have included two trips to Ukraine, the most recent of which was in June and included 16 meetings and a television appearance during which he advocated for the care of Ukrainian veterans.

In the crisis, he sees hope. “The scope of the destruction Russia has wrought is criminal and tragic,” he says, “but I feel hope and optimism observing this generation of civil society leaders in Ukraine, as well as the resolve of Ukraine’s leaders. The people of Ukraine are resilient. It is hard to describe how resilient until you hear person after person declare ‘We are Ukraine’ and ‘We will win this war.’”

Colleen Heflin

Continuing its nearly 100-year legacy of inspiring and cultivating a new generation of public service-minded professionals, the has partnered with the Volcker Alliance to offer a new program to undergraduate students campuswide.

The , nicknamed SU NextGen, emphasizes civic engagement—central to Maxwell since its founding in 1924 as the country’s first school for public affairs. The program will provide undergraduates with problem-solving and collaboration skills as well as experiential learning opportunities. It will include a mix of academic coursework, networking and career exploration in government, nonprofit and private organizations.

Guiding the effort is a team of Maxwell faculty who lead its signature interdisciplinary undergraduate programs in policy studies; citizenship and civic engagement (CCE); and environment, sustainability and policy. “The need for prepared leaders in the public sector has never been so urgent,” says Colleen Heflin, associate dean, chair and professor of public administration and international affairs. “Our student cohorts will be organized in response to topics of interest with the aim of engaging in conversations that respond to threats to democracy and complex historical and political moments, such as climate change, racial equity and housing.”

Heflin is supported in the effort by colleague Jane Read, associate professor of geography and the environment and director of the environment, sustainability and policy integrated learning major. Fellow organizers also include Kris Patel, professor of practice in policy studies and Donald P. and Margaret Curry Gregg Professor of Practice in Korean and East Asian Affairs; Peter Wilcoxen, professor of public administration and international affairs and director of undergraduate policy studies; and Junko Takeda, professor of history, Daicoff Faculty Scholar and interim chair of CCE.

The first cohort of Syracuse University Next Generation Leadership Corps students participated in a Summer Summit at Montclair State University in New Jersey over the summer. They included, from left, political science and citizenship and civic engagement major Nathan Torabi, policy studies major Sarhia Rahim, policy studies and psychology major Aryn Chartock and political science and advertising major Chelsie Auguste.

The NextGen Service Corps, as the national program is known, was launched in 2020 by the , a philanthropic organization that was founded by the late Paul A. Volcker, a well-known voice on American economic policy who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve and was a longtime member of the Maxwell School Advisory Board. Volcker is honored at Maxwell with a faculty chair in behavioral economics—now held by Leonard Lopoo—and an associated lecture and symposium series administered by Maxwell’s Center for Policy Research. “As a member of our advisory board, Chairman Volcker was steadfast in his prioritization of public service and civic engagement as foundational to Maxwell students’ experience,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “As we prepare to celebrate the Maxwell School centennial in 2024, it seems especially fitting that we join the Volcker Alliance in bringing NextGen to the University. Its mission to prepare engaged citizens so closely aligns with our work. I’m also pleased that the program prioritizes the recruitment of student populations traditionally underrepresented in government.”

Syracuse is among 17 universities and colleges participating in the national program. Programming is customized by participating institutions. At Syracuse, participants will be required to take two courses, offered at Maxwell, as well as a credit-bearing internship. They will also participate in events to build their networks, engage with new ideas and consider how others approach pressing social issues and cultural conversations. “These events will include a Voices of Public Service speaker series that will provide connections with notable public policy practitioners, service groups called mission teams, and professional development workshops,” says Heflin.

Nathan Torabi, a rising sophomore majoring in political science and CCE, is among the first cohort of Syracuse students. He attended the Next Generation Service Corps Summer Summit at Montclair State University in New Jersey in June. Summit programming included a field trip to the Volcker Alliance office in nearby New York City, where he spoke about mass incarceration with a woman who was previously imprisoned and who is now building a career in the field of software engineering. “This conversation inspired me never to accept inequalities in the law and to always fight for equality,” says Torabi. Torabi and fellow students who complete SU NextGen will receive a digital badge that can be used on LinkedIn for professional networking and development.

Published in the Journal of Communication, their work caught the attention of a Florida daily newspaper, resulting in its decision to take a break from publishing national politics on its editorial pages. The aftermath of the paper’s decision created additional data for Dunaway and her counterparts to explore, ultimately fueling their co-authored book, “Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers Can Slow Polarization” (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Johanna Dunaway

“The newspaper experiment we conducted in Palm Springs was fascinating,” says Dunaway, who was interviewed about her research for an that aired in early August. “Our findings added to the list of important societal consequences from declining local journalism. There is so much more research to be done on the democratic consequences emerging from changes in the digital media landscape; we need to better understand the effects of declining local news as well as how people get their information and decide what’s credible, and the impact on discourse and democracy more generally.”

This fall, Dunaway joins the University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship as the research director, a role that will empower her to expand on her work, guide student research and mentor the next generation of journalists and policy makers.

She will also serve as a tenured professor of political science, teaching courses in American politics, political communication, public opinion and mass media for the Maxwell School.

“Johanna Dunaway’s research and insights into the relationships between news, communications and political polarization is crucial to our work,” says Margaret Talev, veteran journalist and Kramer Director of the institute. “In addition to her scholarship, she shares in our commitment to the ideals of the institute. We’re excited for her to join us.”

Dunaway’s position is supported by a gift from alumna and Maxwell School Advisory Board Vice Chair Cathy L. Daicoff ’79 M.P.A. Her $1.2 million endowment last year established the Marguerite Fisher Faculty Research Fund, named for the Maxwell School’s first woman to have been promoted to full professor.

“I’ve no doubt that Johanna Dunaway will be an invaluable asset to Syracuse University, positioning the institute to be a leader in research that advances our understanding and promotes civil discourse and mutual understanding at this crucial time in our nation’s history,” says Daicoff, who retired as a managing director at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services.

Based in Washington, D.C., the institute is an initiative of the Maxwell School and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. It will promote nonpartisan, evidence-based research and dialogue in the public interest and support the work of faculty and students in the center of American democracy.

Dunaway earned a Ph.D. in political science from Rice University in 2006. Her research spans several subfields of political science—communication, public opinion, political psychology and political behavior—as well as media effects, media institutions and emerging communications.

She joins Syracuse University from Texas A&M University’s Department of Political Science, where she was a professor. Her previous roles also include serving as the Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy, and serving as an associate and assistant professor in Louisiana State University’s Department of Political Science and Manship School of Mass Communication. She began her academic teaching career on the faculty of�� Sam Houston State University’s Department of Political Science.

In addition to “Home Style Opinion” she is the co-author of “News and Democratic Citizens in a Mobile Era” (Oxford University Press, 2022) and a forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press, “The House that Fox News Built? Representation, Political Accountability and the Rise of Partisan Cable News.” She also co-wrote the 11th edition of a popular textbook for political communication courses, “Mass Media and American Politics.” (CQ Press, 2022).

“Professor Dunaway’s research, teaching, extramural funding and public impact make her an excellent fit with the goals of the institute,” says Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Her values align with the institute’s mission and are core to an educated and engaged citizenry which is necessary for a stronger and thriving democracy. I am excited by the leadership she’ll provide in partnership with institute Director Margaret Talev and the broader Syracuse University community.“

Dunaway says she is excited about launching research projects and partnering with news outlets, nonprofits and other organizations to “figure out what’s working and what isn’t; what’s reaching the audience; what’s adding to political rancor and various forms of partisan polarization.”

She hopes to further examine the decline of print media and explore financial models—some of her past work has focused on the impact of media ownership. She’s especially interested in gathering data to show the impact of declining local news and the rise of partisan and national news on the behavior of elected officials.

Dunaway also looks forward to having an opportunity to collaborate again with Josh P. Darr, one of two scholars she partnered with on the local newspaper and polarization project five years ago. Darr joins Newhouse this fall as an associate professor of communications. He will also hold a courtesy appointment in the Maxwell School’s political science department and will serve as a senior research associate at the institute.

“I’m excited to build on our prior findings,” says Dunaway.

She adds, “If nothing else, sharp declines in public trust in the media and government institutions suggest an urgent need to understand the extent to which these changes are fueling political corruption and a general lack of political accountability. I’m excited to get to work.”

Gadarian will step down as chair of political science when she begins the new role on Jan. 1, 2024.

As associate dean, Gadarian will oversee the school’s growing research portfolio, creating the infrastructure to support faculty and student research and helping them as they seek internal and external funding opportunities. Maxwell faculty, including Gadarian, are regularly supported with fellowships, Fulbright awards and funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Shana Kushner Gadarian

“Professor Gadarian is a highly accomplished scholar, instructor and devoted mentor,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “She is collegial, collaborative and inclusive. She has a passion for evidence-based work that can inform policy and decision making. She also has extensive experience and success with navigating research and funding opportunities from a wide range of organizations. These attributes and many more make her extremely well-qualified for this position. I am pleased to welcome her to this position and confident she will amplify the impact of our outstanding researchers.”

Gadarian, who received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2008, researches American politics and public opinion, with a recent focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. She has received support for her work from the Russell Sage Foundation, the NSF, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and numerous other organizations.

In 2021, she was awarded a prestigious Carnegie Fellowship, the so-called “brainy award,” that supported the research for her co-authored book “Pandemic Politics: The Deadly Toll of Partisanship in the Age of COVID” (Princeton University Press, 2022). With generous support from the Carnegie Foundation, Gadarian continues to study the impact of the pandemic on partisanship.

An earlier co-authored book, “Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World” (Cambridge University Press, 2015) received two awards from the American Political Science Association: The 2016 Robert E. Lane Award for best book in political psychology and the 2020 Doris Graber Award for best book in political communication in the past decade.

Andrew S. London, professor of sociology, is stepping down from the associate dean for research position to serve as Maxwell’s associate dean for Washington programs, to which he was appointed in June. He will oversee year-round academic programs for Maxwell’s D.C. headquarters at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where Maxwell serves approximately 200 undergraduate, graduate and midcareer executive students each year.

Gadarian will continue to teach MAX 201: Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences and maintain her affiliations. She is a senior research associate in the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health and a research affiliate in the Center for Policy Research.

“I’m excited for this new opportunity,” says Gadarian. “It will better enable me to help faculty and students find research opportunities and support research that can inform policymakers and help serve the public. We have extremely engaging scholars at Maxwell, and I look forward to finding ways to share their work within our Maxwell and University communities, and to a wide external audience.”

Junko Takeda

Takeda, professor of history and Daicoff Faculty Scholar, was named interim chair of the Citizenship and Civic Engagement Undergraduate Program. She fills the vacancy left with the departure of Julia Carboni this past spring.

Her research and teaching interests include the histories of citizenship, early modern globalization, revolutions, migration, displacement and disease. She has written two monographs, “Between Crown and Commerce: Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean” (Johns Hopkins, 2011), and “The Other Persian Letters: Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700-1808” (Liverpool University Press, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2020). Her two current books-in-progress, “Avedik, Louis XIV’s Armenian Prisoner: Incarceration and Disinformation in France’s Early Empire” and “Maria Yamada Guyomar de Pinha: The Half-Japanese Indo-Portuguese Slave Who Sued the Compagnie des Indes” explore migration, dispossession, and ethnic and religious violence in the early modern world. Takeda’s additional interests include Asian American history and Zainichi Korean history.

Takeda is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, the Georges Lurcy Fellowship and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Research and Teaching. She received a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2006.

Silverstein, professor of sociology and Marjorie Cantor Endowed Professor in Aging Studies, succeeds Janet Wilmoth as chair of the Sociology Department. He is also professor of human development and family science at the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, a faculty associate in the Aging Studies Institute and a research affiliate in the Center for Policy Research and in the Center for Aging and Policy Studies.

Merril Silverstein

Silverstein’s work on aging in the context of family life, life course and international perspectives has been featured in over 150 research publications and has been funded by numerous institutions. In 2019, he received $2.9 million from the John Templeton Foundation for his project “Spirituality and Prosocial Values in the Absence of Religion Among Millennials and Their Families.”

For his expertise, Silverstein is frequently cited by such major media outlets as The New York Times. He serves as principal investigator of the Longitudinal Study of Generations and has had projects in China, Sweden, the Netherlands and Israel. He is a Brookdale Fellow and Fulbright Senior Scholar, and from 2010-14, he served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1990.

Takeda and Silverstein were among the eight faculty members who received .

Azadeh Tajdar (right) speaks with student Anna Vila about her poster presentation at the Celebration of Undergraduate Scholarship this past spring. Vila, a political science and citizenship and civic engagement major, will be among Tajdar’s students as the inaugural Cramer Family Professor of Practice in Community Impact.

After studying law at the University of Amsterdam, went to work in public policy, hoping to be part of the inner workings of the European Union (EU) at an exciting time: A year before she graduated, the EU was poised for a stronger global presence thanks to the Treaty of Amsterdam, which also brought added resources for employment and citizens’ rights.

Tajdar did, indeed, get a close-up view of government—but it wasn’t what she hoped for. She was a lobbyist, and her job was to convince lawmakers to make decisions that supported special interests. She found herself promoting things like tobacco and deregulation. “I was so disappointed to see how democracy happened from the back end,” she said. “I was very much disenfranchised by what I saw.”

When directed to lobby in support of weapons, Tajdar knew she needed a new career, something that empowered her to uplift others and supported her beliefs. Now, nearly 20 years later, Tajdar is an expert in the field of social entrepreneurship and shares her experiences as a startup founder, project manager and incubator consultant to empower innovators. At the start of the Spring 2023 semester, she was appointed as the Maxwell School’s inaugural Cramer Family Professor of Practice in Community Impact.

Seated in the , the professorship was created with a generous gift by the Gerald and Daphna Cramer Foundation to provide support to students across a range of community engagement efforts that develop capabilities and skills in entrepreneurship, civic engagement, philanthropy, systems change, social innovation and impact.

The late Gerald B. Cramer earned a degree in accounting from the in 1952 and went on to become one of the Maxwell School’s most generous and dedicated supporters. He and his wife, Daphna, funded professorships and graduate assistantships and supported the creation of the Global Affairs Institute at Maxwell (now the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs) as well as the University’s Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (now the Institute for Security Policy and Law).

Cramer’s dedication and impact were recognized with numerous University distinctions, including a George Arents Pioneer Medal—the University’s highest alumni distinction—and an honorary doctor of laws degree.

In establishing the latest professorship, Daphna Cramer noted that her husband’s vision was that students would “find the value of a Maxwell School and Syracuse University education to help them think globally while acting locally.”

The late Gerald B. Cramer ’52, H’10

“He said that his goal is to always seed fund new initiatives that create opportunities for independence and entrepreneurship, and to see the benefits of impact investing by bringing about sustainable prospects for community benefit by all types of organizations and to all people,” she said of Gerry, who served as a University trustee before his passing in 2018.

Dean David M. Van Slyke says the professorship honors the legacy of Gerry Cramer, who he called “an extraordinary friend and benefactor” to the Maxwell School. He says Cramer found joy in working quietly and effectively behind the scenes to support programs and opportunities and was committed to Maxwell’s focus on global engagement and citizenship.

“Generations of students will benefit from the extraordinary support of the Cramer family,” says Van Slyke. “I am certain Gerry would have been an enthusiastic supporter of CCE and of the addition of Professor Tajdar to the Maxwell community. Her expertise and experience are a natural complement to our cross-disciplinary approach and our efforts to teach students to think about public issues from a systems perspective.”

As the Cramer Professor, Tajdar helps students work with community-based organizations in Central New York including Utica, Rochester and Syracuse; assists students with their capstone projects; and teaches courses in community development, social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, grantsmanship and program design and evaluation.

Before joining Maxwell, Tajdar held a diverse mix of positions across the globe. She has worked with numerous impact ventures as a mentor, consultant and donor. She has consulted for the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office, monitoring and evaluating humanitarian projects in Afghanistan, and, at the Urban Justice Center in New York City, she studied the feasibility of setting up a cooperatively owned mobile food vendor commissary.

Tajdar’s startups have focused on building the capacity of diaspora-led community organizations in countries of origin, including in Rwanda and Senegal, as well as co-founding Kabul’s first incubator and coworking space for peace building through social entrepreneurship. After she left the latter, called the Center for Business and Social Innovation, she enrolled at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, to continue her graduate studies. She earned a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Management, Economic and Social Sciences in 2021.

Tajdar is excited about her next chapter at Maxwell. Among the lessons she hopes to impart on students is that “democracies flourish when you give people the opportunity to change their own civic and economic lives.” She added, “Social entrepreneurship does that.”

In addition, Tajdar said she strives to share the importance of adopting an entrepreneurial mindset for innovation and impact. “Today, many organizations across the public, private and nonprofit sectors embrace entrepreneurial skills and mindset to solve problems more effectively—and are breaking silos through public, private and people’s partnerships,” she said.

She said some of the greatest inventions of our time—smartphones and GPS—are a result of the U.S. government having a “visionary entrepreneurial mindset” to invest in the technology. “Some of the most defining social, economic and ecological movements of the 19th and 20th centuries were radical innovations—they disrupted conventional institutions at the time, for new ways to solve societal problems,” she said, adding, “My goal is to help students to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset to solve problems with societal, economic and ecological impact.”

Jessica Whitley ’18, G’23, who will receive the M.P.A. at a convocation ceremony this Thursday, June 29, designed the colorful asphalt mural painted on the pavement in front of City Hall. The winning submission in a contest offered by the city last year, the image shows a skyline bordering a vibrant tree supported by several hands.

Jessica Whitley stands in front of the mural she designed at Syracuse City Hall (Photo by Angela Ryan)

During a recent ceremony celebrating the mural’s completion, Whitley told a crowd gathered in front of City Hall that her image is a nod to the city’s rich, diverse history and signals hope for the future. The latter is represented by the vibrant leaves, she said, adding that the hands symbolize the community, supporting the tree and reaching toward City Hall, “where change and active facilitation can happen.”

“As a Syracuse local, and somebody who grew up very close to City Hall,” Whitley said, “I feel very strongly that we as a community—and we as a city—have room for growth and this tree represents that growth.”

The space contains street furniture—tables and chairs—and is blocked off by flower planters. Additional planters are planned for the area, said Brooke Schneider G’21 (M.P.A.), senior public information officer for the City of Syracuse.

Schneider helped Whitley coordinate the project and is one of many city employees who walk by the mural on the way into work. “We’ve watched it evolve over the last few weeks,” she said. “It certainly has been neat to see it develop, and it’s nice to see so much color reflected off such a big gray building.”

The project was funded by a $25,000 grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative. Last year, Adapt CNY partnered with the city to issue an open call for artist submissions for the driveway. Whitley entered her submission and was selected as a finalist. Her design subsequently garnered the most votes in a public contest.

Whitley earned a bachelor of fine arts from the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) in 2018 and went on to work at the Maxwell School as an administrative assistant for the dean’s office for just over three years. While the mural contest was underway, she found out she had been accepted into Maxwell’s M.P.A. program, which runs for 12 months starting in late June.

Jessica Whitley and Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh (Photo by Angela Ryan)

In the year that followed, Whitley juggled coordination of the mural with her coursework and other program experiences. She was co-treasurer of the student chapter of the International City/County Management Association and served as a research assistant for Tina Nabatchi, Joseph A. Strasser Endowed Professor in Public Administration and professor of public administration and international affairs—an experience that led to a trip to Budapest to attend the International Research Society for Public Management conference. She also took part in a competition to create a wildfire mitigation plan, attended Syracuse University’s “Winterlude” session in Washington, D.C., volunteered with community nonprofits including We Rise Above the Streets and helped the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency report possible economic impacts related to large-scale development projects like Micron.

While the timing brought challenges, the mural project complemented Whitley’s studies. The M.P.A. program, after all, is focused on developing skills that were necessary to bring the project to fruition, including public service and leadership.

“Public art requires community engagement which is a focus of my studies,” she said. “Courses such as Metropolitan Governance focus on how we can make space for residents to enjoy for free. This project is a way residents can have a say in their city and utilize a space that was once just a driveway. Combining collaborative strategies and organization skills learned at Maxwell with technical skills learned through VPA, was a great culmination of my interest in public art.”

Whitley has been selected as a Local Government Management Fellow through the International City/County Management Association. After receiving her M.P.A., she will work under a city manager in Pennsylvania, gaining first-hand training and supporting projects that examine topics such as climate change, civilian response and safe housing.

Back at the mural celebration, Mayor Ben Walsh G’05 (M.P.A.) told the crowd that the mural replaced his parking spot. Giving it up ��was a “no brainer,” he said. “When the team came to me with this idea, I thought about it for a minute and of course, considered my own situation,” he said. “I said, ‘You know what? It’s just too important a space to let it be taken up by a car, whether it’s my car or any other car for that matter.’”

Walsh was among those who helped paint the mural early in the spring. The dozens of painters also included Girls Scouts, the Syracuse Crunch and Whitley’s Maxwell School classmates and friends.

Michael John Heagerty, chair of the Syracuse Public Art Commission, was heartened by the response. “It was meant to be a community-based effort,” he said. “There was a slew of volunteers—everyone put a roller down.”

Heagerty said the mural not only brightens the city, but also serve as a conduit for connection. “I believe in the city of gray skies, all kinds of color can work wonders here,” he said.

Sean O’Keefe with his wife, Laura, at the April 20 gala

O’Keefe G’78 joins a group of 52 individuals, ranging from Clara Barton to Anthony Fauci, who have been inducted into the hall since it was founded in 2019. Government Executive is a digital publication that chronicles government business.

In addition to O’Keefe, the nine inductees this year include Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice, and Ada Deer, the first woman to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

O’Keefe received an M.P.A. from Maxwell in 1978 and was selected to the first class of presidential management interns, a program started by former Maxwell Dean Alan K. “Scotty” Campbell, who was the first director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. From there, O’Keefe joined the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations under the late Sen. Ted Stevens.

O’Keefe was a presidential appointee four times. George H. W. Bush named him comptroller for the U.S. Department of Defense in 1989, and, three years later, secretary of the Navy. Then, in 2001, Bush’s son, President George W. Bush appointed O’Keefe deputy director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget before naming him administrator of NASA. The appointments were championed by Dick Cheney, who served as secretary of defense and later vice president.

O’Keefe led NASA from 2001-05, a period that included the Columbia shuttle disaster that claimed seven astronauts. After leaving NASA, O’Keefe served as chancellor of Louisiana State University (LSU), vice president of the General Electric Co. and chief executive officer of the Airbus Group, Inc.

At Syracuse University, O’Keefe previously served as the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business and Government Policy and was founding director of the Maxwell School’s National Security Studies Program. He currently serves on the board of Syracuse’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families. He is also a distinguished senior advisor for the Center for Strategic and International Studies—home to Maxwell’s Washington programs, a senior research associate for the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and a research affiliate for the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute.

Maxwell alumnus Amy Donahue G’96 (M.P.A.), G’00 (Ph.D.) the first provost of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, congratulated O’Keefe in a video recording that was aired at the April 20 gala.

“No organization could be more fortunate than to have Sean at the helm at a time of crisis, and lucky for us, he’s been there as we’ve faced some big ones,” said Donahue. “If you reflect on what you know of his bio, you’ll readily know that Sean found himself in the arena at many momentous and tragic and precarious and pivotal moments in our nation’s history.”

Donahue said she worked with O’Keefe through two of them—the Columbia tragedy and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which carved a path of devastation in Louisiana while he was at the helm of LSU. “It was very obvious that his resolve, his business acumen, his commitment to transparency and truth, his absolute integrity, and his deep, deep patriotism were the beacons that guided us through confusion and adversity and then helped to restore clarity and purpose and progress,” said Donahue.

She added, “But what really strikes me more than anything, time and again, as I have opportunities to work with Sean is his great and generous humanity. No matter the swirl of pressures and conflict that attend any crisis, big or small, Sean always focuses first and most on people.”

O’Keefe said he was humbled by Donahue’s kind words and to be honored among such a highly esteemed group of public servants.

At the gala he reflected on the legacy of Stevens, who was killed in a 2010 plane crash that O’Keefe and his son, Kevin ’13, G’14 (M.P.A.), survived. “As I accepted the award, I couldn’t help but think of senator Ted—he was a very influential force in my life and professional career,” said O’Keefe. “He was a remarkable person and influential legislator who provided an exemplary example of public service.”

The hall of fame was created by Government Executive to recognize those who have made historic achievements in service to the federal government and the American people.

Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke says O’Keefe’s success “stems in part from his core values that are reflected in his humility, treating others with dignity and respect, and an understanding of the importance in being held accountable for the broader public interest regardless of the job he has held.”

He adds, “There are few people who have succeeded in leadership positions in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Sean O’Keefe is one of those rare individuals. He is a beacon of effective and gracious leadership, and I am honored to call him an alum, colleague, and friend. He has earned this recognition and we are delighted to celebrate his achievements and the small role that the Maxwell school and Syracuse University have played in his success.”

CNN anchor and Maxwell School alumnus Boris Sanchez ’09 is shown on the left with (from left to right), Bernard Rostker G’66, G’70; Deniece Laurent-Mantey ’09; Juan Carlos Izaguirre G’06, G’07; Sean Callahan G’98; and Dean David M. Van Slyke.

Standing before an audience of fellow alumni gathered in Washington, D.C., for the second annual Maxwell Awards of Excellence, CNN anchor Boris Sanchez ’09 shared the motivation behind his work as a journalist.

Sanchez emigrated from Cuba as a small child, along with his family, after his grandfather was sentenced to two decades in prison for his strong beliefs about democracy. The same authoritarian dictatorship denied Sanchez’s mother’s dream of becoming a writer or news reporter—instead, her son said, she was sent to work in a tin can factory.

“While their dreams were deferred, I was fortunate to pursue an education and career specializing in what they were not allowed to do, and that is, speak truth to power,” said Sanchez, co-anchor of the recently launched show “CNN News Central,” who earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Maxwell and broadcast journalism from the .

Sanchez emceed the awards event, held on April 27 in the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)—home to Maxwell’s Washington programs. The event recognizes graduates and friends of Maxwell for their professional accomplishments and public service. This year’s honorees included Bernard Rostker G’66 G’70; Sean Callahan G’98; Deniece Laurent-Mantey ’09; and Juan Carlos Izaguirre G’06, G’07.

Rostker received the Spirit of Public Service Award which honors individuals whose contributions have brought widespread impact and reflect the ideals of the Maxwell School. During a 55-year career holding senior positions in government and research, he pursued solutions to some of the most contentious issues in the U.S. military. He oversaw the re-establishment of Selective Service registration, co-authored two key reports supporting gay individuals serving openly in the military, and he accepted the challenge of the mysterious Gulf War illness through roles including assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs, undersecretary of the Army, and undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

“Someone recently asked me if I had a grand plan for my career, and I immediately said I did not,” Rostker told the audience. “As I thought about it more, however, there seemed to have been a guiding hand that pushed me forward along a path of public service in support of our men and women in the armed services.”

Rostker said Maxwell was “an important part of this invisible hand.” He spoke of the quality education he received in economics and shared how his thesis—the subject for which had not been his top choice—brought his interests into focus. He also talked about important connections he made with professors like the late Alan K. “Scotty” Campbell and Jesse Burkhead, as well as classmates including Donna Shalala G’70, H’87, former U.S. secretary of Health and human services, and John P. White ’64, G’69, deputy secretary of defense in the Clinton administration.

In his opening remarks, emcee Boris Sanchez shared that his family emigrated to the U.S. from Cuba after his grandfather was imprisoned for his strong beliefs about democracy.

Rostker said White was especially instrumental in shaping his career. While serving as vice president of the global policy think tank, the RAND Corp. in the early 1970s, White encouraged Rostker’s involvement. He began as a research economist and today serves as a senior fellow.

Callahan, mission director for Afghanistan at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), received the Maxwell 1924 Award. Named for the school’s founding year, it was created to honor distinguished, sustained professional or civic leadership and achievement. A 22-year veteran of USAID, Callahan currently oversees the organization’s multi-sector response to the crisis in Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021. He works from Qatar to manage a staff of over 100 that is spread out over 21 countries in 10 time zones.

Callahan credited Maxwell for introducing him to his wife, fellow alum Kristin Dadey ’94, G’98. He also praised faculty and staff for their dedication to students and alumni and said the skills he gained at Maxwell “have helped time and time again throughout my career, especially now in my current position.”

“Afghanistan remains the largest humanitarian crisis and development challenge globally,” added Callahan. “Two thirds of its population will need humanitarian assistance this year, just to survive.”

Laurent-Mantey received the Maxwell Compass Award, created to recognize an early-career alumnus for professional and community accomplishments and impact. She is a foreign affairs and national security leader with over 10 years of experience at the U.S. Department of State and White House National Security Council.

As director for Africa at the White House National Security Council, Laurent-Mantey handled the southern Africa and trade and investment portfolio as well as the implementation of the second U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. The latter, convened by President Biden in December 2022, entailed the coordination of nearly 20 government agencies.

Born to immigrant parents from Ghana and raised in a family “full of love but sometimes short of opportunities,” she told the audience, “I certainly didn’t see myself as a future leader in international relations.” However, she said, “I was exposed to new ideas and to different people at the Maxwell School and that ignited my passion for international relations.”

Izaguirre received the Advocate Award, named for its inaugural recipient, the late Charles V. Willie, a scholar, policy advisor, teacher and activist. The award is given to those who reflect Maxwell’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in their professional and volunteer pursuits.

Attendees of the reception that followed the awards presentation included, from left, alumni Armondo Generoso ’13 E.M.P.A., Madeline Canelli ’22 B.A. (Econ/IR), Molly Akers ’22 B.A. (PSt), Lauren Littlejohn ’22 B.A. (IR/PSc), Javier Font ’92 M.P.A.

“I am deeply honored and almost in disbelief to have received this award in recognition of contributions to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility,” said Izaguirre, who has advanced the award’s ideals in his 15-year career at Consultative Group to Assist the Poor and the World Bank. He is a long-time volunteer leader of GLOBE, the bank’s LGBT+ employee resource group, which works to increase awareness, strengthen sense of community, and improve workplace environment and policies.

He added, “This means quite a lot to me—much more than you can imagine—because it’s not only about work on financial inclusion and consumer protection, but also about advocacy on LGBT+ issues.”

Growing up in Peru, Izaguirre said he was exposed to car bombs and constant water and electricity cuts.�� He told fellow alumni and friends that he is grateful to have fulfilled his childhood dream of working in international economics, and, on a more personal level, live openly as a gay man.

“This Charles V. Willie Advocate Award reinvigorates my commitment to diversity and inclusion,” he said, “and I hope it also encourages every one of you to take a step forward to make the world a better, kinder, more diverse, equitable and inclusive place.”

Jay Golden, founding director of Dynamic Sustainability Lab and the inaugural Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance, is shown on the left, with, from left to right: Charles Chibambo, a Hubert Humphrey Fellow from Malawi; Kenneth A. Pontarelli ’92 B.S. (Econ); climate investor Tom Steyer; Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke; Ka’ai Imaikalani I, a Maxwell student who is majoring in international relations and policy studies; Framke Vitale, a Martin J. Whitman School of Management student majoring in marketing management; and Pia Olea Ubillus, a Hubert Humphrey Fellow from Peru. The students and Humphrey Fellows are researchers with the DSL.

In a December 2010 article, Fortune magazine called California billionaire Tom Steyer the “jolly green banker.” During a talk at the Maxwell School last week, Professor Jay Golden asked Steyer to share why he retired from his lucrative career as a hedge fund manager to channel his efforts into saving the environment. Steyer, who made a run for president in 2020, said he’d always been interested in sustainability and a lover of the “out of doors,” but a family trip to Alaska provided an up-close view of climate change that fueled his change of course. “What I found was, oh my God, this place is melting,” he said of the trip, which he took with his wife, four children and pet cat in 2006, the same year Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” documentary was released. “If you ever go to Alaska…it is shocking. You can go to a place that’s a valley, that you haven’t been able to see across for thousands of years because it was a complete mountain of snow, and it’s all gone and you can see the water rolling out of there, constantly,” he added.

Jay Golden, founding director of Dynamic Sustainability Lab and the inaugural Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance, is shown, on the left, with climate investor Tom Steyer.

The Steyer family had a meeting around their dining room table shortly after returning. Steyer was in his mid-50s, and leaving his career behind and pouring his earnings into climate activism was a risky endeavor. He said his wife, Kat Taylor, was supportive, telling him, “This is your one chance to get into heaven.” That elicited a laugh from the audience of more than 100 students, faculty and staff who filled the seats and lined the walls of the Strasser Legacy Room on a recent Tuesday afternoon. The event was the culmination of a series of activities, called Sustainable Syracuse, held to draw awareness to climate issues and showcase students’ interdisciplinary research and creativity.

The events were the vision of Golden, who is founding director of the Dynamic Sustainability Lab and the inaugural Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance at the Maxwell School. Golden joined the Public Administration and International Affairs Department in August 2021; his professorship was created with a gift from husband and wife, Kenneth A.’92 B.S. (Econ) and Tracey Pontarelli, who seek to ensure environmental policy research is grounded in a realistic understanding of markets and financial mechanisms so that future environmental policy balances economic need with sustainability.

Other Sustainable Syracuse events included a student-produced film festival; a screening of “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” with a question-and-answer by its Oscar-nominated director, Chris Renaud ’89; and a two-day sustainability symposium in Washington, D.C. The symposium served as the kick-off; its panels and workshops were attended by more than 50 undergraduate and graduate students who engaged with leading experts from industry, government and NGOs who offered insights on a range of sustainability issues such as renewable energy transitions, carbon markets, organizational leadership and strategies. Some of the issues covered at the symposium were echoed at the Steyer talk. For instance, Golden asked Steyer to talk about the notion of “net zero,” which refers to a target by private and public entities to negate the amount of greenhouse gases produced by reducing emissions and implementing methods of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. “I’m both encouraged and skeptical of corporations that promise net zero without really knowing how to get there. I think, of course, it’s great that people are suddenly caring. But, you’ve got to wonder—I think it’s easier said than done,” said Steyer, who in 2010 pledged to give at least half of his wealth toward philanthropic efforts and subsequently sold his stock from the hedge fund firm he founded, Farallon Capital.

An audience of mostly students from across Syracuse University and its neighbor, SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry, packed the Strasser Legacy Room at Maxwell recently for a talk by one-time presidential candidate and climate investor Tom Steyer.

Golden asked Steyer about the rationale behind the name change six years ago of the organization he founded, NextGen Climate, to NextGen America, and what advice he has for young people who want to be agents of change. NextGen America is a youth voter organization, and Steyer said the impetus for the name change was simple: “You can’t really separate justice and climate,” he said. “This is an all-of-society response, so the idea that you could address climate without addressing justice to me—it doesn’t work, it’s not going to work, it’s not right. So, we changed the name to say we’re going to be on positions together.” According to its website, NextGen America has registered over 1.4 million young people to vote. Steyer said President Biden would not have been elected had it not been for young voters and, he pointed to the role of this demographic in the recent Wisconsin State Supreme Court election: Democrats won the seat, flipping control of the court to the left for the first time in 15 years. “We have a very divided society,” said Steyer. “Young people need to show up if we’re going to get fair representation. …I put my trust in young people.”

And later, in response to a student’s question about how to rally climate change efforts around the globe, Steyer said that each country will go about it in diverse ways, no doubt, but change requires a unified effort by individuals. “We can’t accept people shirking their responsibility and being free riders and trying to get away with something at the expense of the other 8 billion people on the planet. That can’t work because if that happens, then everybody does it, and we all lose,” he said. And then, a nod to the Maxwell School’s full name and ethos: “I’m pretty big about being a good citizen,” he said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had declined a request to hold a moment of silence during the 2012 events to remember the late Israelis. As the athletes marched in, Costas told viewers that IOC President Jacques Rogge had led a moment of silence earlier in the week, before an audience of about 100 people at the athletes village.

“Still, for many, tonight with the world watching is the true time and place to remember those who were lost and how and why they died,” Costas said. After a brief pause, NBC cut to a commercial.

Talev (left), director of the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship, helped moderate and participated in a panel discussion, “The Intersection of Entertainment and Democracy: Are We the Problem or the Solution?”

Costas shared the anecdote during a recent panel discussion held at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, celebrating the launch of the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship. Costas, who attended the S.I.��Newhouse School of Public Communications before launching his storied career and was awarded an honorary degree in 2015, was among the special guests who took part in the discussion, titled, “The Intersection of Entertainment and Democracy: Are We the Problem or the Solution?”

The event was held in the Los Angeles area, where the University boasts a thriving alumni population and academic programming, including . While it will be based roughly 2,700 miles away—in Washington, D.C.—the institute will address issues of pressing national relevance such as threats to the media and democracy, and the fight against disinformation. Announced in the summer of 2022, it is a partnership of and the .

“With the launch of the new institute and with the combined strength of the Maxwell and Newhouse schools, the University will play a vital role in leading dialogs that bring people together, helping to bridge the differences and divide seen and experienced in our country today,” Newhouse Dean told the panel audience of mostly alumni and friends of the University. “And while the institute will be based in Washington, D.C., I hope you can see that its work and impact will have a national, broad reach involving faculty and students and research and teaching, convenings like this and experiential learning opportunities.”

In addition to Costas, panelists included another alum—Danielle Nottingham ’99, co-host of NBC’s “California Live;” CNN correspondent David Culver; and, from the University, Lodato, and . Talev is the institute’s recently named Kramer Director, while Van Slyke is dean of the Maxwell School.

From left to right: Lodato, Talev, Costas, Nottingham, Culver, Jones and Van Slyke

Author, lawyer and CNN host Van Jones provided opening remarks focused on the virtues of listening, engaging others who have different perspectives and finding common ground.

The conversation explored the topics that give rise to the need for the institute—political polarization, mistrust in institutions including the media, and the role of entertainment news, disinformation and higher education.

Costas, who has been honored with 28 Emmy Awards, called 12 Olympics and covered multiple World Series, Super Bowls and NBA finals, explored the intersection of sports reporting and current events. In addition to his experience with the 2012 Olympics, he shared more recent occasions when he has taken time during his sports broadcasts to discuss current events and what some might view as thorny issues.

For instance, during a playoff game this past fall, he spent nearly a minute talking about the rationale behind the Cleveland Guardians’ name change from the Indians. And, during Sunday Night Football, Costas has spoken about the prevalence of brain trauma to athletes.

Of the latter, he said, “When I used that two minutes a handful of times to talk about the fact that football is as directly connected to brain trauma as smoking is to lung cancer, that got me on the wrong side of a lot of people: The NFL, my own network and people that just don’t want to hear it because they love football, you know?”

Costas said that while people turn to sports for entertainment—“to get away”—it can also be “the best place to make a good point to the largest possible audience if you do it concisely and at the right time.”

Jones (left) and Costas

Talev, a veteran journalist who served as managing editor for politics at Axios and was a CNN political analyst before joining the University this past summer, talked about the erosion of trust in institutions such as the military, the supreme court and higher education. Adding to that, she said, “Technology is giving us more opportunities to choose your own adventure and tune out the stuff you don’t want to hear.”

She asked Van Slyke to reflect on how that has impacted teaching at the University.

Van Slyke described a game he plays with students at the start of a semester: He asks them at first what they read in the morning—a question that often draws “furrowed brows” since most admittedly are reading their cell phones. Then he asks innocuous questions such as, how many are first-generation students, how many are from military families, how many are Yankees fans.

“When you go through this a little bit, all of a sudden you start to see people looking at one another, because what you’ve taken away is party identification,” he said. In the absence of that, it’s easier to find common ground, to have discourse.

Van Slyke shared that he and colleagues are challenged by the notion of evidence, given the current polarized climate in which people cite the sources that share in their beliefs, often at the expense of factual, credible information.

“We’ve lost any confidence in what evidence actually means,” he said, adding that he challenges students to consider things such as: “What are the facts? How did you collect the facts? Where did the facts come from? What did the data look like?”

During the hourlong conversation, panelists also talked about how to reach Gen Z—those born from the mid-1990s to the early 2010s. Nottingham shared how she felt compelled to join social media channels like Instagram, where she didn’t at first feel comfortable, to better connect with the demographic.

“I think that when we talk about dialog and how we move forward, and all these things, we have to look to the younger generations,” said Nottingham, a graduate of the . “They don’t see the world the way we see the world.”

Van Slyke later told Nottingham that while she may have joined with some trepidation, “the good news is other people are going to find you and they’re going to tag that with some legitimacy.”

He added that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ’80—a Maxwell alumna—recently shared a $1 billion plan to overhaul the state’s continuum of mental health care. He said he was pleased to see students take to Instagram on the issue, some sharing 40-year-old stories about the former network of institutions where the mentally ill were housed and often mistreated.

“The process is very different” for them getting the information, he added.

As the event came to a close, Costas noted the contrast in how NBC supported fellow Syracuse alumnus Mike Tirico ’88 to cover the 2022 Olympics, a decade after him. Tirico—a graduate of the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences as well as Newhouse—infused his reports with well-researched background and guest experts who spoke about the intense global scrutiny to the host country, largely for the mistreatment of ethnic minorities.

“You know, they laid it out. …They did something credibly,” he said. “They did it at the beginning. And then they got out of the way for the most part and let the competition play out. They did a very journalistically responsible thing.”

During the Clinton administration, Rostker accepted the challenge of the mysterious Gulf War illness as a special assistant to Deputy Secretary of Defense John White, and later John Hamre. “Hamre warned me, no matter where we move you, you’re not getting away from Gulf War illness,” Rostker recalls, “and I said, ‘That’s exactly the way I want it.’ That was really hands-on with veterans who were hurting and hopefully giving them some sense that the department was listening to them.”

For his continued pursuit of solutions to intractable problems, Rostker will be honored with the Spirit of Public Service Award at the second annual Maxwell Awards of Excellence on Thursday, April 27, in Washington, DC at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), home to the school’s Washington, D.C., programs.

The awards highlight Maxwell alumni and friends who exemplify a commitment to engaged citizenship. The school will also recognize the exceptional contributions of Sean Callahan G’98 L’98, mission director for Afghanistan with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Deniece Laurent-Mantey ’09, a special advisor in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. State Department; and Juan Carlos Izaguirre G’06, G’07, senior financial sector policy specialist at the World Bank-affiliated Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).

“Together, these four alumni have used their talents, positions, power and influence to positively impact the lives of millions around the globe,” Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke says.

“As Maxwell approaches its centennial year, the Awards of Excellence are an opportunity to share and celebrate Maxwell’s ideals in action and to inspire others in the ways that we ever strive to make a positive difference in the lives of others.”

Spirit of Public Service Award: Bernard D. Rostker ’66, ’70 Ph.D.

Bernard Rostker G’66, G’70

Rostker’s public service includes two years of active duty in the Army in the late 1960s. During the Carter administration, he was principal deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs, following which, he took on the reboot of Selective Service registration, which President Ford had ended.

Rostker’s work on the Department of Defense response to Gulf War illness lasted from 1996 to 2001. During that time, he also served as assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs, undersecretary of the Army, then undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

In between defense jobs, Rostker worked for RAND, for a time in the 1970s, then again in the 1980s and early 1990s. He returned in 2001 and is a senior fellow there today. He calls the organization his “real home” for its focus on interdisciplinary research, an approach he learned to value at Maxwell. “Certainly, it provided me with what I needed to be effective in government,” says Rostker, who earned both his master’s degree and Ph.D. in economics.

Three of Rostker’s projects, including his examination of the all-volunteer Army, are among the 21 reports on the RAND Classics webpage. He and his wife, Louise G’68, have fostered further study into the lives of veterans and their families by creating a dissertation research fellowship at Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

1924 Award: Sean E. Callahan G’98, L’98

Sean Callahan G’98 L’98

Callahan, a 22-year veteran of USAID with the senior foreign service rank of minister-counselor and postings in Southeast Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East, will receive the 1924 Award for distinguished and sustained civic leadership and achievement.

Early in his career, an overseas opportunity to help Vietnamese refugees resettle in the U.S. confirmed Callahan’s interest in public service. “There really is something rewarding about being part of something bigger,” says Callahan, who earned a master’s in public administration from Maxwell. “Maxwell instills that in you.”

Perhaps his most vivid experience of that calling came while stationed in Jakarta with his wife, Kristin Dadey ’94, G’98, when a tsunami devastated Aceh province in Sumatra. During the day, he worked as the acting deputy mission director, and in the evenings and on weekends he worked on disaster relief.

“I was helping load humanitarian supplies onto C-130s in Jakarta that the U.S. Air Force was flying to Aceh,” he explains, where Kristin, with the International Organization for Migration, would then unload and distribute the aid on the other end. “I was proud that we were both trying to help the Indonesian people and seeing what the full force of the U.S. government can do.”

Today, working from Qatar, he oversees USAID’s multi-sector response to the crisis in Afghanistan. “It’s probably the hardest and most complex job I’ve ever had and one under intense scrutiny,” Callahan says of managing a staff of over 100 that spread out over 21 countries and 10 time zones after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021. “We need to think about not just this generation but the next generation and provide that hope and dignity for the Afghan people.”

Compass Award: Deniece Laurent-Mantey ’09

Deniece Laurent-Mantey ’09

Laurent-Mantey is receiving the Compass Award, which honors early career alumni for exceptional impact within 15 years of graduating.

She previously served as the director for Africa at the White House National Security Council, where she led more than 18 government agencies to execute President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s L’68 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit last December.

The undertaking involved 49 African countries and their heads of state and thousands of visitors. The event yielded $15 billion in trade and investment commitments and $55 billion for advancing U.S.-Africa shared priorities. “It was a great experience putting all those pieces together to really deepen America’s partnership with African nations,” says Laurent-Mantey, who earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations.

Laurent-Mantey began her State Department career in 2009 and served as a special assistant to Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry from 2012 to 2014. For the next five years, she was the acting deputy director for West Africa in the Bureau of African Affairs. It was during this time that she accompanied the assistant secretary for Africa to Liberia during the Ebola outbreak to visit treatment centers built by U.S. troops.

“That was a pivotal moment in my career. I was able to witness the impact of our troops and U.S.-Africa policy,” Laurent-Mantey says.

Her own trajectory, she says, was molded by the overall atmosphere at Maxwell. “It’s a community of people who are just dedicated to doing good and helping each other succeed.”

Charles V. Willie Advocate Award: Juan Carlos Izaguirre ’06 M.P.A./’07 M.A. (IR)

Juan Carlos Izaguirre G’06, G’07

Izaguirre will receive the Charles V. Willie Advocate Award for his work advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility at Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the World Bank and as a leader of GLOBE, the bank’s LGBT+ employee resource group.

The LGBT+ community faces criminal charges or persecution in 70 countries, putting World Bank employees from that community in danger, he says. “We try to make sure leaders are aware of any situation where the risk of the community is more severe,” Izaguirre explains. He adds that raising awareness within the World Bank gives visibility to the lives of LGBT+ individuals in the regions the bank serves.

Izaguirre’s efforts with GLOBE complement his expertise promoting consumer protections that enable the poor to safely save, borrow and buy insurance.

His first project with the World Bank in 2007 was a consumer protection pilot operating in two Eastern European countries. Over the following six years, he co-authored “Good Practices for Financial Consumer Protection” and expanded the program worldwide, including his native Peru.

As a senior financial sector specialist with CGAP, he helped shepherd the groundbreaking adoption of financial inclusion guidance for banking supervision that includes consumer protection. “Financial services are just a means to an end, and that end is better economic development, better economic opportunities, better resilience, especially for low-income customers,” says Izaguirre, who earned both a master’s in public administration and a master’s in international relations from Maxwell.

Izaguirre attributes his ability to operate globally to his Maxwell experience, in which he lived in a community of international students, thrived on the variety of his coursework, and studied abroad in Beijing. “Maxwell was a great experience at so many levels,” he adds. “It really helped me navigate a range of issues that made me a much better person and professional.”

Yingyi Ma

Yingyi Ma, professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Sociology, has been named an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow for the academic year 2023-24.

Ma is one of 36 fellows selected this year.

The ACE Fellows Program is a customized mentorship and learning experience that enables participants to immerse themselves in the study and practice of leadership. The program combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, visits to campuses and other higher education-related organizations, and placement at another higher education institution to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single year.

Fellows observe and work with the president and other senior officers at their host institutions, attend decision-making meetings and focus on issues of interest. Fellows also conduct projects of pressing concern for their home institutions and seek to implement their findings upon completion of the fellowship placement.

Ma is director of Asian/Asian American Studies, and is a senior research associate for the Center for Policy Research and an advisory board member for the East Asia Program. Her research addresses education and migration in the U.S. and China. She has published an award-winning monograph “Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education” (Columbia University Press, 2020) and numerous journal articles, book chapters and essays. She was selected as Public Intellectual Fellow by the National Committee of U.S.-China Relations in 2019.

Ma received a Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 2007.

Marquez, director of the National Security Division for The American Legion and an Iraq War veteran, gave remarks at the U.S. Capitol on March 16, along with its hosts, senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.). Marquez is pursuing an , offered by the in partnership with the

Maxwell graduate student Mario A. Marquez, director of the National Security Division for The American Legion, spoke at a press conference earlier this month urging lawmakers to repeal the legislation that authorized military force in the decades-old war in Iraq.

“This year marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of combat operations in Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein,” Marquez told the crowd and cameras before a backdrop of the Capitol building. “The conflict was declared over in 2011, but the law that authorized it is still on the books today.”

If signed into law, a bill supported by Kaine and Young would repeal the 1991 Gulf War authorization and the 2002 Iraq War authorization. The senators are part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who argue that the repeal is needed to prevent abuse by presidential administrations that could use the old authorizations to launch unrelated combat operations without approval from Congress.

On Wednesday, March 29, the Senate voted 66-30 to repeal the authorizations. The legislation now goes to the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote. Speaker Kevin McCarthy has conveyed support for it. ��The White House has also expressed support, issuing a statement endorsing the repeal and noting that it would not affect the 2,500 U.S. troops now stationed in Iraq.

Marquez, who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as a sergeant major with more than 31 years of service, talked at the press conference about his four combat tours in Iraq. He said he has “vivid memories” of “intense fighting and unimaginable heroism.” During his second and third tours, he said he was subjected to “intense heavy fire, improvised explosive devices and frequent attacks.” During his fourth tour, he said he saw “a major reduction in combat operations” and signs of progress.

“The American Legion is an organization composed of members who have fought in this nation’s wars,” Marquez said at the press conference. “We applaud the effort and note that it affirms what we’ve known for years: There is a strong bipartisan consensus that it is long past time to repeal these two authorizations.”

As director of The American Legion’s National Security Division, Marquez is responsible for support and analysis of defense and foreign policy issues. Previously, he served as director of the organization’s Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division. He spent 20 years of his military service deployed or stationed overseas.

Joining the families of the ship’s seven-member crew on the tarmac that morning was alumnus He was the head of NASA at the time, and says the excitement was palpable.

Former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe ’78 M.P.A. pays his respects at the Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial after attending a wreath laying ceremony that was part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery in 2012. Photo courtesy of NASA

The first orbiter to fly in space with its maiden voyage in 1981, Columbia had drawn international attention for its 28th mission. It brought a sense of optimism following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and its crew included the first Israeli astronaut.

The landing countdown, which began just before 9 a.m., did not end with the tell-tale sonic booms—made when a shuttle crosses the sound barrier on its return to Earth. “The shuttle was on track to land, but the time came and went, and everybody knew this was not normal,” O’Keefe remembers. “The mood turned from excitement to confusion.”

O’Keefe and others gathered on the landing strip did not know that debris from the shuttle had already begun to rain down across a 200-mile stretch of Texas and Louisiana.

Today, O’Keefe visited the remote town of Hemphill, Texas, where the Columbia crew was recovered. He joined community members and families of the fallen astronauts for a ceremony marking the tragedy’s 20th anniversary.

Columbia’s seven fallen crew members, shown in October 2001, were Commander Rick D. Husband (seated, left); William C. McCool, pilot (seated, right); and standing from left, David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark, Kalpana Chawla and Michael P. Anderson, all mission specialists; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist representing the Israeli Space Agency. Photo courtesy of NASA

“These are heroic people who’ve shown remarkable resolve and courage in the midst of this despair,” he says.

Last week—on Thursday, Jan. 26—O’Keefe gave remarks at NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, about 200 miles southwest. Events held the same day at other NASA sites and at Arlington National Cemetery honored Columbia’s fallen and the astronauts who died in the Apollo 1 and Challenger accidents, in 1967 and 1986, respectively.

Most years, O’Keefe attends the remembrance ceremony in Arlington, the final resting place for three Columbia astronauts and home to the Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial. “It always brings back every memory of the day,” he says. “It reminds me why we are responsible for this tragedy. And it provides an occasion to reflect on the experiences.”

So does his work as University Professor and Phanstiel Chair in Leadership at Syracuse University.

‘I don’t hold a lot back’

The Columbia tragedy is part of ��O’Keefe’s lesson plan at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. A University Professor since 2014, he teaches graduate courses in the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs (PAIA). He’s also engaged in Maxwell’s Washington, D.C., programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank where he is a distinguished senior advisor.

“I don’t hold a lot back,” he says of his teaching about the experience. While reliving the tragedy takes a toll, he says it is important, and it “starts with the proposition that on that day we failed.” He adds, “Personally, I failed as a leader to have caught or understood the management dimensions that caused this to happen.”

President George W. Bush addresses the crowd on the mall of the Johnson Space Center on Feb. 4, 2003, during the memorial for the Columbia astronauts. Seated from the left are Captain Gene Theriot, chaplain corps; Sean O’Keefe ’78 M.P.A., NASA administrator; and astronaut Kent V. Rominger, chief of the astronaut office. Photo courtesy of NASA

Columbia’s accident was caused by a breach in its left wing inflicted during liftoff by a breakaway chunk of foam insulation. But in its 2003 report, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board cited NASA’s culture as having a contributing role.

That culture was established well before O’Keefe took the helm in late 2001, says O’Keefe’s Maxwell colleague, W. Henry Lambright, professor of political science and public administration and international affairs and director of the Science and Technology Policy Program in the Center for Environmental Policy and Administration. Lambright served as a consultant in the Columbia investigation and has written books and numerous articles about his NASA research.

“The Columbia report says essentially that the accident is rooted in history,” he says, adding that a sense of complacency had gradually arisen from NASA’s previous successes. That was worsened by an atmosphere in which concerns were not aired to the highest levels of management—a common organizational challenge, he adds.

Therein lies one of the most important lessons O’Keefe strives to impart on students: The critical role of organizational dynamics. “If you create a culture that doesn’t particularly tolerate objection or different points of view, it could kill somebody,” he says.

His students also hear lessons about accountability, risk management and crisis response. His invited guest lecturers have included astronauts and other insiders like Michael Lienbach, the former launch director of the space shuttle program at the Kennedy Space Center who played a key role in the Columbia search and recovery effort.

What impacts students the most: O’Keefe’s memories of Columbia’s astronauts.

Then-NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe ’78 M.P.A. examines a piece of debris from Space Shuttle Columbia in the spring of 2003. Photo courtesy of NASA

Commander Rick Husband, a married father of two, was an accomplished U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, astronaut and man of faith. Moments before launch on Jan. 16, 2003, he said, “The Lord has blessed us with a beautiful day here. We appreciate all of the hard work everyone has put into this, and we are ready to go.”

In addition to Husband, the crew included Lt. Air Force Col. and payload commander Michael Anderson; Navy commander and pilot William McCool; payload specialist IIan Ramon—the first Israeli astronaut; and mission specialists David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark. Clark and Brown were doctors in the Navy; Chawla was an engineer.

When sharing details, O’Keefe says there’s “always a moment in which students realize it’s not some conceptual argument—it’s not a theory that has been made example of. These were real people.”

‘Lucky to have him’

Appointed by President George W. Bush, O’Keefe’s first charge at NASA was to eliminate a $5 billion cost overrun in the construction of the international space station.

“His first year at NASA was largely focused on straightening out its finances,” says Lambright.

The Columbia accident happened just over a year into O’Keefe’s tenure. Lambright credits him with providing steady leadership in the months that followed.

“It was to his credit that he kept his composure and followed the operating procedure,” he says. “He was dealing with the media, his own organization, holding meetings with the president, and trying to find out what went wrong—and he was also spending a lot of time with the families.”

Among O’Keefe’s most notable accomplishments, says Lambright, is getting the president’s subsequent endorsement of his plan to return to space with a renewed focus on safety. He also celebrated the spacecraft Cassini’s exploration of Saturn, and the landing of the Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

Back at Syracuse, O’Keefe’s students have benefitted not only from his candid NASA accounts, but also his willingness to share other leadership experiences. He was a presidential appointee four times—his roles before NASA included comptroller for the U.S. Department of Defense, secretary of the Navy and deputy director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. After leaving NASA in early 2005, he served as chancellor of Louisiana State University, vice president of the General Electric Co. and chief executive officer of the Airbus Group, Inc.

“There’s no way you can get out of a textbook what he offers—what it feels like to be in charge of a very complicated organization made up of very dedicated and prideful people,” says Lambright.

Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke echoes the sentiment. “Sean’s willingness to discuss the challenges of leadership with both humility and candor make him a forceful presence in the classroom and a favorite among his students,” he says.

Van Slyke serves as the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy, a position held by O’Keefe when he first taught at Maxwell in the years leading up to his NASA appointment. At the time, O’Keefe was also founding director of Maxwell’s National Security Studies Program. When he returned in 2014, he became the 17^th faculty member at Syracuse to receive the prestigious appointment of University Professor and he was concurrently named Phanstiel Chair at Maxwell. He also serves on the board of the University’s .

For the families

O’Keefe’s dedication to the legacy of Columbia’s fallen is fueled by an earlier NASA tragedy and by the example set by the president.

Early in his tenure, O’Keefe learned that the astronauts who died in the Challenger shuttle explosion—including teacher Christa McAuliffe—had not posthumously received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for which they’d been nominated years earlier. Their families were largely estranged from NASA.

O’Keefe invited them to meet with him and receive the long overdue space medals—ironically, just days after Columbia’s liftoff. The gathering started with an apology.

The somber meeting left a “searing impression,” he says. “They had been largely left on their own to work through the emotional trauma of this tragedy.”

He thought of them, just over a week later, when it became clear that Columbia was not coming home.

O’Keefe spoke with then-President George W. Bush that morning. “The very first thing he asked me when I called him a half hour after the accident happened, was, ‘Where are the families?’” says O’Keefe. “We spent a lot of time talking about all kinds of things in the weeks and months that followed, but to him there was never anything that rose to a higher level than how the families were being cared for.”

O’Keefe also considers a conversation he had with Evelyn Husband, widow of Columbia Commander Rick Husband. “She left me with the clear understanding that NASA’s job was to go find out what happened, go fix it and rededicate ourselves to the mission of exploration that they gave their lives to,” he says.

She and other family members of Columbia’s fallen wanted assurance that their loss had meaning—”that something was derived from the horrible tragedy,” says O’Keefe. “I made it a point for them to know we were going to treat it that way. We owed them that diligence.”

For the full story, visit the .

Dave Bing

The moderated discussion will be held in the Maxwell School Auditorium. Free and open to the public, it will be followed by a reception where attendees will have an opportunity to meet Bing.

Bing grew up in inner-city Washington, D.C., and was recruited to Syracuse University by football legends Ernie Davis ’62 and John Mackey ’63. He and classmate Sam Penceal ’66 were the only Black players on the team and among only 100 or so Black students on campus. He became lifelong friends with roommate and teammate Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73, now head coach of the men’s basketball team. With the fifth highest scoring average in the nation, he earned a spot on the All-American team.

In 1966, Bing was drafted second overall by the Detroit Pistons, and later played for the Washington Bullets and Boston Celtics. One of the most celebrated players of his era, the NBA named him to its Hall of Fame and in 1996 designated him one of its 50 greatest players of all time. In 2021, he was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team.

After retiring from basketball, Bing joined a Detroit steel company in a two-year training program. As he learned the business, he increasingly felt confident he could start his own business processing steel for Michigan’s auto manufacturers. Bing Steel earned him the National Minority Small Business Person of the Year award in 1984. He grew the business from four employees to more than 1,400, with $300 million in annual sales.

Bing sold the company in 2007 and was enlisted to run for mayor. He took office in May 2009 as the city faced debt, a shrinking population, high unemployment and failing infrastructure.

Dave Bing

After leading the city through the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history, Bing turned from politics to philanthropy, founding the , a nonprofit focused on mentoring Black boys in Detroit. Since its inception in 2014, the program and its mentorship program called BINGO has served six graduating classes and has a 100-percent high school graduation rate; 80 percent of the students are in college.

Bing’s talk is part of the Renewing Democratic Community Speaker Series that celebrates the creation of the Hicker Family Professorship with a generous gift from Bing’s former Orange teammate George Hicker ’68 and his wife, Kathy. Chris Faricy, associate professor of political science and the inaugural Hicker Family Professor in Renewing Democratic Community, will moderate the 90-minute discussion.

“Dave Bing is a Maxwell School alum who embodies the principles of democratic citizenship,” says Faricy. “I look forward to discussing his views on civil rights and basketball, his call to duty as the mayor of Detroit and his philanthropic work producing the next generation of leaders,” says Faricy. “His life is a lesson in how hard work, persistence and dedication to community can overcome setbacks and led to unprecedented success.”

Copies of Bing’s book will be available for purchase at the event.

Those wishing to attend are asked to RSVP by Wednesday, Feb. 15. Parking is available at Irving Garage. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be available at the event. For additional accommodations, please email Bethany Walawender at bdwalawe@syr.edu.

For the latest updates, including any health updates for visiting campus, visit the Maxwell School’s .

Monmonier has made “outstanding contributions to geographic research, most notably in the fields of cartography and geographic communication” as well as an “extensive record of distinctive leadership at national and international levels,” according to a release on the AAG website.

Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment, received a lifetime achievement award from the American Association of Geographers.

Monmonier retired in May 2021, wrapping up a nearly 50-year career with the Maxwell School. His lengthy curriculum vitae includes a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984, editing the National Science Foundation-supported encyclopedia “Cartography in the Twentieth Century” and publishing papers on everything from map design to automated map analysis to mass communication.

Monmonier has served on advisory panels for the National Research Council and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has received numerous honors, including the American Geographical Society’s O. M. Miller Medal in 2001, and the German Cartographic Society’s Mercator Medal in 2009. In 2016 he was inducted into the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association’s GIS Hall of Fame.

On the eve of his retirement, Monmonier received the Chancellor’s Citation Award for Lifetime Achievement, which recognizes those at Syracuse University who have made extraordinary contributions to the undergraduate experience and research excellence, fostered innovation and supported student veterans.

Monmonier has authored more than 20 books, including the first general textbook on computer-assisted cartography and “How to Lie with Maps,” which in December 2020 was named one of the “eight essential books for geographers” by Geographical Magazine, the National Geographic of the United Kingdom.

His latest book, titled, “Clock & Compass: How John Byron Plato Gave Farmers a Real Address,” tells the story of its namesake, who attended a pioneer Denver vocational high school, became a farmer in his mid-30s, and patented several inventions including the “Clock System,” which assigned addresses to rural residences without house numbers.

Like Plato, Monmonier is regarded as an inventor. What has become known as the “Monmonier Algorithm”—based on an article he published in 1973, the same year he joined Maxwell—is an important research tool for geographic studies in linguistics and genetics.

As the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, U.S. Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley keeps a busy schedule that includes briefings and strategy sessions with other top officials in the Pentagon and White House.

But, on a Thursday in early October, he carved out four hours to share his expertise with a group of graduate students and fellows from the school’s home in Washington, D.C., the (CSIS).

U.S. Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley (left) and Maxwell’s Assistant Dean of Washington Programs Mark Jacobson during an October event

“He spoke with openness about an incredibly broad range of regional security and Department of Defense programmatic issues,” says , assistant dean for Maxwell’s Washington programs. “I still have students coming up to me and saying this was the greatest part of their graduate education so far.”

Jacobson has also heard from fellows at CSIS who were pleased to have been included. In other instances, it has been Maxwell students sitting in on CSIS-led events.

The visit by Milley is representative of the unique experiences and exposure that benefit students in Maxwell’s Washington programs. It’s also an example of the mutually beneficial relationship between Maxwell and CSIS that began in 2013, when the think tank moved into its new home on Rhode Island Avenue.

Prema Kurien

For more than three decades, sociologist Prema Kurien has explored the relationship between international migration, race, ethnicity and religion with a focus on migrants from India and other countries in South Asia.

She is the author of three award-winning books and more than 60 other publications.

And, her research has been funded by high-profile organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Wilson Center and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

These and numerous other scholarly accomplishments—coupled with Kurien’s interdisciplinary approach, leadership and mentorship of students—made her an apt choice when it came time to select a director for the (SAC) in the .

“Prema has a national and international reputation as a scholar of the region,” says Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute. “She’s the right person to lead the center at this time.”

Kurien, professor of sociology, took the helm as director of the SAC during the fall semester amid welcome news: The SAC and Cornell University—longtime consortium partners—have been awarded $1.05 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The funding will be disbursed over the next four years and enables the SAC to continue as a Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) and provides students with Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships.

The consortium is the only NRC at Syracuse University and one of just six South Asia NRCs nationwide. “Being distinguished as an NRC gives us a great deal of opportunity to conduct programming with respect to one of the world’s most dynamic regions,” says Taylor. “It also gives faculty and students here at SU visibility as part of a prominent university consortium and helps them advance their scholarship as well as others’ knowledge about the region.”

The NRC funds support activities such as the New York Conference on Asian Studies. Held in October 2022, it drew 135 scholars from 15 countries to Syracuse University to share perspectives on pressing issues in Asia—everything from the successes and failures at mitigating COVID-19 and protests against military regimes to the takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban forces. “Our students and faculty benefited from exposure to a range of perspectives and expertise from both established and more junior scholars working on Asia, including South Asia,” says Taylor.

In addition to events, the funds support field research, internships, curriculum development grants and outreach activities with area schools and community colleges.

The FLAS funding, meanwhile, supports fellowships for students to study South Asian languages such as Hindi as well as area studies courses. The fellowships are for the academic year or can cover intensive summer training at the American Institute of Indian Studies in India or the South Asia Summer Language Institute at the University of Wisconsin. Across the four years of the FLAS grant, 32 University students will benefit from learning more about South Asia–many of them going on to jobs where such knowledge is highly useful, says Kurien.

“South Asia is a large, geopolitically, economically and socially important region of the world,” she adds. “Having a pipeline of students proficient in South Asian languages is important to maintain connections between the U.S. and people in the region.”

Kurien joined Maxwell in 2003. She is the founding director of the Asian/Asian American Studies program, former chair of the sociology department and has long served as a senior research associate with the SAC. In addition, she has chaired the Asia and Asian American section of the American Sociological Association and served as president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

“I look forward to making the South Asia Center an inclusive, welcoming space for students and faculty at Syracuse University and the wider community and to supporting research as well as intellectual and social exchanges,” she says. “The recent grants make it possible for us to continue and advance programming aimed at these goals.”

• Winders received the Excellence in International Migration Scholarship Award by CMS, a think tank that studies international migration and advocates for public policies that protect the rights and dignity of migrants.

Jamie Winders, associate provost for faculty affairs

Winders, who also serves as , was recognized for her contributions to the International Migration Review (IMR), the center’s flagship journal which she edited from October 2017 until June 2022.

“Jamie was an extraordinarily successful steward of the journal during the COVID-19 period. IMR experienced massive increases in submissions, and she was also a great innovator at the journal. We’re very grateful to CMS, to IMR and to the broader immigrant studies field, and we’re pleased to honor her,” said Donald Kerwin, executive director of CMS.

Winders’ research focuses on:

• International migration and the politics of belonging;
• Racial formations and dynamics;
• The politics of social reproduction.

“Working with IMR was an amazing experience. It’s a foundational journal in migration studies with this really powerful history of using research to improve the lives of migrants,” Winders said.��“We’re in a moment where migrants in so many places are under attack and where the myths about migration are doing a lot of damage in the world around us. IMR and CMS both play really crucial roles in speaking truths about migration, about its impacts. …This work is so important in this moment, to speak these truths and to use them to counter these myths that we’re hearing.”

Emily Wiemers

Emily Wiemers, associate professor of public administration and international affairs in the Maxwell School, is the principal investigator for a COVID-19-related research project that is expected to receive up to $2.2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the next five years.

The project, “Tracing the Health Consequences of Family Support during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” examines how the economic and health effects of the pandemic rippled across generations in American families.

Marc A. Garcia, assistant professor of sociology in the Maxwell School, is a co-investigator, along with I-Fen Lin of Bowling Green State University, Judith Seltzer of the University of California, Los Angeles, and V. Joseph Hotz of Duke University.

The project began in September 2022 and runs through May 2027. The NIH has provided $445,396 in funding for the first year.

Wiemers says the project will create a database of the economic, policy and health care contexts in which individuals experienced the pandemic. It will be linked to two nationally representative surveys of extended families to describe the degree to which family members shared the same challenges during the pandemic and how this affected their ability to help each other with time, money and shared housing.

“The project focuses on the pandemic’s immediate and intermediate effects on health, whether it exacerbated health disparities, and if family support mitigated negative health effects,” says Wiemers.

Wiemers is a faculty associate in the Aging Studies Institute and a research affiliate in the Center for Policy Research and the Center for Aging and Policy Studies. Her work examines intergenerational ties and economic well-being across the life course.

Garcia is a senior research associate in the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health, a faculty associate in the Aging Studies Institute, and a research affiliate in the Center for Aging and Policy Studies. He researches physical and cognitive health disparities among older racial/ethnic and immigrant adults and longevity and mortality outcomes among older Latinx subgroups.

“Emily Wiemers, Marc Garcia and their colleagues demonstrate the relevance of evidence-based research to understanding the complex policy issues facing our communities and the nation,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “To receive funding from NIH that supports faculty research with the involvement of students to inform and shape how policy makers think about the consequences of health disparities and their impacts is a strong signal of support for the quality of Maxwell scholars and the importance of their work.”

This grant adds to the millions in funding for COVID-related research already garnered by Maxwell faculty in the past two years—much of it from the NIH.

Wiemers is leading a two-year project to investigate the challenges for adult children caring for aging parents. She’s also a co-investigator on a five-year project studying the connection between policy and psychological health, headed by Shannon Monnat, professor of sociology and Lerner Chair in Public Health Promotion and Population Health. The project includes Maxwell co-investigator Jennifer Karas Montez, University Professor and director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies, and Douglas Wolf, Gerald B. Cramer Professor of Aging Studies.

Garcia, meanwhile, has worked to assess how the pandemic has affected specific segments of the population. For instance, by comparing data on deaths in 2020 and 2021, he found that Blacks and Latinos died from COVID at much higher rates than whites, but some states—New York and Illinois, for instance—were much more successful at reducing that disparity than others, notably California.

Students in the Maxwell School received a Distinguished Delegates award while representing the Russian Federation at the Model UN Conference.

A 15-member Maxwell School delegation was honored at the National Model United Nations Conference recently held in Washington, D.C.

The delegation represented the Russian Federation during the annual high-profile simulation of international diplomacy. They were honored with a Distinguished Delegates award based on votes cast by organization volunteers who consider, for example, how accurately teams represent their assigned county’s diplomatic style.

The Maxwell team also garnered two awards for outstanding position papers. Shay Kinney Leonhardt, a senior majoring in international relations, and Emma Van Ness, a sophomore majoring in political science, were honored for a paper they co-wrote for the Economic and Social Council Plenary. Lily Collins, a sophomore majoring in political science and citizenship and civic engagement, and Corbin Miller, a senior majoring in political science, were honored for their paper penned for the World Health Assembly.

“Considering the war in Ukraine, it was not an easy task to represent Russia at the conference, but the Syracuse delegation rose to the occasion,” says Osamah Khalil, associate professor of history and chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program. “They diligently prepared by studying Russia’s history and politics. These awards are a testament to their skills and determination. Serving on the Model UN team provided them with an opportunity to understand Moscow’s perspective on a range of global issues.”

Held in early November, the conference drew roughly 750 college and university students from around the world. They discussed issues at the forefront of international relations and participated in debates designed to mimic how the UN navigates international issues such as security, the environment and development.

The Maxwell delegation was led by Leonhardt, Ahmed AlQubaisi, a sophomore majoring in international relations; Daniel Kolodny, a senior majoring in political science; and Carlos Ruiz, a junior majoring in international relations.

In addition to the delegation leaders and position paper honorees, members included:

• Stephen Brooks, senior majoring in international relations and history
• Nathanial Hasanaj, sophomore majoring in international relations
• Jeffrey Hoffman, senior majoring in international relations
• Sierra Huff, junior majoring in international relations
• Nicholas Licata, junior majoring in international relations and political science
• Jose Reyes Soto, junior majoring in international relations
• Grace Sainsbury, senior majoring in international relations
• Shavonne Strelevitz, sophomore majoring in international relations and geography and the environment.

Maxwell students speak at the Model UN Conference in Washington, D.C.

Delegation advisor Vivian Ike, assistant teaching professor for the International Relations Undergraduate Program, was unable to attend the conference. Tom Bouril, a graduate student pursing a Ph.D. in history, accompanied the team as her proxy.

“Model United Nations does a great job of helping students learn about different positions of countries involved, learning how the United Nations operates and practicing collaborative and debate skills. One of the greatest opportunities Model United Nations offers the students is the appreciation they gain for the research they have done, which really shows the value of Syracuse’s education,” says Bouril.

Story by Jewell Bohlinger, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Geography and the Environment

(Photo by Matt Coulter)

At the start of the fall semester, members of the Maxwell School community were greeted by new figures joining the statue of George Washington that has served as the focal point of the school’s north entrance since the building was completed in 1937.

Framed prints of iconic changemakers like Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, alongside lesser-known advocates for social justice and other “Americans Who Tell the Truth” from the collection of artist Robert Shetterly flank the first president’s stately figure.

The new exhibition, titled “A Conversation with George Washington,” is part of an ongoing, wide-ranging effort to foster inclusion and elicit conversations over a central theme of importance to the Maxwell community: citizenship. One of several initiatives to make Maxwell’s building space more representative of its diverse community, the project was born from extensive conversations with students, alumni, faculty and staff during the past two years as leadership has developed a ��are integrated into all aspects of the school’s mission and operations.

“Through this exhibition, we hope to encourage our community to think critically about how we can dialogue from a place of respect and active listening over thorny and complicated issues,” says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion. “To have difficult conversations and acknowledge the shades of grey is inherent in our work as social scientists, teachers, researchers and students.”

McCormick, also the Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, says she is heartened by feedback from colleagues and students who’ve shared how they’ve had discussions about how citizenship has evolved since Washington and others drafted the Constitution in 1787. “Over the past two centuries, we have witnessed individuals—including those depicted in the portraits—struggle for inclusion and demand access to the rights that come with citizenship,” she adds.

The 10 portraits displayed in the foyer include, left, author and activist Grace Lee Boggs, and right, Latino community organizer Gladys Vega. (Photo by Matt Coulter)

Shetterly’s “” collection has traveled the country since 2003, and has been displayed in university museums, grade school libraries, sandwich shops, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City, and the Superior Court in San Francisco. All told, the collection includes over 260 portraits, painted over the past two decades. Historic icons like Helen Keller and Rosa Parks are joined by contemporary changemakers such as author and climate activist Naomi Klein and civil rights lawyer Van Jones.

McCormick collaborated with a team of Maxwell colleagues including Laura Walsh, academic operations coordinator, to select the 10 portraits��to be displayed in the Maxwell foyer. The display includes Grace Lee Boggs, a community activist who in 1992 founded Detroit Summer, a community movement bringing together people of all races, cultures and ages to rebuild Detroit—a city Boggs has described as “a symbol of the end of industrial society.” Also included is Louis Brandeis, who served as a Supreme Court Justice from 1916 to 1939 and came to be known as the “People’s Attorney” for taking on causes such as workplace conditions, the fairness of banks and insurance companies, government corruption, and the unreasonable restraint of trade.

“We considered how each caused us to think through citizenship as an ongoing process as people push to be included and/or demand accountability,” says Walsh, noting that Brandeis and Sibel Edmonds were selected because they illustrate ways people have “defended citizenship from inside and outside government.”

Shetterly has shared through the years how the portraits have given him an opportunity to speak about the necessity of dissent in a democracy, the obligations of citizenship, sustainability, history and how democracy cannot function if politicians don’t tell the truth, if the media don’t report it and if the people don’t demand it.

According to the website for “Americans Who Tell the Truth,” Shetterly’s work uses “the power of art to illuminate the ongoing struggle to realize America’s democratic ideals and model the commitment to act for the common good.”

Dean David M. Van Slyke points to the closing of the Athenian Oath behind the Washington statue: “We will transmit this city not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.” “It is representative of the diversity of the Maxwell School and our collective goal of creating an inclusive learning and working environment for the campus community,” he says.

McCormick and Walsh say the Maxwell community can expect to see new portraits periodically rotated into the exhibit. Meanwhile, other projects underway to promote inclusivity in Maxwell and Eggers halls include an installation called “Voices of Maxwell.” It recently went up in the entryway to Eggers Hall from the Lincoln courtyard and will feature a rotating display of quotes by Maxwell community members who have made significant contributions to the school throughout its history.

Marguerite Fisher, the first woman to be promoted to full professor at the Maxwell School, is among those featured in a new display, “Voices of Maxwell.” (Photo by Ross Knight)

The first series of displays honor the contributions of retired women faculty and staff such as Marguerite Fisher, the first woman to be promoted to associate and then to full professor in Maxwell.

“These physical changes are part of a wider effort to signal our commitment to ensuring all members of our community feel represented,” says Van Slyke. “They make diversity, equity and inclusion part of our collective everyday lived experienced in Maxwell.”

In an area known as Statuary Hall, she found members of the National Guard intermingled with officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local SWAT team members. She said they leaned against statues representing every state, “exhausted because they had spent the day engaged in hand-to-hand combat with our fellow citizens and because they had spent the day defending our Capitol building and our democratic process of counting electoral votes.”

“I walked around Statuary Hall, and I thanked them for what they had done,” recalled Cheney, “but there were not words to express the emotion of the fact that they had to engage in that battle.”

Cheney described the scene to hundreds of students, alumni and other members of the University community during an Oct. 3 event titled “Courage in Defense of Democracy.” Held in the University’s Goldstein Auditorium, it was hosted by and had Cheney sharing the stage with for an interview-style conversation. Ritter is a leading expert in the history of women’s constitutional rights and contemporary issues concerning democracy and citizenship in American politics.

Syracuse University Provost Gretchen Ritter (left) interviews Congresswoman Liz Cheney during an Oct. 3 program, titled “Courage in Defense of Democracy.”

In his introductory remarks, pointed out that the school is the only academic institution in the country with “citizenship” in its title and mission.

“Our reverence for others, intellectual humility, modeling dignity and embracing diversity makes us a school that cares deeply about ideas, evidence and working across all levels of government and all sectors of our economy to make a positive difference for the public good,” said Van Slyke, who is also the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy. “As such, we are committed to fostering civil dialogue and meaningful exchanges in an increasingly polarized society.”

, took the stage after the dean and spoke of the iconic statue of Abraham Lincoln that serves as a “sentinel” in the Maxwell School courtyard.

“During our nation’s nearly 250 years engaged in this great experiment of democracy, Lincoln presided during an extraordinary threat to the continuation of our unique form of citizenship governance,” he said before sharing a quote from the president in 1861, before the start of the Civil War.

“It is within that context that this is a particularly unique occasion for us to welcome a remarkable public servant who has literally lived up to the oath of office to preserve these principles and recited by all who have the opportunity to serve the citizens of the United States, to protect and defend the Constitution,” O’Keefe told the audience.

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney is shown with, from left to right, Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke, University Professor and Howard G. and S. Louise Phanstiel Chair Sean O’Keefe, Syracuse University Provost Gretchen Ritter and Mike Haynie, vice chancellor of strategic initiatives and innovation.

Cheney, who is the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, is serving as vice chairwoman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. She recently lost her bid for re-election in the Wyoming primary to a Republican candidate backed by former President Trump.

Ritter asked Cheney if “we should be surprised” that she was stripped of her leadership position after taking the unpopular stand in the GOP of supporting Trump’s impeachment and serving on the select committee.

“Many people thought you were a likely next speaker of the House and then it all changed,” said Ritter.

Cheney said she continues to find it inexplicable that so many in the GOP continue to defend the former president.

“What is so important is for people to understand and recognize that there’s a real cost to the Republic of defending behavior that’s simply constitutionally indefensible,” Cheney said. “And the cost of it is a constant chipping away at the foundations of the country.”

In a moment of levity, Ritter asked Cheney—a self-proclaimed “lifelong Republican”—how painful it is to now have liberal Democrats in her fan club. “I’m not choosy these days,” said the congresswoman, eliciting laughter from the audience.

The conversation later turned to a salient topic, given the venue: the role universities play in encouraging civil discourse and a commitment to citizenship.

“One of the things we don’t do very well in this country anymore is teach American history and teach the duties of citizenship, and I say that as the mother of five—someone who’s watched my kids in different schools go through social studies classes and learn about America’s role in the world,” said Cheney, adding, that’s “one of the reasons why places like the Maxwell School are so important.”

In another light moment, Ritter quipped, “You’ve just made the Maxwell dean very happy.”

Ritter and Cheney discussed the role of social media and mainstream media in polarization. Cheney issued a condemnation of Fox News, specifically for reports she said seem to defend Russia in its siege against Ukraine. And she criticized social media outlets for using algorithms to drive subscribers to radicalized content.

“I think all of us have to step back,” Cheney said, admitting her own past partisanship. “We saw on Jan. 6 that words matter. We have to recognize that in the world in which we’re living today, political violence increasingly is becoming part of our politics, and it cannot be that way.”

Cheney cited a recent incident in which Trump said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has a “DEATH WISH” and made racist comments about his wife.

“When you see former President Trump just in the last 24 hours suggesting in a pretty thinly veiled way, using words that could well cause violence against the Republican leader of the Senate, saying he has a death wish, launching an absolutely despicable racist attack against Secretary Chao, Senator McConnell’s wife, and then you watch the fact that nobody in my party will say that’s unacceptable,” Cheney said, adding, “Everybody ought to be asked whether or not that’s acceptable, and everybody ought to be able to say, ‘no, that’s not acceptable.’”

Other topics covered during the roughly 90-minute conversation included climate change and same-sex marriage. Ritter asked Cheney about her changed stance on the latter. Her opposition a decade ago caused a public rift in her own family—her sister, Mary, is gay and married with children.

“Obviously, this is an issue that touches my own family,” Cheney said. “I believe that freedom means freedom for everybody. I believe that we have to protect the rights for people to marry who they love. I said I was wrong on this issue. It’s a painful issue to talk about because I love my family. …I love my sister, and I love her family very much.”

As the event wrapped up, Cheney brought up another member of her family: She shared that one of her sons is taking a forensics class in which he has been tasked with memorizing a speech. His pick: Democrat Al Gore’s 2000 presidential election concession speech, given after the Supreme Court ruled against his protest, effectively making George W. Bush the nation’s 43^rd president.

Gore spoke of how Sen. Stephen Douglas conceded to Lincoln upon his defeat, telling him, “Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism.” Of his own situation, Gore said, “Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, I accept it.”

“I’m sure it was a very painful speech for him to give,” said Cheney.

The anecdote echoed Cheney’s earlier description of her walk through the Capitol on the evening of Jan. 6. In addition to taking note of the exhausted police officers, she paused to survey a familiar painting in the Rotunda that depicts when first president George Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The action was a significant moment in establishing a longstanding tradition of the peaceful transition of power, honored by every president except for one.

“I think that the vast majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle believe in those honored institutions of our democracy,” said Cheney, to much applause. “We will get through this period, and we will elect people who are going to protect us.”

Just a few days earlier, a 20-year-old gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and took the lives of 26 people, including 20 children.

Boeheim ’66, G’73 reflected on his sentiment in the shooting’s aftermath before a packed auditorium in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs on Friday, Sept. 9. He shared the stage with Chris Faricy, associate professor of political science and inaugural Hicker Family Professor in Renewing Democratic Community.

Chris Faricy (left) and Jim Boeheim ’66,G’73 shared the stage on Friday, Sept. 9, for a conversation-style event titled “Renewing Democratic Community: Basketball, Leadership and Citizenship.” (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Faricy told the audience of mostly students that Boeheim wrote about the shooting in his 2015 memoir, “Bleeding Orange.” He then asked the coach, “As someone who isn’t just a basketball coach but a leader in the University and a leader in the community, when do you decide to wade into politics and when do you decide to take a pass?”

“You know, you just do what your heart tells you to do,” said Boeheim. “I felt it that night, and I still feel that way. …We have more gun violence deaths than all the other countries in the world put together and that’s not changing until the politics change. I am realistic about that.”

The event, titled “Renewing Democratic Community: Basketball, Leadership and Citizenship” was the first to be offered in the Hicker Family Professor Speaker Series that celebrates the creation of the professorship with a generous gift from Boeheim’s former Orange teammate, George Hicker ’68, and his wife, Kathy. The Hickers hope to advance civil discourse and mutual understanding in today’s polarized political climate.

Boeheim credited George Hicker for his generosity and community service, a theme of his remarks during the conversation-style event. “We can talk about a lot of things today, and I hope we do, but for me, an important question is always, ‘What are you giving back? What are you doing for the other people in the world?’” said Boeheim to the audience. “I’ve been fortunate to have a platform and we’ve been able to give back a lot to our city and our community.”

What are you giving back? What are you doing for the other people in the world? I’ve been fortunate to have a platform and we’ve been able to give back a lot to our city and our community.”

—Men’s Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim

That proved a segue to Faricy’s first question: What responsibility do players have to provide service to the community? Boeheim said that though his athletes keep busy schedules between academic responsibilities, training and games, they are involved with the local Boys and Girls Club and support other organizations like Make-A-Wish and the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation.

Faricy then asked the coach to share his thoughts on the Supreme Court ruling last year that allows NCAA athletes to make money from business ventures without losing their eligibility. The changes removed prohibitions that prevented athletes from selling the rights to their names, images and likenesses (NIL).

Faricy pointed out that after the ruling, his 5-year-old son was able to get an autograph during a special appearance by former standout player Cole Swider. Boeheim shared that his son, former player Buddy Boeheim, also benefitted from the ruling, earning income from a line of “Buddy Buckets” merchandise and appearances.

But, the coach said, the rulings have not been without problems. For instance, recruitment of student-athletes has become significantly more competitive. And international athletes are ineligible to take advantage of the NIL ruling because of visa work restrictions, thus creating inequities. “NIL was a great idea if it was organically done with Cole Swider giving autographs,” he said, adding, “There are no guardrails, and there’s nothing to change it. The Supreme Court came and voted that every player can get whatever it is. …It is what it is, and we adjust to it.”

Boeheim recalled how his friend, NBA legend LeBron James—an outspoken advocate for social justice—was criticized by a media commentator who suggested he “shut up and dribble.”

Faricy then asked him about the role of athletes in the social justice movement. The coach shared how he encourages his players to register to vote and visit the polls—“a small step,” he conceded. He said that when he arrived at the University his freshman year, roughly 32 of 9,000 students were Black and of them, about “30 of them were athletes.”

Faricy pointed to the diverse audience of mostly students. “When you look around this classroom, there’s much more diversity,” he said, noting that a frequent topic in his classes is the tension between the progress that has been made and how much work still needs to be done. He asked Boeheim what he heard from his players following the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, for instance.

The coach told him, “I don’t think there are many people who didn’t understand that this was a pivotal moment, and it shouldn’t have been because there were pivotal moments two years before that, and five years, and 10 years earlier.”

Left to right: men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73, Associate Professor of Political Science Chris Faricy, Kathy Hicker, George Hicker ’68 and Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Leadership was another frequent topic during the talk—Boeheim shared how he was positively influenced by the example set by his fellow Orange athlete and roommate, Dave Bing ’66, who went on to become a National Basketball Association all-star and mayor of Detroit. “He had a tremendous effect on me,” he said. “He showed me how I should be, how I should treat people.”

Intertwined in Boeheim’s remarks were life lessons gleaned from decades on the court. He shared how he was a walk-on player, told by some that he would never succeed. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something,” he said. And then, a few minutes later, a message of perseverance: “Everything is fine when you’re winning—you find out who you are when you’re losing.”

After the hour-long conversation between Faricy and Boeheim, the audience was invited to ask questions. The first was posed by a sophomore policy studies major who wondered how students can be more engaged in the greater Syracuse community.

The question clearly struck a chord with the coach and provided him an opportunity to again impart his message that giving back is an underpinning of citizenship—a lesson often echoed within Maxwell School classrooms. There are numerous opportunities to get involved, Boeheim told the audience, but one organization that could especially use the support is the Boys and Girls Club.

“They would welcome any help they could get,” he said. “You don’t realize it, but sometimes the only food those kids get that day is there.”

George Hicker and his wife, Kathy (second and third from right), are shown with Syracuse University basketball alumni Dave Bing ’66/H’06 (left) and the late Richie Cornwall (right) as well as longtime supporter Brian McLane ’68 and Charles R. Wainwright ’68.

On the first day of his Introduction to American Politics class, Chris Faricy imparts a message to his students that will serve as a guide for the semester.

“We will not speculate on how American government should work or evaluate whether what the government does is good or bad,” he tells them. “Instead, we will investigate what the government is and how it works.”

Faricy, associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, takes a similar approach in his own scholarly work: he examines how, when and for whom American democracy works. His forthcoming book will examine whether the creation of new social and economic benefits for citizens will revitalize public trust in the federal government and democracy.

For his teaching and subject area expertise, Faricy has been selected to hold a new professorship created in hopes of advancing civil discourse and mutual understanding in today’s polarized political climate. Syracuse University basketball legend George Hicker ’68 and his wife, Kathy, have created the Hicker Family Professorship in Renewing Democratic Community.

Combined with funds pledged by the University in support of the Forever Orange Faculty Excellence Program, the endowment totals $2 million. Launched in early 2022, the program strives to advance academic excellence by generating the resources needed to recruit and retain diverse and talented faculty in a highly competitive academic landscape.

“The generosity of George and Kathy Hicker will go far to advance our work at Maxwell,” says Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Their goals align with Professor Faricy’s work to bring evidence to promote dialogue and understanding. He is especially skilled at cultivating a learning environment in which students are engaged in understanding our political systems and the impacts of public policies on different communities and stakeholders.”

Faricy will hold the professorship for its inaugural term of five years. In addition to American politics, he researches social policy, income inequality, tax policy and public opinion on government spending. He authored “Welfare for the Wealthy: Parties, Social Spending, and Inequality in the United States” (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and co-wrote “The Other Side of the Coin: Public Opinion toward Social Tax Expenditures” (Russel Sage Foundation, 2021).

Faricy has received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation for his research on social, political and economic inequality. And, he has been cited by numerous media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Forbes and The Washington Post.

“I am truly honored to have been selected to serve as the first Hicker Family Professor,” says Faricy. “The Hickers’ gift supports our work to examine how American democracy can better function during an era of increasing diversity, social stratification and political polarization.”

Chris Faricy

To celebrate the inaugural year of the professorship, the Maxwell School will host a series of speakers. Another teammate, former National Basketball Association all-star and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing ’66, H’06, is also expected to join the lineup.

Hicker, who received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences, is president of the Los Angeles-based Cardinal Industrial Real Estate. He says his former teammates can offer relevant perspective from their storied careers as well as experiences they shared. The trio played for the Orange in 1966 when the team averaged 99.9 points per game and advanced to the NCAA’s Elite Eight regionals in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hicker remembers his elation turned to disappointment when he and teammates arrived at the hotel.

The check-in clerk told Coach Fred Lewis that the team’s four Black players—including Bing—had to stay at a different hotel. “I’ll never forget his words—he said, ‘Tell them to keep our plane warm, then, because we’re not playing,’” recalls Hicker.

Lewis’ words forced the hotel to reconsider, and the team got to stay together.

Hicker has reflected on the hotel scene throughout his life, especially amid the social reckoning of recent years. “More than 50 years have passed since that hotel incident and yet we as a nation are still plagued by racism and intolerance,” says Hicker. “It is not where I’d hoped our country would be—it is deeply unsettling, especially combined with what seems like weekly mass shootings and a deep political divide.”

Hicker says funding the professorship is an investment in the future. “It turns some of our frustration to hope,” he says.

His previous gifts have been transformative: At the University, he has supported students and brought brick-and-mortar improvements. He helped fund the construction of the Carmelo K. Anthony Center and the Ingwald and Lillian Hicker Basketball Plaza, named in honor of his parents. He also expanded opportunities for students with disabilities across the University, initiated an endowment fund to provide academic support for student athletes and contributed to numerous funds, including those named for his teammates, Bing and Boeheim.

Beyond Syracuse, Hicker’s philanthropy saved the modified basketball program at his alma mater in Franklinville, New York, and funded scholarships for graduates of his former high school. He has supported numerous charities, including KidSave International, Save-A-Life, the California Council of the Blind, the Los Angeles Aids Project, Camp Fundamental, the Brotherhood of American Veterans and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Hicker is especially proud of his work with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes; he served as chairman of its board for nearly a decade and saw it expand to serve roughly 6,000 at-risk youth from over 100 schools every week.

Hicker played three seasons for the Orange starting his sophomore year. He was known for outstanding one-handed perimeter shooting, dubbed the “Hicker flicker.” After his first year on the court, he broke his femur in an automobile accident, leading to speculation about his future. Thanks to a strenuous rehabilitation program and his own determination, Hicker started the first game of his junior year, leading the team with 26 points. He went on to average 18.6 points per game for the season.

Hicker was drafted by the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and saw the world playing with the European leagues and with a team sponsored by Gillette. Injury brought an early retirement; he then worked briefly as a concert promoter and manager for such legendary acts as Sly and the Family Stone, the Chambers Brothers, Iron Butterfly and Rick James.

The music industry work brought a move to California—and a realization. Hicker found success and enjoyed the exposure to big name performers, but he quickly saw the dark side of the industry as some of the most talented turned to drugs and alcohol.

“Around that time a friend said, ‘why don’t you take this real estate course?’” he recalls. “So, I took it.”

A decade later, he started Cardinal Industrial Real Estate. He and Kathy still reside in the Bel Air home they purchased in 1972. They have two grown sons, Konstantin ’18 and Nikolai, both adopted from Russia 16 years ago.

“We’ve been blessed in our lives, and we are pleased to be able to use our success to help others,” says Hicker.

About Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university that advances knowledge across disciplines to drive breakthrough discoveries and breakout leadership. Our collection of 13 schools and colleges with over 200 customizable majors closes the gap between education and action, so students can take on the world. In and beyond the classroom, we connect people, perspectives and practices to solve interconnected challenges with interdisciplinary approaches. Together, we’re a powerful community that moves ideas, individuals and impact beyond what’s possible.

About Forever Orange: The Campaign for Syracuse University

Orange isn’t just our color. It’s our promise to leave the world better than we found it. Forever Orange: The Campaign for Syracuse University is poised to do just that. Fueled by more than 150 years of fearless firsts, together we can enhance academic excellence, transform the student experience and expand unique opportunities for learning and growth. Forever Orange endeavors to raise $1.5 billion in philanthropic support, inspire 125,000 individual donors to participate in the campaign, and actively engage one in five alumni in the life of the University. Now is the time to show the world what Orange can do. Visit to learn more.

Story updated Sept. 13, 2022

The�� will serve as a hub for scholars, policymakers and students to examine the design and impact of policies that communities use to solve public problems. For instance, center researchers may explore the designs of state laws adopted to address issues like climate change. They can analyze and advise on best practices for the creation and application of such policies, including how government entities engage non-governmental organizations and citizens in public problem-solving, policy formulation and policy implementation. They may additionally explore collaborations aimed at developing and implementing policies to protect marginalized communities from environmental threats.

The center will not only support research activity but will also house the newly created . An outward-facing unit of the center, it will offer workshops, individualized training programs and consulting services to current and aspiring policymakers.

Saba Siddiki

Saba Siddiki, associate professor of public administration and international affairs and the Chapple Family Professor of Citizenship and Democracy, will serve as founding director of the center. The new center will be situated within Maxwell’s Center for Policy Research where Siddiki serves as a senior research associate.

“I’m excited to bring these new opportunities to study policy design and governance to the Maxwell School,” says Siddiki, whose research focuses on policy design, collaborative policymaking,��institutional theory and analysis, and regulatory implementation and compliance.

In addition to campus-based initiatives, under Siddiki’s leadership, the center will provide on-campus support for her work with affiliated research initiatives, both of which Siddiki is founding director or co-director. These include the newly established Computational Institutional Science Lab, focused on developing and applying computational methods to study how societies are governed, and the , an international consortium of scholars who are funded by the National Science Foundation and work to define the commonalities, or “grammar,” of policies and social norms.

Siddiki is excited, too, about the experiential learning the center will provide to undergraduate and graduate students across the University’s 13 schools and colleges. “The center will sponsor a range of instructional and practical opportunities to help students learn about and apply skills relating to policy design, implementation, and stakeholder engagement in the public policy process,” she adds.

Serving its research and educational agendas, the new center will also serve as the institutional home for the The center will partner with the journal’s editorial team to co-sponsor research activities and events and to support student engagement.

“Saba’s own scholarship and her efforts to advance these new fields of study and attract the funding to support them are remarkable,” says Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Her ability to generate excitement, creativity and collaboration in the creation of new instruments for policy design with disparate scholars around the globe and our students is a powerful force shaping the future of public administration and policy and the social sciences more broadly.”

, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion and professor of sociology, will begin the position on July 1. She currently serves as the director of the and co-directs the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab.

Shannon Monnat

“Professor Monnat is a nationally recognized sociologist and interdisciplinary policy scholar who brings energy and intellectual leadership to the Maxwell School and Syracuse University. Her timely and highly cited scholarship informs and benefits public policy and the public good. Her previous leadership as director of the Lerner Center resulted in significant achievements in research, extramural funding, programming and student engagement. She is well-qualified to lead CPR,” says .

Monnat studies demographic and geographic trends and disparities in health and mortality, with an interest in rural health and health disparities. One area of her research has focused on the factors that explain why drug overdose rates are higher in some places in the U.S. than others.

More recently, her research has examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. She is the principal investigator (PI) for a five-year research project that will examine the impacts of the state’s mitigation policies, such as stay-at-home orders and extended unemployment benefits, on adult psychological health, drug overdose and suicide.

The COVID research project is funded with $1.95 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). All told, Monnat has been the PI or co-investigator for over $10 million in external research funding from the NIH as well as the National Institute of Justice, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Monnat serves as the PI for the National Wellbeing Survey which collects information on physical, mental and psychosocial well-being of working-age adults in the U.S. She has authored or co-authored nearly 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and over 50 book chapters and research briefs. In March 2022, she served as a panelist for a Congressional briefing on demographic trends in rural America. She also served on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committee that produced a report in 2021 on rising working-age mortality rates in the U.S.

Monnat joined Maxwell in 2017. Since then, she has served as a senior research associate for CPR as well as an affiliate to the Center for Aging and Policy Studies and the Aging Studies Institute.

She succeeds Leonard Lopoo, Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics and professor of public administration and international affairs, as director of CPR.

“CPR is home to some of the top scholars in the country who conduct policy-relevant research on the most pressing social, economic, health and environmental issues of our time,” Monnat says.

“I am excited to build on the strong foundation left by the current director, Len Lopoo, to support our faculty and students in conducting rigorous policy-relevant research and disseminating knowledge that enables leaders to develop effective solutions to these critical challenges.”

Established in 1994, CPR includes faculty from across Maxwell—mostly economics, public administration and sociology—to research and offer students a wealth of opportunity for discussions while providing advice on their own research, along with the possibility of research assistantships. CPR also provides a base for visiting scholars from across the country and abroad. In addition to their teaching responsibilities, faculty typically work on various research related to public policy involving graduate students as assistants. Faculty also consult regularly with government agencies and other institutions concerned with the issues they are studying.

In his alumni keynote address at the 2022 College of Arts and Sciences and Maxwell Undergraduate Convocation Ceremony on Saturday,��Tirico talked about his experience as part of a small group of media delegates who, under strict COVID safety protocols, lived in the Olympic village while covering the events. The games brought intense global scrutiny to the host country.

Mike Tirico delivers the keynote address at the undergraduate convocation for the Maxwell School.

“Much of the non-COVID conversation around the games brought light to the decade-plus long issue of human rights, highlighting what the United States and other nations have documented as a mistreatment of ethnic minorities, especially the Uyghyur population in southwest China’s Xinjong Province,” Tirico said to the graduates, gathered in the stadium.

“This is where the intersection of my Maxwell and Arts and Sciences life paid off, again.”

Tirico, who earned a degree in political science from Maxwell and the College of Arts and Sciences, and in broadcast journalism from the Newhouse School, said his education enabled him to “build a foundation to feel comfortable in discussing these issues with experts and eventually explaining that information for our audience in America.”

“Without my time at Maxwell and the College of Arts and Sciences, there is no way I would have been as prepared to take on the most important aspect of the most challenging assignment in my career, and execute it with self-belief and confidence,” Tirico said.

Tirico acknowledged some of the tragedies and challenges that have dominated headlines in recent years—the murder of George Floyd, deep political divides, the capitol insurrection and COVID. “All changed the world in some way,” he said. “Own them. Let them be guideposts in your growth. They mix with the personal moments while here. And if you take the lessons learned from all those moments, you will enter the world ready to make it better.”

Tirico is host and play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports Group. In addition to the Olympics, he covers an array of high-profile sporting events, including “Sunday Night Football” and select golf telecasts. He joined NBC after 25 years as one of the signature voices on ESPN/ESPN Radio and ABC Sports. He previously hosted the nationally syndicated “Mike Tirico Show” on ESPN Radio, launched in 2007 from the studios of WAER-FM—the same public radio station at Syracuse University where he began his broadcasting career.

The Undergraduate Convocation was held in the stadium. Speakers included Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke and his counterpart from the College of Arts and Sciences, Dean Karin Ruhlandt. Gerry Greenberg, senior associate dean in Arts and Sciences, served as master of ceremonies. College marshal Ashley Clemens ’22, who earned a bachelor’s degree in writing and rhetoric from the College of Arts and Sciences and magazine, news and digital journalism from the Newhouse School, served as the student speaker.

Saba Siddiki

has been named the Chapple Family Professor of Citizenship and Democracy at the Maxwell School.

She is the fourth faculty member to hold the professorship, created in 2006 with a gift from alumnus and Maxwell School Advisory Board member John H. Chapple ’75, H’11.

Siddiki joined the Maxwell School in 2017 and is an associate professor of public administration and international affairs. She says the professorship will help support her research, which examines the designs of institutions that communities use to solve public problems and how governments engage non-governmental organizations and citizens in public problem solving, policy design and policy implementation.

“I’m honored to serve as the Chapple professor,” says Siddiki, who earned a Ph.D. in public affairs from the University of Colorado in 2011. “The professorship will enable me to expand my research and help me engage students in creative ways to support their understanding of institutions, policy design, governance, and the public policy process more generally.”

Siddiki is the founder and co-director of the Institutional Grammar Research Initiative, a consortium of scholars from around the world who work to uncover and define the commonalities, or “grammar,” of successful democratic institutions. Their efforts lead to the development of frameworks for future policy and governance design.

Additionally, she is a senior research associate with the Center for Policy Research and a research affiliate with the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute. She teaches courses such as Data-Driven Decision Making, the Public Policy Process, Policy Design and Implementation and Environmental Governance.

Siddiki has helped secure $4.2 million in research funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other organizations. Included is a $2.5 million grant from the NSF and U.S. Department of Agriculture that has enabled her to examine the role of food policy councils in food policy design and implementation and how these councils are helping cities address critical issues facing local food systems.

Her work has been published in leading public affairs journals, including the Policy Studies Journal, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Public Administration, among others. She is also the author of three books on policy design, institutional analysis, and policy compliance.

“Professor Siddiki’s innovative work in institutional analysis and design ignites a whole new field of academic inquiry aimed at integrating policy and political and computational sciences to advance research on the scientific study of institutions and the rules that govern social systems to address collective goals,” says Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke. “This scholarly work and her integration of students at all levels into her research, makes her richly deserving of this professorship.”

The casings and an occasional rusted Soviet tank served as reminders of their country’s history of war. The women embodied its resilience.

Just a generation before, under the Taliban, they would have faced punishment, even death, for exercising in public. Women were forbidden to participate in sports or leave home without a male escort.

This fact was not lost on the women who ran together at dawn.

Nor was it lost on Adriana Curto. She is among alumni who have lived, worked or served in Afghanistan as soldiers, diplomats, humanitarians, attorneys and educators who share in anger and despair following the summer’s withdrawal of U.S. troops and subsequent Taliban coup.

From January to June 2021, Curto served as the Afghanistan country manager for Free to Run, a nonprofit that empowers Afghan women to participate in sports such as running to reclaim public spaces and to reconsider the roles they can—and should—have in society.

“These girls are experiencing so much trauma,” says Curto, who earned a degree in international relations and citizenship and civic engagement in 2016. “It is so unfair.���� I can’t help but think about what it must be like for them.”

Taliban leaders tried to assuage fears with claims they would rule with fewer restrictions. Yet, days after they claimed the capital, Kabul, The Ministry of Women’s Affairs—a building Curto drove past most every day—was turned into a headquarters for the Taliban’s ministry for the “propagation of virtue and prevention of vice.”

‘Transforming Afghanistan’

Adriana Curto heard about Free to Run through a friend who had worked for the organization in Iraq. She developed an interest in sports as a pathway to empowerment while serving with the Peace Corps in Morocco.

During her two years of service, she helped develop programming for an outdoor youth leadership program. “It sounded incredible,” she says of the Free to Run opportunity. “I didn’t know much about Afghanistan, but I learned so much being there. It is an incredibly complex place.”

Two women walking a trail in Afghanistan.

Most impressive were the young women. “In the news we never see the newer generation in Afghanistan—girls who are 15, 16, 17—who have grown up in this post- Taliban era and have worked to fight for a lot of different freedoms,” says Curto.

While times had changed since the Taliban fell in 2002, running was still not without risks for Free to Run participants. Yet, they persisted, waking up to board an unmarked van at 4:45 a.m. destined for a gated compound where they could safely run before school.

On weekends, they traveled further for long runs that took them past the spent bullets toward the mountains of the Hindu Kush. “It was really special and exciting for them to be able to do this,” says Curto.

Last spring, Curto sensed worry among the young women. They heard reports of the pending American troop withdrawal and murmurs at home about the potential for the Taliban’s return to power.

“They grew up hearing their parents talk about the days of the Taliban and a lack of women’s rights and education,” she says.

Two months after Curto returned home to New York, she watched news reports showing thousands of Afghans crowding the Kabul airport in hopes of evacuation. She learned that many of the women she knew made it out and are scattered across the globe as refugees. One of the former runners is a Fulbright scholar who arrived in the U.S. but told Curto she “can’t focus” on anything because she is consumed with worry for her family left behind.

“I can’t put into words how heartbreaking these past few months have been for our Afghan colleagues and friends,” says Curto.

Maxwell alumni Akbar Quraishi and Amy Friers know the heartache. From their home in Troy, New York, the husband and wife have kept tabs on their long list of relatives, friends and colleagues in Afghanistan.

Following the troop withdrawal, they heard pleas from those fearing they would be targets of the Taliban. Friers belongs to the Association of Wartime Allies and was asked by the organization to compile a list of those in need of evacuation.

She and Quraishi got to work, helping coordinate Afghans’ safe passage throughout the country and access to the airport. Thousands reached out for help. “We spent almost every minute of every day reaching out to try to find our people,” says Friers, who earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2011 and a master’s degree in international relations in 2017. “We barely slept, barely ate.”

Quraishi, an Afghan, joined the government following the Taliban’s collapse in 2002. Under constant threat, he worked in various high-level government positions before going to Maxwell for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international relations, in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

He tutored his future wife, Friers, in Farsi. The couple moved to Kabul, and with the help of a few friends and Quraishi’s colleagues, opened the country’s first specialized international relations university.

Instructors encouraged critical thinking and recruited female students with scholarships. The university’s motto: “Transforming education, transforming Afghanistan.”

“There was a huge, huge push for education,” says Friers. “Everyone wanted a degree.”

After five years, Friers returned to the states with their three-month-old twins and resumed her studies at Maxwell as a graduate student. Quraishi later joined her and went to work as a diplomat at the Afghan Embassy in Washington, D.C. The couple continued to help oversee the university from afar. Friers also signed on with nonprofits like Team Afghan Power, an organization that brings electricity, internet and educational programming to rural schools. By early summer, a sense of urgency prevailed.

“Everyone was nervous,” says Friers. “Everyone thought something was going to go bad.�� We were trying to stay optimistic.�� When everything started falling to the Taliban, we thought, ‘It’s ok, there’s a plan.�� They are going to protect the capital.’�� We were not prepared for how quickly Kabul fell to the Taliban.”

After several agonizing weeks, the couple got word that their university had survived, though it was open in a reduced capacity, without female students. Their efforts to help in the evacuation continued into the fall.

At times, their work felt futile, yet it was not in vain:�� They managed to get some out, including the first woman to enroll at the university.

Brothers and Sisters

Amid her work to help Afghans—including a nephew briefly captured by Taliban fighters—Amy Friers reached out to a fellow Maxwell graduate experienced in navigating the special immigration visa (SIV) process.

Army veteran and former CIA analyst Matt Zeller, who received master’s degrees in public administration and international relations in 2006, offered guidance during his own ’round-the-clock work to help Afghan allies. In a Washington, D.C., office suite, he spent the late summer directing a team of volunteers for an organization he co-founded with the Afghan interpreter who saved his life.

No One Left Behind advocates for the well-being and the safe placement of Afghan and Iraqi natives who worked as translators with U.S. troops. Using phones, laptops, flowcharts and diagrams, Zeller and volunteers kept track of those who were hiding in safe houses or trying to board evacuation planes.

On Aug. 15—the day Kabul fell to the Taliban—Zeller was keeping track of roughly 86,000 interpreters and family members seeking evacuation. A month later, he learned that 1,800 made it out. With the troops and U.S. diplomats departed, the evacuation effort continued through a largely underground network of humanitarians and organizations.

“We all just put our lives on hold,” says Zeller. He was joined by many other Afghanistan veterans in helping with the evacuation of Afghan allies while airing frustration with the White House’s handling of the withdrawal on major networks like CNN and MSNBC.

Matt Zeller G’06 with his interpreter, Janis Shinwari, who saved Zeller’s life in Afghanistan.

Years earlier, Zeller launched a media campaign to rally support to convince the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to grant a visa to the interpreter who saved his life on the battlefield 13 years ago, Janis Shinwari.

Shinwari fought off Zeller’s attackers just a few days after they were introduced, when Zeller began his tour as embedded combat advisor to the Afghan National Army and Police in Ghanzi Province. The act of heroism had an indelible impact on Zeller, who comes from a long line of military officers and enlisted after 9/11.

“I told him, ‘I don’t even know why you did it, man. Why did you save my life?” recalls Zeller. “He said, ‘You’re a guest in our country, I take a bullet before you.’”

For the remainder of Zeller’s tour, the pair forged a deep friendship over cups of chai and the constant threat to their lives. “If you served in Afghanistan, you return with a part of its soul in your blood,” says Zeller. “I feel a profound obligation to take care of these people because they are my brothers and sisters.”

This is an excerpt from a story that first appeared in Maxwell Perspective. Visit the for the full story.

Ryan D. McCarthy

McCarthy, whose yearlong appointment began at the start of the spring 2022 semester, brings expertise from senior appointments at the Department of Defense under three U.S. presidents, service on Capitol Hill and from several private sector roles. At Maxwell, he is serving as a strategic advisor, subject matter expert and mentor. Additionally, he will provide lectures, participate in Maxwell’s National Security Management Seminar and lead a graduate-level seminar during fall term 2022.

“Ryan is a highly regarded public servant, a true bipartisan leader who has served presidents from both parties and whose reputation for dependable and selfless service is shared by senior leaders throughout Washington, D.C.,” says Mark Jacobson, assistant dean for Maxwell’s Washington, D.C., programs, which are headquartered at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

McCarthy is no stranger to the classroom. In addition to a score of guest lectures, he currently leads an undergraduate seminar at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “Having hosted Secretary McCarthy in my classrooms on several occasions, I’m eager to have him engage with and mentor our students more regularly on the value of public service, principled leadership and working with bureaucracy and through bureaucratic challenges,” says Jacobson.

During his tenure as secretary of the Army under President Donald Trump, from 2019-2021, McCarthy is credited with spearheading ambitious modernization efforts. Prior to the appointment, he served as the 33rd undersecretary of the Army and as a special assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates during both the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations.

His private sector experience includes sequential vice president roles with Lockheed Martin Corporation and as a vice president at HSBC North America. He is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and holds an MBA from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business.

In addition to McCarthy, the Maxwell D.C. programs this academic year welcomed the following adjunct faculty members:

Jon B. Alterman, senior vice president, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy and director of the Middle East Program at CSIS. Prior to joining CSIS in 2002, he served as a member of the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and from 2009-19 served as a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. In addition to his policy work, he often teaches Middle Eastern studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the George Washington University.

Stephen Lennon, coordinator for the International Organization for Migration’s efforts to support Afghan evacuees in the United States. His previously held several roles at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Democracy Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance bureau, including as the director of the Office of Transition Initiatives. While there, he advised on organizational transformation, policy and collaboration. Previous posts also include work with the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.

Nina Jankowicz, an internationally recognized researcher and expert on disinformation and democratization. She has advised governments, international organizations and tech companies; testified before Congress and European Parliament; and led research about the effects of disinformation on women, minorities, democratic activists and freedom of expression around the world. Since 2017, she has held fellowships at the Wilson Center, where she has been affiliated with the Kennan Institute and the Science and Technology Innovation Program.

Tammy S. Schultz, director of national security and a professor of strategic studies at the U.S. Marine Corps War College. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Additionally, she works as an adjunct professor in Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program and conducts communication plenaries and simulations for foreign services officers with the State Department. She was previously a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, at the U.S. Army’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute and at the Brookings Institution.

James-Christian Blockwood, executive vice president of the Partnership for Public Service whose previous roles include service as a career member of the Senior Executive Service, managing director at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, director in the Office of Policy and Planning at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, deputy director in the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and an intelligence officer at the U.S. Department of Defense. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Presidential Leadership Scholar and a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Arthur Sidney, vice president of public policy for the Computer and Communications Industry Association who served as chief of staff and chief counsel and legislative director to two senior members of Congress for over 12 years. He also previously worked as an attorney for the Department of Commerce for nearly 10 years and has been an adjunct professor teaching various subjects at area law schools and universities since 1999.

Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, professor of strategy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the National Defense University and an advisor to Oxford University’s Centre for Technology and Global Affairs. He’s an expert on 21^st-century war and changing international relations and mercenaries who serves as a consultant to the Pentagon, CIA and the film industry. He served as a private military contractor and with the paramilitary and served in the private sector, including as a vice president at TD International.

Kathleen J. McInnis, a specialist in international security at the Congressional Research Service and nonresident senior fellow with the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s Transatlantic Security Initiative and Forward Defense practice. She has worked as a research consultant at Chatham House in London and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Previously, McInnis spent several years at CSIS, analyzing U.S. nuclear weapons strategy, strategic capabilities, NATO, European security and transatlantic relations.

“Effective governance requires a collaboration across levels of government, with different sectors of the economy, and with nonprofit organizations at the domestic and international level,” says Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Our students in Washington, D.C., and in Syracuse will benefit richly from the experiential and professional opportunities that these public service leaders will provide in collaboration with academic faculty. We are excited to welcome them.”

Peter T. Marsh

In his 33 years as a Maxwell faculty member, Peter T. Marsh penned several books that reflected his research interests, including church history and 19th- and 20th-century Great Britain. Among them, a biography of British politician and social reformer Joseph Chamberlain.

Researching “Joseph Chamberlain, Entrepreneur in Politics” (Yale University Press, 1994) led to a deep friendship with the notable family and added to Marsh’s affinity for England, which became his home shortly after he retired from the Maxwell School in 2000.

Marsh, professor emeritus, died at home in Birmingham, England, on Jan. 4.

“Peter was a remarkable colleague,” says David Bennett, professor emeritus of history. “He was a gifted teacher and a very accomplished scholar, and he had a distinguished career after he left Syracuse.”

Marsh retired in 2000 and soon after relocated to Birmingham, where his book’s namesake, Chamberlain, founded the University of Birmingham and served as secretary of state for the colonies during the Second Boer War.

While in England, Marsh researched and wrote further publications connected to Chamberlain: “The Chamberlain Litany: Letters Within a Governing Family From Empire to Appeasement” (Haus Books, London, 2010) and “The House Where the Weather was Made: a Biography of Chamberlain’s Highbury” (with Justine Pick, West Midlands History, 2019).

In addition to his research and writing, Marsh served as chair of governors of a small secondary school, ARK St Alban’s Academy, which is attached to a city church in Birmingham.

The move to England brought Marsh full circle, as he had earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge University’s Emmanuel College in 1962. He joined the Maxwell School as an associate professor of history five years later and served as department chair from 1968-70.

In 1978, Marsh was promoted to professor, and two years later he was named a Guggenheim Fellow—one of the first in Maxwell to earn the distinction.

Marsh’s numerous roles in the 1980s included serving as director of the University Honors Program; designer and director of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation project for the integration of liberal and professional education; and resident chair of the University’s program in Florence.

He was later appointed professor of international relations. He also served as president of the Middle Atlantic States Conference on British Studies and was a Leverhulme Fellow in association with the University of Birmingham, which granted him an honorary professorship. He was named a professor emeritus of history following his retirement from the Maxwell School.

Mary Lovely, professor of economics currently serving as the chair in U.S.-China Relations at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, says Marsh’s accomplishments were complimented by his character. “Peter’s friendships crossed disciplinary and school boundaries,” she says. “I remember him with a twinkle in his eye, always quick with a witty observation and a kind word.”

Marsh is survived by his wife, Amanda; his three children, Stephen, Andrea ’87, G’96 (Jason) and Susan ’89 (Lyndon); their mother, Margaret Webb G’77, Ph.D. ’96 (Stephen); and four grandchildren, Jessica, Lisette and Caroline (Susan) and Margaret (Andrea). He is also survived by his sister, Mary, and her family. He was pre-deceased by his second wife, Konstanze Baumer.

Amy Ellen Schwartz

Amy Ellen Schwartz, professor of economics and public administration and international affairs, is one of two principal investigators for a five-year research project to examine how, over time, COVID-19 has affected children’s health and education in New York City. Maxwell School faculty colleague Michah W. Rothbart is among the co-investigators.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the $3.5 million study is a collaboration by researchers at Syracuse University, New York University and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The team will investigate the effects of vaccine availability and uptake; examine racial, ethnic and income disparities; and explore the role of school and neighborhood resources in shaping outcomes and disparities. The total award to Syracuse is $1.3 million.

Schwartz also serves as chair of the Department of Economics, is the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Chair in Public Affairs and is a senior research associate for the Center for Policy Research. Rothbart is an assistant professor of public administration and international affairs and senior research associate for the Center for Policy Research.

Joining Schwartz as a principal investigator is Brian Elbel, professor of population health and health policy at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. In addition to Rothbart, co-investigators include NYU faculty members David Lee, Lorna Thorpe and Meryle Weinstein, and Sophia Day and Kevin Konty from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Shannon Monnat

Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, is the principal investigator for a five-year research project that will examine the impacts of state COVID-19 mitigation policies on adult psychological health, drug overdose and suicide.

Funded with $1.95 million from the National Institutes of Health, the project seeks to identify how the policies U.S. states enacted to combat the spread and adverse effects of COVID-19 may have affected psychological health and mortality from drug overdose and suicide among working age and older adults in both the immediate and longer terms.

“The findings will be essential for informing better policy responses in future pandemics,” says Monnat, who also serves as co-director of the Maxwell School’s Policy, Place and Population Health Lab (P3H), housed within the Aging Studies Institute (ASI).

The study’s co-investigators from the ASI include Jennifer Karas Montez, University Professor of Sociology, Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies, director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies and co-director of P3H; Douglas Wolf, Gerald B. Cramer Professor of Aging Studies and professor of public administration and international affairs; and Emily Wiemers, associate professor of public administration and international affairs. David Wheeler, associate professor of biostatistics at Virginia Commonwealth University, will also serve as a co-investigator.

The project will provide novel large-scale data on adult COVID-19 experiences and well-being and use the variation in policy responses across states to shed light on which policies and combinations of policies are consequential for adult psychological health and related mortality, the mechanisms through which policies affect those outcomes and the population subgroups that may have been disproportionately impacted.

Joseph Strasser

A year later, Paul Strasser made it to America and reunited with his sons. He carried with him a box containing their mother’s ashes. She had died from illness after seeking refuge in France, he explained, but said little more.

Memories from that time faded like an old photograph, but the pain of losing a parent at such an early age was never far from the surface for Joseph Strasser. What could have turned him inward or festered bitterness instead inspired a life motivated by the pursuit of education, public service and more than anything else, the drive to improve the lives of others.

Joseph Strasser was among the Maxwell School’s most generous supporters, having donated more than $7 million to benefit its students, faculty and schoolwide priorities. He died at age 89 on Sept. 12 following a lengthy illness.

“I can think of no one who better embodied the Maxwell spirit,” says Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Public service was at the core of who Joe Strasser was, as was his desire to use his means to make life better and provide more opportunity for others. He will forever be an important figure in our history. Not only is he among the most charitable donors of all time across all areas of our school, but his professional public service has helped define the discipline and is a quintessential Maxwell story.”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in history, Strasser served as a finance officer in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict. He then returned to Maxwell and received a master of public administration.

Strasser was the first budget officer of Savannah, Georgia, where he was nominated as Young Man of the Year for saving DeKalb County a quarter of a million dollars. He later served the city of Jacksonville, Florida, as budget officer, where, among many other achievements, he introduced civilian, professionally trained fiscal administrators into fire and police departments. Strasser served in various fiscal posts and found success as a land investor in Jacksonville until he retired in 1996.

Strasser devoted himself to causes close to his heart: education, homeless pets and parks and recreational programs. He was a member of the board of Tree Hill, a 50-acre nature park in his Jacksonville, Florida, hometown; he donated funds to renovate the park’s amphitheater—which is named for him—replace its main gate and provide for operation and maintenance. He supported First Coast No More Homeless Pets, whose veterinary clinic is now located in the Joseph A. Strasser Animal Health and Welfare Building in Jacksonville.

At the Maxwell School, his gifts funded a variety of schoolwide priorities, including upgrades and renovations to a multi-use public events room—renamed the Dr. Paul and Natalie Strasser Legacy Room in honor of Joseph’s parents. The central atrium, connecting Maxwell’s two main buildings, is named the Joseph A. Strasser Commons. A large study/meeting space for students in public administration and international relations is named the Strasser Academic Village, and he established the Strasser Endowed Scholarship Fund that supports top Maxwell graduate students.

In 2018, he endowed a professorship in public administration. Tina Nabatchi serves as the inaugural Joseph A. Strasser Endowed Professor in Public Administration.

Joseph Strasser received the University’s top award for alumni accomplishment, the George Arents Award.

“Mr. Strasser has led an incredible life—one filled with honor and dignity and kindness and generosity—despite trauma and heartbreak,” says Nabatchi, who joined Van Slyke in supporting Strasser’s nomination to receive an honorary doctorate.

The degree was awarded at a private virtual ceremony in October 2020; a public acknowledgement was included at Commencement 2021. “Our Chancellor talks about alumni ‘bleeding Orange,’” said Van Slyke during the virtual event. “I can’t think of an alumnus who is more pro-Syracuse than Joe Strasser. He has been so generous with his time, his energy, his expertise and philanthropy. It has benefitted the Maxwell School, our faculty and our students in really amazing and sustainable ways.”

Van Slyke said Strasser spoke of the fact that his father and brother, Alexander, were doctors. That made the honorary doctorate especially meaningful, said Van Slyke. “I think one of the things Joe always aspired to was to demonstrate to them that he also was both a learned man and that he was having an impact on the lives of others,” he said.

It was not the first time Strasser was honored by his alma mater. He received the University’s top award for alumni accomplishment, the George Arents Award; the Maxwell School Horizon Award for philanthropy and voluntarism; the first ever Maxwell Award for Public Administration; and the University’s Melvin A. Eggers Senior Alumni Award.

In 2015, Strasser described his family’s difficult immigration to America and its lessons. “It’s an amazing thing that we’re here,” he said. “What this drove into me, all along, was to give back, because we wouldn’t have been here if people hadn’t done that for us.”

Maxwell School Advisory Board member Lisa Y. Gordon G’90 is shown talking with members of her Atlanta Habitat for Humanity team.

Maxwell’s advisory board has a vital role in guiding the school’s efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion.

At a recent Maxwell School Advisory Board meeting, member Mary Daly G’91, G’94 posed a question—or perhaps it was a challenge.

As she recalls, it went something like this: “What can we do that can move the needle, materially change what we see that we don’t like in our society, with regard to inequities? How are we going to literally be able to hand the next generation a better future than what we inherited?”

Mary Daly

The meeting’s agenda was to give feedback on a draft of the Maxwell School’s strategic plan for improving diversity, equity and inclusion. “It had all the elements that are often in plans that are making progress on this,” she says. Yet, to really move the needle, it requires actions that are, “going to be, by definition, audacious and bold,” she says.

The exchange was emblematic of the important role the Advisory Board plays in guiding Dean David M. Van Slyke and fellow Maxwell leaders. It also exemplifies a fundamental truth: diversity, equity and inclusion are, in the simplest terms, not only the right thing to do but also yield better outcomes.

Creating Synergy

In recent years, Maxwell leadership has diversified its 40-member advisory board, including adding more women and people of color and widening the span of careers and sectors, disciplines and ages.

“Time and again, we see that a rich mix of perspectives is vital for making informed and better decisions,” says Van Slyke. Beyond that, he says, “They all are doing important work to advance equity of opportunity and demonstrating the benefits of civic engagement and leadership across all types of organizations and communities. Their work on social justice and diversity influences what we do here at Maxwell. We are the beneficiaries of their perspectives and experiences.”

Ron O’Hanley

Advisory Board Chair Ron O’Hanley ’80, chairman and chief executive officer of financial services firm State Street Corp., has seen firsthand how a commitment to inclusion pays dividends.

For the last five years, State Street Global Advisors has called on companies to increase gender diversity “because evidence shows that companies with more gender diverse boards generate better performance,” says O’Hanley, who earned a bachelor of arts in political science from Maxwell. “This year, they are focused on racial and ethnic diversity because research indicates that the issue is similarly a meaningful value driver for companies.”

Lisa Y. Gordon

Fellow Maxwell Advisory Board member Lisa Y. Gordon G’90 has echoed the sentiment to school leaders as they seek to address disparities.

Gordon has asked leadership to consider the composition of faculty and staff in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, type of work and discipline. She says, for example, “unless there are people of color in the room, the perspective will not be represented by other groups.”

As the head of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, she sees the impact of housing stability on marginalized families. “That changes the trajectory of not only their lives but also their kids,” she says, adding that children in families aided by the organization are more likely to graduate high school and go to college.

“Part of it is that when other people can see someone accomplish something they think is not within their bandwidth, that creates synergy,” Gordon says.

Drawing From Experience

Felipe Estefan G’10 has encountered no shortage of people whose hearts are in the right place when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. Yet, they’re often lacking the training and tools to bring those principles to practice and bring change, he says.

Felipe Estefan

In his capacity on the Maxwell Advisory Board, Estefan seeks to help bridge that gap. He is guided by his unique perspective. As an international student from Bogotá, Colombia, studying at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York, Estefan felt privileged. And yet, he was also a minority, not only in ethnicity but also because of his sexuality.

“The learning that I’ve had as a student, as an international student, as an immigrant, as a queer person, informs my role on the Maxwell Advisory Board,” says Estefan, who earned a master of arts in international relations from Maxwell and a master of science in public relations from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Estefan now works as investment director for Luminate, a philanthropic organization that provides funding and other support to organizations that strive to bring social justice and uplift marginalized people.

“The career that I have been able to have is very much connected to how can I use my privilege to create opportunities for others,” he says.

It is similar for Gordon, who earned a master’s in public administration from Maxwell.

The first Black woman to lead Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, she realizes the importance of her role, especially when it comes to advocacy. “I’m always asking, ‘What action can I take? What leadership can I provide that will bring about meaningful change in the short term and the long term?’” she says.

Daly likewise draws from her personal experience to inform her work as president of the Federal Reserve of San Francisco and in serving Maxwell, where she earned a doctorate in economics. Raised in a one-income family near St. Louis, she dropped out of high school at 15 and might not have found her way back to education had it not been for the guidance of a mentor.

Her background may lend to her ease in talking with people from all walks of life, something she does as often as possible to ensure she has a more complete picture of the public she is representing. “Ultimately, I’m running an organization that should look like those we serve,” she says.

Watershed Moment

Though he’d focused on inclusion and diversity at State Street, the death of George Floyd was a turning point for O’Hanley. He took stock of the company’s progress, acknowledging that it had potential to go further. He listened and gathered insight from colleagues near and far. “Then I gathered my senior leadership team and drafted our ’10 Actions to Address Racism and Inequality at State Street,’” he says.

The list is a set of priority actions—not an exhaustive list of deep systemic changes, explains O’Hanley.

He also launched State Street’s global Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Council to oversee the execution, transparency and accountability for all firmwide efforts. Diversity goals were set to help State Street achieve representation of female and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) at the highest levels.

“I view these sets of actions as simply a starting place,” says O’Hanley. “This is a journey that requires a great deal of introspection, humility and resiliency. Progress does not equal completion. We have much more work to do to ensure that equality and justice are more than just concepts.”

At the Fed, Daly has led a “framework for change” that addresses such things as supplier diversity, hiring, community engagement and the composition of the board of directors. “In practice when we work on any topic, whether it’s monetary policy or leadership or community engagement, we are sourcing from people of all different walks of life,” she says. “You can’t just go to your economic research department to learn about how to improve the economy. I have to ask all of the voices here because they all have a different lens.”

For Gordon, recent measures at Atlanta Habitat for Humanity have included a cultural audit and training for employees. One workshop was revealing: The facilitator asked employees to numerically rank their knowledge about diversity, equity and inclusion. Their scores were higher than those of the trainers. “When it comes to DEI, there’s so much we don’t know—we’re just scratching the surface,” Gordon says.

She and fellow board members agree:�� The work will never be completed.

“It’s the kind of thing where you can never sit and say, ‘Mission accomplished,’” says Estefan. “DEI is not only something that we should do, it’s something that we need to do to yield the outcomes we wish to see in the world. There’s a distinction between those who build for others and those who build with others.” With the latter, he says, “You are always better positioned to achieve greater outcomes.”

Mark Monmonier

As he wraps up a nearly 50-year career with the Maxwell School, Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor of Geography and the Environment, has received the Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award.

The honor recognizes those at Syracuse University who have made extraordinary contributions to the undergraduate experience and research excellence, have fostered innovation and have supported student veterans. It was announced during the virtual One University Awards ceremony on May 7, 2021.

“You are a major figure in the discipline of geography and arguably the most influential academic cartographer of the past 50 years,” wrote Chancellor Kent Syverud in an award letter to Monmonier. “You have advanced the field immeasurably in mapping and map design, geographic information, cartographic technique and the history of cartography.”

Monmonier has authored more than 20 books, including the first general textbook on computer-assisted cartography (Prentice-Hall, 1982) and “How to Lie with Maps” which in December 2020 was named one of the “eight essential books for geographers” by Geographical Magazine, the National Geographic of the United Kingdom.

His latest book, titled, “Clock & Compass: How John Byron Plato Gave Farmers a Real Address,” is due out in early 2022. It tells the story of its namesake, who attended a pioneer Denver vocational high school, became a farmer in his mid-30s and patented several inventions including the “Clock System,” which assigned addresses to rural residences without house numbers.

Like Plato, Monmonier is regarded as an inventor. What has become known as the “Monmonier Algorithm”—based on an article he published in 1973, the same year he joined Maxwell—is an important research tool for geographic studies in linguistics and genetics.

Professor Mark Monmonier of the geography department in the James Library in Eggers Hall with some of the books he authored

His lengthy curriculum vitae includes a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984, editing the National Science Foundation-supported encyclopedia “Cartography in the Twentieth Century” (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2015) and publishing papers too numerous to count on everything from map design to automated map analysis to mass communication.

In addition, Monmonier has served on advisory panels for the National Research Council and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has received numerous honors, including the American Geographical Society’s O.M. Miller Medal in 2001, and the German Cartographic Society’s Mercator Medal in 2009. In 2016 he was inducted into the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association’s GIS Hall of Fame.

Monmonier retires on May 20, 2021. “Professor Monmonier has had a truly extraordinary career,” says Tom Perreault, professor and chair of geography and the environment. “During his nearly 50 years at Syracuse University, he has taught thousands of students and advised and mentored an untold number of them. He leaves a legacy of scholarship that is second to none and which extends well beyond the University.”

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