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Six Years Later!
It has been an honor and joy to serve as the Trachtenberg School Director for the past six years. In those years, we have thrived despite challenges such as the pandemic. We enhanced educational offerings, gained partners, celebrated achievements, raised our rankings, increased staff, and thanked many donors and volunteers for their generosity and trust in us. New faculty members have joined the School, and others have retired with wonderful memories and accomplishments. I have had smiles for days from conversations with alumni who tell me about how they are still benefiting from what they learned and the connections they made.
To best meet my goals, I am taking a year-long sabbatical. I've got a book to complete and ongoing research on membership associations and volunteers. I'll return to the School without director responsibilities and remain the Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Professor in Public Service.
The School is positioned for more success, and we turn its leadership over to the experienced hands of Professor Kathy Newcomer. She will take over the school director role this July. I am sure she will bring her own style of passion, vision, and care to the school as I did six years ago.
Thank you for being such a welcoming community and joining me in helping the School stretch to meet its full potential.
Raising High,
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Alumni Panels Boost Network and Offer Insights
Thank you to the incredible Trachtenberg School alumni who have served on Alumni Panels this year to provide valuable industry insights and network connections to our students to help them elevate their career prospects. Director of Career Advancement, Denise Fowler, shares, "Our alumni are a powerful force of inspiration and support—sharing career wisdom, offering key resources, and helping others grow. Their generosity continues to enrich our community and influence the world for the better."
View this year's Alumni Panels on the Trachtenberg School's Video Hub. As just one example of what you can find, in April, the TSPPPA Office of Career Advancement hosted an Alumni Panel focused on artificial intelligence and its future impact on public service. The featured panelists included:
- Anne-Christina Prinvil, MPP '22: Research Analyst, Urban Institute
- Nick Strauss, MPA '97: Managing Director - Public Sector Services | Artificial Intelligence Practice, Alvarez & Marsal
- Elliot Fleming, MPA '20: Business Manager, Office of Responsible AI, Microsoft
- Keylee Jones, MPA '22: Human Capital & Org Design Strategy, Senior Consultant, Booz Allen Hamilton
- Ryan LaPrairie, MPA '12: AI Business Strategist, Salesforce
Panelists emphasized the importance of understanding and knowing the capabilities of AI, not as a job replacer, but instead as a tool to enhance efficiency. Three buckets were discussed: 1) What are things you don't like doing, and can AI automate them? 2) What takes a long time/are high cognitive load, and how can AI assist? and 3) What do you want to remain as human-to-human interaction, and how can using AI better in the first two buckets allow you to do more human-connected work? Panelists concluded that it is critical for professionals to identify which areas of AI are most relevant to their field and to learn how to build informed, confident approaches to integrating AI into their work. Watch the full panel →
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Food Safety Regulators from Gulf Area Countries Visit to Learn the Basics of the U.S. Regulatory System
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Trachtenberg faculty members and students alongside the group of food safety regulators from Gulf area countries during the January visit to the GW campus
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Food safety regulators from Gulf area countries visited the GW campus on January 29 for a daylong seminar on the basics of the U.S. regulatory system. Faculty members Steve Balla, Christopher Carrigan, Joseph Cordes, Susan Dudley, and Roger Nober presented topics such as the fundamentals of separation of powers, recent Supreme Court administrative law decisions, regulatory procedure, the rulemaking process, agency structure and actions, and oversight. To continue the partnership, RSC professors Balla and Dudley provided virtual remarks and instruction at the beginning of May for a conference of food regulators held in Kuwait by the USDA and the State Department.
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Congratulations, Graduates!
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Congratulations to the Trachtenberg School's Class of 2025! We cannot wait to see the impact that our graduates will have on the world in public policy, public administration, environmental and sustainability policy, and beyond.
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Members of the Trachtenberg Class of 2025 receiving student awards for community service at the Spring Capstone Expo with TSPPPA Director Mary Tschirhart
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Can AI Streamline Regulation and Reduce Compliance Burdens?
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Presidents of both parties have launched efforts to make government regulations more efficient and effective, including through evaluation of outcomes, offsetting the costs of new regulations by removing old ones, and more robust engagement of the public in designing new regulations. These have faced data challenges, but generative AI may offer new opportunities for examining and evaluating regulations and engaging diverse perspectives. On July 8 starting at 12pm, join the GW Regulatory Studies Center and Norm Ai for a panel of experts from across government, academia, and the private sector who explore whether and how AI can improve government outcomes. Learn more and RSVP →
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Yalan Serves as Delegate at the World Bank Group Youth Summit
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Delegate Yalan at World Bank Group Youth Summit
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| MPA candidate Vannia Yalan shares, "I was honoured to be an in-person delegate at the 2025 World Bank Group Youth Summit, which convened over 150 youth leaders from around the world in Washington, D.C.. In the Innovation Lab, my team was selected as a finalist in the Food Security and Green Agriculture challenge, where we developed a data-driven solution aligned with World Bank project goals. We engaged directly with senior World Bank leaders, including sector directors and regional vice presidents, who emphasized the vital role of youth in shaping resilient, inclusive development. This experience reinforced the power of evidence-based policy, cross-sector collaboration, and youth leadership in driving global impact."
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Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit Convenes Space Leaders
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In May, GW hosted the Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit, which convened Space leaders from around the world to explore the technologies, partnerships, and policies needed for humanity's return to the moon and the first crewed missions to Mars. Director of the Space Policy Institute and Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and a TSPPPA affiiate faculty member, Dr. Scott Pace, participated throughout the event and in the panel How Big a Priority Should Beating China Back to the Moon Be? Learn more →
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