First-Person Perspectives
Interested in knowing what our students, faculty, and alumni think about Pardee RAND Graduate School? Our site presents lots of quotes, which are shared here, so you can gain a first-person perspective on Pardee RAND. You may also be interested in watching some of our interviews and more on YouTube.
Current Students
Faculty
Alumni
Charles Bennett, cohort '87
Charles is a professor of SCCP Clinical Pharmacy and Outcome at South Carolina College of Pharmacy. His pathbreaking dissertation on "Quality of Care with Relation to AIDS and Oncology" spawned much subsequent work.
Pardee RAND was truly one of the most meaningful experiences of my career, and I look back fondly on it. My dissertation has been evaluated in subsequent studies funded by the Veterans Administration, the American Cancer Society, and the National Institutes of Health. I have received eight R01 equivalent grants that directly build on my dissertation, and I have published more than 50 articles on the work.
Other Comments about Pardee RAND and RAND
Eugene Bardach
Professor, University of California; President, Association for Public Policy and Management; author of A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis
When I'm looking for examples of excellent policy-analytic research, I turn to RAND. You're sitting on the largest repository of useful work in our field.
Bill Bradley
Former U.S. Senator
More than ever before, U.S. leadership will derive from our example: a pluralistic democracy whose growing economy takes everybody to the higher ground. Yet on each aspect — pluralism, democracy, and growing economy — there is clearly a lot of work for all of us. We need to build a better society. RAND graduates fit into that in innumerable ways, from earthquake protection systems to economic theory in socialist countries.
Dr. Harold Brown
Former Secretary of Defense
I first came to know RAND 40 years ago. Since leaving government once again, I have found myself even more enlightened, as a RAND trustee, about health care, immigration, crime, environment, and energy. RAND Graduate School as a way of educating the next generation of researchers is exceedingly impressive.
Warren Christopher
Former Secretary of State
RAND's value has always been to provide a broad context for decisionmaking. By focusing the power of empirical analysis on the issues, RAND helps those who must decide our nation's priorities understand what's really at stake. A strong RAND gives America an extra edge in the 21st century.
William T. Coleman, Jr.
Former Secretary of Transportation
The United States must come to see our own diversity as a great strength, certainly not a weakness and indeed really not a problem. Work being done at RAND today is about that.
Gerald R. Ford
38th President of the United States
A prerequisite for formulating sound policy is understanding clearly which courses of action are possible and what can be gained or lost as you follow each of them. RAND is singularly able to lay out the options and insure that policymakers are not blind-sided. For this reason alone, RAND is a precious national resource.
Dr. Pedro Jose Greer
Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Florida International University College of Medicine
We all benefit when the hard questions are being weighed, dissected, and ultimately decided by minds grounded in the kind of analytic depth, reason, and commitment that is an essential part of the Pardee RAND Graduate School experience.
Vaclav Havel
President of the Czech Republic
More than any other such institution, RAND influenced the outcome of the Cold War. Looking toward the coming century's challenges, RAND's brilliance and independence will be more crucial than ever.
Shirley M. Hufstedler
Former Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Former U.S. Circuit Judge
We Americans are dedicated problem solvers. We tend to believe that for every problem, there must be a solution, if we just put our minds to it. But in fact there is no single right solution to most policy problems. Thus what matters most is that policy makers be given meticulous, objective analyses of alternatives — of what is and is not possible. No one does this better than RAND. Analysis of the kind RAND pioneered is essential to constructive debate about the course of action to be taken on any difficult issue.
Dr. Henry Kissinger
Former Secretary of State
In an address to Pardee RAND Graduates:
We have to think in terms of world order, historic evolution, and a more modest role for America, though not a less important one. We have to address problems that will have no final answers but that, through a series of nuances, move us forward. These are exciting challenges. You have the rare opportunity to help shape the new, and almost certainly better, world to come.
Donald B. Rice
Former U.S. Secretary of the Air Force
When Susan and I see how successful the School has been at attracting top talent from around the world, and what a significant part scholarships play in that effort, we feel genuinely enthused about making these gifts. We know we’re making a difference, in the lives of these students, in strengthening the School, and over time in the world at large.
Alice Rivlin
ex-Vice Chair, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
RAND is the citadel of policy analysis.