In this issue...

• The Deanship in Transition - Klitgaard departs to assume Claremont Presidency. Rae Archibald serving as interim dean during the search for a permanent successor.
• Our New Home: The PRGS "wing" in the new RAND Headquarters
• Fellow Hilary Rhodes's research makes a difference in a local school district
• The PRGS Student Body: At a glance
• Thanks to PRGS donors
• Some Recent Dissertations -from the newest PRGS alums.
• Class Reunions
• Class Notes: Kathy Lohr honored for lifetime achievement; Scott Pace named to senior NASA position

The Deanship in Transition

Saying Goodbye to Bob...

Bob's highest priority was to foster conditions for fellows' success, so it is appropriate that in a period of six weeks PRGS Governors, alumni, RAND colleagues and fellows contributed close to $100,000 to establish an endowed scholarship in his name. Proceeds will fund tuition scholarships for second year fellows. The entire PRGS family wishes Bob great success at Claremont Graduate University.

Bob Klitgaard, joined by former PRGS staffers Lynn Anderson and Marcy Agmon at his going away party in May.

...and Hello (Again) to Rae

Former RAND Vice-President and PRGS faculty member Rae Archibald will serve as interim dean until the search is complete. Rae has been described by Bob Klitgaard as a "doer in many dimensions": In addition to his service to RAND as a researcher and top manager, Archibald was a well-regarded member of the PRGS faculty.

Rae's service to RAND has included many top management positions, including Director of Fiscal Operations and Comptroller; Vice President, Finance & Administration; Chief Financial Officer; and, most recently, Vice President and Director, RAND Enterprise Analysis. He continues to consult on selected projects related to urban infrastructure and organizational change.

In addition to his RAND leadership positions, Rae was also a PRGS faculty member from 1980 to 1990, teaching courses in organizational analysis and behavior. He was a lecturer on advanced planning and programming methods in the Department of Planning and Urban Studies at the University of Southern California, and he also taught courses in planning theory in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley.

Upon Bob Klitgaard's announcement in February, a Search Committee was formed to update the Dean's job description and to identify and interview leading candidates. Chaired by PRGS Governor Kip Hagopian and RAND Executive Vice President Michael Rich, the committee includes representation from PRGS's key constituencies, including alumni, current fellows, faculty, and members of the Board of Governors.

The well-known executive search firm of Korn Ferry International has been engaged to assist with the search. Korn Ferry is one of the largest and best-known firms of its kind, having conducted over 100,000 senior-level searches worldwide.

In May, the Search Committee and Korn Ferry met with current students, faculty, staff members, and RAND research leaders to gain input into the formulation of a job description. It met with the PRGS Board of Governors at its meeting on June 24 to hear input about selection criteria.

Korn Ferry also contacted 205 individuals outside RAND and PRGS as part of their "sourcing" process, using KF's proprietary database and network of contacts. The KF team reported that "RAND enjoys an outstanding reputation and that the Pardee RAND Graduate School is viewed as a wonderful and unique institution, which is becoming better known as more of its graduates find their way into the various professions and as the work of its faculty continues to become well-known through their research publications." The sourcing process yielded dozens of possible candidates representing an exceedingly broad range of backgrounds. In response, there has been healthy interest from prospective candidates.

In the next phase of the search, the committee will narrow the list down to candidates that it definitely wants to interview, aiming for the interviews themselves to take place later in the summer. The final decision will rest with RAND President Jim Thomson.

We will keep you informed of future developments as they are announced.

PRGS Finds a Home in RAND's New Headquarters

If you visit the new RAND headquarters, you will no doubt be struck by PRGS's dramatically expanded facilities. The school now occupies most of the first floor's north wing, which includes the 30-seat Susan and Don Rice Learning Center, the Eloisa and Santiago Morales Student Life Center, the Dick and Mary Alice Cooley Alcove, and cubicles for 51 first- and second-year fellows. An additional 33 fellows have offices upstairs among the research staff.

The PRGS wing boasts some of the best art on display in the entire RAND building, including paintings and photographs on loan from PRGS Governor Marc Nathanson. Artists include David Hockney, Rainer Fettig, Phil Borges and Judy Stabile.

PRGS Hosts Seven International Research Institutions in First "Linking Think Tanks" Meeting

The Pardee RAND Graduate School and seven partner institutions have launched a new effort called the "Linking Think Tanks Initiative" to build working relationships with policy research institutes around the globe to help strengthen their capacity to do high-quality, independent analysis. On May 2-3, 2005, researchers from the participating institutions gathered in Santa Monica for a PRGS-hosted workshop on "Successful Policy Research: Case Studies from around the World."

At the workshop, researchers from institutes in Namibia, South Africa, Peru, Mexico, Central Europe, Indonesia and China presented examples of studies that had had an impact on public policy in their own country or region. The use of successful cases was designed to provide positive reinforcement to participants as well as to generate discussion on how to measure impact and define success. The case studies ranged from an examination of regional disparities in China to tracking expenditures for the glass of milk program in Peru. PRGS alum Hadi Soesastro '98, representing the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta, Indonesia, presented a paper on how both research on and policy towards poverty in Indonesia has evolved.

Attendees spent the second day of the conference meeting with RAND researchers in their areas of interest and brainstorming about ideas for future collaboration. Possible next steps include collaborating in the development of curriculum, student exchanges and collaborative research. To facilitate ongoing communication, the group has established a blog and is pursuing other forms of virtual interaction.

The conference could not have taken place without the generous financial support of PRGS Governor Fred Pardee, and the Open Society Institute.

Fellow's Research Making a Difference in Santa Monica

PRGS Fellow Hilary Rhodes wants to discover ways to re-engage students in their academic activities to close the persistent student achievement gap. Her research has narrowed in on the most extreme form of student disengagement, namely student dropout. Student dropout begins as early as middle school and is particularly troublesome in low-income, minority communities. Too frequently, there is little chance of getting dropouts back in the educational system once they have left.

Hilary found one program that has achieved remarkable success. Started in 1984, the San Antonio-based "Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program" singles out high-risk middle school students, not for extra instructional attention, as one might suppose, but to mentor other students identified as high risk. The job - and indeed they are paid for it - comes with a program of recognition, validation, praise and encouragement. The at-risk student is paired with a younger child, also potentially at-risk, to be an academic and social mentor. Four times a week, the adolescent tutor joins the younger children in their elementary school classrooms during the school day (under the supervision of the elementary school teacher) where they provide extra attention to keep the younger ones on track. The student mentors gain self-esteem and confidence, learning that they indeed have valuable skills to contribute. In schools where the program has been implemented, the program's participants were less likely to drop out (2% versus 12%), earned higher reading scores and felt better about themselves and their school communities than comparable students.

With this knowledge at hand, Hilary sought an opportunity to explore how the program could become more effective to reach out to youth who might not be in danger of dropping out but who rather do "the bare minimum" to skate through public school system. How could this program be used to address the fact that, in the succinct words of John Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League and PRGS Governor, "for far too many students, school just isn't cool."

Just such an opportunity has presented itself. In March 2005, PRGS hosted the first of the outreach events of the Volcker Initiative, a program designed in part to convene representatives from the public and private sectors to discover ways in which those groups can address policy problems collaboratively. The first topic was the Los Angeles K-12 public school system which has been identified as one of the lowest achieving in the nation, and where more than half of its African American and Latino students leave without diplomas. The daylong event brought school board members, RAND researchers, foundation officers and business leaders together to listen to each other and share ideas. Hilary's work on the Valued Youth Program found a receptive audience, particularly from John Deasy, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent and its two attending Board members Jose Escarce and Emily Bloomfield.

While the SMMUSD does not suffer from high dropout rates, one of its most pressing problems is student engagement, particularly of minority students. As these school leaders described, the Valued Youth Program was "like a bolt out of the blue:" it offered a compelling and proven solution to propel students towards their academic potential and dissuade them from gang membership. As such, the wheels have been set in motion to have the program up and running in September. They have warmly welcomed Hilary's offer of work as a part of the pilot program. She will examine the process of starting such a school based engagement program, adapt it to the particular needs of the district's at-risk students, and provide a rigorous evaluation of the programs first-year results, using both quantitative and qualitative results.

Some Recent Dissertations

David Groves '05 New Methods for Identifying Robust Long-term Water Resource Management Strategies for California

Geoffrey Sommers '04 Astronomical Odds: A Policy Framework for the Cosmic Impact Hazard

Connor Spreng '05 Policy Options for Failing Schools

Tatsuro Yoda '05 Recalibrating Alliance Contributions: The Changing Policy Environment in Military Alliances

The Student Body - At a Glance

Demographics

• Current Enrollment: 87
• International: 49%
• Female: 31%
• Married: 33%
• Parents: 14%
• Underrepresented Minorities (% of U.S. Students): 6%
• Average time of degree completion: 57 months
• Number of countries represented: 19

Academic Background

• Economics: 29%
• Engineering: 19%
• Social Science, other than Economics: 13%
• Mathematics: 9%
• Physical Science: 8%
• Business Management: 6%
• Humanities: 5%
• Natural Science: 3%
• Public Policy: 3%
• Other: 5%
• Holders of Advanced Degrees: 81%

Thanks to PRGS Alum Donors

Many thanks to these alums, who have made financial contributions to PRGS since January 2004.

• Mark Albrecht '78
• David P. Apgar '88
• Morton B. Berman '74
• Andrea K. Biddle '90
• Clayton K. Chun '92
• Grace M. Carter '74
• Richard Fallon '80
• Elwyn D. Harris '78
• Kathleen N. Lohr '80
• John R. Nelson '77

• David M. Oaks '96
• Mark J. Perry '95
• Rachel Schmidt '91
• Hadi Soesastro '98
• Robert O. Valdez '85
• Jeffrey Wasserman '88
• Susan J. Way-Smith '92
• Katharine W. Webb '92
• Laurinda Zeman '88

For information on giving to PRGS, please contact Bianca Roberts, Director of Development at bianca_roberts@prgs.edu.

Reunions

A Reunion in Bali of the Class of '74

Entering Class of '74 members (l to r) Hadi Soesastro, Ragnhild Sohlberg and Chris Conover reacquaint on Bali

Hadi Soesastro '98 reports:

"In 1974, when PRGS was still called the RAND Graduate Institute (RGI), a bunch of aspiring policy analysts formed the Class of '74. This is rather extraordinary as usually it is a group of graduates that will use the year of graduation to describe itself.

"Members of the Class of '74 have developed close personal relations. They study a lot together, formed extra sessions, and shared their knowledge. They also socialize together: they went out on a picnic, to see the desert flowers bloom, to the theatre, and above all they celebrate their birthdays together. Spouses have become an integral part of the group. The Class of '74 is a class of itself!

"Chris Conover '95 is the youngest member of the group. He would come with a poem to officiate any event the group organized. Ragnhild Sohlberg '80, a female economist from Norway, is the wisest (oldest) member. Chris calls her Mother Rags. Other members include Captain Mike Parmentier (and wife Gail), Vietnam War Veteran Tom Carhart, Masaaki Komai from Japan, Joe Bolten '81 (and his then wife Doris), and me, Hadi Soesastro from Indonesia.

"Chris now lives in North Carolina, Mike and Tom are in Virginia, Joe and Doris are still in California, Ragnhild is back in Norway, Masaaki is in Japan, and I have been back in Indonesia since 1978.

"Over the years there were many 'bilateral' get-togethers amongst members of the Class of '74. It was 9/11 that inspired us to come together to have a reunion. This was originally scheduled for April 2003 in Bali, the 'last paradise on Earth'. The SARS epidemic in Southeast Asia forced us to postpone the reunion.

"Finally, from 10 to 17 September 2004, the first reunion took place, about 30 years after the group was officially welcomed by Charles Wolf, Jr., RGI's Dean in the old RAND building. The venue was a private Balinese bungalows in Ubud, Bali, in the middle of rice fields. It was a wonderful setting for the reunion. Chris (and wife Deb), Ragnhild, Doris Bolten, and me and my wife, Janti, had a lot of fun. We explored the island. We ate a lot, talked about politics and elections, and visited the office of the Nature Conservancy to be lectured about environmental problems in the so-called 'Coral Triangle'.

"Joe was unable to come because he had to move his office to the new RAND building. Mike canceled because of illness in the family and Tom was unable to travel as he had to take care of a son. We hope that all members of the Class of '74 will come to the next reunion in Washington, D.C. in the Fall of 2005. This will be followed by another one in Norway, perhaps in 2006. How classy, indeed!

Class Notes

Kathy Lohr '80 was honored in May with a lifetime achievement award for the significant contribution she has made in improving health care outcomes during a 30-year career in the fields of health care and health care policy research. Lohr is the third person to receive the Avedis Donabedian Outcomes Research Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

For nearly four years at RTI, Lohr has directed a program of research in health services and health policy. She is currently co-director for the RTI-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Evidence-based Practice Center, leading the development of rigorous evidence reports and technology assessments on a broad range of health care topics. In addition, Lohr is a research professor at the UNC-CH School of Public Health, a senior research fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and senior investigator for the UNC-CH Program on Health Outcomes.

"We are extremely proud of Kathy's accomplishments and her leadership of our health care and health policy research programs," said RTI International President and CEO Victoria Haynes. "It is gratifying to see her recognized for her many years of dedicated research to improve the lives and health care of others."

Before joining RTI, Lohr spent nine years at the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, where she was director of the Division of Health Care Services. Before that, for 12 years at The RAND Corporation, she led or worked on various health care projects for the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense and the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. She was elected a fellow of Academy Health (formerly the Association for Health Services Research). She has written or edited dozens of reports and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, including one co-written with Dr. Avedis Donabedian, the "Father of Outcomes Research," in honor of whom this award was established.

Kathy adds that, "I owe a lot to RAND Graduate Institute (as it was then) and to my many mentors at RAND, including Bob Brook!"

Rick Fallon '80 is currently Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of RAND, a position he has held since 2000. From 1996-2000 he led RAND's European affiliate (RAND Europe, headquartered in the Netherlands), first as Director then later as President of RAND Europe. Prior to returning to RAND, Rick held several financial management positions with the Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco, including head of Pacific Bell Financial Management as well as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Pacific Telesis Enhanced Services. Rick lives in Los Angeles with his wife Christine and their son Vincent (6). Rick also has two older children, Seric (28) and Michele (25).

Jack Riley '93 rejoined RAND in 1999 after 5 years at the Department of Justice. He is currently Associate Director of RAND Infrastructure, Safety and Environment, a division created last summer with the merger of the S&T and PSJ units and the Homeland Security Center from NSRD. Recent RAND projects include his leadership of the internal security analysis for RAND's work on building a Palestinian state and a forthcoming report on the role of policing and justice in nation building efforts. The latter project took Jack to Afghanistan for 2 weeks last summer. Jack and wife Karen (who now works for RAND) moved to the Pittsburgh office last September.

Sam Bozzette '95 recently changed from consultant to employee at RAND in the health program. He continues to hold appointments at UC San Diego's Medical School and the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. Sam works in clinical and outcomes research, has cut way back on administrative responsibilities and continues to write - although he adds "probably not quite enough." He splits his time between Santa Monica and San Diego, where he lives part time with his 2 boys (ages 11 and 15).

Michael Shires '95 has been elected as secretary of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management's Committee of Institutional Representatives. Shires is associate professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy, where his research focuses on higher education policy and management, and public finance.

Scott Pace '98 was recently named by NASA as Associate Administrator and head of its newly established Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation. This office, which reports directly to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, will independently assess program performance, make programmatic and institutional recommendations, perform cost analysis and conduct strategic planning activities. Pace previously served as Chief Technologist for Space Communications in NASA's Office of Space Operations and as NASA's Deputy Chief of Staff. Prior to joining NASA, he was the Assistant Director for Space and Aeronautics in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Arthur Brooks '98 is currently an associate professor of public administration at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and is Director of the school's Nonprofit Studies Program. Arthur teaches courses on economics and nonprofit management, and his research focuses on philanthropy and the economics of the arts. His newest book, entitled Charity and Selfishness, will be published in 2006 by Basic Books. Arthur and his wife Ester live in Syracuse with their three children: Quimet (7), Carlos (5), and Marina (2).

Editor's Note: Arthur's intriguingly titled op-ed piece, "Drink More, Earn More (& Give More)" appeared in the July 18th issue of the Wall Street Journal. His article "What do Nonprofit Organizations Seek (And Why Should Policymakers Care?)" appears in the summer 2005 issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis Management.

What Are YOU Up To?

Send us a class note, or just update your contact information - please be sure to include your name, graduation year, current contact information and, if available, a recent photo. Please send to findings@prgs.edu.

Help Us Locate "Lost" Alums

If you have contact information for any of the following PRGS alums, please drop us an email at findings@prgs.edu.

Subjectively Speaking

We know you have opinions, and we'd like to hear from you. Just drop a line to findings@prgs.edu.

Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

In the Next Issue

• Dean's Search Update
• The OJT Brokers - An innovative student organization that assists fellows in seeking RAND project work
• Where the Alums are - an overview of PRGS Employment
• A Profile of PRGS's incoming class of 2005
• and more - see you in the fall!