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Pardee RAND Graduate School Findings Alumni Newsletter, Spring 2013 – View in Browser
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Spring 2013 |
In This Issue
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New Assistant Dean • Revamped Scholarship Program • What We're Reading Now • PRGS Publications
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New Jobs! • Alumni in the News • Alumni Directory
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L.A. Policy Symposium • Bicoastal Alumni Events • New PRGS Brown Bag Series • Frank Fukuyama Visiting in June
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Message from the Dean
Our newest issue of Findings and I must say that even I am surprised to see all that is going on not only at the Pardee RAND Graduate School but also with our alumni. New publications, new programs, new jobs, our new Assistant Dean, and (most importantly!) new grads! I encourage you to take the time to read through this issue so that you can be introduced to Gery Ryan, long-time Pardee RAND professor and our new Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs. Gery has been terrific stepping into the big shoes left behind by Jeffrey Wasserman when he became the Vice President for RAND Health.
I'd also like to draw your particular attention to the article on the new tuition scholarship program we are putting in place, beginning with the 2013 cohort arriving this fall. We've made it an objective of the graduate school to do all we can to enable our students to graduate with little or no debt as a result of their Ph.D. studies. We've done this in the belief that if we are to fulfill our mission as a school training policy analysts and policy leaders, we cannot limit our graduates' ability to choose broadly defined public service careers due to the burden of debt. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, students will be able to focus their first year efforts on the demanding core curriculum and building their network at RAND, gradually increasing their OJT/project work over their first two years in the school. Learn more below.
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As a final note, you can see even more on what we have been doing at the graduate school by reading the latest Dean's Report to the Board of Governors. Thanks to RAND's design and editorial wizards, we've had a total makeover for our third year of providing this report to the Board and the broader Pardee RAND community including students, faculty, and alumni. You can also keep up with events and news at the school and with our faculty and alumni on our Facebook page, LinkedIn, and even — dare I say it? — through following me on Twitter (@susanlmarquis). Ah, what a wonderful modern age we live in!
We're all looking forward to seeing you in Los Angeles and in our upcoming visits to the San Francisco Bay area, Washington, D.C., New York and beyond, and to hearing from you by email or on Facebook and LinkedIn. Stay in touch!
Susan Marquis
Dean
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Around Campus
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Gery Ryan, Assistant Dean |
Professor Gery Ryan Named New Assistant Dean
In welcoming Gery Ryan as the new assistant dean, Susan Marquis noted, "I am pleased to announce that Gery Ryan will be joining the school's staff as our new Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs. Gery brings to his new position a broad and in-depth understanding of the graduate school, its mission and its operation. He has been involved with the Pardee School for over a decade playing a variety of roles..."
 Read the full article
Revamped Scholarships Increase Student Earnings Starting Fall 2013
In response to student and alumni feedback and thanks to our generous donors, PRGS is now able to offer all eligible incoming students full tuition scholarships for their first year and partial scholarships for their second year. The goal of this move — which was advocated, endorsed and to-date largely funded by the PRGS Board of Governors — is to put more money into students' pockets, decrease the complexity of the program, and further reduce the debt burden for students.
Beginning with the entering class of 2013, this new scholarship structure will enable a reduction in the work requirements in each year without creating debt. Instead, students will work 65 days in their first year and, with tuition covered, all their earnings will be available for living expenses. In the second year, students will work 135 days and will pay only part of their earnings towards tuition. Under this new arrangement, take-home pay for first and second year students will rise from $16,000 to about $20,000 per year (as the tax burden falls). From their third year, students may choose to work 155 days and earn more or they may retain the 135 day requirement.
The cost of providing 20 tuition scholarships — roughly $700,000 annually — is substantial. In order to continue this program, PRGS is launching a major fund-raising initiative for endowed and annual scholarships. It is our hope that you, the PRGS Alumni, will take part in this exciting campaign by fundraising for an Alumni Scholarship to benefit the incoming students who continue your legacy of extraordinary policy work at PRGS and RAND.
Read more
Support PRGS
What We're Reading Now
To follow up on last year's successful Ten Books That Will Change the Way You Think, PRGS professors are sharing their current reading and reviews in a new weekly Facebook feature and on our website.
We kicked off the list with a recommendation from Emmett Keeler about The Signal and the Noise.
Read more
Student Research: Prolific PRGS Publishing
PRGS students are consistently busy writing RAND reports and journal articles. Below are a few of their recent releases; a full list is available online.
- John P. Caloyeras (cohort '09), Christina Y. Huang (cohort '10), and Victoria Shier (cohort '08) — along with PRGS professors Soeren Mattke, Hangsheng Liu, and Dmitry Khodyakov — recently authored a final report on their Workplace Wellness Programs Study, which has received significant media attention. The report has been mentioned in Reuters, MSN Money, Health Affairs, US News, and the Washington Post, among other outlets.
- Abigail Haddad (cohort '09) coauthored the RAND report The Mix of Military and Civilian Faculty at the United States Air Force Academy: Finding a Sustainable Balance for Enduring Success, which examines how changes to the current military-civilian faculty composition at the United States Air Force Academy might affect cadets' officership and academic development, cost, staffing challenges, and officer career development.
- Steven Fox (cohort '09) and Daniel Waxman (cohort '10) coauthored Systematic Review of Strategies to Manage and Allocate Scarce Resources During Mass Casualty Events in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, which asks whether there is sufficient evidence to show that efficient management and allocation of scarce medical resources can improve outcomes for victims of mass casualty events.
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Students Sell PRGS Sweatshirts
With "June Gloom" upon us here in Santa Monica, current students realized it would be nice to have sweatshirts to keep warm and show their PRGS pride. Alumni, faculty, and students: Be on the lookout for a forthcoming email with information about how you can order yours!
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Catching Up with Alumni
New Job? Congratulations!
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Lund |
Pham |
Shi |
Tong |
Vilamovska |
Ruopeng An (cohort '08) accepted a tenure-track position as an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, College of Applied Health Sciences, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Liz Brown (cohort '05) is consulting at Results for Development Institute (R4D) in Washington DC. "I hope to help start and build a program in developing country grassroots private sector development and entrepreneurship public policy," she writes.
Phoenix Do (cohort '00) recently accepted a tenure-track position as associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee — a joint appointment in Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Zilber School of Public Health. "The mission of the newly founded Zilber School is rooted in social justice, which aligns well with my research interests and personal convictions," she writes.
Hyun Go (cohort '04) joined the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul as a research fellow.
Ying Liu (cohort '04), was promoted to manager of Global Health Outcomes Research and Strategy at Allergan.
John Lund (cohort '84), was promoted to senior vice president, Integrated Supply Chain Management for The Walt Disney Company.
Chung Pham (cohort '05), is now senior research strategist at Denver Public Schools.
Yuyan Shi (cohort '05) is an assistant professor in the Health Policy Division, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, at the University of California, San Diego.
Daochi Tong (cohort '94) is director general for the Department of International Affairs at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
Anna-Marie Vilamovska (cohort '05), is the Secretary for Healthcare, Education and Science for the President of the Republic of Bulgaria.
Is your organization hiring? Take a look at our soon-to-be-graduating students who are on the job market!
Visit our Job Market Candidates page
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Alumnus Returns, Speaks with Students
Conrad Schmidt (cohort '92), is global research officer at CEB, the world's leading member-based advisory company. He visited in early April to talk about careers in consulting — specifically at CEB.
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Bruce Bennett on CCTV |
Alumni in the News
- Bruce Bennett (cohort '75) has been in the news a lot lately as a RAND expert discussing North Korea, most recently in an interview with CCTV International.
- Kenneth Thorpe (cohort '80) wrote a commentary, Preventing Chronic Disease Key to Health Care Fix, for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He also authored Treated Disease Prevalence And Spending Per Treated Case Drove Most of the Growth in Health Care Spending in 1987–2009 in Health Affairs.
- Scott Pace (cohort '85) wrote a commentary in The Diplomat: American Space Strategy: Choose to Steer, Not Drift.
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Cheryl Damberg testifies before Congress |
Cheryl Damberg (cohort '89) testified twice before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health; on June 5 she presented Reforming SGR: Prioritizing Quality in a Modernized Physician Payment and earlier, on February 14, she discussed Efforts to Reform Physician Payment: Tying Payment to Performance.
- Michael Shires (cohort '90), associate professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, has been named an Academic Fellow of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) for 2013-2014.
- Angela Hawken (cohort '98) was featured in a Slate Magazine article on prison reform in Hawaii, Probation That Works.
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Arash Naeim, Dr. Magic |
Arash Naeim (cohort '99) was featured in UCLA Health System's U Magazine in an article titled Dr. Magic.
- Neeraj Sood (cohort '99) wrote Price Shopping in Consumer-Directed Health Plans, published in the Forum for Health Economics and Policy.
- Yuyan Shi (cohort '05) wrote The Association Between Modifiable Well-Being Risks and Productivity: A Longitudinal Study in Pooled Employer Sample, which was published in the April issue of the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
Our Newest Alumni
Two students completed the requirements for their Ph.D.s in the last three months.
Congratulations, Lisa and Ruopeng, and welcome to the PRGS Alumni Association! And for those who are counting, Lisa is the 298th Ph.D. PRGS has conferred, and Ruopeng the 299th. Stay tuned for an announcement of our 300th!
DC Alumni Lunch with the Dean
On April 10, 13 alumni joined Dean Marquis for a tapas luncheon. It was great catching up with Kamil Akramov (cohort '01), Sharon Arnold (cohort '85), Liz Brown (cohort '05), John Fei (cohort '04), Alison Jacknowitz (cohort '99), Brian Maue (cohort '03), John Pinder (cohort '94), Samantha Ravich (cohort '92), Alex Rohozynsky (cohort '00), Jeff Tanner (cohort '05), Josh Weed (cohort '01), and Loren Yager (cohort '87).
Searching for a Lost Alumnus
Are you in contact with Man-Bing Sze (cohort '81, Ph.D. '85)? If so, please encourage him to contact us — or let us know how we can reach him!
Alumni Directory 2.0
In July we'll be sending out our second annual alumni survey to help us compile the 2014 Alumni Directory. Be on the lookout for an email so that you can stay connected to the PRGS alumni network. You don't want to be left out!
Share Your News!
For more Alumni news, visit the PRGS Alumni News page.
You can also use the online form to submit your updates!
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Recent and Upcoming Events
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Sinduja Srinivasan (cohort '09) |
PRGS Hosts Seventh Annual L.A. Policy Symposium April 5
The annual symposium, a joint effort of PRGS, UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, and Claremont, integrates L.A. area policy school students and faculty with leading practitioners to investigate the pressing policy issues of the day. The keynote speaker this year was Borja Leon, Deputy Mayor for Transportation.
Read more
View event photos
Bicoastal Alumni Events on June 27
If you're in the Bay Area, join the Dean for dinner; if you're in the D.C. area, visit RAND to learn more about Michael Rich's vision for the future of RAND.
If you will be in either area and did not receive an invitation by email, please contact Evelyn Fees at efees@rand.org for further details.
Students Organize Ongoing Brown Bag Series
To gain practical skills speaking in public, PRGS students recently organized a brown bag lunch series in which students present on their research. The first two talks were by Evan Bloom (cohort '09) who spoke about his work on the project "Adapting to a Changing Colorado River: Making Future Water Deliveries More Reliable Through Robust Management Strategies"; and Russell Lundberg (cohort '07) and Clinton Saloga (cohort '11), who discussed "Rethinking Drug-Attributable Crime Beyond DAFs: Toward a New Conceptual Framework and a Dashboard Approach."
Frank Fukuyama Visiting June 20
Prior to the PRGS Board of Governors meeting this week, Frank Fukuyama, renowned political scientist and PRGS board member, will be visiting to talk with students and faculty about his forthcoming book Political Order and Political Decay: From the French Revolution to the Present.
IDSS Presents . . .
The International Development Speaker Series team was busy this quarter, with presentations on many topics, including:
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Kamal Makili-Aliyev and Eric Larson: Azerbaijan's Foreign Policy: Regional Security Challenges
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Barry B. Hughes: Effective Responses to Long-Term Change and Improving the Human Condition
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David Roland-Holst: China's Role on Global Food Market
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Peter Blair Henry: Turnaround: Third World Lessons for First World Growth
Learn more about IDSS
Last But Not Least: Save the Date for the 2014 Commencement Weekend!
The PRGS Commencement Ceremony is Saturday, June 21, 2014; on Friday evening, June 20, PRGS will host a dinner for graduating students and PRGS alumni. We will once again be presenting PRGS's distinguished alumni award and look forward to the opportunity to bring current and new alumni together in what has become a memorable tradition at the school.
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Stay Connected with PRGS and RAND
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