To our readers:

This past year has been remarkable for the many challenges we have taken on and the progress we have made toward reaching our goals. While the Kennedy School continues to attract the best and the brightest each year (500 students graduated from our degree programs, and more than 2,500 participated in our Executive Education programs this year), we have committed ourselves to reviewing and strengthening our curriculum. Toward this end, in the next year, we will be updating core courses and adding new courses and concentrations in our MPP program that reflect the challenges our students will face as practitioners and leaders in an increasingly interconnected world.

We have also committed ourselves to attracting and supporting the most exceptional scholars and practitioners to the school. Several new faculty searches are currently under way, and, in conjunction with our curriculum review, we are developing a five-year strategic plan that will identify our hiring, promotion, and teaching plans. We are also extending the scope of our research, which already spans an impressively wide spectrum. Through one such effort, called the “Acting in Time” initiative, we are developing cross-cutting research collaborations that look at why particular policy problems are not being addressed and the possibilities for more effective action. And we have recommitted ourselves to finding more financial aid resources for our students, whose call to public service should not be thwarted by a lack of funds.

In the following pages you will see wonderful examples of what we are seeking to achieve. You will read about Jeffrey Liebman, a professor of public policy, who is collaborating across party lines to craft a compromise plan for reforming Social Security, and about Bec Hamilton MPP/JD 2007, who has started the Darfur Action Group to help inform students about the atrocities going on in Darfur.

Finally, you will also read about the losses the Kennedy School community has recently suffered with the deaths of two beloved staff members. Julius Babbitt MPA 2001 served just over a year as the school’s alumni director, but in that brief time he amazed us with his enthusiasm, creativity, and commitment to the school. Sue Williamson’s death in May has left our community deeply saddened. As a 1994 graduate of the S&L program and director of the MPA program for the last 18 years, she touched so many of us. They will both be sorely missed.

Warmly,

David T. Ellwood
Dean
July 2006

Photo: Martha Stewart