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researchers at texas a&m university are among four research teams awarded a total of $2 million to study gene drive and gene editing technologies the us department of agricultures (usda) national institute of food and agriculture (nifa) made the awards other institutions participating in the nifa program are the university of florida iowa state university and the santa fe institute of science texas a&m researchers will receive $497 000 over the next three years to support their project gene drive applications to agriculture in texas: knowledge perceptions and values the project led by principal investigator dr kent portney brings together texas a&m researchers from the institute for science technology and public policy (istpp) in the bush school of government and public service from the departments of entomology and soil and crop sciences in agrilife research and from agrilife extension co-principal investigators dr zach adelman and dr david kerns will coordinate the aspects of the project conducted by agrilife they are joined by co-principal investigator dr elizabeth heitman professor of ethics in science and medicine from university of texas southwest medical center gene drive is a phenomenon that makes a particular genetic trait occur more frequently throughout a population with each passing generation they can occur through a variety of mechanisms in nature and through gene editing creating a gene drive through gene editing has been proposed as a potentially effective means of genetically modifying specific non-human populations and perhaps entire species depending on the intended application gene drives could change pest populations to be less harmful or could reduce a pest population recent advances in gene editing technologies could help meet the challenges of feeding a rapidly growing global population but they also raise important questions about their acceptability and possible unintended consequences nifa created the social implications of emerging technologies program in 2017 to fund research on stakeholder and public engagement about gene drive and other gene editing applications in agriculture the project team will evaluate effective ways to communicate and engage with stakeholders and the public to shape the potential research development and use of gene drive technology dr kent portney istpp director and leader of the project team explains although actual gene drives are likely years off in the future if they happen at all this project is designed to understand how texans view the potential social impacts and perceived risks of gene drive technologies in agriculture specifically hypothetical applications to address the boll weevil the indian meal moth pigweed and the mosquito that carries rift valley fever all of which currently affect or potentially could affect agriculture in texas and other areas of the us we will examine how the science and its potential impacts are communicated to the public stakeholders and decision makers said portney we want to know how this information forms public opinion and stakeholders perspectives as well as how values perceptions of risk and trust in science could affect views on the potential development and use of gene drive applications

two capstone research teams from the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university have received the james w mcgrew research award for outstanding research from the central texas chapter of the american society for public administration the award recognizes undergraduate and graduate students in public administration or public policy programs who have conducted outstanding research as an individual or as a team in the field of public administration and/or public policy this year students at the bush school took part in twenty different capstone projects something each student must complete before graduation these research projects are a key element in the overall curriculum and encourage teamwork and the demonstration of knowledge students have acquired during their time at the school one capstone from each department was recognized in the department of international affairs (ia) a project that assessed the value of us southern commands (southcom) ‘shaping lines of effort to promote regional security and stability received the award the award winning project from the department of public service and administration (psa) looked at the question of lobbying by former executive government officials the ia team was led by dr don macwillie and included students travis askew matthew faucett lauren galyen jonathan mcphilamy and lucas reddig the psa team was led by dr deborah kerr and included lela akiashvili humna butt kirbie ferrell morgan gray alexandra gonzalez peiquan lin megi llubani elba morales and dylan woods psa student morgan gray said she and her team spent two semesters developing a database for the congressional research service (crs) comprised of former officials who served within the executive branch between the years 2000 and 2016 crs wanted a better understanding of the career paths of former executive branch officials and whether or not such individuals lobby before or after entering the executive branch crs will now use our database to construct an official report for congress on the prevalence of lobbying among former executive branch officials gray said overall our team acquired experience in providing a high-quality product to our client while working to maintain a relationship with our client built upon professionalism timeliness and high-quality product delivery the winning ia team was tasked with measuring the effectiveness of southcoms security cooperation or building partner capacity (bpc) activities team member travis askew explained that he and his team developed a model to measure the effectiveness of southcoms bpc activities the teams were honored at a banquet in austin on may 21 2018

dr laura dague assistant professor at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university was recently appointed a faculty research fellow at the national bureau of economic research (nber) she will be a member of the health economics program at the nber her appointment as a member of this organization followed a highly selective process in which dr dague was nominated by current nber members im very pleased and honored to be joining the outstanding group of economists in the health economics program dr dague said this appointment is a validation of the importance of studying the role of public health insurance programs like medicaid in our economy membership in this organization will increase dr dagues professional visibility and increase access to data available through the nber additionally joining the health economics program grants dr dague the opportunity to distribute research through the widely circulated nber working paper series dr dague earned her masters and phd in economics from the university of wisconsin previously she earned her bachelors degree in mathematics and economics from the university of kansas her research interests are in health economics particularly the economics of public health insurance dr dague was the winner of the 2015 national institute for health care managements research award for her work on medicaid premiums dr dagues research team has been funded by the institute for research on poverty at the university of wisconsin the robert wood johnson foundation the uc davis center for poverty research the we upjohn institute for employment research and the state of wisconsin department of health services

dean mark welsh recently announced the appointment of dr lori l taylor as the new head of the department of public service and administration (psaa) at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university in making the announcement dean welsh noted that dr taylor will bring years of knowledge and experience to this position since arriving at the bush school in 2003 dr taylor has consistently been in the forefront of education policy research and implementation both at the state and national levels welsh said i am confident she will continue to do that while also providing essential leadership to the department i am excited and deeply honored to have been chosen to lead the psaa department dr taylor said i know that i have big shoes to fill but i am ready and willing to work hard on behalf of our students and faculty we have grown enormously since i joined the bush school in 2003 and managing even more growth will be one of my recurring challenges dr taylors appointment is effective july 1 she currently serves as the director of the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy at texas a&m university prior to arriving at the bush school dr taylor spent fourteen years as an economist and policy adviser in the research department of the federal reserve bank of dallas dr taylor holds the verlin and howard kruse 52 founders professorship at the bush school and is an adjunct professor in texas a&ms department of economics she is the principal investigator for the texas smart schools initiative and currently serves as a member of the board of directors for the association for education finance and policy and the board of governors for the regional educational laboratory (rel) southwest she is also a member of the editorial board for aera open and the children at risk institute and serves on the policy board for texas aspires dr taylor holds a bachelor of arts in economics and a bachelor of science in business administration from the university of kansas and a masters and phd in economics from the university of rochester

a new online graduate certificate program in public management is being offered at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university the program focuses on the capabilities required for effective and ethical leadership in the public and nonprofit sectors certificate courses will be offered online on-campus or in a combination of both formats for full- time professionals graduate students and aspiring public servants the graduate certificate in public management is an outstanding addition to the resume of anyone working or endeavoring to work in a public service or public management career bush school dean mark welsh said the 12-credit certificate program will provide graduate-level coursework taught by the bush schools nationally and internationally acclaimed faculty members all certificate students will enroll in two required courses budgeting in public service and public management as well as two elective courses in their specified field of interest elective courses range from urban sustainability policy to cybersecurity to public information systems management the culmination of the program will result in prepared state and federal leaders with the requisite skills and expertise in public service to excel in professional and executive management roles more information on the certificate program can be found online at bushtamuedu/pbmg

historically the focus of democracy promotion has been to support countries in a transition from authoritarian to democratic governance with an assumption that further democratic consolidation would follow recent trends from across the developing and developed world have led us to question this assumption once stable democracies are witnessing executives taking greater power civil society being repressed and opposition voices being stamped out the future of democracy in these nations is uncertain students at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university are studying the causes and effects of this phenomenon known as democratic erosion as part of a capstone course that all students must complete to graduate democratic erosion or democratic backsliding occurs when governments become less accountable to their citizens and institutions begin to collapse this doesnt necessarily imply a complete transition to full authoritarianism but the democracy weakens in a state explains dr jessica gottlieb assistant professor at the bush school and faculty adviser of the capstone the capstone team is working for the united states agency for international development (usaid) to create two different deliverables one deliverable is an experimental literature review over programs that may contain lessons for democratic erosion or strengthening democracies but the primary deliverable is a database the team is creating that will code events related to the causes and consequences of democratic erosion worldwide chris hill a second-year bush school student who is part of this capstone team said they are looking at different patterns of symptoms precursors and how countries resist democratic erosion when they are coding each country the main deliverable that weve been working on dovetails with the fact that this capstone is part of a much larger collaborative course on democratic erosion the raw data thats generating the dataset – case studies on eroding democraciesis being produced by students who are taking this class at 20 other universities across the country said gottlieb there is one university in the philippines teaching this class making it a global endeavor this larger effort has recently earned attention in an article written by the washington post titled trumps presidency has prompted a new nationwide college course on why democracies collapse democratic erosion capstone texas a&m university bush school of government & public service client: usaids center of excellence on democracy human rights and governance (drg)instructor: dr jessica gottlieb background masters students at texas a&ms bush school of government & public service complete a capstone course in their final semester in which they conduct policy research for a client in this case usaids democracy human rights and governance (drg) division the theme of the capstone is democratic erosion and together with the client they identified two deliverables detailed below the students under the guidance of the instructor will work on these deliverables in the 2018 spring semester and produce both written reports and oral presentations reflective of their work presentations will be scheduled in washington dc in early may 2018 deliverables 1 a database coding country case studies of democratic erosion while there has been substantial theoretical work on how and why democracies erode an important gap we have identified is systematic empirical evidence that would allow us to ask applied questions such as how democratic erosion might manifest differently in different places or what systematic precursors of democratic erosion might be to help fill this gap the capstone group will create a country-year dataset that codes events related to democratic erosion in about 70 countries that we have identified as potentially backsliding over the last decade we will code events that are either precursors to democratic erosion eg economic or security shocks and events that are symptoms of democratic erosion eg executive aggrandizement or systematic attacks on the free press what facilitates this coding exercise is our collaboration with a 20-university initiative in which instructors are all teaching the same course on democratic erosion to a mix of undergrad and grad students at their respective universities one of the common course assignments is to write a case study of democratic erosion for one of our pre-selected country cases that we have identified as potentially backsliding (using indicators from the varieties of democracy database) this will result in several case studies for each country on our list which will then be systematically coded by the capstone students a report will produce some preliminary analyses using the dataset but the data itself will also be made publicly available so that others can conduct their own analyses 2 a review of the experimental evidence relating to democratic erosion the group will additionally undertake a systematic mapping review of the experimental evidence on issues related to democratic erosion while only a subset of questions with respect to democratic erosion can be answered using experimental manipulation there are key areas where substantial evidence has begun to accrue for instance there has been experimental work documenting the effect of civic education courses on trust and participation in democracy – something that could potentially prevent or curb democratic erosion there has also been work on improving the effectiveness of and reducing corruption in bureaucracies to the extent that democratic stability is undermined by a lack of state legitimacy these results can also be informative to the study of democratic erosion a report will map the existing literature under several thematic areas related to democratic erosion; describe key characteristics of the evidence base eg the countries populations and interventions studied; and synthesize findings and policy implications within each thematic area

a new book religious statecraft: the politics of islam in iran has been published by dr mohammad ayatollahi tabaar texas a&m bush school of government and public service it examines the politics of islam rather than political islam to better understand iranian politics and its ideological contradictions in his book dr tabaar examines fifty years of shifting islamist doctrines within the context of irans domestic and international politics and demonstrates that religious narratives in iran can change rapidly and frequently as the elites threat perceptions change additionally dr tabaar challenges readers to rethink the conventional wisdom regarding the 1979 revolution in iran and the us embassy hostage crisis among other pivotal events in iranian history based on a micro-level analysis of post-revolutionary iranian media and recently declassified documents as well as military and theological journals religious statecraft constructs a new picture of iranian politics in which power drives islamist ideology dr tabaar is an assistant professor in the international affairs department at the bush school of government and public service his research areas include international security and middle east politics dr tabaar has been a fellow or a visiting scholar at rice universitys baker institute for public policy harvard universitys center for the middle east cambridge universitys centre of islamic studies and george washington universitys institute for middle east studies his articles have appeared in security studies ps politics and political science and journal of strategic studies he has also written for foreign affairs snapshot foreign policys middle east channel washington posts monkey cage and the new york times magazine

dr hannibal istpp assistant research scientist has been named a fellow of the links center for social network analysis gatton college of business and economics university of kentucky he received this recognition for his outstanding dedication to social network analysis and to the links center hannibal has participated in multiple advanced workshops on network analysis and has taught workshops on this analytical method hannibal is highly sought out by researchers here at texas a&m for his expertise in this specialized field and other advanced research methods he has used this method to further understand interlocking directorate board structures of nonprofit organizations (with dr paarlberg) and is currently part of several interdisciplinary funded research projects that focus on identifying and leveraging the networks of flood prone communities to enhance their resilience in responding to disasters

the scowcroft institute of international affairs at texas a&m universitys bush school of government & public service will hold its 2nd annual pandemic & biosecurity policy conference at the national press club (529 14th street nw washington dc 20045) on wednesday may 16 2018 from 8:45 am-11 am the event will feature globally renowned pandemic and health security experts testifying to the gaps in our nations response plans and identifying specific policy changes and reforms necessary to improve pandemic and international health security response strategies as weve seen with another ebola outbreak in congo this week its not a matter of if another pandemic similar to the 1918 great influenza will occur its a matter of when its imperative that we do more nationally and internationally to prepare for such an event scowcroft institute director andrew natsios said threats affecting international health security including bio-threats and biosecurity hazards are also gaining momentum evolving into a high-threat probability this timely meeting will help determine our nations vulnerabilities and what we can do to mitigate a coming catastrophe keynote addresses will be given by: senator tom daschle current panel member of the blue ribbon panel on biodefense and former senate majority leader;dr robert kadlec assistant secretary for preparedness and response us dept of health and human services;mr tom dilenge president advocacy law and public policy division at the biotechnology innovation organization (bio) featured panelists/respondents will include: dr gerald parker associate dean global one health texas a&m university;dr mukesh chawla advisor on health nutrition and population to the world bank group;dr rebecca katz co-director center for global health science and security at georgetown univ;mr patrick fine ceo of fhi 360;dr guy vernat ceo of the merieux foundation usa;dr jonathan quick pandemic expert and author of new book entitled the end of epidemics;dr lindsey shields smithsonian institution on may 18th opening of new outbreak exhibit;dr joseph fair research professor and senior fellow at the scowcroft institute;ms kathleen fitzgibbon director office of africa analysis us department of state; andmr peter morris div director for preparedness usaid/ofda;dr david brett-major assist prof of prev medicine & biostatistics uniformed services university about the scowcroft institute of international affairs: the scowcroft institute of international affairs is a research institute housed in the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university the institute is named in honor of lt gen brent scowcroft usaf (ret) whose long and distinguished career in public service included serving as national security advisor for presidents gerald ford and george hw bush the institutes core mission is to foster and disseminate policy-oriented research on international affairs by supporting faculty and student research hosting international speakers and major scholarly conferences and providing grants to outside researchers to use the holdings of the bush library

dr xinsheng liu istpp research scientist and assistant director presented the research paper bureaucratic influence in national policy agenda setting process: evidence from congressional hearings on global warming and climate change at the annual meeting of the midwest political science association chicago april 5-8 2018 this paper coauthored with dr bryce hannibal (istpp assistant research scientist) and dr arnold vedlitz (istpp director emeritus and distinguished research scholar) offers theoretical expectations new empirical measures and robust evidence for federal bureaucrats dominant participation widespread presence and central role in congressional hearings on global warming and climate change

dr bryce hannibal istpp assistant research scientist gave an invited talk examining the mediating influence of interlocking board networks on grant making in public foundations to the mpa faculty at brigham young university in provo utah on april 5 2018 this paper is co-authored with dr laurie paarlberg from the bush school and dr jasmin mcginnis johnson from george washington university

students from texas a&ms prestigious bush school of government & public service are taking a close look at localized flooding of the red river to offer potential solutions to government citizens and businesses eight graduate students from the master of public service and administration (mpsa) degree program began their capstone research project in september when sheriff steve prator solicited their assistance through bush school professor and fellow shreveporter dr arnold vedlitz now after eight months of research and preparation the students are set to present their findings to prator and other parish and city officials at 10 am may 2 at the caddo sheriffs re-entry facility we are very lucky to have this comprehensive look at our river and the researchers responses to the increasingly more frequent flooding problem prator said ali mustapha administrator of the caddo parish levee district; rich brontoli executive director of the red river valley association; and mary bicknell local attorney and environmentalist were all instrumental in bringing the student researchers to shreveport over the past months students have conducted some 50 interviews with citizens and key people in the community including the sheriff and other leaders in government business industry and non-profits the research has included data from the 2016-17 lsu manship school flood survey; a review of literature including books reports and documents on urban flooding and the history of flooding in caddo parish; case studies of urban flooding in other communities and the best practices for mitigation and recovery; and a review of surveys and technical studies to identify common problems themes and solutions by participating in a bush school capstone project caddo parish has become part of the instructional process at texas a&m vedlitz said and in exchange will receive a management study valued at around $250 000 its as good or better than those produced in the private sector he said the cost to caddo parish was around $6 000 for travel and production costs paid for by the caddo parish levee board similar research projects have been conducted throughout the united states and internationally for local state and federal public agencies and non-profits since 2002 second-year bush school mpsa students have participated in capstone research courses allowing them to tackle real-world problems or projects often while working in conjunction with a government agency or nonprofit organization designed to test the knowledge and abilities students have developed through their previous classes and experiences capstones necessitate strong teamwork careful research writing ability and often a large amount of ingenuity in identifying ways to approach an issue or find a solution according to the school students participating in the red river research project are steven hebert jordan christman elizabeth thomas amanda sumner mario martinez shelby poncik brandon kallenbach and katie fields vedlitz said he hopes the students research will provide caddo parish with a report that will be useful in identifying problems and giving community leaders a head start at evaluating problems and identifying possible solutions the student researchers in turn will receive a unique educational opportunity a chance to work with shreveport and caddo parish leaders and an opportunity to network and build long-term relationships but most importantly they will experience firsthand president george hw bushs philosophy … that public service is a noble calling

dean mark welsh announced the bush school will offer a new master of international policy at the texas a&m university bush school of government and public service designed as a non-thesis masters degree program for mid-career professionals the degree will require the completion of 30 credit hours the degree is offered in residence (with an option of taking up to 6 credits online) on the texas a&m university college station campus it is designed to offer mid-career professionals the opportunity to further their education and deepen their knowledge of international relations students may select either the national security and diplomacy (nsd) track or the international development and economic policy (idep) track the curriculum consists of two required courses the theory and practice of international politics and fundamentals of the global economy students will additionally take five courses in either the nsd or idep track; the remaining three courses are electives the full degree can be completed in an eleven-month period dr f gregory gause head of the international affairs department said that the program is constructed for mid-career professionals who have the opportunity to spend a year of study it provides maximum flexibility for students to concentrate in the areas where they seek to develop their skills and knowledge a minimum of six years of professional experience in the field of international affairs broadly defined is required for entry to the program areas of study include diplomacy; intelligence; nuclear security; cyber policy; grand strategy; conflict and development; international economic development; and regional studies of the middle east europe and china visit our website for more information about the program bushtamuedu/inta/degrees/mip/

istpp collaborated with the program in natural resources systems in the texas a&m university school of law and the texas water resources institute to study the complexity of the governance structure that oversees the up to 15 transboundary aquifers along the texas-mexico border the resulting report survey of legal mechanisms relating to groundwater along the texas-mexico border identifies the myriad local state federal and international entities and the treaties laws and regulations that govern the transboundary aquifers the report delineates overlaps and gaps in the governance structures and the ways these create opportunities for both cooperation and conflict between and among groundwater regulators from both texas and mexico finding ways to encourage and leverage multi-level government cooperation between texas and mexico is becoming increasingly critical for protecting aquifer sustainability while efficiently allocating use of the waters to the growing populations along the border a basic and profound difference in water governance in texas and mexico is the ownership status of the water resource mexican law declares all ground and surface water within its jurisdiction as public property texas laws however establish groundwater as private property and the state owns the surface water the executive branch of mexico has immense authority in regulating how water is extracted and allocated from transboundary aquifers but private citizens in texas have the ability to extract groundwater on their property with little regulation the disparity in regulatory practices between texas and mexico leads to many of the extraction practices involving these transboundary aquifers being difficult to catalogue this study serves as the beginning of a larger study between istpp texas a&m school of law and the texas water resources institute on groundwater governance on the texas-mexico border foster jessica 2018 survey of legal mechanisms relating to groundwater along the texas-mexico border texas a&m university school of law program in natural resources systems fort worth tx

student researchers at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university examining the possible links between gender issues and radicalization recently received first place in their category at texas a&ms student research week the research is part of a capstone project that all second-year bush school students are required to complete before they graduate student research week is a research symposium that highlights student research conducted across texas a&ms campus this year marked the twenty-first year of student research week and its theme bridging disciplines engaging with others aimed to ensure that all colleges across campus were able to participate in the event emiley pagrabs a member of the bush school team explained the project further were contracted by the state department to complete an analysis of the impact of some gender factors on foreign fighters and radicalization and what compels individuals to leave their home countries and travel to isis territory the team led by dr valerie hudson is using a database she created the womanstats project to gather data to complete the macro-level analysis research was conducted at both the macro and the micro level to try to fully understand what drives individuals to radicalize at the micro level the group obtained biographical data on nearly forty-five foreign fighters to examine potential factors that result in radicalization its really interesting to see how these factors affect people on the micro level pagrabs said no one has been looking at this yet so we think it fills a void in the radicalization literature maybe this isnt everything and its not the answer because theres no one-size-fits-all explanation for radicalization but it helps complete the picture additional team members include sara ascol wiam ayachi ashley lovell kayla mcgill and ryan yandell

dr valerie hudson a professor at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university recently received the distinguished service award for her contributions to promote womens empowerment worldwide the award was presented by the lds international society the distinguished service award is given each year to an individual who has made significant and unique contributions in research or service to humanity dr hudson has made substantial contributions to both aspects of the award one of the factors that convinced the board to grant the award to valerie was that she has made unique contributions in both international research and service said executive director of the international society ted lyon we view her as an outstanding professional an outstanding human being an amazing and creative researcher and a delightful friend dr hudson is an expert on international security and foreign policy analysis as well as gender and security she received her phd in political science at the ohio state university at the bush school she directs the program on women peace and security dr hudson has developed a nation-by-nation database on women the womanstats database (http://womanstatsorg) which has triggered both academic and policy interest using this data hudson and her co-principal investigators from the womanstats project have published a wide variety of empirical work linking the security of women to the security of states

in the united states we tend to take for granted our refrigerated produce and how it navigates its way from the field to a processing center to our kitchen tables remaining cold the entire time halfway around the world in uganda this seemingly mundane process is not an assumed facet of everyday life joel taylor a first-year student at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university spent a month of his winter holiday in uganda studying the countrys cold chain system the term cold chain refers to the temperature-controlled supply chainin other words how products that must be kept cold are moved from the fields to the shelves taylor focused primarily on agricultural products in the cold chain and partnered with local ugandans to improve cold chains ensuring that produce retains its nutritional value throughout its journey to the supermarket foods can lose up to half of their nutritional value when exposed to high heat levels people dont realize that an apple thats been sitting outside does not have the same nutritional value as one thats been kept cold taylor said without proper refrigeration produce can go bad in two to three days while farmers in uganda rely on shade to keep their product cool it is not enough to prevent the reduction in nutritional value taylor became interested in food security in uganda during his sophomore year at texas a&m that year he was assigned to a group to study sustainable development in uganda through the student initiative for international development an organization that trains undergraduate students to create and implement development projects that will have a lasting impact on developing communities worldwide additionally taylor learned swahili and studied abroad in tanzania which proved useful in bordering uganda as well uganda specificallyit sparked an interest for me taylor said it was something that just kind of hit my heart and i started learning about some of the food security issues and i started meeting people after his sophomore year taylor applied to the university of edinburghs swahili program was accepted and fell in love i thought ‘i have to get back and i got tired of sitting around so i decided to make a project for research or work opportunities taylor said after spending the previous spring interning at the global cold chain alliance (gcca) a trade association that represents cold chain members around the globe taylor had the know-how to write a project proposal he spent six months drafting his proposal eventually pitching it to the gcca which decided to sponsor the project financially and technically taylor also partnered with the lt jordan institute on the texas a&m campus during his internship he was part of a team that performed a cold chain assessment in uganda but the team only looked at the capital kampala and entebbe a major town in the middle of the country taylor saw a need for a more comprehensive understanding a lot of people were interested in investing or partnering or getting involved with developing the cold chain but all we had was that report taylor said i wanted to go back and say that we have a comprehensive report on cold chain use across the country from representative districts so that is exactly what he did with his project now sponsored taylor enlisted the help of texas a&m chemical engineering major brandon sissom and professional photographer andrew giles over a month-long period taylor and his team traveled to nine districts throughout uganda while on the ground they worked to identify local partnersordinary ugandan farmers and business owners who live there they talked to 350 farmers farming groups and co-ops and had forty-eight official meetings in the thirty days they were there uganda like many countries in africa is a developing country with underdeveloped infrastructure which makes development difficult and there are cultural differences that can make assessing what ugandans actually need difficult for outsiders so how does one work around those barriers taylor said hes still learning but searching for similarities is a good place to start after a long days work taylor would find himself at night shooting pool and talking to local ugandans about the problems in their country its recognizing that people in conflict and surrounded by conflict arent helpless and theyre not solely described by their need taylor said sometimes they just need an opportunity to show that theyre here to help themselves and theyre here to partner for change and i think a lot of aid organizations have this ‘hero complex its overcoming that hero complex to say ‘were not the ones who are really going to end this conflict; because its your conflict its not ours but instead asking how can we help you achieve that goal more than anything taylor wanted to locate and facilitate relationships with these local partners the driving purpose of the report was to provide farmers and business owners with names and contact information and get them involved in the project going forward taylor said i really pushed for this and for them to be incorporated into this project taylor said its their country and its their lives i want to partner with them to help i have this really niche understanding of the cold chain so why not introduce them to that so they can then help themselves

on tuesday april 17 2018 judy vredenburgh president and ceo of girls inc gave a talk about the power of mentoring: shaping lives strengthening futures for the 2018 bank of america program on volunteerism the evening was hosted by the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy and the bush schools new center for nonprofits and philanthropy before the evening event judy vredenburgh met with students in the social innovation & entrepreneurship class at the bush school of government and public service where she answered questions about her transition from the corporate sector to nonprofits she offered some career advice for the students as well encouraging them to choose an employer with a culture that matched their personality after a reception in the presidential conference center the program on volunteerism began with dean welsh delivering welcoming remarks and introducing honored guests in attendance including former vice president dick cheney several girls inc alumnae and ten girls inc girls from tarrant county bush school professor william brown director of the center for nonprofits and philanthropy followed dean welsh with remarks about the new center and its work to support nonprofits small and large and introductions of the centers advisory board he then provided a brief biography of ms vredenburgh and an explanation of the work that girls inc does to support girls nationwide through childhood and into adulthood after a brief video presentation with you in my corner about girls inc judy vredenburgh took the stage ms vredenburgh discussed a range of topics including her own experience as a mentor she emphasized the difference a mentor can make pointing to a number of statistics to show that mentors can encourage girls to stay in school avoid illegal drugs and grow into strong smart and bold women ms vredenburgh concluded her remarks with a call to action for the audience to get involved and make an impact whether through board membership donating or by becoming a mentor themselves she then took a seat onstage for an exchange with her former colleague at big brothers big sisters of america bush school assistant professor kenneth taylor dr kenneth taylor the recently appointed director of outreach and professional development at the center for nonprofits & philanthropy began his conversation with ms vredenburgh by asking about the meaning of leadership which she stated required influence as the most important factor in response to dr taylors follow-up questions ms vredenburgh explained that she left the for-profit sector to bring her values to a nonprofit position she allowed that the transition was rocky at first but has proved enormously rewarding she also talked about the importance of diversity in hiring and the role of diversity in continuing to find innovative solutions to social challenges after the two speakers wrapped up their discussion professor and mosbacher institute director lori taylor delivered closing remarks and together with dr brown and dr kenneth taylor presented ms vredenburgh with a plaque honoring her advocacy and effective leadership on behalf of women and girls the audience left abuzz with conversation about the importance of mentorship inspired by the leadership demonstrated by judy vredenburgh and her organization

reveille the first lady of aggieland and texas a&ms official mascot recently visited the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university as part of spring dog day an event put on by the bush school student government association (sga) and the bush school public service organization (pso) while reveille was the center of attention at spring dog day she wasnt the only dog present aggieland pets with a purpose brought therapy dogs to the event so that bush school students could play with the cute critters and relieve stress as finals and the end of the semester approach pso used this opportunity to encourage students to donate old t-shirts that will be made into dog toys and donated to the bryan animal center other supplies such as toys and food were donated as well it was fun to finally get a picture with reveille said kaylin taylor a second-year student at the bush school this time of year is always stressful so it was nice to get to take a break and play with the dogs for a little while and give back

dr bryce hannibal of istpp has been appointed to a three-year term as a fellow of the institute for sustainable communities (ifsc) at texas a&m university ifsc brings together scholars from across a&m to collaborate on interdisciplinary research engagement and high impact service learning ifscs fellows program recognizes scholars who have made notable and valuable contributions to scientific research community resilience and engagement efforts as well as teaching excellence dr hannibal is currently working with people associated with ifsc on several research projects that focus on different aspects of community resilience one such project funded by the national science foundations (nsf) critical resilient independent infrastructure systems and processes program is collecting original data to analyze how human-infrastructure systems affect resilience to urban flooding as co-principal investigator on another nsf project dr hannibal is collecting original data from city governments to analyze strategies and planning networks oriented toward building resilience to urban flooding

this two-day conference on rethinking texas water policy featured educational presentations on groundwater and surface water policy by government industry and academic experts representing a range of groundwater and surface water interests and expertise the speakers included distinguished state government officials jurists hydrologists and academics from texas a&m university rice university texas tech university texas state university and texas a&m university-corpus christi before assessing substantive regulatory change one must understand all the issues relating to water policythe legal scientific economic and political complexities therefore the conference was organized around these four complexities with day one focused on groundwater and day two focused on surface water and also on how groundwater and surface water can be better utilized conjunctively conference topics on the first day of the rethinking texas water policy conference dr james griffin senior professor of economics and public policy at the bush school of government and public service welcomed participants and challenged them to think long-term and big picture about texas water policy well beyond the next legislative session and texas water code tweaking he further urged them not to throw out ideas they deemed politically unfeasible day one: understanding the complexities of groundwater understanding the legal complexities participants were first treated to a legal panel moderated by austin water attorney ed mccarthy which included texas supreme court justice james blacklock former texas supreme court justice craig enoch and former texas court of appeals justice jan patterson the panelists discussed the lack of legal precedent as a challenge to ruling on water policy cases and the role of science and expert testimony in deciding water related disputes before moving into a conversation about the similarities and differences between groundwater oil and natural gas lawunderstanding the science: texas major aquifers & hydrologic characteristics the second panel was moderated by john tracy director of the water resources institute at texas a&m and included larry french of the texas water development board hydrologist bob harden and greg stanton of the texas water science center the panels focus revolved chiefly around the issues of artesian pressure and reductions in aquifer storage and the lack of correlation between the two the panelists also discussed how artesian pressure could be substantially reduced but storage only slightly depleted another point of emphasis was the challenge of making rules that provide fair and consistent regulation of aquifers when each one is differenttexas water history during the lunch hour dr charles porter professor of history at st edwards university spoke about the history of water policy in texas beginning with over 180 years of surface water precedents as the dominant concern of regulators before groundwater rose to greater prominence in the current eraunderstanding the economics carlos rubenstein former chairman of the texas water development board and former commissioner of the texas commission on environmental quality moderated the economics panel consisting of economists james griffin of the bush school and ryan williams of texas tech university the topics of conversation centered on some common misconceptions about groundwater including the idea that loss in artesian pressure is not the same as a loss in storage in an aquifer suggested solutions to groundwater scarcity issues included adoption of correlative rights to limit landowners to a reasonable share of a common source of groundwater avoiding discrimination among users and beneficial uses of water a mitigation fund to protect land owners impacted by increased pumping and the idea of groundwater bank accountslimitations on sharing the resource the next panel included kathleen jackson director of the water development board sarah schlessinger of the texas alliance of groundwater districts john durand representing texas alliance of energy producers and public policy strategist john hockenyos of txp inc moderator marc rodriguez government relations consultant guided the panelists through a discussion of issues considered by the earlier panels and their implications for water policy using a case study of the city of san antonio the participants discussed the economic importance of water and the nearly impossible balancing act that local groundwater conservation districts must perform to responsibly serve both landowners and the environmentunderstanding the political constraints the final panel of the day convened texas state representatives tracy king and four price former state senator buster brown and moderator texas a&m university water law and management professor ron kaiser the experts shared their insight into the political nuances of texas water policy as the legislators spoke they described the division on water policy as often a result of conflict between urban and rural interests and predicted that despite increasing disagreement over water policy there would be more legislation on groundwater in the near future day one of the conference concluded with a reception in the lobby of the annenberg presidential conference center where attendees were able to discuss the content of the days panels and follow up with speakers about specific concerns and questions prompted by the presentations made during that days groundwater panels day two: understanding the complexities of surface water the second day of the rethinking texas water policy conference began with a welcome from dr lori taylor director of the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy who introduced the first speaker of the morning former texas state senator and current senior advisor for fiscal matters at the office of the governor tommy williams senator williams observed that water resources are crucial for job growth which he identified as the number one priority for the state senator williams also praised the work of the texas water development board and swift before transitioning into the first panel of the morningunderstanding the legal complexities of surface water todd votteler editor-in-chief of the texas water journal moderated a legal panel consisting of toby baker commissioner of the texas commission on environmental quality; austin water lawyer doug caroom; and kevin ward general manager of the trinity river authority of texas the panelists discussed the laws relating to ownership and use of surface water all surface water in texas is owned by the state with use determined by junior and senior water rights referred to as the prior appropriations system which grants higher priority usage to whoever has owned a right to water for a longer period of time particularly during droughts this system has proven inflexible leading to both practical and legal challenges for water users statewide and for the texas commission on environmental quality the state agency mandated by the texas legislature to implement state surface water policiesunderstanding the science next attendees gathered for another panel to illuminate some of the scientific issues surrounding surface water dr robert brandes moderated the panel consisting of dr william espey of lja engineering inc; dr larry mckinney of the harte research institute for gulf of mexico studies at texas a&m-corpus christi; and dr ralph wurbs senior professor at the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m university responsible for the water availability model used statewide to evaluate the surface water availability in the tceq water rights permitting process topics in this panel touched on water storage in reservoirs and estuaries which contribute to environmental sustainability the panelists also explained how water can be redirected to replenish wetlands and other coastal buffers which protect against droughts and the development of water availability models (wams) for preparing and evaluating water right permit applicationslegal impediments to conjunctive water use: experience from other states dr burke griggs law professor at washburn university in kansas and former state deputy attorney general entertained conference attendees over lunch with a humorous but thoughtful exploration of the historical water conflicts between kansas and nebraska the talk emphasized conjunctive use but conceded that many assumptions about conjunctive use are unrealistic and some impediments can be good because they protect property rightsunderstanding the economics gabe collins of the baker institute at rice university moderated the afternoon economics panel which included sharlene leurig of the texas environmental flows initiative; carlos rubenstein former chairman of the texas water development board and former commissioner of the texas commission on environmental quality; and maria vaca 2017 bush school graduate and water capstone participant the experts shared their thoughts on developing a more robust market place for texas surface water rights including converting water rights keeping transportation costs low and using fees to discourage consumption especially during periods of drought examples included the rio grande water market sustainability practices in austin and the theoretical use of a water conservation feeunderstanding the politics in the final panel of the conference commissioner toby baker of the texas commission on environmental quality moderated a dialogue with texas state representatives poncho nevarez and dade phelan the politicians discussed the tension in the legislature surrounding surface water reiterating the urban/rural divide from the previous day and the challenges of balancing human use with environmental need particularly regarding reservoir construction as the panel concluded one representative summed up his talk with one sentence which was well-received by the audience: everything to do with water is maddeningly frustratingclosing remarks concluding the summit texas state comptroller glenn hegar summarized the highlights from the two days comptroller hegar predicted that water would remain a prominent issue as texas continues to grow echoing other speakers from the event comptroller hegar emphasized how the complexity of water issues can make it hard to remove emotions and have a conversation about what is best for the most people ultimately hegar encouraged conference attendees to think about how to arrive at outcomes with winners on all sides rather than winners and losers the bush school and mosbacher institute are grateful to all the speakers sponsors and participants for sharing their thoughts and ideas during two highly productive days spent rethinking texas water policy groundwater understanding the political constraints panel: rep four price rep tracy king former sen buster brown and dr ron kaiser (moderator); dr james griffin at podium limitations on sharing the resource panel: sarah rountree schlessinger kathleen jackson jon hockenyos john durand and marc rodriguez (moderator) surface water understanding the economics panel: maria vaca carlos rubinstein sharlene leurig and gabe collins (moderator)

dr hannibal istpp assistant research scientist was invited to participate in the development of sesyncs data to motivate synthesis project at the university of maryland at annapolis in august the purpose of this workshop is to gain insight on research methods focusing on the food-energy-water nexus while the outcomes and next steps are not publicly available and only accessible for participants more information on the tools topics and process can be found on the sesync website

there are many challenges associated with beginning a business in a conflict region and dr leslie ruyle is well aware of those challenges people living in regions of conflict still need to make a living and young people especially need to see opportunities for their future that dont include fighting ruyle is interested in supporting communities in areas usually neglected for entrepreneurship especially those in conflict regions with limited roads and electricity options next to areas of conservation concern through her work at texas a&m university recently she talked about some of her past and ongoing projects including her work this year with a capstone group comprised of second-year international affairs graduate students at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university entrepreneurship is the latest buzzword across campus and across the united states and ruyle saw an opportunity to link the extensive expertise of texas a&ms students faculty and community members in college station texas with a university and community she has worked with for over five years in the eastern democratic republic of the congo (drc) by working with departments across campus the program is helping local entrepreneurs in the drc develop resilient businesses and students a greater perspective on the challenges of business around the world this project began when ruyle was researching the impact of a hydro-power dam in virunga national park the funders idea was simple enoughthe electricity generated by these dams would help spur economic development in the community and because conflict can be as much poverty driven as ideological inexpensive electricity could help support peace efforts in the region working with virunga national park ruyle set out to examine the effects of these dams on the locals potentially benefitting from them she began talking to community members asking them what they would do with this electricity in an attempt to gauge its impact when i asked this question theyd say ‘well non-governmental organizations (ngos) will come in and theyll give us jobs she said if youre in international development you know thats not the most sustainable option another common response was factories will come in but the lack of paved roads in the region made this seem unlikely finally someone said i want to start a cell-phone charging shop ruyle knew this was an idea that with potential most people have cell phones but they need to have a place where they can charge their phones so how do we help these people who have these great ideas to start businesses and begin to see the emergence of a middle class ruyle thought the answer entrepreneurship out of this came wakisha an entrepreneurship program based at the local university meaning ignite in swahili wakisha is a fitting name for this program which is meant to provide seed funding mentorship training and an office space for these business people the collaborative working space provides electricity internet and a common working space designed so that these creatives may interact with each other generating new ideas and expanding on their original business plans over the summer ruyle hosted leopards lair which was inspired by the hit us show shark tank and the uk program dragons den entrepreneurs were invited to come present their ideas and nine were selected and ultimately had their projects funded in addition to financial support there are local mentors as well as mentors from abroad who work with these entrepreneurs on the ground providing weekly training at the wakisha hub now ruyle is leading a capstone team who are supporting the program by further developing the model building on the curriculum and providing an evaluation framework to better understand the strengths and challenges of the endeavor her hope is to connect bush school students to real world programs in international development where they can see the impact of their work on the lives of these entrepreneurs

she represents a country with no borders a people with no country this is the current state of kurdistan representative bayan sami abdul rahman holds her post in a time of seismic shifts in the middle east on the heels of a kurdish independence referendum and as millions of refugees flow into kurdistan from war-torn regions its not an easy position to hold but she does it with determination and passion representative abdul rahman spent an intimate evening with a capstone class at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university discussing the classs upcoming project the discussion was followed by a presentation to students and faculty in her talk representative abdul rahman gave a history of her peoplethe persecution they have faced the struggles they have endured and the optimism they have for the future she explained why kurds agreed to remain in iraq following the toppling of saddam hussein in 2003 despite the persecution and genocide ordered by his regime following his removal kurdistan enjoyed what she called the golden decade when the country was able to have fair and open elections establish universities rebuild its shattered economy and enjoy increased civic activism the progress of this era was all taken away with the rise of isis she spoke of how isis formed in iraq and the role of the kurdish peshmerga in supporting iraqi military forces in the fight to drive isis forces from the region she described the recent kurdish referendum as an equally exhilarating and terrifying day for her and her country she spoke of her role in strengthening ties between kurdistan and the united states even in the face of opposition to her countrys desire for independence she advocated for her governments position on a wide array of political security humanitarian economic and cultural matters while prompting continued coordination and partnershipoverall she is optimistic about relations with baghdad and the future of kurdistan hoping one day it will be able to return to the peaceful and prosperous times it once enjoyedfollowing the talk dr erin snider moderated a q&a session with questions from the audience a video of the talk and q&a session is available at https://youtube/67hkimxlhk4

dean mark welsh recently received the national public service award from the american society for public administration (aspa) the award is given each year to honor individuals who make outstanding contributions and whose accomplishments are models of public service inside and outside the work environment dean welsh was honored alongside two other recipients the national public service awards recognize contributions of public servant practitioners across all sectors of the government award recipients are individuals who have taken risks to achieve change made a profound difference to improve service to the public achieved savings in government operations and contributed to the communities in which they live and work through his forty-year career in the air force and now as dean of the bush school of government and public service dean welsh has upheld all these values i was truly honored to receive this award said dean welsh the importance of service to others is highlighted daily at the bush school and texas a&m the fact that an organization like aspa with public service firmly implanted in its dna would choose to recognize me in this way is doubly humbling recipients may currently have careers in academia or a nonprofit organization but all recipients must have previously had a career as a public servant working for the government in august 2012 dean welsh became the chief of staff of the air force and was responsible for the organization training and equipping of 664 000 active-duty guard reserve and civilian forces serving in the united states and overseas he has carried his superb leadership skills to his current role at the bush school the awards were presented during aspas annual conference in denver

ryan garrett 06 always admired nasa growing up walking into the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university for his first day of class in 2004 he never imagined that his education at the school and perfect timing would allow him to play a role in the organization he had always respected garrett now lives in star city russia and works as the deputy director of operations to the international space station program he was a program analyst for nine years in the nasa office of the chief financial officer supporting various organizations before making the move to russia in 2017 garrett said he learned about his first job at nasa when a bush school alumni sent a note to career services about the opening in the office of the chief financial officer at johnson space center the timing of the opening proved fortuitous for garrett and he capitalized on the opportunity after submitting his resume he was called for an interview it was a much simpler process back then he noted nine years later in his current position garrett is responsible for providing an environment conducive to learning for american canadian and japanese astronauts this includes managing nasa housing office and gym facilities vehicle fleet resources transportation and shipping logistics various support contracts and leases and astronaut morale while the astronauts are participating in an extremely rigorous training regime that separates them from their families for up to six weeks at a time navigating the move to a new country takes a certain level of adaptability and a days work at nasa is never dull the bush school helped prepare garrett for this fast-paced lifestyle abroad the bush school helped me immensely by teaching me how to distill vast amounts of information down to what is important and then construct meaningful and actionable recommendations/directives to management/subordinates garrett said learning how to focus my thoughts and not allow myself to become overwhelmed as i think critically about the task at hand has enabled me to be successful in my positions

on tuesday march 20 2018 the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy and the texas a&m economics department hosted a conversation in public policy featuring dr jonathan gruber the ford professor of economics at the massachusetts institute of technology and noted health economist dr gruber who served as a technical consultant to the obama administration on the affordable care act shared his expertise in his talk entitled the affordable care act: will it survive and what comes next the event began with welcoming remarks from dr lori taylor director of the mosbacher institute and an introduction of dr gruber by dr jason lindo associate professor of economics at texas a&m university dr gruber began his talk with a description of the origins of the affordable care act (aca) in the republican healthcare plan he helped design and implement in massachusetts during mitt romneys governorship the romneycare plan he said was based on a three-legged stool of (1) requiring health insurance companies to stop discriminating on the basis of preexisting health conditions (2) distributing the insurance pool risk across more healthy people with the individual mandate requirement and (3) helping people who could not afford insurance with subsidies he noted that while the first part was very popular all three legs were critical to the reform keeping the crowd engaged with humorous remarks and anecdotes dr gruber argued that the aca fairly successfully accomplished its goals of increasing insurance coverage among americans and fixing a broken healthcare market but that the evidence on whether it has lowered healthcare costs remains inconclusive dr gruber also predicted that with the repeal of the individual mandate insurance companies would have to increase premiums for the future dr gruber predicted that policy goals would revolve around controlling costs with the means of doing so depending on the political party in control in the second half of the program assistant professor laura dague of the bush school of government and public service engaged dr gruber in an on-stage discussion asking questions submitted by the audience along with her own dr dague the bush schools own expert in health policy pressed dr gruber on a variety of topics beginning with how healthcare markets differ economically from other markets the two economists also discussed the possibility of the uninsured rate increasing due to recent policy changes to the penalty for not buying insurance additionally the conversation touched on why the health insurance reimbursement system in the united states may cause technology to increase costs instead of decrease as it does in other markets and how public policies could begin to tackle the difficult task of modifying unhealthy individual behaviors before closing the program dr taylor presented dr gruber with a plaque commemorating his visit to texas a&m university and invited everyone to a reception in the lobby

dr manuel teodoro an istpp research fellow and associate professor in the department of political science and seung-ho an a phd candidate in the department of political science recently published a paper titled citizen-based brand equity: a model and experimental evaluation in the journal of public administration research and theory adapting a model from commercial marketing teodoro and an develop an agency branding theory to explain how public perceptions of an agency translate into political and organizational leverage for public managers teodoro and an use data from an experiment embedded within istpps water energy food nexus survey to investigate the relationship between agency names and support for federal government management of agricultural water and energy resources they find that support for federal management increases when associated with names of specific agencies like the us department of agriculture us army corps of engineers environmental protection agency and department of energy they also find that the effects of branding vary according to citizens partisanship with republicans and democrats responding differently to agency names teodoro and an recommend additional research on public agency branding and they hope their methods in this paper can serve as a model for future research related to brand equity in the public sector moreover further research in this field may provide strategies public managers can use to improve public trust and favorability towards their agency teodoro manuel p and seung-ho an 2017 citizen-based brand equity: a model and experimental evaluation journal of public administration research and theory doi: 101093/jopart/mux044

dr kent e portney and dr ann bowman have been awarded one of the first texas a&m triads for transformation or t3 grants along with dr sierra woodruff in the department of landscape architecture and urban planning t3 is a multidisciplinary program that provides funding of $30 000 to groups of three faculty members (triads) in at least two different colleges at texas a&m to stimulate and support innovative collaborative research under the t3 program each tenured or tenure-track faculty member is provided access to one (and only one) token which can be redeemed for $10 000 each once three faculty members agree to work on a posted project projects must be new and must not be continuations of prior research created as part of the presidents excellence fund t3 is administered by texas a&ms division of research (dor) portney said this grant will support the launch of a project called 101 resilient cities policies and programs with the goal of critically assessing the policies and programs the 101 largest us cities use to implement their respective resilience plans the project will also involve dr bryce hannibal from the bush schools institute for science technology and public policy and dr garett sansom from the school of public health

the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university has moved higher in the national rankings of schools of public affairs according to a report published by us news & world report the bush school ranks 16th among public schools listed in the survey 28th overall dean mark welsh noted that this puts the bush school in the top 10 percent of the 282 public and private graduate schools ranked these latest rankings are a testament to the schools outstanding faculty reputation and to the quality of our students welsh said the rise in rankings is another key indicator of the progress the school has made and the growing impact of our graduates in the field of public service he added the bush school founded in 1997 is celebrating its 20th anniversary this academic year in less than twenty years the bush school has grown from a small program with fewer than 20 students to a reputable academic college with two departments and a student population of more than 400 hailing from 39 states and 23 countries the bush school continues to have a significant impact on key issues facing the state nation and world through its three research institutes: the institute for science technology and public policy; the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy; and the scowcroft institute of international affairs the school is also home to the center for nonprofits and philanthropy and the program on women peace and security in addition to offering the master of public service and administration and the master of international affairs the bush school offers an online executive master of public service and administration and graduate certificates in advanced international affairs homeland security public management and nonprofit management

istpps dr bryce hannibal recently published a paper titled citizens decision-making frameworks on climate change policy preferences with dr tabitha morton from prairie view a&m university in the journal of social science for policy implications the authors examine knowledge and emotional effects on citizens climate change mitigation policy preferences analyzing data from istpps national public climate change survey the researchers find that people who are more anxious or fearful of climate change were more willing to support climate change mitigation policies they also find that people who scored higher on the emotion-based decision-making framework were more likely to support mitigation policies drs hannibal and morton conclude that modeling climate change policy preferences with emotional and knowledge-based decision frameworks may improve understanding and predictions about human preferences they highlight the importance of future research focusing on changes in decision-making frameworks and the factors that influence those changes morton t and bryce hannibal 2018 citizens decision-making frameworks on climate change policy preferences journal of social science for policy implications 6(2): 1-11

dr silva hamie a bush school lecturer since 2014 teaches courses in post-conflict recovery and development the role of international organizations in peace and conflict and qualitative research methods this semester she is teaching a class on clientelism which looks at corruption in the developing world and is also leading a capstone project for second-year students born in lebanon hamie earned her ba in political science at beirut university college and her ma in international relations at the lebanese university in beirut after completing these degrees she moved to england where she earn her phd in politics from the university of york while completing her coursework there hamie also taught at the university of york including courses on the causes of armed conflict she says her teaching style developed and evolved while she was teaching and completing her phd today hamie says she encourages her students to truly engage with the material and plans activities that foster this hands-on learning experience post-graduate school work also influenced her future research and teaching after earning her doctorate hamie worked for oxfam gb first monitoring analyzing and reporting on humanitarian developments in heavily targeted areas during and after the war in lebanon she later built a network with local and international ngos local governmental agencies journalists researchers un agencies ministries and politicians and integrated a preparedness plan taking into account the updated political situation in lebanon hamie recognizes that days in graduate school are long and often difficult and that keeping students focused can be a challenge when you have a three-hour class i know students will get sleepy and theyll be tiredespecially if its on a friday afternoon she said to combat this hamie likes to choose a fun but relevant question for her students to explore for example one of her classes was discussing disaster relief so she told her class: imagine a conflict is happening and the bombing or hurricane has reached your town; you have five minutes to decide what to take with you while youre evacuating while some students seemed to think they were going camping the point of the exercise was to demonstrate the speed at which evacuation decisions must be made not only did the exercise serve as a conversation starter it kept students engaged in the class which is what hamie aims to do in all her classes my teaching style is engaging she said its not just lecturing; you dont just come take notes and go home i like the students to feel like they own the class one way she allows students to feel they have a stake in the class is by having each student lead the discussion over the course of the semester hamie also incorporates a brief simulation into each class that gives students the opportunity to work in groups strengthening team building skills throughout the semester hamie is known for taking her classes on trips where they are able to learn in a hands-on environment last year she took her post-conflict recovery and development class to jacksonville florida to evaluate the recovery of hurricane matthew that swept through the city in 2016 she would like to expand this hands-on involved learning experience by leading a study abroad trip in the future which will give students the opportunity to study two things at once not only will they learn about a case study or a particular issue they also will gain an understanding of the context of the issue as it pertains to the specific country she currently is leading a capstone project that is examining unicefs education program for syrian refugee children in lebanon which is part of a larger research project analyzing the host communitys response to refugee influxes hamie is also working on a research project with her colleague at the bush school dr mu examining why refugees choose the location to which they flee hamie has always been interested in issues in the middle east and north africa (mena) and her research largely reflects this previously she has published papers on talent development in the region and a piece on the workplace culture and human resources

in the wake of heighten concerns over us tariff policy comes a new study at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university suggesting that chinese monetary policy may be contributing to the us trade deficit entitled understanding chinas currency manipulation the research is summarized in the latest publication from the bush schools mosbacher institute of trade economics and public policy since 2005 chinas monetary regime has set the value of the chinese renminbi (rmb) rather than market forces in this latest issue of the takeaway three bush school students use research from one of their classes to enter the debate about whether china can be labeled a currency manipulator their analysis examined real exchange rates and found evidence that china is undervaluing its currency to artificially inflate its net exportsto the benefit of us consumers but at the expense of the us trade deficit the researchers observed that the consistently low value of chinas currency increases chinese exports to the united states and decreases prices paid by us consumers their data showed that while the united states-china real exchange rate fell chinas share of the us trade deficit rose the authors note that the response to this challenge is unclear cheaper goods benefit us consumers while cheap imports hurt us producers as they lose market share to foreign companies as well china could offset any increase in tariffs with further currency changes this research was conducted by rebecca skaff lincoln webb and kyle clahane second year bush school students in the master of international affairs program it was part of their work for a class on global economics taught by dr raymond robertson the full takeaway can be found on the mosbacher institute website

as women around the world celebrate international womens day on march 8 2018 there are data demonstrating that true gender parity will not be a reality for many years the good news is there is now global activism for womens equality fueled by movements like #metoo #timesup and more women are making positive gains and there is a strong and growing movement of advocacy activism and support however women around the world still face an ever-present security threat these threats to womens security are felt at all levels of government and in every nation around the world women endure a variety of experiences in their lifetime thirty-five percent of women have experienced physical or sexual violence and more than 750 million women and girls worldwide were married before their eighteenth birthday according to the un as the world prepares for international womens day it is important to acknowledge the work being done on these vital issues the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university is home to the program on women peace and security (wps) that was established in 2015 the wps program seeks to influence public policy debate and policy decision making within wps is the womanstats project which functions as the research arm of the program dr valerie hudson developed this project a nation-by-nation database on women at the womanstats project we believe the fate of nations is tied to the fate of women hudson said our research project aims to make that linkage visible and demonstrable the database is the most comprehensive database on the status of women worldwide today and includes over 360 variables for 176 countries the co-principal investigators on the project are some of the most preeminent experts in their fields representing not only us universities but universities in great britain turkey and colombia experts and findings from the project have been called upon by unwomen the national intelligence council the house foreign affairs committee the senate foreign relations committee and many other entities the bush school is one of the home institutions of the project and several bush school graduate students work as project coders who extract upload and scale information on the status of women for the womanstats database one of those students kayla mcgill has worked on the project as a coder for over three years and says shes passionate about the project because she knows it is changing lives and improving understanding of womens issues around the world another student ashley lovell echoed similar sentiments about working for the project i love being able to work for an organization that does more than just talk about why women matter lovell said the womanstats project goes one step further and uses statistical analysis to prove why empowering women is a critical component of a nations stability and security

the women peace and security (wps) symposium provides a timely opportunity to address the challenges and opportunities of the wps agenda by discussing them in a bi-partisan environment developing connections between texas regional and national stakeholders this symposium was held on november 20 2017 at the bush school of government and public service texas a&m university symposium highlights | symposium agenda symposium highlights opening remarks with dean mark a welsh iii opening remarks from the third annual women peace and security symposium with dean mark a welsh iii dean of the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m universitywatch opening remarks with dean mark a welsh iiivideo length: 13:27 opening remarks and discussion with ambassador catherine russell ambassador catherine russell former ambassador-at-large for global womens issues us state departmentwatch ambassador catherine russells opening remarksvideo length: 1:01:58 new research on women peace and security panel introduction: emily sellars bush school of government & public servicepanel speakers:natalie gonnella-platts george w bush institutevalerie m hudson bush school of government & public serviceellen haring women in international security (wiis) & dr megan mackenzie the university of sydneysabrina karim cornell universitymoderator: leslie ruyle scowcroft institute bush school of government & public servicewatch new research on women peace and securityvideo length: 1:13:08 health as a security priority for women and nations panel introduction: silva hamie bush school of government & public servicepanel speakers:kathleen oreilly department of geography tamusarah evans well awarejacob allen marys meals board of directorsmoderator: brandie depaoli taylor school of health tamuwatch health as a security priority for women and nationsvideo length: 56:04 women as peacebuilders in afghanistan panel introduction: metra mehran bush school of government & public servicepanel speakers:farhat popal george w bush instituterazia jan razias ray of hopenilofar ibrahimi mp wolesi jirga afghanistanmoderator and discussion leader: sabrina karim cornell universitywatch women as peacebuilders in afghanistanvideo length: 58:58 texas perspectives on women peace and security (wps) panel introduction: beverly hill gendercide awareness projectpanel speakers:anita marcos peacemakers inc of dallasjustine cherutich womens federation for world peacejan langbein genesis womens shelter of dallasrena menard us national committee for unwomenmoderator: amanda schnetzer george w bush institutewatch texas perspectives on women peace and security (wps)video length: 56:52 the honorable kay granger us house of representatives congresswoman kay granger delivers the keynote address at third annual women peace and security symposium at texas a&m universitywatch the honorable kay granger us house of representativesvideo length: 32:48 evening remarks with judy mcclennan judy mcclennan delivers her evening remarks at the third annual women peace and security symposium at texas a&m university mcclennan served as the us ambassador to the united nations commission on the status of women under present george hw bushwatch evening remarks with judy mcclennanvideo length: 51:25 closing reflections with dr valerie hudson closing reflections from the third annual women peace and security symposium with dr valerie hudson the george hw bush chair at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m universitywatch closing reflections with dr valerie hudsonvideo length: 8:01 symposium agenda the texas symposium on women peace and security challenges and opportunities amidst global change monday november 20 2017 description the texas symposium on women peace and security is designed to bring together academics practitioners and policymakers who are interested in advancing the goals of un security council resolution 1325 which advocates for the increased participation of women in matters of national security including conflict resolution peace-building countering violent extremism transitional justice and post-conflict reconstruction the wps agenda also suggests that national security and human security must proceed hand in hand for peace to be durable and just including issues that some might see as normally within the scope of national security such as education health and welfare womens perspectives and voice on issues of national security has been sorely lacking and this symposium is a contribution to the rectification of that deficiency the texas symposium on wps also aspires to showcase texas-based scholarship philanthropy programming and policy on these important issues information the symposium will be held in the orientation room of the george hw bush presidential library seating for the panels audience is limited to 100 persons and is first come first serve please arrive on time for the panel and stay for the entire panel so as not to disrupt the proceedings the lunch-time mingle and the closing reception will be open to all bush school students faculty and staff location george hw bush presidential library orientation theater1000 george bush drive westcollege station texas 77843 agenda 9–9:10 amconference welcome addressdean mark a welsh iii bush school of government & public service texas a&m university 9:10-9:30 amconference orientation and logisticsvalerie m hudson director program on women peace and security bush school of government & public service amanda schnetzer director of global initiatives george w bush institute 9:30-10:20 amopening remarks with discussion followingambassador catherine russell former ambassador-at-large for global womens issues us state departmentmoderator: valerie m hudson bush school of government & public service 10:20-10:30 ambreak 10:30–11:30 amwomen as peacebuilders in afghanistanpanel introduction: metra mehran bush school of government & public servicepanel speakers: farhat popal george w bush instituterazia jan razias ray of hopenilofar ibrahimi mp wolesi jirga afghanistan moderator and discussion leader: sabrina karim cornell university 11:30 am-12:30 pmhealth as a security priority for women and nationspanel introduction: silva hamie bush school of government & public servicepanel speakers: kathleen oreilly department of geography tamusarah evans well awarejacob allen marys meals board of directors moderator: brandie depaoli taylor school of health tamu 12:30–1:00 pmnetworking break 1-1:40 pmpanelists lunch 1:40–2:40 pmtexas perspectives on women peace and security (wps)panel introduction: beverly hill gendercide awareness projectpanel speakers: anita marcos peacemakers inc of dallasjustine cherutich womens federation for world peacejan langbein genesis womens shelter of dallasrena menard us national committee for unwomen moderator: amanda schnetzer george w bush institute 2:40-3:10 pmkeynote speakerthe honorable kay granger us house of representatives 3:10–3:20 pmbreak 3:20–4:40 pmnew research on women peace and securitypanel introduction: emily sellars bush school of government & public servicepanel speakers: natalie gonnella-platts george w bush institutevalerie m hudson bush school of government & public serviceellen haring women in international security (wiis) & dr megan mackenzie the university of sydneysabrina karim cornell university moderator: leslie ruyle scowcroft institute bush school of government & public service 4:40–5 pmclosing reflectionsvalerie m hudson bush school of government & public service 5–5:50 pmclosing reception bush presidential library rotunda speaker biographies kay granger a leader in national defense and global security kay granger serves and fights for the 12th congressional district of texas elected to her 11th term in 2016 by an overwhelming margin kay has earned her reputation in congress as a hard-working tough and principled leader on the issues that matter most to the people she serves her legislative prowess and ability to get things done widely respected by both policy makers and influencers in washington alike led to her recognition by cqs roll call as one of the 25 most influential women in congress cathy russell during her time as ambassador cathy was responsible for us efforts to advance gender equality and the status of women and girls around the world developing a toolbox of policies programs partnerships and diplomatic efforts she traveled to nearly 50 countries developed groundbreaking us government policies and tested new approaches coordinated interagency efforts and built partnerships with fortune 50 and fortune 500 companies she also worked with foreign governments multilateral organizations and civil society on a full range of issues from womens economic empowerment to adolescent girls education to womens roles in peace and security mark a welsh iii mark a welsh iii became dean of the bush school in august 2016 after retiring from the united states air force welsh who was born in san antonio earned a bachelor of science degree from the us air force academy a master of science degree in computer resource management from webster university and graduated from the army command and general staff college the air war college and the national war college he was a fellow of seminar xxi at the massachusetts institute of technology a fellow of the national security studies program of syracuse university and johns hopkins university a fellow of ukrainian security studies at the john f kennedy school of government at harvard university a fellow of the pinnacle course of the national defense university and a graduate of the general manager program at the harvard business school valerie hudson dr valerie hudson joined the faculty of the bush school in 2012 as the george hw bush chair an expert on international security and foreign policy analysis she received her phd in political science at ohio state university and comes to texas a&m university from a senior faculty position at brigham young university in 2009 foreign policy named her one of the top 100 most influential global thinkers her recently published work entitled the hillary doctrine: how sex came to matter to in american foreign policy looks at secretary clintons focus on gender policy and asks how it found a place on the to do list for future secretaries of state amanda schnetzer amanda schnetzer is director of global initiatives at the george w bush institute in dallas texas in this role she is responsible for developing innovative research programmatic and policy efforts to advance societies rooted in political and economic freedom and to empower women to lead in their communities and countries previously she served as the bush institutes founding director of the human freedom initiative metra mehran metra mehran (mpsa class of 2018) majored in political science and public administration with a minor in law at the american university of afghanistan (afghanistan) graduating in december 2014 metra was president of the debate club and vice president of sga; and she served as a resident adviser a writer for the school newspaper and a student body representative to a campus board she was also active in her community working with different ngos and service projects farhat popal farhat popal serves as the manager of the womens initiative fellowship and the afghan womens project at the george w bush institute in this role farhat is responsible for research and programmatic efforts that empower women worldwide to lead in their communities and countries farhat studied political science/international relations and history of the near east at the university of california san diego razia jan razia jan founder and president of the zabuli education center has worked for many years to forge connections between afghans and americans born in afghanistan razia moved to the united states in 1970 for two decades she was the proprietor of a small tailoring business in duxbury massachusetts where she served as president of the towns rotary club nilofar ibrahimi dr nilofar ibrahimi is a member of the national assembly of afghanistan she is representing badakhshan province in the wolesi jirga (house of representatives) her life story is one about survival pursuit of dreams and dedication to womens wellbeing and health dr ibrahimis childhood was marked by the murder of her father and grandfather (also a member of the parliament) in the 1970s they were victims of the communist regime they were buried alive like many other regime dissidents their bodies have never been found sabrina karim sabrina karims (phd candidate emory university) will start as an assistant professor in government at cornell university in 2017 during 2016-2017 she is a dartmouth fellow in us foreign policy and international security she is the co-author of a forthcoming book with oxford university press entitled equal opportunity peacekeeping silva hamie dr c silva hamie has been a lecturer in the department of international affairs (ia) since 2014 teaching courses on post-conflict recovery and development and international organizations she has also been advising students and is involved in ia capstone projects in addition she has been teaching a course on issues in world politics in the department of political science kathleen oreilly kathleen oreilly is a feminist geographer with extensive water sanitation and hygiene (wash) experience in urban and rural india she studies drinking water supply systems management and the impacts of sanitation interventions for marginal groups particularly women and lowest castes her career spans over 20 years of data collection research findings dissemination and teaching sarah evans sarah evans began her professional life as a securities lawyer but launched her career in international development as the founder of well aware an austin-based nonprofit working with impoverished communities to establish safe and sustainable water infrastructure as a foundation for prosperity through this work her team-building and her dedication to realistic solutions she has become a subject-matter expert and has published several articles on international development nonprofit management womens issues and water system success on various platforms; including mariashrivercom wandering educators stilettos on the glass ceiling among others features about her and her work have been seen in the new york times peoplecom usa today and many others jacob allen jacob allen is a partner with cicero group and managing director of the social impact practice partnering with leading foundations nonprofits and social enterprises to improve impact through strategy performance monitoring and impact evaluation (m&e) performance management and donor and beneficiary analytics over the past 15 years jacob has worked with mission-driven organizations including leading corporate philanthropies international ngos and nonprofit providers he has led the strategic design measurement and implementation of social impact programs run by presidents bush and clinton united way goldman sachs prudential youthbuild international junior achievement church world service the alzheimers association the nature conservancy and many others brandie depaoli taylor dr brandie depaoli taylor joined the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the school of public health as an assistant professor in january 2014 dr taylor received both her mph and phd from the university of pittsburgh following her pre-doctoral training dr taylor received a nih t32 post-doctoral fellowship in perinatal epidemiology at michigan state university beverly hill beverly hill founded the gendercide awareness project in 2011 to combat the little known atrocity of gendercide beverly graduated from duke university summa cum laude with a ba in economics she later returned to duke for graduate work in history specializing in the history of science and renaissance/reformation history anita marcos anita have been committed to the elimination of sexism racism cultural barriers and has been involved in women and civil rights since 1970 she has owned several business and is a motivational speaker a retired real estate broker an entrepeneur and a community leader she is also the president of marcos productions a women-owned business providing bilingual seminars and training for women emily sellars dr emily a sellars joined the department of international affairs at the bush school this fall as an assistant professor prior to coming to the bush school she was a postdoctoral scholar in political economy at the harris school of public policy at the university of chicago dr sellars received a joint phd in political science and agricultural and applied economics from the university of wisconsinmadison natalie gonnella-platts natalie gonnella-platts serves as the deputy director of the womens initiative at the george w bush institute in this role natalie is responsible for research and programmatic efforts that empower women worldwide to lead in their communities and countries the portfolio currently includes the first ladies initiative the afghan womens project and the womens initiative fellowship ellen haring dr ellen haring is the director of programs and research at the service womens action network she is also a senior fellow at women in international security where she directs the combat integration initiative harings research and work focuses on women and gender in the military leslie ruyle dr leslie ruyle is a conservation ecologist program leader and educator who has traveled to over 65 countries in her career shes particularly interested in understanding the dynamics of conservation and development in regions of conflict she works closely with usaid in-country missions embassies ngos and leaders from protected areas ranging from world heritage sites to local community-based conservation initiatives seeking innovative development solutions justine cherutich rena menard

dean mark welsh has announced the appointment of dr andrew l ross to the brent scowcroft chair in international policy studies at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university the chair is named in honor of lt gen brent scowcroft usaf (ret) whose public service career included serving as national security adviser for presidents gerald ford and george h w bush ross said he is thrilled and deeply honored to be named to the scowcroft chair ross directs the schools national security affairs program; is a senior fellow in the institute for science technology and public policy (istpp); and is a member of the executive committee of the texas a&m nuclear solutions institute during his time at the bush school ross has led student capstone teams conducting research for the united states cyber command los alamos national laboratory and sandia national laboratories dr rosss extensive experience in national security policy and his connections to military as well as civilian defense officials along with his impressive work on us grand strategy national security and defense planning are among the many reasons he was selected for this position said dean welsh ross earned his bachelors degree at american university and his masters and phd degrees at cornell university he came to the bush school in 2014 from the university of new mexico where he served as director of the center for science technology and policy; director of special science engineering and policy research initiatives in the office of the vice president for research; and professor of political science he led unms university strategic partnership with the defense threat reduction agency and served as the program manager for unms educational partnership agreement with the air force research laboratory ross was also the founder and chair of the new mexico nuclear study group prior to his unm appointment ross spent sixteen years at the us naval war college where he served as a research professor and director of studies in the strategic research department of the colleges center for naval warfare studies acting director of the advanced research program co-lead of the post-9/11 strategy task group professor in the national security affairs department and secretary of the navy senior research fellow he received the department of the navy meritorious civilian service award in 2002

dr frank b ashley iii senior associate dean of the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university was among those honored at the february 23 2018 appreciation banquet held by the african american national heritage society and museum honorees are chosen by the museums board of directors and are recognized for their significant contributions to the community the museum the state or the nation the event is the museums largest fundraising event of the year and is attended by elected officeholders texas a&m university officials and community leaders and supporters of the museum im humbled by this recognition and honored to be among the distinguished group of african american leaders ashley said ashley came to the bush school from the college board where he was senior vice president of membership and higher education engagement he earned his bachelors degree from louisiana college and a masters and doctorate from the university of alabama initially a science teacher and coach ashley has held numerous faculty and administrative appointments within the texas a&m university system and its member institutions he served as dean of the college of education and interim provost at texas a&m university-commerce as well as director of admissions and associate dean for undergraduate studies and teacher education in texas a&m universitys college of education from 2007 to 2010 ashley served as vice chancellor for academic affairs for the texas a&m university system he served as chief academic officer for the system and represented the system at the state level on all academic issues in 2010 he was named vice chancellor for recruitment and diversity and chief of staff in this position he assisted system universities and agencies in diversity recruitment and retention frank ashley absolutely deserves this recognition said bush school dean mark welsh he has been an important voice in the local community and in academic affairs within the texas a&m system as well as nationally were very proud that he is continuing that leadership at the bush school and most importantly from my perspective hes a wonderful man and an inspirational role model for all of us lucky enough to call him friend

general denis mercier commander of natos supreme allied command transformation will lead a conversation about nato: adaptations challenges and opportunities in the presidential library orientation theater located on texas a&m universitys campus on march 5 2018 this event aims to provide a greater understanding of nato operations in todays world born in france general mercier will share his perspective on the issues surrounding nato the event will be from 12:20–1:20 pm and is part of the scowcroft institute of international affairs lecture series at the bush school of government and public service general mercier has been in his current position since 2015 having earned a masters degree in science from the french air force academy he qualified as a fighter pilot and acquired extensive experience as an operational commander nato has been a constant in general merciers career at the tactical operational and strategic levels working his way through the ranks to his current position he has served as commander of reims air force base in france in addition to commanding the french air force academy in salon-de-provence where he was a transformative leader

professor kent portney has been named to the bob bullock chair of public policy and finance at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m universityportney came to the bush school in 2014 and was named director of the institute for science technology and public policy in 2016 as a member of the tufts university faculty from 1979 to 2014 portney served as department chair in political science and directed the graduate program in public policy and citizen participation most recently he was director of the water and research program at the center for international environment and resource policy (cierp) at tufts fletcher school of law and diplomacy dr kent portney he received his phd in political science from florida state university his masters from the university of connecticut and his bachelors from rutgers university where his studies focused on public administration and public policy portney has broad experience and expertise in environmental policy urban sustainability urban politics economic inequality and policy analysis he has authored or coauthored nine books on such topics as economic and environmental development citizen participation and teaching critical reasoning in the social sciences he has written extensively on urban sustainability urban politics and the nonprofit sector his book the rebirth of urban democracy earned him two awards from the american political science association in announcing the appointment bush school dean mark welsh noted that portneys wide-ranging experience in public policy mirrors the career of the chairs namesake bob bullock the formidable lieutenant governor of texasgovernor bullock was a devoted public servant committed to developing and implementing policies that improved texass educational system and state government as well as the environment dr portneys impressive record of scholarship in all areas of public policy is a fitting continuation of gov bullocks commitment to the state of texas welsh said

research by members of the istpp team drs portney hannibal and liu was presented at the annual southern political science association conference held in new orleans la january 4-6 2018 director portney presented a paper co-authored with assistant research scientist dr hannibal urban governance and sustainability through the water-energy-food nexus: evidence from the san antonio area case study they investigate the extent to which decision-makers responsible for setting policy and management for water resources interact with agencies and organizations involved in energy and food decisions they found that little interaction between such organizations occurs indicating that governance of these resources is segregated by issue domain even though use of these resources is connected such that using one tends to deplete one or both of the others further study is needed to ascertain ways to build connections across the governance processes for these resources so policy and management choices consider effects on the nexus as a whole professors bowman and portney presented their research co-authored with dr jeffrey berry of tufts university titled multilevel governance in designing and managing city sustainability policies multilevel governance has drawn attention as a potentially effective means to address public issues that inherently cross-jurisdictional and administrative boundaries such as the environment climate change and sustainability the authors employ several measures of multilevel governance based on frequency of interactions and contact and joint policy deliberations and show that there is significant variation across cities they then combine these measures with data (gathered from a survey of city administrators) on the degree of sustainability policies for the 50 largest us cities they find strong evidence that multilevel governance has little effect on the adoption and implementation of sustainability policies and programs indeed having so many governance actors involved may introduce barriers to pro-environmental policies research scientist and assistant director dr xinsheng liu and his co-author dr huang from uc-merced presented their paper historical knowledge and national identify in china this paper used data from the china governance and public policy survey to examine the relationship between individual chinese citizens perceptions of their nations historical achievements and the strength of their national identity (including patriotism and nationalism) the authors find that significantly more chinese citizens overestimate than underestimate chinas historical achievements and those who overestimate the achievements of ancient chinese civilization exhibit higher levels of national identity to an even greater degree however citizens who underestimate chinese historical achievements report lower levels of national identity they also find that temporary corrections of misinformation on history and civilization do not have significant effect on national identity these findings shed light on the subtlety of an important source of national identity

nine students from the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university are assisting ruta cívica a nonprofit in mexico city that works to strengthen citizen participation and transparency in urban planning in the city ruta cívica is concerned with helping to shape the development of a new urban planning institute and its arrangements for citizen participation mexico citys government began reorganizing many aspects of its government after enacting its first constitution in 2017 among the changes is a plan to create a new instituto de planeación democrática y perspectiva (institute of democratic and prospective planning) in 2019 the institute will be responsible for urban and sustainability planning within mexico citys government and will include an office for community consultation and participation the office is being established in response to neighborhood opposition to projects repression of citizens voice on these issues and real estate corruption in early january nine students from the master of public service and administration (mpsa) degree program at the bush school traveled to mexico city as part of their capstone research project led by faculty member dr mary hilderbrand the team spent a week seeking a better understanding of the planned institutes goals and policies mexico citys urban planning challenges and the perspectives of various stakeholders the trip was made possible by the joint support of the department of public service and administration and the center for nonprofits and philanthropy at the bush school ruta cívica has tasked the bush school capstone team with advising it on different approaches and best practices for increasing citizen participation the organization will utilize the teams research to inform its advocacy with the city and will share it with both the city government and partner nonprofit organizations during their stay the bush school team met with several institutions and residents of mexico city who are concerned about the lack of serious urban planning as well as the corruption in the citys processes of granting building permits and regulating real estate development in the city they had the opportunity to discuss the legislative process of urban planning with one of the citys congresswomen dunia ludlow an advocate for urban development and transparency in the government at the end of the spring semester the student team will deliver a presentation and an in-depth research report the report will include a menu of options based on other cities approaches to citizen participation in urban planning and will answer the overarching project question: how can mexico citys planning institute engage community participation in its urban planning and programs i feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to meet with such a wide array of stakeholders including members of congress developers lawyers think-tanks and civic organizations it was incredibly interesting to witness how each holds a different perspective on how it should occur although each entity is working on fixing the same issues however despite their differences of opinion these leaders continue to forge working relationships with one another to benefit the greater good said bush school student margo dekoch

dr kenneth taylor has been appointed director of outreach and professional development in the new center for nonprofits and philanthropy at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university taylor joined the bush school faculty as an assistant professor of the practice since joining the faculty taylor has taught nonprofit management courses and developed and delivered several workshops on the study of leadership he earned his mba from bellarmine universitys rubel school of business and also holds a ba in sociology from the same institution his phd in leadership studies is from our lady of the lake university in san antonio where his dissertation research investigated leader behavior and job satisfaction within nonprofit organizations prior to coming to the bush school taylor was an assistant professor in the college of health science and human services at murray state university and founded the nonprofit leadership studies program taylor has more than twenty years of experience working in and with nonprofit organizations and was attracted to the bush school because he found that practitioners are welcomed for their real-world experience and ability to impart information that may not be found in a textbook taylor says his new position at the center is primarily about outreach to local and statewide nonprofit organizations while focusing on professional development through educational workshops the nonprofit sector is growing rapidly; one out of every ten jobs is in the nonprofit sector taylor said im confident that with my experience in the field i can make a positive impact on the nonprofit industry and the bush school is the best place to begin he added i want to utilize my professional experience and my research experience to help the industry taylor said its really that simpleto be aligned with the academic environment to really assist nonprofit organizations with the growth we know is on the rise and here at the bush school i believe that i can help shape future practitioners before they start or transition to jobs in the field taylor said at the center itself taylor said he would like to eventually see it expand its services and deepen the scale of involvement and outreach to organizations this expansion though requires strategy and that is why taylor is here the exciting part will simply be developing an agenda thats appreciated out in the field doing a few things really well and then doing as many of those things as possible taylor said

the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy is pleased to announce the selection of ashley thomas bush school master of public service and administration degree candidate as the inaugural texas lyceum fellow for 2018 the texas lyceum is an independent nonpartisan institution dedicated to cultivating the states young leaders and promoting research-driven solutions to policy issues in texas the 2018 fellowship will support summer research on health policy issues in texas after a rigorous application process ms thomas was chosen based on her interest in health policy experience in quantitative analysis and exemplary academic record a 2015 graduate of the university of texas at austin where she double-majored in government and english ms thomas completed a one-year commitment with americorps before beginning classes at the bush school of government and public service in 2016 ms thomas continued to hone her analytical skills during her graduate fellowship with annies list in summer 2017 and expects to gain additional experience while completing her capstone project examining the economic impact of the nonprofit sector in louisiana during the texas lyceum fellowship ms thomas will spend the summer of 2018 exercising her data and public policy analysis skills while working with faculty member dr laura dague to conduct health policy research the results of their work will be published in an issue of the mosbacher institutes the takeaway additionally ms thomas will present the research at the texas lyceums public conference (pubcon) on august 17 2018 in san antonio texas dr dague remarked i am very excited about this new partnership with the texas lyceum and the excellent research opportunity it provides for us i look forward to a productive summer working with ashley on important issues related to medicaid and chip in texas the mosbacher institute congratulates ms thomas on her selection and is confident she will represent the bush school well as the 2018 texas lyceum fellow

dr joseph fair a modern-day international disease detective will lead a discussion titled war without an army: responding to infectious disease catastrophes in a globalized world at the texas a&m university bush school of government and public service on jan 31 at 5:30 pm in the presidential library orientation theater of the george bush presidential library and museum even with groundbreaking advances in modern medicine disease and plague still threaten the developing world and have the potential to become global disasters fair travels the world in search of plagues before they become global disasters he has a unique ability to take the complexities of natural disasters outbreaks and pandemics as well as the convergence of factors leading to a rise in the tide of emerging infectious diseases and break them into simple-to-understand concepts fair has authored or coauthored more than 45 peer-reviewed articles on virology public health emergency response and virus hunting in disease hotspots around the world and works as an international outbreak responder he has been highlighted by 60 minutes the washington post cnn al jazeera npr vice news nbc news and other media outlets in addition to his media appearances fair has risen to prominence as an international leader in outbreak response and has appeared on congressional and senate panels with the most senior leadership in us and international governments where his ability to break down concepts and explain how outbreaks happen has been considered invaluable to decision and policy makers a reception will precede the event from 5 to 5:30 pm

in august 2017 houston suffered catastrophic flooding from hurricane harvey the national science foundation has funded a study by an interdisciplinary team of texas a&m university researchers led by dr ali mostafavidarani in the department of civil engineering the team will include dr arnold vedlitz of the bush school and dr bryce hannibal who is a researcher at the bush schools institute for science technology and public policy the grant also funds researchers from the department of computer science & engineering the department of landscape architecture and urban planning and the public policy research institute the research will focus on ways to increase community resilience to disasters like harvey by improving hazard mitigation planning and infrastructure development elements of the study will look at how the risks and vulnerabilities resulting from the interconnections among flood protection infrastructure emergency response planning and transportation systems affected the communities in the houston area following hurricane harvey vedlitz and hannibal will help conduct a survey of key agencies and stakeholders involved with various aspects of risk mitigation planning and response pertaining to infrastructure systems the goal is to identify and assess the degree of coordination conflict and gaps in current planning efforts and response actions since these elements may affect the infrastructure design and emergency processes for dealing with extreme events vedlitz and hannibal will use the survey data to model how inter-organizational dynamics and decision-making processes in human systems affect the management of interdependent flood protection emergency response and transportation infrastructure systems we believe that our findings will help policymakers and stakeholders address the issues arising from interdependent response and recovery efforts so their communities can be more resilient to extreme weather events vedlitz said

kent portney istpp director and his co-authors doctoral student bassel daher and drs mohtar pistikopoulos kaiser and saad published their article on step solutions to water-energy-food (wef) nexus hotspots in the journal sustainability the authors propose using a 3-filter step (socio-techno-economic-political) framework for identifying planning and management solutions that incorporate multiple layers of bio-physical wef systems and overlapping stakeholders the step approach employs different tools models and instruments to evaluate possible interdisciplinary solutions these tools can be used by engineers planners and social and policy scientists to assess the appropriateness of proposed nexus hotspot solutions through three structured screening filters – 1) resources interactions and trade-offs 2) stakeholder interactions and trade-offs 3) mobilize nexus interventions (governance and financing) only proposed solutions that are adequately vetted through the 3-filter step process should be considered as viable solutions to wef nexus hotspots daher bassel rabi hmohtar efstratios n pistikopoulos kent e portney ronald kaiser and walid saad 2018 developing socio-techno-economic-political (step) solutions for addressing resource nexus hotspots sustainability 10(2):512 doi: 103390/su10020512

it was a day packed full of insightful talks and engaged discussions as leading practitioners and researchers came together at the women peace and security symposium at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university multiple panels were held on a range of issues featuring women with backgrounds in work at the governmental nongovernmental and academic levels these panels discussed womens issues in texas the united states and internationally including one panel focused on women peacebuilders in afghanistan featuring nilofar ibrahimi a member of the afghan parliament another panel highlighted new research on women peace and security and featured panelist and bush school professor dr valerie hudson the symposium included two keynote speakers: congresswoman kay granger and former ambassador-at-large for global womens issues at the us state department catherine russell granger talked about her time serving as the chairwoman of the state and foreign operations subcommittee where she worked with women in iraq she shared a powerful anecdote from her time spent in the country in this position president george bush asked her to work with women in iraq who would be running for office in the new iraqi government after saddam hussein was toppled granger described the challenges of working in this difficult environment they were unprepared to run for office she said and we were unprepared to help granger and her team held meetings with local women aimed at preparing them to run for office but not all the iraqi women were comfortable with this saddam husseins severe restrictions on women had created a deep-seated fear among many women that it was not safe for women in iraq to attend these meetingsand in a lot of cases it was not one ardent iraqi woman became very angry at a meeting pushing back out of fear that interacting with americans would be problematic many though were open to the americans they were curious about what it was like to live in a world where you have the freedom to choose to run they were hopeful but tentative granger said the women at these meetings risked their lives to be there she said one elderly woman in particular attended each meeting under the cover of her burka granger could see her shimmering eyes the woman never spoke but took careful notes writing down everythingafter the meetings this woman returned to her home village and awaited elections but because of her position in society she was denied the right to vote however she was determined on election day she alongside other women from her village walked five hours to the polling station to cast her vote later this woman sent granger a picture of the womens thumbs dipped in purple dye signifying they had cast their vote these stories of womens resiliency provide hope to others around the world this theme of womens resiliency resonated throughout the symposium one panelist shared her research on women in the us armed forces while another panel discussed efforts within texas to empower womenthe world needs peace and security wars arent going to make that happenbut women might congresswoman kay granger said during her keynote speech at the symposium

the first-year foundations of nonprofit sector students presented their group research at the second annual nonprofit poster presentation in the atrium of the allen building at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university the event was open to students and faculty and gave students a chance to showcase a summary of the scholarly literature research methodology key findings and results and implications of the topics they studied the posters displayed a strong understanding of the nonprofit sector and the practical use of nonprofit data to explore questions that are of critical importance to community leaders and policymakers this research project helps prepare students for the intensive research-heavy capstone project that is required of all second-year bush school students the public service and administration nonprofit professors for foundations of the nonprofit sector dr hilderbrand dr paarlberg and dr qu supported the nineteen groups in identifying topics and guided students in presenting their findings a team of five independent judges evaluated the groups in three primary focus areas: research question use of graphs and charts and student engagement in presenting the material the top three winning teams research included an analysis of access to lgbtq nonprofit services across the united states an analysis of federal spending and veterans affairs nonprofits and an analysis of the evolution of nonprofit general hospitals hailey duncun a first-year policy analysis student with an environmental policy concentration stated i think that having to do such a lengthy and in-depth project in a group was a great experience it helped teach me about working with diverse people and working in stressful situations ultimately i think every group member was very passionate about the lgbtq community which helped us push through adversity and turn out a meaningful project that we are proud of

this years scowcroft army fellows colonel neil t chafee and lt col kevin boates recently spoke to bush school students on leadership and their careers in the military bush school dean mark welsh a former chief of staff of the air force introduced the speakers noting that while there are no new lessons in leadership lessons learned are passed on during a military career as part of the united states army war colleges senior service college fellowship program the scowcroft institute hosts officers as fellows for one academic year the institutes army fellowship program is designed to promote research on topics of strategic relevance to the army and the institute and to increase the knowledge and awareness of military affairs among bush school and texas a&m university faculty and students mid-career officers are selected by the army war college to take part in the program both boates and chafee have had distinguished careers that began quite differently lieutenant colonel boates joined the army after high school and served in both desert shield and desert storm operations in the gulf war he later graduated from west point and has been an aviation officer in various commands both at home and overseas including korea iraq and afghanistan colonel chafee received his commission in the us army upon graduation from texas a&m in 1994 and earned his flight wings in 1995 he has commanded aviation units from the platoon to the battalion level in twenty-three years of service; has served overseas tours in the balkans middle east central asia south america and europe; and is a veteran of the wars in iraq and afghanistan chafee and boates have had extensive training and education while in the service including attending the army command and general staff college chaffee cited commitment relationships partnerships leadership and taking care of people as essential elements of public service whether civilian or military he also said that while small-level leadership is an essential beginning you learn more about how to lead as you move through the ranks the bosnian experience helped me to learn about other people in our task force as well as about other agencies and international partners and how important those relationships are said chafee the men also emphasized the armys priorities: readiness modernization and reform and noted that there has to be a team mentality between the military and the government they also shared their views on balancing service and family family is part of your journey said lieutenant colonel boates it was important to our family that our son play football in texas and that i watch him in both high school and college

drs paul kellstedt mark ramirez arnold vedlitz and sammy zahran published their research on value conflict in public opinion related to mitigating climate change using national survey data collected as part of an istpp noaa funded project the authors test the roles of specific issue domain knowledge and general cognitive ability on attitudes toward global warming and climate change the results of this research provide evidence that cognitive ability is a better gauge of suppressing value conflict (cognitive dissonance) than is knowledge of a specific policy domain the authors highlight that voters with less education suffer more from attitudinal ambivalence when debating policy preferences the results from this study provide a better understanding of the structure of americans support for policies aimed at limiting and adapting to climate change kellstedt paul m ramirez mark d and vedlitz arnold 2017 does political sophistication minimize value conflict evidence from a heteroskedastic graded irt model of opinions toward climate change british journal of political science doi: 101017/s0007123417000369

the first online executive master of public service and administration (empsa) class graduated from the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m in december 2017 this group of students demonstrates high energy positive attitudes and a drive to do their best the empsa program is designed to deliver high-quality and high-impact coursework to executive students who continue to pursue their full-time professional careers while further developing in-depth advanced skills in public leadership dean mark a welsh iii was happy to offer his congratulations to the graduates for their accomplishments i am honored to congratulate the first graduating class to earn the executive master ofpublic service and administration at the bush school of government and public service he said your successful completion of a rigorous curriculum while continuing to pursue a full-time professional career speaks to your dedication to public service and your understanding of the importance of further education to future success thirteen students graduated in the inaugural class they entered the program with varied academic and professional backgrounds averaging twenty years of experience before beginning this program six veterans and one active duty military student as well as students with work experience for the american heart association the federal reserve bank of dallas and the australian high commission created a unique learning environment where students could learn from their classmates previous experience class speaker theresa willis spoke fondly of the faculty and staff at the bush school describing their commitment to students willis works for a local nonprofit in brazoria county when hurricane harvey hit her home like many others was flooded while she was helping members of the community bush school faculty and staff reached out to her directly and provided her with support – driving several times to houston to deliver care packages one way students recognize the outstanding commitment of bush school faculty to students is through the silver star award this year dr justin bullock was chosen as the award recipient students noted his willingness to work with them in challenging situations including 19-hour time differences while working on their online course empsa graduate bob janusaitis said after graduation he would like to begin teaching part time in the homeland security field sharing his decades of real-world experience and serving others currently he is the commissioner for the harris county emergency services district #9 in texas i believe the bush school has prepared me well he said remembering president h w bushs words public service is a noble calling januasaitis stated it is my belief all individuals should give back to their community so i will continue to volunteer much of my time to support homeland security and other public service areas

the first online executive master of public service and administration (empsa) class from the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m recently received their aggie rings looking toward graduation seven of the thirteen students attended ring day just as aggies for years have ordered their aggie rings after completing the required coursework hours this first empsa class eagerly joined the ranks of those who came before them as they ordered their rings from the association of former students and after ring day now possess an ever-lasting symbol of their time spent here dr danny davis executive master of public service and administrator coordinator and senior lecturer was present to personally hand the students their new ring the office of extended education staff were also present to congratulate students for their accomplishments students faculty and staff all shared this milestone during a reception following the presentation of rings aggie rings symbolize a students accomplishments and dedication to aggie values and serve as a physical reminder of entrance into the aggie family they are a tradition dating back more than a century the rings design is steeped with symbolism and depicts texas a&ms storied history visually

invited by asian development bank and hunan innovative low carbon center dr xinsheng liu istpp research scientist and assistant director attended the asia-pacific forum on low carbon technology in changsha china on november 29-30 2017 dr liu shared a survey-based research that quantitatively examines the geographic variations and socioeconomic determinants of chinese public concern about global warming and climate change during this trip dr liu also visited peking universitys institute for state governance studies (isgs where he holds a research follow position) and gave a talk to isgss faculty and phd students on the new trends and paradigms of public policy research in the united states

a micro model of problem definition and policy choice: issue image issue association and policy support of power plants a paper by istpp researchers dr xinsheng liu and dr arnold vedlitz and istpp research fellow dr scott robinson has been accepted for publication by policy studies journal it is available in early view (doi: 101111/psj12233) in this paper the authors propose a theoretical micro model of problem definition and policy choice at the individual level through the general framework of behavioral choice they explore the application of the information-processing theory of public policy to individuals and use data from a national public survey on energy and power plant issues to test empirically the key propositions derived from their model the researchers hypothesize that individuals define a public problem according to both its issue image (potential to cause harm or benefit) and its issue association (linkages with other public issues) and that these two components of problem definition influence individuals policy choices issue image was measured by individuals ratings of the harmfulness of different types of energy sources – coal nuclear and natural gas issue association was measured by respondents ratings of the importance of jobs safety environment and energy costs when asked to consider construction of either a coal nuclear or natural gas power plant in their local community the respondents support for increasing maintaining or decreasing the use of coal nuclear and natural gas supplied the policy choice measure the authors also included in their model socioeconomic demographics ideological and political orientations and attention to and knowledge of energy issues the results show that citizens policy preferences strongly depend on how they define public problems particularly how they perceive the image of a public problem and how they associate the problem with other public issues

dr portney istpp director shared his research governing the water-energy-food nexus: solving a common-pool resource challenge with participants of the ostrom workshop colloquium series at indiana university as the invited speaker for the november 13 2017 workshop dr portney discussed how emerging natural system research has documented connections between water energy and food with an eye toward prescribing how to achieve greater efficiencies and to reduce resource depletion nexus research has documented amounts of water used in producing energy and food; amounts of energy needed to extract and transport water etc far less well understood is how these resources are governedhow public policy and management decisions affecting these connections are made underlying existing research is an expectation that if the connections are better understood policymakers will make decisions resulting specifically in more efficient use of resources within the context of the nexus the expectation is predicated on the idea that decision making in water energy and food is siloed and breaking down these silos leads to policy decisions that achieve greater efficiencies for this study dr portney looks at whether decision making in water energy and food is siloed and if it is whether there are conceptual reasons from public policy and management theory to suggest that breaking down these silos will make any difference

in their study sustainable cities and healthy cities: are they the same dr kent portney director of istpp and dr garett sansom associate director of the institute for sustainable communities fill a critical gap in the literature on the relationship between sustainability policies and health outcomes researchers have theorized that a positive correlation exists between these two variables but until now no study has empirically examined this relationship portney and sansom hypothesize that cities with more extensive sustainability policies will have fewer people who have been diagnosed with chronic health issues to assess their hypothesis they use bivariate correlations to look at the relationships between each of three research-based sustainability indexes for the 55 largest us cities with each of two different measures of obesity multivariate analysis shows that cities with more aggressive sustainability policies and programs have healthier populations even controlling for income race and age which are known to affect health risks and outcomes portney and sansom find an inverse relationship between obesity rates and the enactment of sustainability policies the authors note that these results must be interpreted with some caution due to limitations in the health data available specifically for cities even so their findings point to a possible mechanism that sustainability policies could provide for counteracting chronic health issues associated with obesity portney kent e and garett t sansom 2017 sustainable cities and healthy cities: are they the same urban planning 2(3): 45–55 doi: 1017645/upv2i31018

shannon abbott and anne richmond both second-year international affairs students at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university placed third in the 2017 cyber security awareness week (csaw) law and policy challenge the competition took place at new york universitys tandon school of engineering the us naval academy team won the competition with uc berkeley placing second csaw is the largest student-run cyber security event in the world featuring international competitions workshops and industry events the annual law and policy challenge requires contestants to think about the big picture of cyber security law policy economics and governance student teams from across the country compete for the chance to present their best legal arguments in front of a panel of renowned judges the competition is open to any student interested in these issues regardless of academic background the 2017 competition addressed questions at the cutting edge of privacy security and technology participants researched a highly relevant subject and argued their position on the topic in a written legal brief shannon abbott explained that csaw and the law and policy challenge includes a number of different types of competitions to both celebrate and raise awareness of the week this years competition required teams to develop a policy proposal related to the disclosure of investigative methods that use computer code she said anne richmond said the two researched and developed policy options then submitted their preliminary paper in september and were selected as finalists we received additional information a couple of weeks before the competition which helped us further develop our argument so we incorporated that into the paper and submitted it at the final round we presented our argument using a visual aid in front of other finalists judges and other csaw participants and answered questions after the presentation in the style of an appellate court she said as finalists all their expenses were paid by the csaw organizers the three top teams received cash prizes of $1000 $750 and $500 dr andrew l ross a professor in the bush schools department of international affairs served as the teams faculty advisor evidently this is the first time our students have entered the csaw contest were all very proud of how well shannon and anne did against some tough competition said ross

the bush school of government and public service has recently partnered with the texas a&m university college of engineering and the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) on a new national science foundation funded engineering research center (erc) on texas a&ms campus while some might see a public policy schools involvement with an engineering research center as unorthodox dr arnold vedlitz director emeritus and distinguished research scholar in the institute for science technology and public policy (istpp) believes it to be a perfect fit engineers develop important tools and processes with the potential to improve citizen well-being and we deal with the human aspects of these innovations said vedlitz the tools and processes being designed by scientists and engineers in the paths-up center will help those affected by diabetes and cardiovascular disease in underserved communities across the country and the world this new technology is being developed as part of paths-up or precise advanced technologies and health systems for underserved populations dealing with the human aspect as vedlitz says means engaging with the various stakeholders in this project these transformative and life-changing medical advancements require engagement with those who will use them pay for them and benefit from them and thats where the bush school comes in vedlitz and others in the institute for science technology and public policy at the bush school played an important role in bringing this new program to the texas a&m campus specifically by helping to identify and coordinate the community and stakeholder engagement efforts of the new center vedlitz and his senior leadership team including dr kent portney director of istpp dr mark lawley professor and head of the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m and dr farzan sansangohar assistant professor also in the department of industrial and systems engineering will be responsible for the new centers program for community engagement stakeholder engagement involves reaching out to various parties and individuals who will be essential to the design and acceptance of these medical device innovations such stakeholders include community leaders patients and their families relevant industries insurers health providers and government agencies and regulators the goal of the community engagement team is to identify these stakeholders concerns goals and priorities and help weave them into technical design elements as well as outreach and education efforts there are a huge number of human behavior and policy questions said vedlitz including questions about insurance safety costs and functionality of the devices this national science foundation erc is an initiative that connects multiple academic fields as well as industry and government partners and is a reminder of the importance of collaboration between the science and technical and the social science and policy research fields as texas a&m seeks to participate in the largest and most prestigious research grant awards paths-up will be led by the director dr gerard coté texas a&m professor of biomedical engineering and will be housed in the health technologies building

dr portney recently authored a chapter in the book global soil security in which he reported his research on peoples awareness of the agriculture-water nexus utilizing data collected from the 2013 national public water survey conducted by istpp portney analyzes the relative strength of this awareness and the influence of such on support for actions and policies portneys research shows that people understand that water is crucial to growing crops and raising livestock most people also connect drought conditions to severe negative impacts on agriculture overall people expressed less certainty that drought would cause damage to plant and animal species though about half of respondents perceived this connection analysis of survey responses also show that people are much more willing to take personal actions to conserve water the stronger their awareness of the connection between water and agriculture higher awareness also leads to higher support for public policies to save water though the strength of this relationship is somewhat less while this survey did not delve deeply into the water-agriculture nexus the results make a strong case there is more to explore indeed istpp designed a survey that enables investigation of nexus issues – the national public opinion project on the water-energy food nexus you can learn about this survey conducted in 2015 and its findings here portney kent e 2017 soil-water-food nexus: a public opinion and policy perspective in global soil security progress in soil science edited by damien j field cristine ls morgan and alex b mcbratney 371-381 cham switzerland: springer nature

featuring:ambassador carla hills us trade representative for president george hw bush and chief nafta negotiator with panelists:michael k young president texas a&m universityalejandrina salcedo cisneros director of economic measurement banco de mexicojesus cañas senior business economist federal reserve bank of dallasraymond robertson professor bush school of government and public service (moderator) on wednesday november 15 2017 the scowcroft institute of international affairs in collaboration with the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy welcomed ambassador carla a hills to share her insights on the north american free trade agreements strengths weaknesses and ways forward in the modern economy ambassador hills served as united states trade representative from 1989 to 1993 as a member of george h w bushs cabinet negotiating and concluding the north american free trade agreement the program began with a welcome from professor andrew natsios director of the scowcroft institute of international affairs who remarked on the importance of trade and acknowledged tensions about trade in the current administration professor natsios then presented two brief videos to frame the evenings discussion of naftas past present and future the first showed president george h w bush in 1998 supporting the benefits of free trade; the second was a recording of president donald trump criticizing the trade agreement at a 2017 rally in arizona after the videos professor lori taylor director of the mosbacher institute took the stage to introduce carla a hills with a description of her background and illustrious career in trade negotiation after which ambassador hills took her place behind the podium hills talk began with an overview of the benefits that emerged from free trade among canada mexico and the united states since naftas initial implementation including the creation of a multi-trillion dollar trade market with positive effects on consumers businesses and national security in all three countries hills also explored possibilities for improvements to the agreement particularly updated provisions to reflect modern developments in digital information technology ecommerce and energy closing with a call to action hills encouraged the audience to share with others the benefits of free trade in an attempt to correct what she identified as misinformed criticism of nafta a copy of her remarks can be found at https://bushtamuedu/scowcroft/papers/nafta/ the second segment of the program began with dr taylor inviting other trade specialists to the stage for a panel discussion moderated by bush school professor dr raymond robertson dr taylor introduced the panelists as they took their seats onstage with ambassador hills and dr robertson: michael k young president of texas a&m university; alejandrina salcedo cisneros director of economic measurement banco de mexico; and jesus cañas senior business economist federal reserve bank of dallas dr robertson led the conversation among the four guests moving from president youngs own recollections of nafta negotiations to dr cisneros perspective on how nafta has strengthened both the united states and mexico as production partners not only trade partners mr cañas gave his perspective on the effects of nafta on the texas economy in particular including job production and trade for the state ambassador hills contributed to the conversation as well reiterating remarks from her presentation that emphasized naftas role in creating work for all north americans the four guests agreed that nafta was important for the three countries involved and shared their hope that the united states not only would continue to support the agreement but also would contribute to updating the agreement to account for new economic realities as the evening came to a close dr taylor approached the podium for a final time to thank the panel participants for their contributions to a fruitful and engaging discussion and the members of the audience for their attendance ambassador carla hills and president michael young lori taylor director of the mosbacher institute; raymond robertson; alejandrina salcedo cisneros; michael k young; jesus cañas; andrew natsios director of the scowcroft institute; and mark welsh dean of the bush school

how am i this lucky thought jack kuplack 18 as he marveled in awe upon first seeing the famed treasury building of petra jordan this summer seeing the city of petra is one of those experiences that is so surreal you feel like it shouldnt be possible he said as he recalled the miles of hills and winding canyons that visitors must traverse before arriving at the entrance of the city kuplack a current bush school student traveled to amman jordan in summer 2017 to complete an arabic language immersion and was able to travel throughout the region during his time there other destinations included aqaba and israelor palestine depending on who you talk to he said a student in the 3+2 program at texas a&m kuplack said he kind of fell into this program which is designed so that students may simultaneously receive their bachelors and masters degrees in five years language immersion kuplack who has always had his eye on the military began learning arabic at age sixteen though he had no idea where it would take him originally he chose to learn arabic as a resume boost i didnt have any emotional connection to it he said and i started learning this language where all the reading goes backward and everything just looks like a squiggle a few days into it it just became so fun he recalled his arabic teacher who was a jordanian woman not only did she teach her students the language but she taught them about jordanian and islamic culture and what life is like in the middle east i was just really fascinated by it kuplack said it was this class that made kuplack realize he needed to pursue an education in international affairs to learn more about the region he had fallen in love withthe middle east he didnt pursue this education to defend his country against the dangers radical islamists pose to the united states but out of a sheer desire to learn more about this interesting region that was so different from san antonio texas where he grew up respecting the beauty of different cultures traveling to unknown regions tends to have an effect on those willing to step outside their comfort zone one of these effects is a newfound respect for the culture in which travelers insert themselves kuplack is no stranger to this phenomenon and recognizes that people who are not given the opportunity to travel far beyond familiar territory often view others from different cultures as just thatdifferent defeating this narrative requires active participation in and assimilation into a world unlike the one we live in he said while sometimes a conversation can spark an understanding other times it is throwing yourself at the mercy of a chaotic language immersion kuplack said kuplack is an army rotc cadet slated to commission as an officer upon graduation in may carrying the title of distinguished military graduate and ranked in the top 20 percent of cadets in the country he knows the importance of showing respect for his fellow comrades while he hopes to pursue a career in the intelligence community after he completes his time in the army showing respect for others will always be important to kuplack respect isnt just a state of mind; its something we need to really show each other kuplack said reflecting on his summer abroad taking classes and living in the middle east were great opportunities for me to try and do my small part in building the bridge of respect our two hemispheres require now more than ever

the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university is dedicated to honoring members of the us armed forces who often exemplify the purest kind of public service president george h w bush said it best: any definition of a successful life must include service to others today public service is a central tenet of the school that bears his name this year the public service organization (pso) at the bush school honored veterans with a write a letter to a soldier campaign the event gave bush school students faculty and staff as well as elementary school students from the bryan community the opportunity to write a letter thanking soldiers in the 82nd airborne division for their service the bush school pso military appreciation team is honored to lead a ‘write a letter to a soldier campaign said nicole pompilio assistant project lead for the pso military appreciation team we think it is important to support our troops even with just a kind word though not all these letters may be read we believe they can be a source of comfort and appreciation especially during the holiday season we appreciate our bush school veterans and are grateful to be able to honor them as well she added the bush school and texas a&m have a long history of recognizing the sacrifices of veterans and current service members in addition to helping them achieve their education goals each year the schools scowcroft institute for international affairs hosts officers in the us army as a part of the united states army war colleges senior service college fellowship program texas a&m has been named a premier institution of higher education for providing services to veterans transitioning into civil service careers there are currently more than 1 100 veterans and at least 2 200 military dependents at texas a&m who are able to take advantage of generous scholarships and financial aid for members of the military the university also has two offices dedicated to supporting veterans in their educational pursuits

among the issues facing president trump on his current asian trip is how to garner chinese support to defuse the nuclear standoff with north korea a recent policy paper from the scowcroft institute for international affairs at the texas a&m bush school of government and public service analyzes why the chinese are reluctant to apply measures that could halt the north korean nuclear program dr joonbum bae most recently a post-doc at the scowcroft institute suggests that chinas fears about potential ramifications of regime collapse in north korea as one reason the chinese government could be reluctant to apply sanctions or other measures that could halt the north korean nuclear program bae writes that if uncertainty over the costs of a north korean collapse is preventing cooperation between china and the us then reducing that uncertainty is the most direct and perhaps the most effective way to encourage cooperation between the two nations he believes a mutual understanding between the us and china regarding the korean peninsula would lower the chances of a miscalculation or misperception in the aftermath of a collapse of the kim regime and is likely to prevent the most negative effects of such a collapse

four texas a&m university bush school of government and public service students were named to the class of 2019 robertson fellows each year the robertson foundation selects fellows from the top international affairs graduate schools in the nation in exchange for becoming scholarship recipients robertson fellows as a program requirement agree to work for the federal government for a minimum of three of their first seven years after graduation this years recipients are: audrey hopkinssailer perkinsnoelle rutlandclayton yates these students whether coming to the bush school directly from their respective undergraduate institutions or from the workforce all have impressive resumes perkins a summa cum laude graduate of the university of mississippi has studied arabic in jordan and egypt and worked as a translator for the syrian voice in amman jordan another fellow rutland has completed prestigious internships at the institute for the study of war and the department of defense while hopkins a graduate of arizona state university completed internships at sandia national laboratories and the james martin center for nonproliferation studies yates who graduated magna cum laude from the ohio state university in 2011 commissioned as a second lieutenant in the us army after graduation after separating from the army yates worked for the international center for empowerment facilitating refugee resettlement the robertson foundation identifies and nurtures future us government leaders in the areas of national security foreign policy and international affairs the foundation provides scholarships internship stipends and additional career support to graduate students at select universities

the online executive master in public administration (empsa) degree offered by the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university has been ranked seventh in the nation by thebestschoolsorg a recent article on the website cited the school as one of the top thirty schools in the nation offering this online degree thebestschoolsorg provides in-depth rankings of degree programs as well as of colleges and universities their rankings are based on a balance of academic excellence return on investment and indirect or secondary benefits the bush schools online executive master in public administration degree program was evaluated on the quality of the program types of courses offered the faculty awards rankings and reputation and the schools reputation for effectively providing online degree programs

the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m will host the 3rd annual texas symposium on women peace and security: challenges and opportunities amidst global change monday nov 20 2017 in the george h w bush presidential library orientation theater from 9 am to 5 pm panelists will analyze and discuss solutions to the issues most pressing in womens security today including women and peacebuilding in afghanistan womens health as a national security issue and current scholarly research on the relationship between the security of women and the security of the states in which they live keynote speakers include: us congresswoman kay granger (tx);ambassador catherine russell former ambassador-at-large for global womens issues us state departmentbush school professor valerie hudson womens perspectives and voice on issues of national security has been sorely lacking and this symposium is a contribution to the rectification of that deficiency the texas symposium on wps also aspires to showcase texas-based scholarship philanthropy programming and policy on these important issues with a panel of representatives from home-grown organizations the symposium is free but seating is limited visit the bush school website for additional event and registration information

on monday november 6 the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy at the bush school of government and public service was honored to present the 2017 mclane leadership in business award to john l nau iii chairman and ceo of silver eagle distributors lp the nations largest distributor of anheuser-busch products the mclane award is presented each year for outstanding contributions to business public service or national community service the mclane leadership in business program began with bush school dean mark welsh welcoming the audience and director of the mosbacher institute lori taylor introducing nau among naus many accomplishments and contributions taylor highlighted his chairmanship of the texas historical commission and presidential appointment as chairman of the national advisory council on historic preservation from 2001-2010 upon taking the stage nau presented leadership lessons from history a speech outlining key lessons synthesized from a successful career in business and a lifelong interest in history naus speech emphasized remaining open-minded about opportunities wherever they may lead finding a cause to champion and learning from the past nau stressed the importance of treating employees and customers alike with respect before describing how his interest in history inspired his leadership principles nau advised his audience members to follow their instincts as americas leaders did on the battlefield but to remember that just as no historical figure rose to prominence alone neither can a business leader reach the heights of success without help from others these lessons nau stated helped him become a better leader in his business as well as a more effective servant to his community at the conclusion of naus remarks taylor rejoined him onstage for a seated conversation to elaborate on his talk in response to taylors question about how he had learned leadership without any formal business school training nau explained that he took much of his inspiration from history but had gained experience in the marine corps and on-the-job in his first management positions the two also discussed how nau prioritized his time between making a profit and making a difference to which nau replied that while he contributes his time and money to philanthropic causes he also commits daily to serving his employees and clients at silver eagle distributors with resources and services that touch their lives in a positive way the event concluded with dean welsh and drayton mclane jr the founder and namesake of the mclane leadership in business award joining taylor and nau onstage for the award presentation mclane thanked nau for his contributions to texas and the nation closing the event with final remarks regarding the importance of embracing leadership lessons from history to become a modern leader in business and community john l nau iii and dr lori taylor drayton mclane with john l nau iii the bush school ambassadors

international health leaders from both the public and private sector traveled to texas a&m universitys bush school of government and public service for the scowcroft institutes 3rd annual global pandemic policy summit and spent two full days tackling one pressing question: are we prepared for the next pandemic the threat of pandemic looms larger than most people realize according to the world health organization over the last two decades alone weve seen outbreaks of sars influenza ebola and the zika virus resulting in approximately 200 000 deaths worldwide with an increase in international travel and trade deforestation forced migration and urbanization the threat of a worldwide pandemic continues to grow although the participants and speakers seemed to suggest the answer was a resounding no we are not prepared for the next pandemic much focus was brought to bear on what is currently being done right what needs to be done better and what actionable steps should be implemented the purpose of this years summit was to produce a detailed blueprint captured in a white paper for the way forward last years white paper the growing threat of pandemics: enhancing domestic and international biosecurity has been widely circulated throughout the international health community influencing organizations and policy at the highest level on the second day of the summit a forum entitled pandemic preparedness and global health innovation featured speakers from the us agency for international development the coalition for epidemic preparedness innovations the center for global development virion global solutions and ibio cmo the closing keynote address was given by dr peter hotez dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine dr hotez championed scientists and international health leaders direct engagement with the general public in regard to vaccine advocacy citing misinformation and scare tactics as responsible for the growing anti-vax sentiments across the united states the white paper resulting from this summit which the scowcroft institute will publish early next year will help policy makers government officials foundations international organizations industry leaders and nongovernmental organizations get us closer to the answer yes we are in fact prepared for the next pandemic

president donald trumps announcement that iran has violated the spirit of the international nuclear agreement that prevents iran from attaining an atomic weapon has surprised many experts and scholars the presidents controversial decision to disavow the agreement will be the subject of an expert panel discussion sponsored by the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university on wednesday nov 8 titled the iran nuclear agreement: whats next the discussion which is open to the public will be held at 5:30 pm in rudder tower room 302 on the texas a&m campus panelists taking part in the discussion include: marvin l adams htri professor and director of the institute of national security education and research texas a&m department of nuclear engineeringmohammad tabaar texas a&m bush school assistant professor of international affairs and expert on international security and middle east politicssunil chirayath associate professor texas a&m department nuclear engineering and director of the nuclear security science and policy institutewilliam norris texas a&m bush school professor of security policy and recent associate with the nuclear policy program at the carnegie endowment for international peace will moderate the discussion the iran nuclear deal known as the joint comprehensive plan of action (jcpoa) has to be recertified by the president every ninety days many us allies believe that iran is in fact complying with the terms of the agreement which was hammered out in austria two years ago by a group known as the p5+1 it included the united states china france russia the united kingdom and germany decertifying does not withdraw the united states from the deal but punts the issue over to congress which has sixty days to decide whether to re-impose nuclear-related economic sanctions on iran supporters of the agreement believe that by not certifying it the intense scrutiny that has kept iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon will begin to stop and we will no longer know if iran is complying or not

one day after the us house of representatives passed a budget resolution paving the way for tax reform dr lori taylor an economist and director of the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy at the bush school of government at texas a&m university explores this topic in the latest issue of the takeaway those privileged few who still itemize will receive subsidies for their health care housing costs state and local taxes and charitable donations that the rest of us will not receivedr lori taylor in are there benefits to a higher standard the effects of raising the standard tax deduction taylor summarizes how the us federal income tax works and who would be affected by an increase in the standard deduction taylor notes that under one prominent proposal its likely that 84 percent of taxpayers who currently itemize would take the standard deduction instead but argues that those privileged few who still itemize will receive subsidies for their health care housing costs state and local taxes and charitable donations that the rest of us will not receive she proposes that getting rid of itemized deductions altogether would be cleaner and fairer the takeaway is a publication of the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy

the bush school of government and public service and the college of education and human development at texas a&m university have partnered to offer a collaborative masters and phd degree that will prepare individuals to work in the field of education policy students who successfully complete all program requirements will receive both a master of public service and administration (mpsa) degree and a phd in educational administration the collaborative degrees program (cdp) is geared toward individuals who seek academic careers focused on research in the multidisciplinary field of education policy dr lori taylor director of the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy is leading the bush school part of the initiative the curriculum for this degree will prepare individuals for careers in research universities and teaching colleges as well as education agencies or policy-oriented nonprofits taylor said students will work with a team of highly regarded public policy and education faculty whose expertise ranges from the economics of education education law and leadership to the politics of education school accountability and finance and the social foundations of schooling she added taylor noted that the new program has been designed to accommodate a relatively small number of students and admissions will be limited to new or existing bush school students with a passion for education policy and an aptitude for analytical thinking for more information about the collaborative degrees program visit bushtamuedu/psaa/degrees/cdp/psaa-eahr/

it was a week packed full of celebration at the bush school of government and public service as students and faculty alike reflected on twenty years of public service and many more ahead the bush school is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year and held a week-long celebration featuring multiple events these various events helped teach students about the schools history giving them a peak into the past as the school looks toward its next twenty years of educating and training future public servants various vip guests also visited classes during the week getting the chance to interact with faculty and students alike last weeks celebration included multiple events featuring the founding director and former and current deans of the bush school as well as events that featured the deans spouses a panel of president george h w bushs grandchildren also took place during which they shared stories from their childhoods and today about their grandparents and their legacy the highlight of the week was the world today a panel discussion with former deans of the bush school founding director dr charles hermann and former deans a benton cocanougher ryan crocker and andrew card spoke about their time at the bush school and how the school has changed since they left general mark welsh iii the current dean moderated the panel adding his perspective as well they also spoke about what they hope to see the school accomplish in the next twenty years and beyond another event this week highlighted the new book written by hermann and sally dee wade called to serve which documents the schools history the event a conversation with the authors gave them a chance to tell the story of the book as well as reflect on the history of the school

john l nau iii chairman and ceo of the nations largest anheuser-busch distributor silver eagle distributors lp will receive the mclane leadership in business award on monday november 6 2017 the award program will be presented by the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy at the bush school of government and public service texas a&m university mr nau a successful businessman with an avid interest and dedication to the study of american history will share comments on the lessons of history that can shape and impact leadership the event will be held in the george hw bush presidential library and museum with a reception at 5 pm followed by mr naus lecture at 5:30 pm the mosbacher institute was founded in october 2009 to produce policy-oriented research in trade energy and good governance the mclane leadership in business award was established by drayton mclane jr a noted entrepreneur and chairman of the mclane group a high technology firm presented annually the award recognizes a prominent individual in the field of business for outstanding contributions in the area of business public service or community service at the national level silver eagle distributors employs more than 1 500 employees serving 16 counties in texas through operations in houston san antonio conroe cypress pasadena rosenberg carrizo springs and del rio in addition to his leadership in business mr nau is also being honored for his commitment to civic and philanthropic service in particular for his advocacy for the study and preservation of american history currently chairman of the texas historical commission he previously served as chairman of the national advisory council on historic preservation 2001 – 2010 which is a presidential appointment mr nau has also served on the board of the houston police foundation and the admiral nimitz foundation and is chairman of the steering committee for the proposed lone star coastal national recreation area the award ceremony and lecture are open to the public but reservations are required by thursday november 2 2017

the bush school of government and public service outstanding alumni award was presented to esther larson class of 2006 larson who has an impressive record of public service graduated from the bush school of government and public service with a master of public service and administration in 2006 dean mark a welsh iii began his remarks by saying this award was established to honor those bush school alumni who embody aggie values after graduation and those who are dedicated to improving the well-being of otherslarson who was nominated by her sister and fellow bush school alumna marcia peiffer embodies aggie values as shes continued her work after the bush school in new york city while introducing her sister marcia noted that it is her sisters values that set her apart esther has been a force for good said her sister public service is a noble calling during larsons remarks she reminisced about her time at the bush school thanking the faculty who prepared and equipped her for work in the nonprofit world she also recalled the moment she knew she wanted to dedicate her life to public service just inside the door of the bush school she told the audience theres a bust of president george h w bush with a quote that reads public service is a noble calling and we need men and women of character to believe that they can make a difference in their communities in their states and in their country the moment she saw those words larsons decision to dedicate her life to public service was confirmed a career in public service currently esther is the director of affiliate development at hope for new york and has been an active member of the nonprofit community in new york city both professionally and personally since graduating as an alumna of the bush school esther has spoken to classes helped with recruiting in new york and assisted numerous students pursuing careers in the nonprofit sector

david switzer istpp predoctoral research fellow and arnold vedlitz professor and istpp distinguished research scholar have published their research on how worldviews condition the way individuals process information about their local environment the authors hypothesize that people will have higher perceptions of risk and greater preferences for policy when observed local conditions conform to their worldviews and conversely perceive less risk and have lower desire for policy when local conditions are not aligned with their prior beliefs the researchers test their theory by combining an indicator of water scarcity as a measure of local issue severity with data about ideology and environmental beliefs as a measure of worldviews from two nationally representative probability-based panel surveys about water issues in the united states analyzing interactive models predicting risk perception and policy preferences they find that increasing water scarcity drives polarization between individuals with opposing environmental worldviews david switzer and arnold vedlitz 2016 green colored lenses: worldviews and motivated reasoning in the case of local water scarcity environment and behavior doi: 101177/0013916516669391

acting secretary of the army ryan mccarthy has three priorities for the army: readiness to face adversaries development of new systems and army families mccarthy recently paid a visit to texas a&ms bush school of government and public service to address the first two items on this list one aspect of readiness is working constantly to ensure that the us army is up to date with the latest research and thinking on multiple fronts mccarthy visited texas a&m university to meet with faculty and students and discuss the research that is being conducted on campus during his visit mccarthy met with faculty and students from the bush school as well as faculty from departments across campus at the bush school mccarthy was able to talk with top researchers on topics including pandemic threats and grand strategy as well as converse with faculty experts specializing on north korea and china creating these dialogues between government officials and academics is an important step in the armys efforts to continuously modernize and attempt to outsmart our countrys ever-evolving adversaries mccarthy also had a chance to interact with students during his time at the bush school in a lunchtime address he spoke about the importance of mentorship and managing ones time mccarthy who served as the special assistant to secretary of defense robert gates stressed the need for young people to have someone to model themselves after because of his time serving under gates and gates mentorship mccarthy now advocates for young professionals to seek out and develop strong relationships with trusted leaders mentors help you think help you learn and they advocate for you said mccarthy he added that a reliable mentor and solid time management skills are important working in government is often stressful and public servants need to begin each day with a plan and work to make incremental improvements over time

bush school dean mark welsh has announced that molly watson has joined the bush school staff as assistant dean for strategic and developmental planning she holds a ba in communications from baylor university and an ma in speech communication from southwest texas state university where her studies emphasized organizational communication watson was formerly the assistant director of the mosbacher institute and more recently worked in university development operations at baylor she previously served as associate vice president for major gifts where she worked closely with the vice president of strategic initiatives and development she was also director for development for buckner an international social service organization and taught at several colleges in texas a long-time resident and active community volunteer in bryan-college station watson has worked with several local nonprofit organizations including serving on the board of directors of the childrens museum of the brazos valley and the junior league she is currently chairing the brazos community foundations tribute luncheon and serves on the board of the prenatal clinic as assistant dean watson will coordinate and support the schools alumni and donor relations activities and will develop outreach initiatives that reflect the schools academic and service goals she will also be responsible for planning and implementing the schools strategic and long-range goals incorporating the vision of dean welsh the faculty and staff and other administrative units watson said the opportunity to work for the bush school is one she eagerly looks forward to because of the broad range of responsibilities and the great potential for the schools growth during my time at baylor i greatly enjoyed strategic and organizational planning for the division of university development working alongside the administration the provost deans and faculty to ensure that we were all focusing on the important issues watson said my job here will be to create and maintain that same kind of strategic alignment for the bush schools planning and outreach making sure that our efforts complement the strategic goals developed by dean welsh and his leadership team she added in making the announcement dean welsh said molly wants to make sure we are still a great college when our great-great-grandkids are admitted were delighted to have molly back with us at the bush school and look forward to her contributions to our strategic and developmental planning efforts he added

the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a conversation with the authors of called to serve: the 20-year history of the bush school on wednesday oct 18 at the annenberg presidential conference center authors charles f hermann the first director of the school and sally dee wade former writing instructor at the bush school will discuss the colleges history and how the book came to be written hermann and wade will speak at 6:30 pm with a dessert reception and book signing to follow at 7:30 pm books will be available for purchase before and after the event

governor tom ridge who served as the first secretary of the department of homeland security under president george w bush recently visited the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university ridge was on campus to take part in the 2017 george h w bush foundation distinguished lecture series presented by wells fargo prior to the lecture ridge met with a group of bush school students and fielded their questions on a range of topics responding thoughtfully and with humor the wide-ranging discussion covered cybersecurity immigration transitioning between elected and appointed office and his reflections on his achievements as the first secretary of the department of homeland security during the one-hour meeting the studentsmost of whom are pursuing the certificate in homeland securitygained a valuable perspective on the career of a public servant after the meeting they commented on what an incredible opportunity it was to meet and talk to secretary ridge and expressed their gratitude to the mosbacher institute for making the meeting possible that evening the bush schools mosbacher institute and the scowcroft institute co-hosted a conversation between secretary ridge and bush school dean mark welsh senator orrin hatch of utah gave remarks by video in which he urged those in attendance to remain vigilant against evolving threats to us security and do their part to join a strong dynamic workforce that the senator described as the foundation of national defense in the conversation that followed secretary ridge articulated his belief that the united states is stronger when it engages more with the rest of the world not less he identified the current threat landscape as one of the most complex the united states has ever faced with the addition of the space and cyber dimensions to the traditional air land and sea dean welsh then engaged secretary ridge in a fast-paced question and answer session on emerging national security issues one major theme was concern about the development of new superpowers like china and iranwhich secretary ridge warned cannot be deterred from acquiring nuclear weaponsin the global threat landscape a second concern was the resurgence of russia as a dominant player on the world stage secretary ridge frequently emphasized the need to forge stronger international ties a strategy that could bear fruit by mediating russias influence and preventing radicalization of young people recruited by groups like isis in addition to the discussion of military security issues ridge and welsh discussed energy independence cyber security and biosecurity ridge suggested taking greater advantage of domestic energy resources to free more energy dependent countries from their reliance on middle eastern or russian oil ridge also noted that cyber security is an especially important issue for private entities as well as the government regarding biosecurity secretary ridge explained that he assesses the emergence of a novel pathogen from nature to be a greater threat than development of a biological weapon by a rogue nation secretary ridge closed the program by encouraging those considering a career in public service saying the fulfillment is greater than can be imagined dr lori taylor director of the mosbacher institute; david jones ceo of the george h w bush presidential library foundation; secretary tom ridge; dean mark welsh; and professor andrew natsios director of the scowcroft institute

drs bullock and bowman recently published an article in environmental progress & sustainable energy titled few: exploring citizens support for policy tools at the food energy water nexus where they seek to understand public preferences on food energy water nexus policy actions and the factors that go into such preferences they emphasize that limited research has been conducted on policy preferences related to food energy water (few) nexus issues jointly; most existing literature on the topic has treated food energy and water independently drs bullock and bowman underscore the importance of gauging public preference on these issues from a nexus perspective rather than separately because of the reliance each resource has on one another the data used for this research was collected from a national survey completed by istpp that focused on few issues the responses from over 1 200 respondents and was examined through both a descriptive and multivariate analysis of the responses the results of these analyses suggest that factors – such as a respondents age sex household income education and political party affiliation play a significant role in policy tool preferences another significant finding is that respondents with more technical knowledge of nexus issues are more supportive of implementing various policy tools intended to address such issues drs bullock and bowman conclude their article by recommending that future public surveys of nexus issues explore the variables that influence opinions as well as the policy preferences of respondents to ensure a more comprehensive understanding of policy preferences they also mention that the results can provide policymakers routes for improving the efficiency of food energy and water management and that policymakers or scientists can increase public support for nexus policies by effectively educating the public on nexus issues and the implications of poor resource management on the environment bullock justin b and ann om bowman 2017 few: exploring citizens support for policy tools at the food energy water nexus environmental progress & sustainable energy 37(1): 148–154 doi: 101002/ep12727

five outstanding public servants and leaders who have been instrumental in the development of the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university since its founding in 1997 will take part in a unique discussion of current affairs on friday oct 20 at 6:30 pm in the annenberg presidential conference center on the texas a&m university campus the panel will be moderated by the schools current dean mark welsh former chief of staff of the united states air force panelists will include charles f hermann the first director of the bush school 1995−1999 and professor emeritus of the bush school; benton cocanougher interim dean 2009−2010 and dean emeritus of the mays school of business at texas a&m; andrew card acting dean 2011−2103 and white house chief of staff under president george w bush; and ryan crocker dean from 2013 to 2016 and career ambassador in the us state department this unique gathering of scholars diplomats and former senior government officials will discuss a range of national and international issues with each bringing his individual experience in government or academia to a dialogue about the complex current world situation bush school dean mark welsh noted that this group of dedicated public servants has helped to shape the schools growth and development each of these individuals along with other school leaders have made significant contributions to our reputation for academic excellence and commitment to public service welsh said this is a remarkable opportunity to hear their views on the bush school current world affairs and the place of the united states in the world the discussion will be preceded by a reception beginning at 5:15 pm

andrew natsios director of the scowcroft institute of international affairs has announced that dr leslie ruyle will join the institute as assistant director dr ruyle has most recently been assistant director of the texas a&m university center on conflict and development and has written and managed grants and proposals for university-based initiatives with the national science foundation and the us agency for international development natsios noted that dr ruyle is an ecologist by education and practice and has been working at the nexus of natural resource management and conflict she teaches courses on conflict natural resource management and policy she has lived in four countries and traveled to over seventy countries during her career her research and publications span a variety of disciplines dr ruyles work has been recognized with the uns equator prize initiative and the deans award for interdisciplinary teams said natsios she is currently building a program in the democratic republic of the congo focused on supporting entrepreneurship in regions of conflict conservation concern and limited connectivity (ec3) he added dr ruyle will focus on the scowcroft institute and the bush school research agenda and grant-writing efforts

istpp research scientist and assistant director xinsheng liu along with dr alicia yan hong (school of public health tamu) and dr huiyan sang (department of statistics tamu) received pesca funding in the amount of $25 000 to support their research project the trend of digital divide and health disparities in us: a longitudinal study of ehealth behavior and policy in the past decade the division of research at texas a&m university funds the pesca grant program through a competitive peer reviewed selection process to support significant research and scholarly projects that have the potential to lead to the awarding of external funding by agencies and endowments

on tuesday october 10 the george h w bush foundation lecture series by wells fargo will present whats next for national security the program will feature tom ridge the first department of homeland security secretary and former governor of pennsylvania; us senator orrin hatch via video; and mark welsh dean of the bush school and former chief of staff of the air force comments will focus on broad concerns relating to national security the event will be co-hosted by the mosbacher institute for trade economics and public policy and the scowcroft institute for international affairs both at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university our nation stands at a pivotal point with regard to the future of national security welsh said governor ridge will provide expert insight on border issues and the growing insecurity in our world tom ridge was the first secretary of the department of homeland security (dhs) and is the current chairman of ridge global a risk management and security consulting firm prior to serving as dhs secretary ridge also served two terms as governor of pennsylvania and six terms in the us house of representatives he is an army veteran of the vietnam war orrin hatch is the senior senator from utah and the most senior republican in the senate he serves as senate president pro tempore and the chairman of the senate committee on finance and is a member of the senate judiciary committee; health education labor and pensions committee; and the joint committee on taxation his prerecorded remarks will cover his opinion on key national security issues mark welsh is the dean of the bush school of government and public service he previously served as the chief of staff of the air force a member of the joint chiefs of staff associate director of military affairs at the central intelligence agency and commandant of the united states air force academy the event will be held on tuesday october 10 at the annenberg presidential conference center at 5:30 pm since seating is limited registration is required

dr kent portney istpp director presented research on the relationships between measures of multilevel governance and the pursuit of sustainability by large us cities at the recently concluded spsa conference the research team investigates this relationship using data from a survey of city administrators in 50 of the largest cities in the us to measure aspects of multilevel governance and independent measures of how aggressively cities seem to be pursuing sustainability the analyses show significant variation across cities in their frequency of interactions and contacts among multiple levels of government and the extent to which they include other governments in city policy deliberations the authors find very strong evidence that multilevel governance has very little to do with cities decisions to adopt and implement sustainability policies and programs there is even evidence that when cities engage in multilevel governance they are less likely to take the pursuit of sustainability seriously suggesting the other levels of government might actually impede rather than stimulate pro-environmental policies bowman ann om kent e portney and jeffrey m barry 2017 multilevel governance and city sustainability policies: does it exist does it matter paper presented at the local governance and sustainability conference within conference at the 88th annual meeting of the southern political science association new orleans la january 12-14

the european political science association announced that dr paul m kellstedt would be the incoming editor-in-chief of its flagship journal political science research and methods read more information about kellstedts achievement dr paul m kellstedt is a professor of political science at texas a&m university his fields of expertise are public opinion and political methodology prior to joining the texas a&m university faculty he taught at brown university and the university of minnesota he has been a visiting fellow at the kennedy school of government at harvard university (1999) at nuffield college university of oxford (2008) and at centro de investigación y docencia económicas (2014) on sept 1 2022 the department of political science became part of the bush school of government & public service

when news breaks about a major world event whether it is a syrian government decisions to conduct gas attacks on its citizens or a natural disaster impacting thousands of lives in south texas one of the first questions leaders and citizens alike ask is okay so whats next presented by the bush school a new series called whats next aims to answer that question by addressing the major events and issues that grab our attention the first program in this series will be hurricane harvey: the road to recovery which will be held on thursday september 14 2017 at the memorial student center room 2401 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm hurricane harvey has been devastating to houston and the surrounding areas and the long-term effects are still unknown the estimated damage is expected to be approximately $190 billion resulting from thirty inches of rain the massive storm dumped on houston three bush school professors dr danny davis dr dave mcintyre and professor ron sievert will discuss the road forward for houston and the surrounding communities at the event bush school professor dr justin bullock will moderate while there is no set schedule for presentations in the series the timing and topics will be completely driven by the headline; this type of rapid-response series is designed to address events in real time as they occur with faculty from the bush school discussing policy issues and options that are available to decision-makers bush school dean mark welsh noted that the bush school has experts in many areas of government policy who can help people understand what options are possible after a major news event depending on the event there are also remarkable scholars from other colleges on campus who could contribute to a multi-faceted discussion of whats nextthis idea came from a conversation i had with president michael young and im delighted we have the opportunity to make it a reality said dean welsh our faculty members can be a tremendous resource as people try to evaluate whats happened and how we can move forward after a major event such as hurricane harvey this new series will enable us to provide timely information from experts who have unique experience and expertise that will help people understand a particular event and what the future holds for those impacted by it the series is open to the public and no registration is required

the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university kicked off twenty years of educating students with a celebration featuring cupcakes ice cream and other special surprises for students faculty and staff on thursday august 31 2017 president bush once said he hoped in 100 years the bush school would look back and be able to say this school produced generations of dedicated public servants dean mark welsh is proud to be part of the accomplishments of the school and is looking forward to playing a role in its future success the bush school is now twenty years into the effort to make his dream reality dean welsh said our faculty and staff still have a singular focus on producing principled public servants and our graduates are twenty years into changing our world for the better i know president bush is proud of them all im also sure he would remind us that our work will never truly be done that our world needs leaders of character today more than ever and that those of us who serve here are privileged to educate remarkable men and women who are committed to serve their fellow citizens it just doesnt get any better than being at the bush school and today it comes with cupcakes! with its inaugural class walking through the doors in 1997 the bush school is launching a year-long celebration to recognize the accomplishments of the last twenty years though the school is young it is host to well-respected faculty and a student body that currently represents twenty-four foreign countries and thirty-nine states after graduation many bush school students go on to have distinguished careers in the public and private sector this year of celebration will remember past achievements as well as look toward new horizons and educating a new generation of public servants its quite a special time to be at the bush school as twenty years means students from around the globe have passed through these halls to carry on president bushs vision and legacy of selfless public service and it also means that countless more students will continue to follow in their footsteps said second-year student david hidinger who will be part of the twentieth graduating class

among the many moving photographs taken during the rescue efforts after hurricane harvey the scene of bush school senior lecturer richard macnamee carrying a girl to safety captured by getty images shows the danger he and other volunteers went through to save flood victims macnamee who teaches courses on government intelligence operations terrorism and counterinsurgency is a british army special forces veteran who served on numerous combat operations in germany northern ireland the middle east and afghanistan he was accompanied on this rescue by bush school graduates lucas mcham and forest clark (veteran) both class of 2016 they brought along several boats and a high-water vehicle all of which were sourced through personal contacts when it became clear that the hurricane was going to make a second landfall we decided to head east to the beaumont-port arthur area macnamee said we were stationed right at the waters edge near the memorial baptist church in port arthur our mission was to get folks out of harms way and transported to a safe shelter our boats made many trips to various locations finding and getting people out of apartments and other facilities this young girl is just one of many children i saw who were clearly traumatized by what was happening macnamees extensive military experience as well as his work in crisis management came into play as the day progressed he said we saw elderly people children and whole families who not only had lost their homes and possessions but were also unsure where they would be going; so understandably there was a lot of confusion macnamee said we did our best to calm their fears but nerves were pretty frayed; and it was especially hard on the children the flood waters were toxic to say the least which presented another danger to those working to save people following the work in port arthur macnamee and his crew came to houston to stage in an area in west houston in order to be able to assist with any rescues of people who were stranded when water from the addicks and barker reservoirs was released it was very difficult and tiring work but rewarding macnamee said when you see the resilience of people who have just lost everything it makes you grateful and willing to do whatever is necessary to help them what was on display was the leadership and service creed of former graduate students like forest and lucas who admirably displayed the essence of the quiet professional doing what just needed to be done they made me proud view the original article on texas a&m today

houston lawyer michael mickey branisa bicycles across the country to honor his late son and raise support for the bush school of government and public service the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university was founded under former president george hw bushs philosophy that public service is a noble calling michael mickey branisa saw that calling in his late son ryan and now looks to raise support for others as equally passionate by biking 3 800 miles across america mickey is a houston lawyer with 30 years of experience under his belt in 2010 his 14-year-old son ryan passed away after an accidental fall while hiking table mountain in south africa to honor their sons memory mickey and his wife susan established an endowed gift to create the michael ryan branisa endowed fellowship through the texas a&m foundation distributions from this endowment will be used to provide fellowships to full-time students in good academic standing pursuing a graduate degree from the bush school of government and public service ryan very much liked bush 41s style and his policiesespecially his international policiesand im confident that he would have gone into the public service arena said mickey susan and ryan visited the campus and the george bush presidential library and museum one month before his passing since he couldnt graduate from there something we can do is gather attention and support towards our cause in hopes that other people will feel the desire to contribute whenever susan and i have visited the bush school the students appear to be what we as a country need: young leaders with a passion for public service todays youth unfortunately often does not have the financing to finish their studies ryan wouldve been a leader and we want to help other young people develop into leaders in his memory mickey is embarking on a cross-country bike ride on aug 20 and hopes to raise support for the bush school and its vision he further views this cycling endeavor as a personal journey and an apt metaphor for life full of challenges setbacks and triumphs his ride will cover 3 800 miles of northern us landscape he will begin in portland oregon on aug 20 and finish in portland maine on oct 4 hes been an avid bicyclist for 30 years and has already taken a partial sabbatical from practicing law to begin training and riding the trek the route averages 91 miles per day and there are 18 days of riding over 100 miles so mickey has trained intensely on different types of terrain ive always wanted to see america up close and i think this is a great way to do it there will be 20 others making the trek at the same time many of whom are also bicycling for a cause although mickey has been an avid bicyclist for 30 years the 55-year-old has concerns about the physical strain of such a journey especially with two hip replacements this ride is in part a celebration and remembrance of a life well-lived by ryan may the ride be an inspiration to others including the recipients of the ryan branisa fellowship at the bush school to always challenge themselves mickey said i hope this ride will also raise awareness and support for the school that graduates young leaders many of whom go into the area of public service both at home and abroad in the mold and vision of bush 41 i think the bush school embodies a lot of what ryan stood for and what our family stands for mickey said check mickey branisas public facebook page to follow mickeys trek across the us and track his progress in real time he will also be posting pictures from his journey at michael_branisa on instagram

dr arnold vedlitz and his co-authors dr scott robinson and dr james stoutenborough published their comparison of experimental and attitudinal approaches for measuring public policy support in a book devoted to experiments in public administration research to compare the two approaches the authors utilize a survey that measured public support for various water policies through the traditional attitudinal model the authors provide respondents with an 11-point scale by which they rate their level of support for a particular policy through the experimental approach the authors utilize a willingness-to-pay (wtp) system in which respondents indicated whether they would be willing to pay a stratified randomly assigned amount extra on their water bills to secure water supply in their areas throughout their chapter the authors analyze the benefits and flaws of both the attitudinal and experimental approaches to measuring public support they highlight instances where the attitudinal model might be a more appropriate approach than the wtp model and vice versa the researchers conclude that the attitudinal model provides researchers more flexibility in the type of policies surveyed along with a general sense of the degree of public support related to types of policies they also note that the experimental model provides a greater ability to make inferences but only within certain types of policy questions and evaluations robinson scott e james w stoutenborough and arnold vedlitz 2017 assessing public support for government policy: comparing experimental and attitudinal approaches in experiments in public administration research: challenges and contributions edited by s jilke o james and g van ryzin 376-393 new york: cambridge university press

led by istpp director dr portney co-authors dr vedlitz dr sansom dr berke and doctoral candidate mr daher delineate their article governance of the water-energy-food nexus: the conceptual and methodological foundations for the san antonio region case study a strategy for conducting both applied and proof-of-concept research related to resource governance and policy systems and their influence on the water-food-energy nexus the istpp team will focus their first of its kind research on san antonio texas where there are vast numbers of organizations – both in the private and public sectors – that have financial political and legal influence on decisions that affect water energy and food resources the researchers intend to identify and analyze the governance structures of water energy and food through recording the responsibilities and capabilities of the organizations that have an influence on each of these domains they will then utilize social network analysis and game-theoretic formulation to understand the relationships within these governance organizations and their constituents for each domain the team will also determine whether any such relationships and connections exist across the nexus domains the team will also utilize spatial land use analysis to compare governance interconnection in different areas around san antonio it is possible that by identifying the networks involved with governance of the nexus and the ways in which related policies affect individual behaviors that strategies may be developed to improve and interlink the governance structures so that area residents will benefit from more efficient and sustainable use of water energy and food resources kent e portney arnold vedlitz garett sansom philip berke and bassel t daher 2017 governance of the water-energy-food nexus: the conceptual and methodological foundations for the san antonio region case study in the topical collection on nexus of food water energy section edited by r mohtar for current sustainable/renewable energy reports volume edited by michael e webber springer international publishing doi: 101007/s40518-017-0077-1

in a recent article on north koreas drive for nuclear arms the new york times referenced the research in nuclear weapons and coercive diplomacy by todd s sechser and matthew fuhrmann read the referenced article by the new york times matthew fuhrmann is an associate professor of political science at texas a&m university he was named an andrew carnegie fellow in 2016 by the carnegie corporation of new york during the 2016-17 academic year he is a visiting associate professor at stanford universitys center for international security and cooperation his research focuses on international relations military power nuclear proliferation and armed conflict he is the author of atomic assistance: how atoms for peace programs cause nuclear insecurity (2012) and the co-author of nuclear weapons and coercive diplomacy (2017) he is a term member of the council on foreign relations on sept 1 2022 the department of political science became part of the bush school of government & public service

dr mary hilderbrand a senior lecturer in the bush school of government and public service has been appointed a research fellow of the institute for science technology and public policy her research focuses on institutional and governance reform political analysis of public policy processes and the role of politics and governance in development dr hilderbrand brings her expertise to an interdisciplinary group of a&m scholars who are researching the governance of us–mexico transboundary groundwater and are developing research partnerships with scholars in mexico the istpp fellows program recognizes individuals who have made or are committed to making significant contributions to the development of the institute and to its mission aims and objectives participation as an istpp fellow is by invitation from the institutes director meet our other fellows by visiting our istpp fellows webpage

dr berke is a professor of land use and environmental planning in the department of landscape architecture and urban planning and director of the institute of sustainable coastal communities at texas a&m university his work lies at the intersection of land use planning urban ecology and community resilience to environmental hazards engaging the public in identifying issues and in creating and implementing solutions is a core tenant of berkes efforts to empower community governance dr moats is a lecturer in the online graduate certificate of homeland security program in the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m university he also serves as associate director and program director of weapons of mass destruction for the emergency services training institute at the texas a&m engineering extension service in addition to a long and decorated career in emergency services dr moats has published articles on crisis management and training and development the istpp fellows program recognizes individuals who have made or are committed to making significant contributions to the development of the institute and to its mission aims and objectives participation as an istpp fellow is by invitation from the institutes director meet our other fellows by visiting our website – https://bushtamuedu/istpp/fellows/

how do natural elements such as environmental hazards and disasters effect individuals attitudes and behaviors about water management dr hannibal examines this question using quantitative data from istpps representative national public opinion survey on the water-energy-food nexus combined with data from three different sources that provide information about local drought crop damage earthquakes and floods by incorporating such hazard and disaster information with standard demographic and general environmental concern variables into predictive models this study expands our insights into how people perceive and respond to water issues indeed individuals who live in counties that experience consistent drought are more likely to identify water-related challenges as important express higher levels of support for policies that manage water resources and engage in behaviors that conserve water hannibal bryce 2017 the effect of environmental hazards on attitudes and behaviors about water management: a multilevel analysis paper presented at the annual meeting of the southwestern social science association austin tx april 12–15

the department of political science congratulates recent phd program graduates blake e garcia and cameron wimpy for winning the european political science associations 2016 award for the best published paper their paper titled does information lead to emulation spatial dependence in anti-government violence was published in the january 2016 issue of the journal political science research and methods garcia and wimpy wrote this paper together while they were phd students and presented it a conference hosted by the department and the european union center in 2013 on spatial models of politics in europe and beyond on sept 1 2022 the department of political science became part of the bush school of government & public service

arnold vedlitz director emeritus and distinguished research scholar for istpp and istpp research fellows scott e robinson and james w stoutenborough in their book understanding public trust: environmental sustainability fracking and public opinion in american politics provide a framework for a more complex and nuanced understanding of government trust than was available previously their research focuses on comparing overall feelings of governmental trust and mistrust to those for specific governmental units and agencies in this case the specific agency is the environmental protection agency (epa) the authors analysis of data from a representative national survey of the public showed that individual attributes like demographics and ideology as well as external influences such as environmentalism can have a positive or negative effect on the epas reputation whatever the individuals level of trust in government in general the authors believe that their more robust framework will be important to both scholars and practitioners as they seek to develop a more complete understanding of the publics relationship with its governmental leaders were all well aware of how much is said about growing government mistrust and how difficult it can be to explain the various roles elected and bureaucratic officials play in our complex political system vedlitz said we believe our research demonstrates that individual agencies and the professionals who work there can in spite of more general government mistrust act in ways that build confidence in and support for their public service actions understanding public trust: environmental sustainability fracking and public opinion in american politics is published by routledge publishing it can be ordered on the routledge website: https://wwwroutledgecom

invited by the school of government of peking university dr xinsheng liu istpp research scientist and assistant director gave a series of lectures on recent advancements in public policy theory and research during his visit to china in late may 2017 his lectures focused on one of the leading policy process theories – the punctuated equilibrium theory its theoretical origins key propositions empirical grounds as well as its applications and extensions to policy research and analysis

in his study throwing it out: introducing a nexus perspective in examining citizen perceptions of organization food waste in the us dr hannibal explores public concern about food waste and what if anything they want done about it an estimated 40% of food in the us is wasted along with the water and energy required to grow harvest treat and transport the food as well as the resources required to manage the food waste this research which adds to the very short list of papers that examine food waste at the national level places the issue of food waste within the publics perception of the water-energy-food nexus (wef) using quantitative data from istpps representative national public opinion survey on the wef nexus hannibal analyzes individuals awareness of the food-water (fw) nexus and the food-energy (fe) nexus and the extent to which their awareness influences their concern about food waste and the strength of their support for different types of policies designed to reduce food waste analytical results indicated that general environmental concern fw nexus awareness fe nexus awareness are significantly correlated with concern about food waste and support for policies to reduce food waste standard demographic variables are also included in the analytical models hannibal bryce 2017 throwing it out: introducing a nexus perspective in examining citizen perceptions of organization food waste in the us paper presented at the annual meeting of the southwestern social science association austin tx april 12–15