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Four Schar School Student-Athletes Score Provost Awards—and Not for the First Time

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 21:35:57 +0000

Four Schar School Student-Athletes Score Provost Awards—and Not for the First Time Andrew J Schappert Mon, 03/02/2026 - 16:35

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Four Schar School of Policy and Government student-athletes were among the 78 from �鶹��Ƶ athletics who received the 2026 Peter N. Stearns Provost Scholar-Athlete Award in February. All four were awarded the distinction multiple times in their Schar School careers.

Two-Time Winners

June Johnson, the coxswain on the women’s rowing team, is a senior graduating after three years in the international security and law program. She is from Warrenton, Virginia.

June Johnson, women’s rowing, poses with her award with Interim Provost and Executive Vice President Ajay Vinzé, left, and Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics Marvin Lewis, right.

“For me, balancing my academic and athletic schedule comes down to intentional planning and centering in purpose,” she said. “It’s also about gravitating toward things you enjoy—take classes that genuinely interest you and try every new opportunity till you find something you can’t imagine putting down.

“I love my school, my team, and what I do. Because of that, I’m always excited to work hard to elevate my community and go the extra step.”

For new and prospective students weighing options, she said, “I like the saying ‘If not now, then when? If not you, then who?’ Every day is a new opportunity and it’s always important to center in the value and reward of taking chances and putting in the effort to reach your goals.”

Learn more about Johnson’s journey in the story, ”Balancing Oars and Advocacy.”

Carly Passaro, who plays defense on the women’s soccer team, is a GVIP junior from Farmington, Connecticut.

Carly Passaro, women’s soccer

“Managing an elite athletic career with successful academic performance requires discipline and consistent effort,” she said. “Striving to perform at the highest level possible in every aspect of my life is what continually motivates me to push myself.”

Three-Time Winners

GVIP 2025 graduate Kaitlyn Bestick, a goalkeeper on the women’s lacrosse team, is a current student in the Master of Political Science program from Fredericksburg, Virginia. She will finish her Bachelor’s to Accelerated Master’s (BAM) degree program in May.

Kaitlyn Bestick, women’s lacrosse

“Managing an academic and athletic career as intense as this one, it has been a collection of leaning on the people around me,” she said.

“The connection between the athletic and academic staff allows for a seamless transition from student-to-athlete and is without a doubt the reason I have been able to be successful.

“The lacrosse team specifically places a high emphasis on our academic success—the time set aside, and the consistent support, from our coaches makes managing this intensity much easier.”

Catilin Cardin is a team leader in co-ed cheerleading and a government and international politics (GVIP) senior from Tolland, Connecticut.

Caitlin Cardin, co-ed cheerleading

“I manage both cheerleading and academics by utilizing time-management skills and setting aside specific times throughout my day to complete my schoolwork,” she said, offering good advice for any student. “I structure my days, assigning time for my schoolwork, my job, my personal life, and my sport. While it is not easy, it is certainly achievable if you stay focused and determined.”

The Provost Scholar-Athlete Award was established in 2009 by then-Provost Peter N. Stearns to recognize student-athletes who have earned at least 38 credit hours at George �鶹��Ƶ and achieved a cumulative grade point average of 3.75 or higher.

“This award represents the very best of what it means to be a George �鶹��Ƶ student-athlete,” said Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics Marvin Lewis at the award ceremony. “Tonight is not just about athletic talent—it's about discipline, curiosity, leadership, and the mindset required to bring your best in every arena.

“Keep working hard. Keep pushing forward. And keep inspiring the people around you—because you are the standard.”

Topics

Master of Political Science

International Security and Law

Bachelor’s to Accelerated Master’s

Patriot Profile

Student Athlete

The full study can be seen at this webpage.

Poverty vs. Wealth: New Study Shows Biggest Buyers and Sellers of Illicit Kidneys

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:55:50 +0000

Poverty vs. Wealth: New Study Shows Biggest Buyers and Sellers of Illicit Kidneys Andrew J Schappert Wed, 02/25/2026 - 12:55

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Naoru Koizumi

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The study created a map of countries playing significant roles in the buying and selling of illicit kidneys.

An international team of researchers from �鶹��Ƶ, Harvard University, and the University of Tokyo have used artificial intelligence to map the global underground market for illegal kidney transplants, finding that the United States consistently ranks among the world’s largest illicit importers.

The Schar School’s Naoru Koizumi led the international team that studied the illicit kidney trade.

The study, led by Naoru Koizumi, a professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government, and Schar School colleagues Olzhas Zhorayev, Zifu Wang, and Meng-Hao Li, as well as Chaowei Yang, a professor in the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science in the College of Science.

The study appears in the International Journal of Health Geographics.

Illegal organ trafficking is widely viewed by health experts as a major but poorly measured global crisis. More than 840 million people worldwide live with chronic kidney disease, and demand for transplants far exceeds supply. On average, only about 13.5 kidney transplants occur for every 255 patients who need one, according to the study. Long waiting times—sometimes up to five years—contribute to roughly seven percent of patients dying or leaving transplant lists annually.

To better understand the hidden market, the researchers analyzed more than 50,000 news articles published over 23 years. Using large language models and retrieval-augmented generation, they built what they describe as the first global, geospatial database of illegal kidney trafficking. The system identifies reported cases and assigns roles such as seller, buyer, broker and surgery location, while also tracing financial flows.

Their analysis reveals a stark global pattern. Kidney sellers most often come from lower-income or vulnerable countries including India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Buyers, by contrast, are concentrated in wealthier nations—notably Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany.

Illegal transplant surgeries most frequently occur in India, Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Thailand, and Egypt, the researchers found. Brokers often operate in the same countries as sellers but also appear commonly in Western countries.

The network is fluid: �鶹��Ƶ half of the countries playing major roles shift each decade due to factors such as conflict, legal changes, enforcement intensity, and corruption. One pattern, however, has remained consistent: Over the past two decades, the United States has stayed among the top three illicit kidney buyer countries, accounting for more than 7% of documented cases.

Unlike some countries that rely on narrow supply channels, U.S.-linked cases connect to a wide range of supplier nations, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and India—a pattern the researchers say points to structural demand pressures within wealthy health systems.

Financial data extracted in the study underscore the imbalance in the illicit market. Buyers typically pay between $50,000 and $120,000 for a kidney, while sellers often receive less than 10% of that amount. Most profits flow to brokers and organizers.

The authors say the new database enables systematic cross-country analysis that was previously impossible because evidence was fragmented and often limited to small regional studies. Future research will examine how illegal kidney prices and trafficking patterns relate to income levels, inequality, legal frameworks, and health care access.

More broadly, the researchers argue their work demonstrates how artificial intelligence can expose hidden global systems by converting scattered media reports into structured data. They say the findings could help policymakers target enforcement, strengthen international cooperation and better protect vulnerable populations.

Topics

Research

Illicit Trade

International Security and Law

Research

GCI-Health

International Security and Music: A Graduating 18-Year-Old’s Global Journey at the Schar School

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:19:07 +0000

International Security and Music: A Graduating 18-Year-Old’s Global Journey at the Schar School Andrew J Schappert Tue, 02/10/2026 - 12:19

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Josef Wolpert knew early that he wanted to understand how the world works when it comes to power, conflict, and security. As a graduating senior in �鶹��Ƶ’s International Security and Law undergraduate program at the Schar School of Policy and Government, he has already begun carving out a path that blends academic rigor, regional expertise, and an unusually global perspective for someone his age.

Josef Wolpert plays the dombra, a traditional Kazakh musical instrument on Lake Kaindy in Southeastern Kazakhstan. Photo provided

He’s 18. He will, he said, “barely be turning 19 when I get my degree” in May.

When he began looking at universities in Virginia, several options were on the table. What ultimately drew him to George �鶹��Ƶ was proximity—to Washington, D.C., to opportunity, and to practitioners.

“It seems like all the professors that are former FBI, CIA, DIA—whatever you want, they have it here,” he said. “If I’m going to follow this track, I want to be surrounded by those kinds of people.”

The decision has shaped his academic experience. Wolpert transferred to George �鶹��Ƶ as a junior after completing two associate degrees at John Tyler Community College (now Brightpoint Community College) near his hometown of Richmond, Virginia. He entered one of the first cohorts of the International Security and Law Program, a one-of-a-kind degree program that prepares graduates to become leaders in the face of security threats, from weather disasters to cyberattacks to nuclear proliferation and more.

The program’s applied focus, Wolpert said, confirmed that he had chosen the right field—and the right place.

“That was mostly the deciding factor,” he said. “Just the amazing faculty that the Schar School has.”

Within international security, Wolpert’s interests have narrowed toward Russia, Eurasia, and cybersecurity, an emphasis shaped by both language and lived experience. Fluent in German as well as his native English, Wolpert studied abroad in Kazakhstan through the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth, spending a summer immersed in Russian-language study and regional context.

That experience continues to inform his academic work. When he does research regarding Russia, he does it in Russian, which, he said, “is very helpful; it gives me an edge.”

That edge was on display in a recent op-ed he authored and published with the encouragement of Schar School Associate Professor Mahmut Cengiz, a renowned terrorism scholar and a research professor at the Schar School’s Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center. The assignment asked students to examine a threat to American security; Wolpert focused on Russia and cybersecurity, drawing on coursework, language skills, and personal networks.

The resulting essay, ”Russian Cyberwarfare Doctrine and America’s Counterstrategy,” was published in January by Modern Diplomacy, an international journal of global policy and academic analysis based in Bulgaria.

"Looking ahead five years,” said Cengiz, “I would not be surprised to see Josef serving as a security analyst or policy advisor focused on European and Eurasian affairs, where his German- and Russian-language skills, intellectual seriousness, and creative discipline will allow him to bridge analysis, strategy, and diplomacy."

As his undergraduate career winds down, Wolpert is weighing graduate school options, with the Schar School’s top-rated international security program at the top of his list.

“That’s my dream program,” he said.

When he is not studying and preparing for his future, Wolpert plays cello—and just about every other stringed instrument that crosses his peripatetic path.

“Music has always been a really big part of my life,” he said. “I really excelled at cello, and I’ve played in orchestras. I’ve met [famed cellist] Yo-Yo Ma on several occasions.”

Wolpert’s musical expertise goes beyond the cello.

“I’ve picked up several other instruments,” Wolpert said. “When I went to Kazakhstan, I picked up dombra, basically a two-stringed guitar. I also know how to play balalaika, which is a Russian three-stringed guitar. If I go somewhere and they have a local instrument, I always pick one up and figure out how to play it.”

Topics

Class of 2026

Master of International Security

Schar School Student Spotlight

Graduation

Spring Commencement

Master of International Security

A Life Without Borders: Mark Flanigan’s Global Career in Teaching and Service

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 21:32:44 +0000

A Life Without Borders: Mark Flanigan’s Global Career in Teaching and Service Andrew J Schappert Mon, 02/02/2026 - 16:32

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Mark Flanigan never set out to build a career defined by borders. Over time, however, teaching and volunteering overseas became the connective thread in a life shaped by service, curiosity, and reinvention.

Mark Flanigan worked in Costa Rica as a refugee resettlement officer with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). He also was posted by IOM to Qatar, Bangladesh, Ecuador, and the United States.

Eventually, his years abroad led him to graduate study at �鶹��Ƶ’s Schar School of Policy and Government, where he enrolled in the Peace Operations Program, now a concentration within the Schar School’s top-ranked Master of International Security program.

He graduated in 2006. But before that, the Pittsburgh native served as an Army officer in the 1990s, an experience that left him eager to see more of the world postmilitary.

That impulse carried him first to Mexico, where he earned a teaching certification and taught English at a small private school. It was his first extended period living outside the United States and his introduction to education as a form of cultural exchange—an experience that would quietly redirect his professional life.

Japan followed. Through the Japanese government’s Japan Exchange and Teaching program, Flanigan taught in public schools in Nagasaki, working alongside Japanese teachers to design lessons that paired language instruction with cultural context. What began as a one-year commitment became four.

“It wasn’t just about grammar,” he said. “It was about connection.”

The cohort-based experience at the Schar School, he recalled, was rigorous and serious, yet grounded in practical preparation. For Flanigan, it offered “the best of both worlds,” he said: affordability combined with training for real careers in government, nongovernmental organizations, and international work.

Mark Flanigan, right, served as a volunteer with recovery operations following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan. Photos provided

Flanigan credits Schar School faculty and staff with actively guiding students through competitive pathways such as the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program, a leadership development program for the U.S. federal government. (The program was terminated last year by the Trump administration.) Selected as a PMF in 2006, Flanigan worked at the Department of Health and Human Services, spent time at the State Department, and ultimately returned to HHS, where his fellowship transitioned into full-time employment.

True to form, he did not stay still for long. Flanigan later returned to Japan, this time for graduate studies in Tokyo, followed by a year of teaching abroad in Bangladesh and a three-year stint in Arizona with AmeriCorps VISTA, before coming back to the East Coast and settling in the Washington, D.C., region.

Today, back in Arlington, Flanigan is once again in the classroom as a substitute teacher, carrying with him a global perspective shaped one lesson—and one country—at a time.

He is also reconnecting with the institution that helped launch his international career as a board member of the Schar School Alumni Chapter. “It’s a great opportunity because I’ve wanted to get reconnected to George �鶹��Ƶ,” he said.

Now, as he balances teaching, public service, and alumni engagement, Flanigan’s career comes into focus as a coherent arc—one defined by learning across cultures and giving back wherever he lands. The borders have changed, but the work remains the same: building connection, one classroom at a time.

“George �鶹��Ƶ is the best of both worlds,” he said. “A diverse, affordable university that prepares its students to bridge theory and practice while making a real, lasting difference in the world. We need that now, more than ever.”

Topics

Master of Public Administration

Alumni

Timely Study Abroad: Students Explore the Future of NATO and U.S.–EU Relations in Brussels

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 17:24:01 +0000

Timely Study Abroad: Students Explore the Future of NATO and U.S.–EU Relations in Brussels Andrew J Schappert Wed, 01/28/2026 - 12:24

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Michal McElwain Malur

Ellen Laipson

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Schar School master’s and undergraduate students visited the European Parliament. Photos provided

During a weeklong residency in Brussels, Schar School of Policy and Government master’s and undergraduate students participated in an intensive study-abroad course examining the future of NATO and U.S.–European Union relations—at a moment of unusual uncertainty for the transatlantic alliance.

Members of the National Security and Public Policy cohort program, making their first visit overseas, met with officials at the European External Action Service.

The course was led in January by Professor Ellen Laipson, director of the Schar School’s Master of International Security program, and brought �鶹��Ƶ students face to face with diplomats, military officers, policymakers, and analysts working at the center of European and transatlantic affairs.

“The weeklong residency offered students an unparalleled opportunity to engage directly with the institutions and actors shaping transatlantic security and diplomacy,” said Michal McElwain Malur, the Schar School’s director of external programs. “There is no substitute for seeing these institutions up close and engaging directly with the people who work within them.”

This class, she said, “offers students a powerful lens for better understanding.”

The Brussels residency also was the first foreign excursion for the inaugural students in the National Security and Public Policy (NSPP) cohort program. Students in the program earn a Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree in one year while gaining skills and credentials needed for national security policy roles. The residency was embedded in the program’s curriculum.

Brussels, the capital of the EU and headquarters of NATO, served as the program’s base, but the experience extended beyond the city. Students traveled to Mons for meetings with Polish and U.S. military officers at NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), and to Ghent for a day of culture in one of Belgium’s historic university cities.

The itinerary reflected the course’s dual focus: understanding how institutions function and appreciating the political, historical, and cultural context in which they operate.

The students visited the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe—SHAPE—in Mons, Belgium: ‘Being inside SHAPE made NATO feel real.’

The timing of the residency was especially consequential. As Russia’s war against Ukraine continues and the United States signals shifting strategic priorities, students examined how NATO is adapting to new operational demands and how European allies are strengthening defense capabilities while pursuing greater strategic autonomy.

For many, the visit to SHAPE brought abstract concepts to life. “Being inside SHAPE made NATO feel real,” one student said. “We learned how, with strategy and coordination, the alliance comes together in practice.”

The course also explored the EU’s expanding role in global security alongside its longstanding economic and trade influence. Through briefings at the European Parliament, European Commission, European External Action Service, and leading policy think tanks, students analyzed how the EU approaches strategic competition, migration, energy transitions, and emerging technologies—and how its relationship with the United States continues to evolve.

A visit to the Flemish Parliament offered additional insight into Belgium’s complex federal system, highlighting the interplay between national and regional governance.

“Visiting the European Parliament, the European Commission, and then the U.S. Mission to the EU were highlights of the course,” another student reflected. “It helped me better understand where Europe is headed.”

George �鶹��Ƶ partnered with KU Leuven for the program, giving students the opportunity to stay in a medieval university town while studying contemporary global challenges. Participants received a Certificate of Completion from the Irish College Leuven.

By the end of the week, students returned to Northern Virginia with a deeper understanding of collective defense, diplomacy, and institutional decision-making—and with a clearer sense of how NATO and the EU must continue to evolve to meet 21st-century challenges.

The Schar School will offer the course again in January 2027. More information on Schar School study-abroad opportunities is available at this website.

Topics

Master of Public Policy

International Security

study abroad

Bridging Health and Justice: How Schar PhD Student Loveline Phillips Is Shaping Policy Research

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:30:52 +0000

Bridging Health and Justice: How Schar PhD Student Loveline Phillips Is Shaping Policy Research Andrew J Schappert Mon, 01/26/2026 - 09:30

Loveline Phillips on Schar School faculty: ‘The professors are welcoming, they’re warm, hospitable, and they just want to see you excel as a student.’ Photo by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

Loveline Phillips’s path to �鶹��Ƶ has been anything but linear. Born in Nigeria, educated in her homeland and the United Kingdom, and now pursuing a PhD at George �鶹��Ƶ’s Schar School of Policy and Government, Phillips carries with her a global perspective shaped by migration, scholarship, and persistence—and, more recently, motherhood.

Loveline Phillips Photo provided

Her first experience in the United States came in 2017, when she visited from the United Kingdom where she was studying sustainable development on a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, a fund designed to support students from underserved Commonwealth nations to pursue master’s degrees.

Her then-fiancé was a student at Purdue University in Indiana, which brought her to the United States.

Ever the scholar, Phillips completed one year of a master of philosophy degree in Santa Monica, California, at Pardee RAND Graduate School, an institute within the RAND Corporation, where she deepened her training in policy analysis and research.

From there, she set her sights on a PhD in public policy and applied to the Schar School. Acceptance at the school introduced her to a mentor who would shape her work at George �鶹��Ƶ: University Professor Faye Taxman, a health services criminologist and founding director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence, exclamatorily known as ACE!.

The match was not obvious at first. Phillips’s background was in international economic development and health policy, not criminal justice.

“I’d never done anything on criminal justice prior to coming to George �鶹��Ƶ,” she said. Still, she leaned on advice instilled by her parents: “Whatever your hands find to do, do it to the best of your ability.”

At the Schar School, Phillips found a way to connect her prior interests with her new field.

“There’s a health and justice nexus,” she said. “These are vulnerable populations that are prone to health challenges and have poor health outcomes.”

Her published work with Taxman examines probation, reentry, and community supervision through both health and justice lenses—a combination she now sees as central to her academic identity.

Phillips credits the Schar School, and Taxman in particular, with accelerating her development as a scholar.

“Prior to joining the Schar School, I never had a first-authored publication,” she said. “And now I have two, with one book chapter coming out soon.”

Taxman, she added, is “my advisor, she’s my dissertation committee chair, she’s a mentor, and she has really pushed me in my career.”

Beyond mentorship, Phillips said the Schar School has given her rigorous methodological training, including using powerful research tools, such as the qualitative data analysis software, ATLAS.ti. That, mixed with her quantitative and social network analysis skills through coursework, results in a valuable mix of method skills, allowing her to approach problems from multiple angles.

“Using both her qualitative skills and system-theory causal loop diagram methods, she has uncovered patterns of how different systems interconnected,” said Taxman. “From this, she identifies how to improve the functioning of systems and organizations.”

Phillips is, she said, “a remarkable graduate student committed to applying the methods she learns at the Schar School of Policy and Government.”

What has surprised Phillips most about the Schar School is its ethos of real-world policy and public service work as well as its collaborative and experiential culture.

“Seeing how faculty is really invested in students’ development stands out,” she said. “The professors are welcoming, they’re warm, hospitable, and they just want to see you excel as a student.”

Balancing doctoral research with life as a parent to a 14-month-old daughter, Tioluwani, Phillips remains focused on the impact of her work. Her next paper looks at how probation conditions impact probationers, especially as they re-enter society, with the goal, she said, of informing both practitioners and researchers for the public good.

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Faye S. Taxman

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PhD in Public Policy

ACE!

doctoral students

George �鶹��Ƶ alumna joins Spanberger's team

ckearney — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:11:04 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ alumna joins Spanberger's team ckearney Thu, 01/15/2026 - 12:11

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has named �鶹��Ƶ alumna Gerica Goodman director of legislative affairs. Goodman, who earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from George �鶹��Ƶ in 2012 and a master of public administration (MPA) degree in 2015, is the governor’s principal point person for interacting with the General Assembly and coordinating the administration’s legislative strategy.

Gerica Goodman. Photo by Office of University Branding

In 2020, Goodman, who worked in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Admissions and Alumni Relations offices as a student and after graduation, became the first Black woman to serve in the post of legislative and policy director for the Virginia Speaker of the House.

“I'm not surprised at her place in government,” said James Burroughs, former director of George �鶹��Ƶ's MPA Program. “She has earned her position through intelligence and hard work.”

Goodman, he said, “possesses two rare talents. She combines a keen intellect with excellent people skills. It isn't easy to unpack a proposed law and explain it in plain English to regular folks or to take an idea and turn it into legislation. Even more important, she has earned the trust of people in power as an honest broker.”

Goodman said in a 2020 interview that her MPA degree comes in handy on a daily basis.

“One of my favorite classes was Program Evaluation,” she said, adding that it was taught by an adjunct who was also “a bureaucrat’s bureaucrat,” a senior analyst with the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “The class looked at government programs and took them apart and evaluated them, which is essentially what I do for bills and government agencies.”

She admitted to being “kind of a boring person who likes the legal print on the back of anything, and I like legal jargon,” she said. “Reading bills seems like a daunting process, but I always find something really interesting.”

Always?

“We had a bill about milk, about not calling anything that’s not derived from a dairy cow ‘milk.’ I find stuff like that super interesting,” she said.

Topics

Alumni

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Alumni News: Accolades and Appointments for Schar School Graduates

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:01:29 +0000

Alumni News: Accolades and Appointments for Schar School Graduates Andrew J Schappert Wed, 01/14/2026 - 13:01

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James N. Burroughs

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A roundup of recent news about the alumni of the Schar School of Policy and Government Gerica Goodman has been named director of legislative affairs by Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger. Goodman, who earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from �鶹��Ƶ in 2012 and a Schar School master of public administration (MPA) degree in 2015, is the governor’s principal point person for interacting with the General Assembly and coordinating the administration’s legislative strategy.

Director of Legislative Affairs Gerica Goodman, BS Psychology ’12, MPA ‘15 Photo by Creative Services

Goodman, who worked in George �鶹��Ƶ’s admissions and alumni relations offices as a student and after graduation, in 2020 became the first Black woman to serve in the post of legislative and policy director for the Virginia Speaker of the House.

“I'm not surprised at her place in government,” said James Burroughs, former director of the MPA program. “She has earned her position through intelligence and hard work.”

Goodman said in a 2020 interview that her Schar School master’s degree comes in handy on a daily basis.

Always?

“We had a bill about milk, about not calling anything that’s not derived from a dairy cow ‘milk.’ I find stuff like that super interesting,” she said.

French Medal of International Security

Jude Sunderbruch, PhD Public Policy ‘08 Photo provided

Jude Sunderbruch, who earned his PhD in public policy from the Schar School in 2008, has been awarded the French Medal of Internal Security at the Gold level, one of France’s highest recognitions for contributions to public safety and security. The medal was presented during a ceremony late last year in Washington, D.C.; the award recognizes his longstanding role in advancing Franco-American cooperation in homeland security and law enforcement.

The award, conferred by France’s Minister-Counsellor Agnès von der Mühll, highlights Sunderbruch’s work building durable operational ties between U.S. and French security institutions. French officials noted his contributions during his tenure as executive director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and later as director of the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3)—two roles central to counterintelligence, cybercrime, and international security collaboration.

According to French representatives, as reported by the media outlet Homeland Security Today, the ceremony also underscored Sunderbruch’s close engagement with France’s direction de la coopération internationale de sécurité (DCIS), the country’s international security cooperation directorate, and his consistent efforts to deepen bilateral and multilateral coordination across agencies.

Sunderbruch, managing director at the Dallas-based cybersecurity consulting firm OakTruss Group, will serve as an adjunct at the Schar School in the summer semester. He will teach POGO 750 Consulting Practicum.

Leading Idaho’s Hispanic Affairs Agency

Annette Tipton, MA International Commerce and Policy ‘11 Photo provided

Annette Tipton, a 2011 graduate of the Schar School’s International Commerce and Policy master’s program (now the Global Commerce and Policy program), has been appointed by Idaho Governor Brad Little (R) to be executive director of the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs (ICHA).

The state commission serves Idaho’s Hispanic community of some 271,000 by acting as a liaison between the community and the government. According to its website, the commission provides recommendations to the governor and legislature regarding issues facing the state’s Hispanic population. It also plays an important role in connecting people with resources and collecting data about Hispanics in Idaho.

Tipton has long been familiar with the commission’s mission. As a teenager, she attended one of the first Idaho Hispanic Youth Leadership Summits, an annual event organized by ICHA to engage young people with workshops, a college fair, and a keynote speaker.

“It’s really exciting to see that program has continued,” she said. “I know it has evolved recently. There’s a genuine desire to keep moving forward and to continue those collaborations with academic institutions here in Idaho.”

Born into a family of agricultural workers in Rupert, Idaho, Tipton comes from a lineage of perseverance and hard work. Her grandparents emigrated from Mexico and worked on farms across the United States before settling in Idaho.

After becoming the first in her family to earn a master’s degree, Tipton worked in government relations for major financial institutions including JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch.

While working in finance, Tipton also volunteered with nonprofits such as the Idaho Latino Scholarship Foundation, a college migrant assistance program, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

“It’s a good blend of what I’ve done,” she said. “From a more strategic perspective in business or finance, to deeper community involvement, strengthening relationships, and understanding that these are families, they are Idahoans, and they have needs.”

COO of Oregon’s Most Populus County

Christopher Neal, BA Government and International Politics ‘07 Photo provided

Christopher L. Neal, a 2007 government and international politics graduate, is the new chief operating officer (COO) of Oregon’s most populous county, Multnomah County, home of the state’s largest city, Portland.

The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously confirmed Neal as the COO and director of county management from a pool of 84 applicants following a national recruitment and hiring process.

Neal oversees the county’s daily operations and its more than 6,000 employees, guiding the county’s senior leaders to ensure effective administration, financial management, and operational consistency. He is also charged with continuing to roll out the county’s Workforce Equity Strategic Plan and developing the county’s strategic plan.

Neal acknowledged he arrives at a difficult time in county history amid significant budget shortfalls in the general fund and homeless services.

“But we all know that during these times of adversity, we become our most creative, bold, and daring,” he said. “These qualities have carried us through to the other side before, and they will again.’’

Topics

Alumni

Master of Public Administration

PhD in Public Policy

Global Commerce and Policy

Government and International Politics