The SPP Community: Faculty, Students, Alumni, and Staff
by Jocelyn Rappaport
School of Public Policy is pleased to announce the newest faculty joining our respected community of scholars and practitioners.
New Faculty: Schneider, Hayden, Deitz, Anacker, Olmstead
William Schneider
William Schneider, a leading U.S. political commentator, is the Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. He is also the Cable News Network's senior political analyst and a contributing editor to National Journal and The Atlantic Monthly.
Professor Schneider received his B.A. from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University, where he subsequently taught in the Department of Government. From 1990 through 1995, he was the Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Visiting Professor of American Politics at Boston College. In 2002, he was the Fred and Rita Richman Distinguished Visiting Professor at Brandeis University. He received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Brandeis University in 2008.
Professor Schneider is co-author, with Seymour Martin Lipset, of The Confidence Gap: Business, Labor and Government in the Public Mind. Schneider’s columns appear regularly in National Journal. He has also written extensively on politics and public opinion for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post and other publications. Schneider's analysis is regularly featured on CNN's "The Situation Room,'' "Lou Dobbs Tonight,'' "NewsNight,'' "American Morning,'' "Headline News'' and CNN International.
In addition to his numerous awards as a political commentator, he was awarded in 2003, the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal for contributions to society. Schneider has been named one of the fifty most influential Washington journalists by Washingtonian Magazine.
Michael V. Hayden
Michael V. Hayden is a Distinguished Visiting Professor with Mason’s School of Public Policy. He is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency (1999-2005) and the Central Intelligence Agency (2006-2009).
Professor Hayden has more than twenty years experience developing and implementing U.S. security and foreign policy, having worked in the White House, U.S. embassies, and the Department of Defense, as well as at NSA and CIA.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in modern American history from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Hayden entered active duty in the United States Air Force. He has taught American Defense Policy as part of the Air Force ROTC program at St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vermont.
Hayden has appeared in the media on such shows as Charlie Rose, Meet the Press, This Week, Nightline, and CNN’s Nightly News.
Robert L. Deitz
Robert L. Deitz joins School of Public Policy as Distinguished Visiting Professor & CIA Officer-in-Residence. He was Senior Councillor to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency between 2006 and 2009. Between 1998 and 2006 he was the General Counsel at the National Security Agency where he represented the NSA in all legal matters. Professor Deitz has also held positions as Acting General Counsel at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and as Acting Deputy General Counsel, Intelligence, at the Department of Defense. He began his career as a law clerk to the Honorable Justices Douglas, Stewart, and White of the United States Supreme Court. He has also been in private practice and was Special Assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher and to Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano during the Carter Administration.
Professor Deitz received his J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School, where he was the Supreme Court Note and Note Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received an M.P.A from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he studied international politics and economics. He majored in English literature at Middlebury College where he received a B.A. (cum laude) and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Katrin Anacker
Katrin Anacker joins School of Public Policy as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests are housing, housing and urban policy, race and public policy, real estate markets, statistical methods, qualitative methods, and research writing.
Professor Anacker received a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from The Ohio State University in 2006. Before joining Mason she was a Post Doctoral Fellow and Research Assistant Professor at the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech in Alexandria, VA where she served as Co-Editor of the academic journal Housing Policy Debate and where she served as Conference Manager of the international conference “A Suburban World: Global Decentralization and the New Metropolis” hosted in Reston, VA in April 2008.
Todd Olmstead
Todd Olmstead is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, where he conducts health services research and economic analyses, primarily in the field of addiction. His current research interests include the impact of substance abuse treatment on health services utilization, estimating the elasticities of demand for illicit drugs, and the cost-effectiveness of using computer-based therapies to treat drug addiction. In addition to his recent work in the field of addiction, Dr. Olmstead has published in the areas of intelligent transportation systems, highway safety, and administrative rulemaking.
Prior to coming to Mason, Professor Olmstead was a member of the faculties of the University of Connecticut and Yale University, and he was a Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Business and Government. He holds degrees in public policy (Ph.D., Harvard University, 2000), operations research (M.S., UNC-Chapel Hill), and industrial engineering (M.S., B.S., SUNY-Buffalo).
New Students: Scholarships and Fellowships
The school is also proud to welcome its largest class to date to its dynamic, rigorous, and respected community. As of September 10, more than 300 students are registered for the certificate, master’s, and PhD programs. According to the Admissions Office, this is an increase of 6% over last year’s enrollment. In addition, 30 non-degree students are enrolled. Continuing to reflect Mason’s diversity, there has been a 40% increase in the number of enrolled international students since last fall. This year 16 different countries are represented by our students.
For the third year in a row School of Public Policy has been able to offer the Seymour Martin Lipset Scholarship. This scholarship, which honors Lipset – one of School of Public Policy’s founders and a preeminent scholar in the field of political sociology – was awarded to the following 15 new master’s students: –Priya Mary Abraham, Carla Bass, Eboni Bledsoe, Jesse Lambert, Matt Mawhinney, Daniel Rivera Greenwood, Matthew Sigmund, and Brooks Spears (International Commerce and Policy); Elizabeth Bartelmes, Sarah Faggert, Matthew Megas, Candice Peters, Lauren Sedlander, Erik Torkelson, and Maggie Woodward (Masters of Public Policy).
The school is also honored to have been chosen by the International Research and Exchanges Board for the second year in a row as host institution for the Muskie Fellowship program and welcomes from Azerbaijan Turana Baghirova who is studying in the Peace Operations program. In 1992, the U.S. Congress established the Muskie Program to foster economic and democratic growth in Eurasia. The program supports promising students from Eurasian countries to study at the graduate level in various fields. For more information, visit http://www.irex.org/programs/muskie/index.asp.
Alumni: New Officers
The officers elected to the Chapter Board for the term July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 are: President, Sarah Bonner (ICP ’08); Vice President, Adam Tabaka (ICP '07); Secretary, Erin Anderson (ICP '09); Treasurer, Michael DeRenzo (ICP '08).
For more information contact the SPP Alumni Chapter at sppalum@gmu.edu and visit the SPP Alumni Chapter web page.
Tim O'Hara
Staff
Tim O’Hara joined School of Public Policy in July as the PhD Student Services Assistant. O’Hara works closely with Assistant Dean Beth Eck. He earned his BA in history at University of Maryland and his MA in Public and International Affairs from Virginia Tech.
Our Community Continues to Grow and Connect…
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