Lindsey Alden (current Transportation Policy, Operations and Logistics student) and Keith Collins (current Public Policy student) are engaged to be married in Alexandria, Va., on May 19, 2007. They met in Professor Alexander Woodcock's PubP 501 class in the fall of 2005. Collins works for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as an energy industry analyst. Alden works for the Legislative Resource Center for the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives as an executive communications clerk.

Caterina Au (current PhD student) has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to travel to Beijing in September. Au will research the Genetically Modified (GM) crop system in China and examine information flow at critical decision junctures to determine feasibility of Knowledge Management for GM development under the current policy framework. “The Fulbright Fellowship provides me the opportunity to integrate my past experience as a technologist and the knowledge I acquired from the SPP program these past two years,” Au says. “Findings from this study will be invaluable to my dissertation research on GM crop diffusion and adoption.”

Yawar Herekar (current International Commerce and Policy student) won second-place in the Governor's International Education Day 2006 Essay Contest, sponsored by Virginia Council for International Education. The essays discussed how international education could be a tool for conflict resolution and reflected students’ experiences.

Emilia Istrate (current Phd student) received a scholarship on April 27 from the Osher Lifelong Learning Group for $2,000 to assist with her studies. The Osher Lifelong Learning Group is an organization that SPP originally sponsored when the group came to the university 16 years ago. Many SPP faculty (Professors Dinan, Fuller, Ruth, and others) have provided public lectures to the organization.

Professor Michael Kelley has been appointed Distinguished University Service Professor. He joins SPP Professor Stuart Malawer with this appointment.

Rose Previte (current Master’s of Public Policy student) received an International City/County Management Fellowship for 2007–08. She will be working in the Arlington County Manager's Office following her May graduation.

Professor Susan J. Tolchin has been appointed University Professor. She joins other SPP University Professors Zoltan Acs, Kenneth Button, Stephen Fuller, and James Pfiffner.

Kate Trygstad (MS, New Professional Studies, PSOL—now ODKM—'05) was honored with the School of Public Policy Alumni Service Award at the Celebration of Distinction ceremony and dinner hosted by the university's Alumni Association on April 18 on the Fairfax Campus.

Ryan Zelnio (current PhD student) was selected for the highly competitive Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship at the National Academy of Sciences. Zelnio will be a policy fellow with the Committee on Science, Security, and Prosperity in the Unit on Development, Security, and Cooperation in the Policy and Global Affairs Division.