PPIA News & Events

NEWS & EVENTS

NEWS

Marvin Ward is Appointed Administrator of PPIA

Marvin Ward

Acting on the recommendation of Dean William LeoGrande of the American University School of Public Affairs, the PPIA Board of Directors unanimously approved the appointment of Marvin Ward to be the administrator of the PPIA National Office. The appointment, effective September 1, 2010, marks the return to PPIA having paid staff in the National Office since February of 2009. Mr. Ward is a doctoral student in public administration at American University, and also holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree from the School of Public Affairs (2009). He will be working half-time (20 hours per week) to provide administrative support for all of PPIA's program's and activities, including the admissions process for new cohorts of PPIA Fellows and the Graduate and Career Expos that PPIA will hold in the summer of 2011. This appointment is the first under a new five-year agreement between PPIA and American University to host the National Office within the School of Public Affairs. As part of this transition only the surface mail/office address will change for PPIA. The email address and all phone numbers will remain the same.

PPIA Signs Agreement to Host Its National Office at the American University School of Public Affairs

(This article is available in PDF format — to download the 500KB file click here.)

Washington, DC, 9/3/2010. The Public Policy and International Affairs Program (PPIA) has signed a five year agreement to operate its programs and activities under a hosting arrangement at American University’s School of Public Affairs. Founded in 1981, and funded in the past through major grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Foundation for Child Development, PPIA fosters diversity in the public leadership of the United States by encouraging college students from historically underrepresented backgrounds to earn graduate training from some of the most prestigious U.S. graduate schools of public policy and international affairs and then launch rewarding careers serving the public good. Over 100 students per year are inducted as new PPIA Fellows, and the program currently has more than 3,500 total alumni located across the U.S.

PPIA is one of the largest diversity initiatives at the level of post-graduate education in the history of the United States, and is the largest such initiative in professional public service to support Master’s and Ph.D. degrees for students from diverse backgrounds. A new survey of the PPIA alumni to be conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Center within a year is expected to further document the impact of the program on the careers of the thousands of participants.

Albert Beckford Jones

The agreement between PPIA and the School of Public Affairs was signed in August 2010 by American University Provost Dr. Scott A. Bass, and by Albert Beckford Jones, a member of the inaugural 1981 class of PPIA Fellows, chairman of the PPIA Board of Directors, and President/CEO of the Chicago-based international management consulting firm Trading & Consulting International, Inc. The agreement becomes operational on September 1. "This new partnership with American University is vitally important to the future success of PPIA as we work together to achieve a vision of a diverse and inclusive leadership for America," said Jones. "All of the current sponsors and constituencies of PPIA are impressed by the School of Public Affairs’ commitment to this agreement and to PPIA," added Jones.

Dr. William LeoGrande

The School of Public Affairs recently celebrated its 75th anniversary and is among the founding professional graduate schools bridging public affairs, policy and public administration in the U.S. "American University is committed to promoting diversity as part of our strategic plan, and we view our agreement with PPIA as a key component of those ongoing initiatives," said Dean William LeoGrande of the School of Public Affairs. "We are thrilled to have been selected by PPIA to host the program for the next five years," added LeoGrande, also noting that additional involvement in the PPIA agreement will be forthcoming from the American University School of International Service.

PPIA Fellows currently attend Junior Summer Institutes in public policy and international affairs during the summer after their junior year of college. The institutes are offered by the University of California, Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy; the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; the Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College, the Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; and the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Students who successfully complete the institutes are inducted as PPIA Fellows and become eligible for financial assistance to attend graduate degree programs offered by over 30 members of PPIA’s Graduate School Consortium. Application to PPIA is open to college juniors every year with a deadline of November 1. Each year over 500 students from approximately 130 colleges and universities seek admission into the program.

PPIA is sponsored by three of the leading professional associations in its field: the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM); and the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA); and the American Political Science Association (APSA). APPAM previously hosted PPIA in its Washington, DC headquarters from July 2000 to May 2010, and its ongoing support of PPIA goes back to the very first cohort of PPIA Fellows in 1981. APSIA became a PPIA sponsor in the mid-1990s when efforts were made to add more international affairs content to PPIA. Over half of the PPIA Fellows have a background in political science, and APSA began sponsoring PPIA in 2007 in recognition of PPIA as an important opportunity for college students in the field.

Most of PPIA’s operating support comes from annual membership dues paid by the Graduate School Consortium, and from the generous financial aid the Consortium provides to PPIA Fellows upon admittance to graduate school. "PPIA has been blessed by the support of these excellent graduate schools and by their commitment to the long term career success of the PPIA Fellows," said Erik Devereux, former executive director of APPAM and the current treasurer of PPIA. "Throughout its nearly three decades of operation, it has been the graduate schools that have made PPIA possible and successful," Devereux said.

Martha Chavez

PPIA plans to hold multiple celebrations of its 30th anniversary in 2011. There may be as many as four gatherings of PPIA alumni and supporters, including major events scheduled in Washington, DC and New York City. "These anniversary events will be a wonderful opportunity to convene the alumni, recognize their many contributions to the country and the world, and look forward to the future of the organization," said Martha Chavez, vice chair and secretary of the PPIA board of directors, a PPIA Fellow from the early 1990s, and assistant dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy. Chavez noted that the New York City event would occur in April 2011, and the Washington, DC event most likely would coincide with PPIA’s annual Graduate School and Career Expo to be held in the DC region in the second week of July 2011. Additional celebrations of the 30th anniversary are also being considered for the Chicago area and the Bay Area of Northern California for 2011.

PPIA thus will be extremely active over the next year as it engages in the following regular and special activities:

Transition of the PPIA office to American University starting on September 1, 2010
Applications for the 2011 class of PPIA Fellows with a deadline of November 1, 2010
Announcement of the 2011 class of PPIA Fellows in February 2011.
A New York City celebration of the 30th anniversary of PPIA in April 2011
Start of the five Junior Summer Institutes in late June and early July 2011
The DC-area Graduate School and Career Expo in early July 2011
A Washington, DC celebration of the 30th anniversary of PPIA also in early July 2011
Up to two more anniversary celebrations elsewhere in the U.S. in 2011.

EVENTS

PPIA will announce events for 2010 — 2011 on this page when dates and times are confirmed.