Harding is an alumnus of the School of Economics and returned to Georgia Tech after a postdoc at Harvard University. He studies the impact of innovative technology on climate change policy and governance, focusing on solar geoengineering. In the eight years he's been researching it, Harding said it's the scale of the conversation that's changed the most: not what the researchers are speaking about, but who they're speaking to. 

"A lot of people in the climate policy and academic realms were hesitant to talk about solar geoengineering, and I think that’s starting to change," Harding said. "There's definitely wider acceptance of at least talking about it, and in that way, pathways to having spaces to talk about it and research funds are opening up." 

As the idea of solar geoengineering picks up steam, Harding invites everyone to join the conversation, starting with learning about what it is, how it works, and whether or not this once-niche proposition really can save the world. 

What is Solar Geoengineering? 

The most commonly proposed method of solar geoengineering, which also goes by names such as solar radiation modification or climate intervention, uses sulfate aerosols. When injected into the Earth's stratosphere, they reflect a small amount of the sun's radiation — less than 1% — and reduce Earth's surface temperature. This option is the most popular, and the one Harding studies, because we have natural examples, he explained. Volcanoes release sulfates when they erupt, and the largest ones are strong enough to push them into the stratosphere.  

"So we have evidence from the past that if sulfate aerosols make it up to the stratosphere, there's a cooling effect," he said. "This natural analog gives us a bit more belief that it's going to work at least in some of the ways we expect it to in the real world and not just on a computer." 

The other two types of solar geoengineering researchers consider most seriously are marine cloud brightening to reflect incoming sunlight and Cirrus cloud thinning to let light escape more easily. Each one has pros and cons. For example, marine cloud brightening would only occur over the deepest and darkest parts of the ocean, Harding said, "which would have a non-uniform cooling effect and could lead to certain adverse outcomes. " 

Stratospheric aerosol injection has a more uniform distribution and cooling effect that better mimics the warming we're experiencing. However, it comes with its own concerns, one of which is that the cooling isn't permanent.  

"If something happened to stop the deployment of the aerosols, whether it was for political or technological reasons, we would bounce right back and experience a rapid heating that we've never experienced before, and could have catastrophic impacts," Harding said. 

What are the Costs and Benefits of Solar Geoengineering? 

This question is where Harding's research makes the most impact. As an economist, he examines the costs and benefits of solar geoengineering to highlight the tradeoffs involved. Harding has published articles on how solar geoengineering could impact other climate change mitigation policies, how it affects income inequality, and the value of reducing uncertainty around solar geoengineering. 

"Making it clear what the different tradeoffs are around climate policies is super important for informing decision-making," he said. "On one side, we have these really, at their core, basic scientific questions around whether solar geoengineering will work and if it can scale up. But it's also an interesting question from a governance and economics perspective. Solar geoengineering has global repercussions, the decision will affect the entire world. How do we develop governance structures, conversations, and inclusivity to ensure we're making a choice for the collective good?"  

For example, one of the downsides of using sulfate aerosols for solar geoengineering is negative health effects. But it also has the benefit of preventing temperature-related deaths. So, how do they compare? Harding's recently submitted paper, which is not yet peer-reviewed, finds that the benefits of reduced deaths outweigh the adverse health effects of solar geoengineering "by at least an order of magnitude — if not two orders of magnitude," he said.  

Harding notes that a more comprehensive comparison of risks and benefits is still required, but in the context of the two health impacts he examined, “Yes, it’s a concern, and something we should consider, but we need to put it in perspective that the benefits are significantly greater than that negative effect." 

Why is Solar Geoengineering Controversial? 

Uncertain health outcomes? Check. What else makes solar geoengineering so controversial that some academics want a ban on public funding, experiments, patents, deployment, and support for the technology in international institutions? 

There is a running theme in climate conversations that discussing adaptation policies reduces the focus on cutting emissions, Harding said, and the concerns around solar geoengineering are the same: not just that it will pull research funds from mitigation efforts, but that it will pull attention from dealing with the source of the warming as well. (His 2023 paper examines this problem.) 

Although he disagrees, others believe that researching solar geoengineering also makes it more likely that we deploy it, Harding explained. So, for those against the technology, disrupting research efforts to prevent the idea from moving further makes sense. 

What's Next? 

As with any unfamiliar and emerging technology, questions arise, such as, will this go horribly wrong and destroy the planet? Or, will it be the solution to all of our problems? 

"Putting my realistic hat on, it's probably somewhere in between," Harding said. "It's always hard to predict the future, but I can propose what I think is a realistic hope for where it can go." 

Harding anticipates more research and is hopeful for continued discourse between academics and the public. 

"The first and most important thing to do is make people aware of this technology and educate them about it," Harding said. "We have to understand how general people, outside of policymakers, feel about it — because that matters a lot." 

He also wants to see more serious international policy discussions around governing solar geoengineering to prevent a situation where one person or country deploys it independently. Whether it's a moratorium on its use or another agreement, international guidelines would help legitimize research without fears of a rogue actor, he explained. 

Final Takeaway 

To package it all up into a neat little tagline, "Solar geoengineering is a really new technology that could alleviate a lot of suffering in the case of climate change. But there's a lot of uncertainty, and it needs a lot more attention to quell any concerns about catastrophe," Harding said.  

"The most salient concern is that we put a lot of faith in solar geoengineering, invest a lot of resources, and slow down emissions cuts because we think we have a silver bullet. And then we get to 2080 and realize it doesn't work as expected. That's a very real concern. But the one that receives less attention is if we put solar geoengineering aside and don't spend the resources investigating it. Then we get to 2080 and realize, 'Wow, this technology could have worked and relieved a lot of suffering.' I think it's important to understand the flip side of that." 

The Midwest Caucus on Policy Administration presents the annual Herbert Simon Award to mid-career scholars who have made “a significant contribution to the scientific study of bureaucracy.” 

The commendation committee chose DeHart-Davis’ work because it “takes seriously both the pros and cons of organizational rules and their impact on bureaucratic performance,” they wrote. “Her research does an exceptional job of portraying bureaucracy as important and effective, but also urges the field to continue examining the factors that contribute to its significance to democratic governance.” 

DeHart-Davis is a professor of public administration and government at the University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill and the director of the university’s Local Government Workplaces Initiative. 

“While government rules tend to be construed as burdensome and rigid, my research focuses on how organizational rules benefit public organizations,” DeHart-Davis says. “I call effective organizational rules green tape — in contrast with red tape — and argue that good rules are indispensable for achieving public values such as equity, efficiency, transparency, and accountability.”

She is passionate about her research because rule design and implementation exert an “enormous influence” on how employees experience public sector work, DeHart-Davis says, and public employee experiences, in turn, affect public service delivery.

DeHart-Davis earned her Ph.D. from the School of Public Policy in 2000 and says the program laid the groundwork for her success.

“The rigor of both degrees, particularly around critical thinking, statistical analyses, and philosophy, allowed me to jump into academic research with both feet,” DeHart-Davis says. “I am indebted to my public policy professors, who held us all to high standards and taught me a love of scholarly research.”

DeHart-Davis will deliver the annual Simon Lecture on her work at the Midwest Political Science Association conference in April. 

He will work with Chad Slieper, who has been selected to co-lead Georgia Tech’s next Quality Enhancement Plan and will continue on at LST as co-director. 

McNeil’s responsibilities will include pre-law advising and coordinating student-centered events. He also will serve as the primary instructor for the Pre-Law Seminar class (PUBP3610). Slieper will focus on recruiting and overseeing the program’s part-time attorney faculty and coordinating course schedules. 

After graduating from Georgia Tech in 2001, McNeil attended Syracuse University College of Law. He graduated in 2005 and later joined the Atlanta home office of King & Spalding, focusing on intellectual property matters. His career also has included roles at Morris, Manning & Martin and co-founding a wholesale apparel company. McNeil serves as the primary legal advisor on a non-profit board focusing on children and veterans with physical disabilities. 

In 2007, he became co-coach of the Georgia Tech Mock Trial team, which routinely ranks among the nation’s most competitive squads.  

The APPAM Policy Council sets the organization’s policy and strategy. 

Bullinger was elected as an academic researcher. 

“It’s a great privilege to serve the APPAM community and perform the strategic work to advance its mission,” Bullinger said. “I am delighted to elevate my service to my ‘home’ organization, one that I care about so deeply.” 

 The council meets two times a year, and each member serves on at least one of APPAM’s committees. 

APPAM seeks to improve public policy and management through research, analysis, and education. It hosts an annual research conference, most recently held in Atlanta, publishes a peer-reviewed journal, and engages with policymakers and students. 

Bullinger’s research primarily focuses on how public policies affect children’s and families’ health and well-being, particularly those from low-income families. She has conducted extensive research on topics such as the effects of opioid treatment programs on child well-being, the impact of the minimum wage on child maltreatment and parenting behaviors, and the association of expanded child tax credit payments with child abuse and neglect-related emergency room visits. 

Her work has been published in numerous prestigious journals, including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, JAMA Pediatrics, Health Affairs, the Journal of Health Economics, and Review of Economics of the Household, among others. 

She has received funding for her work from organizations, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, the Spencer Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. 

The best way to deal with climate change is a heated topic of debate here on Earth — laws are created, nonprofits are formed, investments are made, and lobbyists have their say — but the concept also transcends terrestrial boundaries. As we navigate the complexities of shifting to a more sustainable world, it turns out there is a lot we can learn from and apply to our ventures in outer space.  

Researchers in the Ivan Allen College think big to explore questions of sustainability on Earth, in outer space, and on a cosmic scale.  

The Importance of Megaregions 

Brian Woodall, a professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, uses satellite data to rethink how we understand and address sustainability in our cities. He directs the Sustainable Megaregion Research Project with Mariel Borowitz, an associate professor in the Nunn School, and experts across Georgia Tech.  

The group uses data generated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to draw definitive boundaries around Earth's megaregions — large, densely-populated areas such as the Boston-Washington corridor, Greater Tokyo, and the Amsterdam-Brussels-Antwerp triangle. Then, the researchers combine light emissions and other datasets to analyze CO2 emissions, urban buildup, green space, population density, transportation infrastructure, and more.  

"In this way, satellite data is critical in our efforts to fashion a comparative, time-sensitive, and data-driven system for delineating megaregion boundaries," Woodall said. "Then, we can assess their effectiveness in addressing sustainable development challenges." 

According to the project website, three-quarters of America's population and employment growth will occur in just eight to ten megaregions by 2050. To ensure sustainability in the face of climate threats, we must build resilience and protect critical infrastructure in these areas, the group says. 

Political Parallels 

However, whether it’s in megaregions or across international borders, it's no secret that humans don't always get along. Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor in the Nunn School, studies the politics of outer space with a focus on the Chinese space program. He says that comparing sustainability challenges on Earth to those in space — such as the 100 million+ pieces of space junk littering Earth's orbit — underscores the political nature of these problems and their international nature.  

"The politics of space sustainability largely reflect the politics of sustainability on Earth, as humans continue to confront difficult collective action problems in both domains," Hines explains. "Neither global warming nor space debris care for the human constructs of sovereignty and national borders." 

Tony Harding, an economist and assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, echoes this sentiment.  

"We have this public good, which is space and near Earth's orbit, where we put satellites. And because no one is in control and has property rights in that area, we end up with an overuse and a lot of space junk," he says. "This parallels the Tragedy of the Commons problem we see on Earth — we have issues with climate change because we're all contributing a small amount to the problem and not facing the full cost of it." 

Harding studies the costs and benefits of solar geoengineering, which uses atmospheric particles to reflect the sun's radiation to slow global warming. Whether it's adding sulfate to the skies or cleaning up Earth's orbit, an intergenerational perspective is helpful, he says.  

"Should we develop geoengineering technology so the next generation has the choice to use it? Should we leave them with millions of pieces of space debris just because we don't want to clean it ourselves?" 

Second Time's a Charm(?) 

Despite the growing space debris problem, Borowitz emphasizes that we can proactively address the challenges of space sustainability and learn from our mistakes on Earth.  

"It's still early on in space, so we have the opportunity to think about sustainability from the beginning and address these issues before the debris is completely out of control," she says. "We are on an unsustainable path at the moment, but we can adjust before anything goes wrong." 

She adds that as interest and activity on the moon ramp up, the same questions apply. Because the moon doesn't have wind or weather like we do on Earth, when something changes its surface it can stay like that for thousands of years.  

"So it's really another place where you've got to do it right the first time," Borowitz says. "This is the test, right? The test for humanity — can we do it differently?" 

Sustainability on a Cosmic Scale 

Chris Michaels, a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Scholar in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, thinks about space from a symbolic perspective: What would happen if we scale up our consciousness to the level of the cosmos? Michaels teaches a course on modern terraforms and says contemplating the vast reaches of space can challenge us to think about sustainability in new ways. 

"The idea of space serves as a new frontier to be explored and colonized. If humans can migrate to other planets and make them home, then sustainability on Earth may look quaint and outdated," he says. "Humans tend to experience time on an atomized scale around their individual lives and have trouble thinking as concretely about the long term. But imagine if humans had a life span of 500 years, or they thought and acted less as individuals and more as members of a human race that extends thousands or even millions of years into the future. Thinking and acting on this larger scale would better align us with the geological timescales of the Earth, where sustaining our lives goes hand in hand with sustaining the Earth." 

The sprawling expanse of space is more than just an escape route from our troubled planet, and pondering it helps us shift our perspective from that of the starring role in our little galaxy to a bit character in a much larger play. 

Traditional Inspiration, New Solutions 

From satellite-driven research to geopolitical challenges and cosmic contemplation, humans continue to look to the stars for inspiration and information on keeping our planet and its orbit healthy. 

When it comes to our mandate for more sustainable living, it's not just about protecting our home but how we fit into the wider universe. Becoming better caretakers of our planet connects us to our past and future, here on Earth and out among the stars. 

Read the full article on the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine website.

That kind of dedication to learning was quintessential Baker, as was his commitment to helping lift up those around him, especially junior researchers, said Victoria Razin, a senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. She became a friend and mentee of Baker’s after working with him for a year on voting machine accessibility.

“Paul was an incredibly thoughtful researcher, a kind friend, and an incredible mentor who built up the people around him,” Razin said.

Baker, the senior director for research and strategic innovation at the Center for Advanced Communications Policy, passed away suddenly last week after a brief medical emergency, leaving behind an enormous void for his family, friends, and coworkers, as well as a tremendous legacy.

“Paul was like no one else I have met,” said Regent’s Researcher W. Bradley Fain, CACP’s executive director and Baker’s boss since 2019. “To be able to describe Paul succinctly is impossible.”

From Zoology to Technology Policy

After graduating from college with a degree in zoology, Baker worked as an environmental scientist, in real estate, and as a publisher, in addition to later academic roles at George Mason University and Saint Mary’s College. He joined Georgia Tech in 1999 as a visiting assistant professor, where he taught Research Design for the Policy Sciences, American Government, and more.

Two years later, he joined CACP as associate director for policy research and became director of research four years later. In 2011, he was named associate director of the Center for 21st Century Universities, where he oversaw strategic policy initiatives and managed the Center’s policy-focused sponsored research projects. After three years, he returned full-time to CACP, where he was appointed senior director for research and strategic innovation.

In 2020, he took on a new role when the Center for the Development and Application of Internet of Things Technologies moved from GTRI to CACP. Paul became the organization’s chief operations officer, where he worked to further the Center’s mission to spur technology and policy innovation in the internet of things sphere.

“Paul was a wonderful advisor, helping me work through really complicated issues,” Fain said. “Every conversation was an opportunity for him to share knowledge.”

Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, said Baker was an accomplished researcher who was deeply committed to expanding technology and workforce accessibility for everyone.

“We worked together a few years ago on a project with my research assistant, Andrew Hanus, and Connie McNeely of George Mason University to broaden participation in STEM employment for people with disabilities, and he took the initiative to lead a workshop on how veterans could gain STEM skills. I will miss his keen insight, his passion for his scholarship, and his generosity.”

Regents’ Researcher Emeritus Helena Mitchell, former executive director of CACP, said Baker was the Center’s most published employee whose contributions at Georgia Tech and around the world will continue to be felt.

“He was an excellent researcher, a great networker, a man of passion, integrity, and knowledge,” she said.

She and Baker were close friends for over 20 years, frequently hanging out together before Baker moved to Canada to be with his husband. She said she will miss their wide-ranging discussions over cosmopolitans. 

“He’s like a brother to me,” she said. 

Promoting Equal Access

In each of his roles, Baker approached his work with enormous curiosity, rigor, and a genuine desire to leave the world a better place, said Nathan Moon, director of research at CACP, who worked with Baker for nearly two decades.

“Paul was committed to doing research that would promote equal access for all people,” Moon said.

It shows in his publishing record, where you’ll find papers such as “Wireless Technologies and Accessibility for People with Disabilities: Findings from a Policy Research Instrument,”; “E-Accessibility and Municipal Wifi: Exploring a Model for Inclusivity and Implementation,” and “Digital Tech for Inclusive Aging: Usability, Design and Policy.”

In the last few years, he worked with Moon to develop a new seminar course, Policy Innovation for Inclusive Technologies, as part of a grant to develop a new postdoctoral training program for scholars interested in disability and accessible technology policy.

They taught the course together in the recently concluded Fall semester.

“In addition to being an excellent researcher, Paul was a wonderful educator,” Moon said. “He loved teaching and had high hopes and expectations for students, just as he did for junior researchers.”

But Baker’s personality and approach to other people especially set him apart, Razin said.

He had a way of connecting with people that made them feel special. For instance, Baker was a Quaker who also practiced Buddhism. But he always took time to send holiday greetings in correct Hebrew to Razin, who is Jewish.

“That was so special,” she said.

Moon said Baker’s legacy will continue to motivate him and other research scientists at CACP and across Georgia Tech who were touched by Baker’s intellect, curiosity, and drive.

“I can say confidently that as both a research scientist and person, Paul left the world a better place than he found it. He was a good friend, and he’ll be missed.”

If any of these questions pique your interest, the new AI Ethics and Policy course in Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy should be on your radar. 

Associate Professor Justin Biddle will teach the newly developed class, in which he prepares students to think critically about AI's impact on humanity and contribute to AI governance and policy. 

"We're still in the very early stages of developing governance systems for AI, but one of the major public policy questions moving forward will be how to regulate AI. This is a discussion that students in the future will be contributing to, or should be contributing to, in a significant way," Biddle said.  

To do so, students need to understand not just the technology but the many consequences, intended or not, that its deployment has on society. The course will be discussion-based around scholarly articles and current events, while the final month of the class is devoted to project work and a research paper on the ethical design of an AI system. Because the class is currently categorized as a special topics course, it doesn’t satisfy any general education attributes such as ethics. However, Biddle hopes to change this in the future.

"AI systems are value-laden because they're human creations," Biddle said. "Humans generate, design, develop, distribute, and monitor AI systems. Human decisions are made all along the way, and those human decisions, reflecting our values, impact AI systems in a very consequential way."

Biddle studies the ethics of emerging technologies and said he's become increasingly interested in AI over the years because of the growing controversies around AI biases and how it can have disparate impacts on different population groups. 

"I started collaborating with scientists and engineers at Georgia Tech, thinking about ways that AI systems could be designed ethically and responsibly, in a way that promotes the benefits but also avoids some of the risks and harms that we were seeing with many AI systems," Biddle said.

Biddle is on the leadership team of the Ethics, Technology, and Human Interaction Center (ETHICx), a collaboration between the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and the College of Computing. He also works with the Georgia Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing Technology Corridor, a statewide initiative combining artificial intelligence and manufacturing innovations with transformational workforce and outreach programs.

As AI becomes increasingly pervasive in our lives — from recommending movies on Netflix to determining whether or not we get a job — it also opens the door for biases, misinformation, and unintended consequences to creep in. 

"You might get shortlisted for a job, or you might be tossed out based on a decision of an algorithm," Biddle said. "We're interacting with algorithms all the time. All of us are. So, one could make the case that this is a general literacy issue that all students should have."
 

Take the Course

PHIL 4803: Special Topics: AI Ethics and Policy

Instructor: Justin Biddle, School of Public Policy

Schedule: TR 5:00 to 6:15, Clough 129

Description: This course will explore the ethical and philosophical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI). AI – and related fields of data science and machine learning (ML) – are transforming the world in which we live. They have the potential to bring tremendous benefits, but they also involve risks, including risks of privacy harms; human rights violations; social injustice and inequality; alienation, and – according to some – human extinction. In this course, we will examine conceptual tools and frameworks that deepen our understanding of the ethical and philosophical issues associated with AI; we will probe these tools and frameworks in the context of current cases and challenges (including discussions of social media, bias, misinformation, surveillance, autonomous vehicles, machine consciousness, and others), and we will explore policies and standards that help us to realize our shared goals and values. 

The plan will help the state compete for up to $500 million in federal funding for climate mitigation efforts under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Under a contract with the agency, the Georgia Tech team will work with partners across Georgia to help the state develop its greenhouse gas inventory, develop a plan to address the most important immediate opportunities the state can take to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and potentially help develop policies and programs to reach those goals. 

“Georgia Tech and our academic, business, and community partners from across the state are uniquely suited to help Georgia identify implementation-ready solutions that can significantly reduce emissions and have beneficial impacts on Georgia communities,” said Marilyn A. Brown, Regents’ Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy.

“As part of our work with Drawdown Georgia, we already have been deeply involved in identifying climate pollution reduction strategies to drive economic and employment growth, improve air quality, deliver benefits to under-resourced residents, and protect the environment. That work gives us a great head start in providing the state the information it needs to develop Georgia’s first climate action plan,” Brown said.

Georgia Tech-Built Emissions Tracker Key Component

Drawdown Georgia is an initiative of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation to accelerate progress toward net zero greenhouse gas emissions in Georgia. Brown led the interdisciplinary science and policy team that helped develop the plan’s recommendations. 

Central to the project is the climate emissions tracker developed at Georgia Tech as part of that project. The tool provides monthly insights into carbon emissions across Georgia’s 159 counties, providing more timely, accurate, and cost-effective data than the traditional tools used in other climate planning efforts. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reviewed the tracker and gave special permission for the state to use it, said William J. Drummond, associate professor in the School of City & Regional Planning and co-principal investigator on the project.

Many other states will instead have to use more traditional bottom-up inventories that take longer to create and are not as frequently updated, he said.

“The work we have done has been peer-reviewed and published, and so it has a level of authoritativeness that other states may not enjoy,” said Drummond, who led the tracker’s development. “We are uniquely positioned to identify actionable solutions for Georgia, help the state meet its incredibly tight timeline, and give Georgia a competitive advantage that other states just can’t match.” 

The Atlanta Regional Commission, which received separate funding to make a plan specific to metro Atlanta, also will use the tracker in its work. 

State Plan Due in March

The state’s priority plan is due in March, with the full plan due a year later. 

“The Georgia Environmental Protection Division is excited to work with Georgia Tech in the development of the state's first climate action plan and appreciates all the work that Georgia Tech and other Drawdown Georgia partners have done to lay the groundwork for this project,” said DeAnna Oser, assistant branch chief of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s Air Protection Branch.

The effort is focused on implementation-ready solutions. Brown said proposals could include projects that advance transportation electrification, energy-efficient housing, climate-smart agriculture, forest management, and urban tree canopies, among other opportunities.

She said it is exciting to see the years of work her team has put into climate mitigation practices and policies to help move Georgia closer to being climate-neutral. 

“We’ve always hoped that this work would have real policy impacts that will help improve our environment, economy, and society,” Brown said. “It’s exhilarating to see the state recognize and incorporate our work, and I look forward to seeing where it leads.”

Several Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts researchers participated in the annual conference, which this year focused on the power of interdisciplinary collaboration. 

Lindsey Bullinger, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy; David Edwards, executive director of the Center for Urban Research; and Professor Michael Best of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs served on the organizing committee. 

Among the IAC presenters were: 

• Edwards, who presented on “Closing Racial Equity Gaps by Improving the Health of Urban Neighborhoods” 

• Mayra Pineda-Torres, assistant professor in the School of Economics, who spoke about “The Economics of Reproductive Healthcare Access” 

• Shatakshee Dhongde, associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor in the School of Economics and Ph.D. student Roshani Bulkunde presented on multidimensional economic hardship in the U.S. during the Covid-19 pandemic as part of an interdisciplinary poster session. 

Ivan Allen College’s School of Economics and the School of Public Policy have both recently expanded capacity in health economics and policy — investing in new faculty and establishing the Health Economics and Policy Innovation Collaborative to promote interdisciplinary research in the subject. 

“Healthcare is an issue that affects everyone, and we’re excited to help lead the way in finding ways to encourage policies that improve access and health outcomes, bring down costs, and advance health equity,” said Aaron Levine, associate dean for research and outreach, who also attended the conference. 

For more information on HEPIC, visit the collaborative’s website. 

What’s your area of research and what led you to it?
As a climate scholar, I focus on the intersection of technology and public policy. I lead the Data Science & PolicyLab at Georgia Tech, where we use big data and field experiments to address challenges in energy, transportation, and human mobility. In recent years, we’ve leveraged generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to overcome research barriers in vehicle electrification and infrastructure. By putting humans in–the-loop during training and testing, our machine learning models have become highly accurate and scalable across languages and geographies. This work has led us to identify investment and operational barriers to electric vehicle charging in remote areas and urban centers, impacting sustainable business and policymaking on critical areas for innovation. My climate AI research on electrification and decarbonization is supported by Microsoft and the National Science Foundation.

Why is your area of research important for society?
I am fortunate to be one of 10 US scholars who contributed to the zero emission vehicles (ZEV) policy guidance for COP 26 and the Glasgow Climate Pact. We know that accelerating the switch from internal combustion to electric cars and trucks reduces emissions. However, we often forget about the enormous air quality and human health co-benefits associated with reduced air pollution, estimated to be worth hundreds of billions in value according to National Academies consensus reports.

Where are you from?
I grew up in Los Angeles, where I had the opportunity to learn from and connect with people and cultures from around the world. I speak Spanish and basic Greek. My family’s journey brought us to the US as political émigrés from Nicaragua following the Sandinista revolution.

What is something you like to do outside of your academic work?
Outside of my academic work, I’m a proud soccer dad. You’ll find me on the pitch, cheering on the Boston Bolts this season, as my son Milan has been invited to play for them, and I couldn't be more excited. I also enjoy exploring Boston by hopping on a water taxi and checking out the fish markets in Seaport.

What’s your favorite book, movie, or piece of art?
The Netflix algorithm says my favorite movie is La La Land. The algorithm thinks it knows me well because it keeps suggesting comedic tear-jerkers, but lately I’ve been trying to nudge it towards action films.

What will you be doing as a BiGS Fellow?
The federal government plans to invest $7.5 billion in a national network of EV charging points. This will bring a wealth of business and managerial decisions on electric mobility, including creative solutions for pricing externalities, smart grid integration, and understanding consumer behavior. Motivated by these policy drivers, my project explores how AI can be used to ensure a more equitable distribution of electric vehicle infrastructure and will evaluate policy effectiveness with massively distributed data.

What sort of impact would you like to have as a BiGS Fellow?
I'm thrilled to collaborate with the BiGS fellows and HBS on new products. I also welcome opportunities for broader scientific collaborations, especially cross-disciplinary ones that push the boundaries of large-scale distributed climate data and social science.

A version of this story first appeared in the Harvard Business School newsroom.

Maureen Linden, who holds a joint appointment with the Ivan Allen College’s School of Public Policy in the CACP and with the College of Design as executive director of the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation, received individual recognition as an Advocate for Accessibility. 

“It was an honor to be recognized and to share the award with so many members of the Georgia Tech community who work tirelessly to improve the experiences of people with disabilities,” said W. Bradley Fain, Regents’ Researcher and executive director of CACP. “Our mission to improve the lives of people with disabilities through policy and technological interventions motivates each and every one of us.” 

Fain said the award highlights the importance of policy interventions like Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to the community of people with disabilities. 

“CACP will continue to conduct applied policy research to extend the reach of Section 504 and empower people with disabilities as they pursue their academic, career, and life goals,” he said. 

“The Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts is committed to advancing scholarship and innovation that expands equitable access to resources, improves people's lives, and creates transformative, inclusive learning experiences for all of our students,” said Aaron Levine, associate dean for research and outreach in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and professor in the School of Public Policy. “The Center for Advanced Communications Policy does vital work in all of these areas, and we are proud to see their achievements recognized and honored.”

The family’s significant gift will support the GTDC: Pathways to Policy program and sustainable energy and environmental management studies, allowing for the creation of the Byers Family Pathways to Policy Fellowships. The fellowships will cover tuition for 18 public policy graduate students over three years and provide a stipend to support them during a year-long internship with a governmental, nonprofit, or private-sector organization in D.C.

“This gift is absolutely transformative,” said Cassidy R. Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Public Policy. “This experience expands the School’s profile in D.C, but more importantly will allow these students to build networks, earn a seat at the table in Washington, and utilize the strong education they’ve received here at Georgia Tech in future policymaking.”

Like the existing GTDC program for Tech undergraduates, students chosen for the Byers Family Fellowship will benefit from opportunities to connect with alumni and policymakers in Washington, gain valuable work experience, integrate scholarship and policymaking, and explore public service as a possible career path.

The graduate program will focus on climate change, one of the greatest threats to global society.

“These public policy graduate students will bring their Georgia Tech training and discipline to government agencies, Congress, and administrations to advocate for innovation in regulations, legislation, and decisions that can have high-leverage effects in energy and sustainability going forward,” Byers said. “Our family has been very impressed with the achievements and impact of Professor Marilyn Brown and others at Tech.”

Graduate students in the School of Public Policy who are studying sustainable energy and environmental management issues will be eligible to apply for the highly selective fellowships beginning in January 2024.

For more information about making a gift in support of graduate fellowships, contact Senior Associate Vice President for Major Gifts and Next Generation Philanthropy Jim Hall at jim.hall@dev.gatech.edu.

More than two dozen Ivan Allen faculty members and Ph.D. students from three Schools will present papers, serve as panelists or panel chairs, or organize discussions.  Twenty-three School of Public Policy faculty members and students will take part in the three-day conference, which opens Nov. 9. Five faculty and students from the School of Economics are involved, as is one faculty member from the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. 

“APPAM’s fall research conference is widely regarded as the premier event for public policy scholars, so it’s exciting to see how much of our research will be showcased, from clean-energy policy to child and maternal welfare and housing issues,” said Cassidy R. Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Public Policy. 

Assistant Professor Lindsey Rose Bullinger will be among the busiest, participating in four panels and chairing a fifth on, “Uncovering the Impact of Paid Family Leave on Gender Wage Gap, Parents and Firms.” 

Associate Professor Omar I. Asensio, will present three papers, chair one panel, serve as a panelist on another, and organize a session on “Innovation for Low-Carbon Transformations: Patents, Power and Leveraging Networks.” 

Additionally, Professor Daniel Matisoff will receive APPAM’s World Citizen Prize in Environmental Performance at the conference. The group recognized Matisoff for his research that “assesses pathways to achieve measurable but as-yet-unrealized gains in overall environmental performance.” It is the second time in three years that a Georgia Tech School of Public Policy faculty member has won the award. 

Outside the School of Public Policy, Dylan Brewer of the School of Economics will organize the “Electrification, Energy Efficiency, and the Energy Transition: Residential Energy Policies and Behavioral Responses” panel and present two papers. At the same time, his colleague, Daniel Dench, will co-present on one paper with Brewer and organize and chair a panel on “E-Cig and Tobacco Policy Implications.” 

Laura Taylor, chair of the School of Economics, will serve as a panelist on a “First-Gen Researchers” session. 

“I’m excited to see our faculty and students highlighting the intersections of economics and public policy at APPAM,” Taylor said. 

Anjali Thomas, an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, is also chairing a panel on “Politics and Policymaking in India.” 

They will be joined by several other faculty members from other Georgia Tech units, including the Georgia Tech Research Institute, the Institute for Data Engineering and Science, the Scheller College of Business, and the School of City and Regional Planning. 

Last year, 16 School of Public Policy faculty members and students attended APPAM’s meeting in Washington. 

Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair of Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, has received the 2023 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the American Economic Association (AEA). 

In fall 2019 Jan Uelzmann, associate chair of German in the School of Modern Languages, suggested that the college support a Faculty Development Mentor Program. He worked with Carol Colatrella, associate dean for graduate studies and faculty development, and with College IT and communication staff to create the current online system. It was rolled out in January and is fully functional on iac.gatech.edu. Colatrella and Uelzmann envisioned a program that would increase interdisciplinary collaboration in the College and ease the process of networking and communication.

“Much of what we do at Ivan Allen is very interdisciplinary, so the mentoring should reflect that,” Uelzmann said. “At the same time, we are addressing a need that is there in all Ivan Allen College schools. We are also hoping that as a secondary effect, these mentoring connections might foster lasting research connections across school lines.”

Any faculty member can enroll in the program by updating their faculty profile page and selecting the box that designates them at a faculty mentor. When they do that, a badge will appear on the link to their profile on the College website faculty directory.

“I very much like the elegance of this integrated solution,” Uelzmann said. “The program “lives” on the Ivan Allen College website, so there is no intermediary required.”

Colatrella and Uelzmann envision the Faculty Development Mentor Program pairing with other development programs like the Innovation and Collaboration in Liberal Arts, Science and Technology (ICLAST) discussion series to create a stronger culture of mentoring, research, teaching and service. The program is open to everyone from tenure-track faculty to academic professionals, and a faculty member designating themselves as a mentor can also encourage students interested in research to reach out for advice and guidance.

The Faculty Development Mentor Program is a way of formalizing the informal process of fostering meaningful, productive professional connections, and people can use the program to both improve their work in their own field or learn the ins and outs of another.

The program is one of many resources available in the College and on campus. A list of more faculty development resources is below.

Faculty Development Resources and Opportunities

Networking opportunities

School and college standing and hoc committees
School & college mentoring: see names noted in Faculty Profiles
Faculty Senate committees; see http://facultygovernance.gatech.edu/

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

IACLA Bias Awareness Workshops

IACLA RPT Workshops

Periodic events focusing on publication, grants, research topics

Participation in IACLA Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Faculty Advisory Board

Consultations with dean, chairs, associate deans, school RPT chairs and other senior faculty

Georgia Tech Faculty Affairs

The Office of Faculty Affairs hosts a series of annual workshops and seminars for new faculty. While these are targeted at faculty who joined within the past year, all events are open to any faculty member who wishes to attend.

https://faculty.gatech.edu/new-faculty

CAREER Award Workshops [need to check with OSP & Faculty Affairs]
Advice about preparing proposals for CAREER Awards.
OLD--https://www.cc.gatech.edu/program/NRO/misc/carerOSP.html

QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training (Student Life)

A two-hour QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) Training is offered to anyone in the Georgia Tech community interested in learning how to recognize the warning signs of suicide, offer hope, and ultimately help save lives. Participants will learn how to intervene with at-risk individuals, persuade them to seek help, and guide them to appropriate resources.
 https://endsuicide.gatech.edu/content/qpr-training-0

LGBTQIA Resource Center
The Center coordinates a range of programs and events throughout the year aimed at educating faculty, students, and staff about LGBTQIA issues, providing safe spaces for LGBTQIA students to build community and explore their identities, and facilitating conversations about LGBTQIA diversity, equity, and inclusion.

https://lgbtqia.gatech.edu/

Emerging Leaders (Provost) deadline March 8, 2020—for tenured associate & full professors

The Emerging Leaders Program is a collaboration between the Office of the Provost, the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship, and the Office of Graduate Education and Faculty Development and is designed for associate and full professors who have attained tenure. This program includes a fall weekend workshop, monthly workshops, small-group work, and a 360-degree assessment.

https://provost.gatech.edu/emerging-leaders

Diversity and Inclusion Fellows (IDEI)
With support from the Institute Diversity and the ADVANCE program, the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program brings together faculty, staff, and students who strive to advance a culture of inclusive excellence on campus. Program activities focus on the various dimensions and intersectionalities of diversity through symposia, workshops, and mentorship programs.  https://diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgram

Leading Women at Tech (IDEI)

This program seeks to engage women leaders who are in director-level positions and above at the Institute through monthly program activities and optional coaching that empower participants to act on their career and life goals.

https://diversity.gatech.edu/leadingwomenattech

Employee Resource Groups (HR)

Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement offers six Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to support Georgia Tech’s efforts to build community and ensure that employees experience a greater sense of belonging.

https://www.sdie.gatech.edu/programs-and-initiatives/engagement/ergs

Center for Teaching and Learning Programs
The Center for Teaching and Learning Programs offers a variety of resources and workshops open to faculty, postdocs, and graduate students who seek to enhance their teaching skills and careers. http://www.cetl.gatech.edu/
http://www.cetl.gatech.edu/news/ncfdd-offers-free-professional-development-grad-students-faculty

University System of Georgia Faculty Development

The University System of Georgia Faculty and Staff Resource Web Site serves as a centralized location identifying teaching and learning resources from across 26 institutions that are available to USG Faculty and Staff.

https://www.usg.edu/facultydevelopment/

National Center for Faculty Development

The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity is an independent center that provides professional development, training, and mentorship opportunities. All members of the Georgia Tech community are now eligible for free membership enrollment and access to resources applicable across academic disciplines that include a range of topics such as time management, how to write grant proposals, and more.

https://faculty.gatech.edu/NCFDD

Insight into the people and organizations who make decisions that impact the lives of all Americans is a key aspect of the GTDC: Pathways to Policy program. The inaugural GTDC semester and the 13 students pioneering the program were celebrated with an Oct. 24 event in Washington, D.C.

GTDC: Pathways to Policy, a partnership of the School of Public Policy and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, gives Georgia Tech students from any major the opportunity to spend an immersive, transformative semester in Washington, D.C. Students engage in courses, internships, research opportunities, and extracurricular activities, including with Georgia Tech alumni. The program educates and equips students for policy-related careers in government agencies, the private sector, and NGOs, where they can help solve national and global challenges.

The launch event brought together GTDC students with not only Senators Warnock, Ossoff, and Nunn, but also Georgia Tech leaders and a large group of Georgia Tech alumni who live and work in the D.C. area.

In his remarks, Warnock praised the Georgia Tech graduates and students who had worked for his office and said he looked forward to working with more.

“It has been my experience that it’s a good idea to hire Georgia Tech grads,” Sen. Warnock said. “They are indeed among the most conscientious and industrious individuals working on the Hill. And I’m thrilled that there will be more opportunities for Georgia Tech students to gain insight into what is happening in Washington D.C.”

Ossoff emphasized that Georgia Tech is well respected worldwide and plays a key role in research and innovation related to national security, energy, and healthcare and that its students and graduates have much to contribute.

“I think it’s crucial that young people and students have access to Congress and the Federal Government and understand how those collaborations work,” Ossoff said.

Former Senator and Georgia Tech Distinguished Professor Sam Nunn explained to the students that working and learning in D.C. would have a huge impact.  

“I was 23 years old when I first came to D.C. out of law school … and I can assure you, from my perspective, your year will be transformative indeed,” Nunn told the students. “It will enlighten you in terms of both the opportunities and the challenges of public service in a way that no textbook can really adequately explain.”

The event drew a sizable group of Georgia Tech alumni, and connecting alumni who live and work in D.C. with GTDC students is another key aspect of the GTDC program. In her remarks, Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, pointed out that D.C. alumni were eager to help students interested in exploring careers in public service.

“When I meet with alumni to talk about GTDC, here’s the response I typically get: ‘What do you need? How can we help? What can we do to embrace, and talk with, and lead, and guide, and mentor the students who are at Georgia Tech working at the intersection of STEM, policy, social science and more’ … That’s exactly why this room is packed this evening,” Husbands Fealing said.

Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera also addressed the crowd.

"Educating and supporting graduates with expertise in technology and policy is vital to solving global challenges," Cabrera said. “We are so excited about this program. We need to fill every member of Congress’ office, every committee, with people who understand technology, who understand science, and who can bring that knowledge to make better policy.”

Though the GTDC students have only been in D.C. since August, many are already reporting they have taken much from the experience.

"This program is extremely beneficial in so many ways! Not only does it provide an opportunity to live and work in such a beautiful place, but it also allows you to establish professional connections and mentorships, cultivate personal relationships with the other GTDC students, understand varying pathways to success, and learn concrete skills to take to future endeavors," said GTDC participant Parker Alderman.

Fellows are selected for their dedication to driving change and making the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Academic Impact Principles a reality in their local communities.  

Meet the Ivan Allen College Millennium Fellows 

Adaiba Nwasike, a School of Public Policy student who expects to graduate in 2024 with a major in Public Policy and a minor in Spanish, was chosen for the Millennium Fellowship as an emerging technologist. She said her selection demonstrates that a Georgia Tech education in the liberal arts and social sciences focuses on relevant and innovative issues for the 21st century. 

“I believe that our right to privacy in a technological age is an emerging issue that ties directly into the SDGs,” Nwasike said. “My project focuses on educating the consumer — specifically the disadvantaged consumer — to understand where and how to limit their information and understand how their data is being used. If our right to privacy is being reduced, harmed, or in any way delegitimized by the data revolution, the consumer has the right to understand how.”  

Nwasike is a Stamps President’s Scholar and currently serves as the vice president of external affairs for the Georgia Tech Organization for Social Activism and the vice president of internal affairs for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Student Ambassadors. She is also involved in the Student Government Association and the NAACP at Georgia Tech and served as the vice chair of communications at the Stamps Scholars National Convention.  

Sydney Wheeler is a third-year student majoring in International Affairs and Modern Languages, which is offered jointly by the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Modern Languages. She also is pursuing a Sustainable Cities minor from the College of Design and is an intern at the Carter Center. On campus, she is involved with Engineers Without Borders and the Women’s Recruitment Team in the Office of Undergraduate Admission. She has also studied abroad in Spain and Portugal, as well as in countries across Southeast Asia. 

“The Millennium Fellowship has been especially exciting for me due to all of the connections available with like-minded students across the globe who are all working toward the SDGs,” said Wheeler. “I am hoping to pursue a career in global development, so the opportunity to attend various sustainability and social impact webinars has been extremely impactful.” 

Wheeler and Nwasike are among more than 4,000 students worldwide chosen for their commitment to advancing the SDGs. They will undergo a semester-long leadership development program designed to enhance their skills in student organizing, partnership building, and community impact. 

A version of this story appeared first on Georgia Tech’s Office of Undergraduate Education site.

Students from the College of Engineering, College of Computing, College of Design, and the College of Sciences participated in the third annual competition, which seeks to broadly advance IoT research on the Georgia Tech campus. The awards are presented with generous support of the School of Public Policy, Georgia Tech’s VentureLab, and Verizon.

Each of the Challenge category winners will receive scholarship awards totaling $12,000 to be divided among team members.

“These awards celebrate the hard work, ingenuity, and interdisciplinary approach that is vital in today’s technological landscape,” said Paul M.A. Baker, CDAIT’s chief operating officer. “This kind of innovative student research collaboration pushes us forward and keeps Georgia Tech at the forefront of innovation.”

The winner of the Policy/Civic Engagement category went to a team of two engineering students. They created Physioconnect, a wearable device that can track a new mom’s heart health. This device could let doctors catch and treat problems early and hopefully help reduce postpartum deaths.

The IoT Innovation category award went to a team of engineering and computing students who built an exoskeleton that uses stretchable skin sensors and deep-learning algorithms to help people lift heavy objects.

A team in Georgia Tech’s Smart Sea Level Sensors program won the Verizon Connectivity award for the redesign of water-level sensors to integrate with low-cost swarm satellites, making data collection much easier.

Honorable mentions went to a team who used virtual reality to teach people how to use industrial laser scanners and another team who used thermal displays as a new way to share information and emotions.

To see details of the projects and learn more about the IoT Challenge, CDAIT, and its host center, the Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP), visit the challenge website.

CDAIT and CACP are units of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Salimah LaForce of the Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP), John Rempel from the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation, and Deaf Link, Inc. have assembled a nationwide panel of about 10,000 people with disabilities to learn more about whether they received the test, in what format, and their location, among other things, to better understand access challenges. 

It’s part of a larger survey initiative by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center, a federally funded research and development center operated by the RAND Corporation, to understand how well Americans receive the alerts. The center tapped LaForce and CACP for the work due to their extensive work studying technology challenges among people with disabilities. 

“Disability shouldn’t be a barrier to accessing potentially lifesaving emergency information,” said LaForce. “This survey will help us better understand how cell phone users receive the alerts and about any challenges they may have faced, including those posed by the type of cell phone they own.” 

WEA Alerts Save Lives, but Challenges Remain 

Wireless Emergency Alert messages are geographically targeted alerts similar to texts sent to cell phones to warn users of threats such as hazardous weather. Cities, state emergency management agencies, and other authorized alerting agencies send the messages. 

The Oct. 4 test is similar to routine tests that some state and local jurisdictions conduct, except that, in this case, users will not be able to opt out. Tests will also be delivered to televisions and radios via a different technology that’s not part of LaForce’s survey. This will be the first national test since 2021 and only the second since the WEA system went live in 2012. 

LaForce and CACP have been tracking issues with WEA alerts for years, noting technological gaps that prevent some users from receiving the full alerts and numerous challenges that can make receiving them difficult for the 42.5 million people living with disabilities in the U.S. For instance, those with hearing disabilities might miss audible signals such as the WEA tone, while individuals with visual disabilities could struggle with text-based notifications if text-to-speech isn’t enabled on their phone. The technology used in some older models and some subsidized phones may also limit the effectiveness of these alerts for economically disadvantaged individuals with disabilities, according to LaForce. 

Novel Survey to Use American Sign Language 

The survey is meant to find out how many cellphone users received test messages, what language it was in, and other information, such as race and ethnicity, language, and disability, that could help determine whether those factors affect the ability of cell phone users to receive timely emergency alerts. 

As part of the project, LaForce helped pioneer what she said may be one of the first survey instruments undertaken using American Sign Language.  

“Using ASL in the survey will allow people who primarily use sign language to communicate to respond to the survey comfortably and naturally,” she said. 

This initiative addresses a significant gap in existing survey methods, which often rely on written or spoken language and may marginalize those who primarily communicate through ASL. 

It’s just another part of CACP’s work to influence tech policy in ways that improve the human condition, LaForce said. 

“Technology works best when it works for everyone, and that’s a big part of what drives us forward at CACP,” LaForce said. 

CACP, affiliated with the School of Public Policy and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, has been evaluating communications technology and policy since 2004. The Center has shared its expertise through policy briefs, reports, submitted congressional testimony, and more. 

The Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center researches and analyzes projects to prevent terrorism, safeguard cyberspace, and strengthen national preparedness and resilience, among other topics. 

The work is supported by a $109,000 grant from FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Project Management Office.

The Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) recently revealed Professor Daniel Matisoff as one of its 2023 honorees, along with his collaborator Douglas Noonan, formerly a professor in the School and now at Indiana University — Purdue University Indianapolis. APPAM also honored Lucy Qiu of the University of Maryland. 

The Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) gives the annual award in recognition of research that “assesses pathways to achieve measurable but as-yet-unrealized gains in overall environmental performance.” 

“It’s quite an honor to receive this award with Doug for the work that we’ve done to understand what we call the ‘green market transformation,’” Matisoff said. “It’s also gratifying to see continued recognition of the excellent work being done across the School.” 

Matisoff and Noonan won for their book Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation. 

In announcing the win, APPAM said Ecolabels “provides a new perspective on leveraging markets to transform industry” through its analysis of eco-labeling — the voluntary practice among some companies of acquiring independent certification that their goods or services are more environmentally friendly. 

The book focuses on the building industry and certifications such as the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, or LEED, program. In the volume, Matisoff and Noonan show that early adopters of such programs help spur adoption across the industry. 

“The theory for the work was inspired by the mission of the Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech, which was designed to transform how building and construction are done in the Southeast,” Matisoff said. “We showed that tools that leverage interactions between the public and private sector, such as eco-labeling and pilot and demonstration projects, can help build supply chains, reduce costs, demonstrate the performance of risky technologies, and accelerate uptake of innovative energy and environmental technologies.” 

Matisoff will accept the award at the APPAM meeting scheduled to be in Atlanta this November. 

Marilyn A. Brown, Regents’ Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, received the award in 2021 for her work leading the research team behind the Drawdown Georgia climate initiative. Matisoff is also a member of that team. 

In all, three of the seven recipients of the award since its inception in 2019 have been current or former faculty members of Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy. That track record demonstrates the School’s tradition of leadership and creativity in the energy and environmental policy space, Matisoff said. 

“It speaks to the caliber of our faculty and our energy and environmental policy program here at the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy,” said Matisoff, who is also the director of the innovative Master of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management program. 

The School of Public Policy is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. 

The 15-credit hour program offers students a comprehensive overview of health policy and the healthcare system in the U.S. They develop skills in data analytics, economic modeling, and policy analysis and apply them to issues such as health equity and access, participation in risky behaviors, and healthcare cost containment. This multidisciplinary lens prepares students for a range of opportunities in the public and private sectors as well as for graduate study in medicine or public health. 

Students begin the program with foundational courses in U.S. Health Policy and the Economics of Health and Health Care. Through electives, they can explore timely topics in classes such as Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, The Economics of Risky Health Behaviors, Health Disparities, and Stem Cell Science, Policy, and Ethics. Explore the complete list of minor courses here. 

The Ivan Allen College has expanded its health expertise with recent faculty hires in economics and policy who study areas as diverse as the impacts of substance use on health and communities, the effects of AI in healthcare, and the effectiveness of child protection policies. Learn more about these faculty and their work at the Health Economics and Policy Innovation Collaborative. 

“Economics and policy are good partners when it comes to healthcare,” said Kaye Husbands Fealing, Dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “Teaching students to approach today’s pressing healthcare questions using interdisciplinary methodologies will help them bring a broader perspective into their careers.”

The Health Policy and Economics minor is open to students from all majors. 

This combination of factors makes the U.S. healthcare system difficult to navigate and regulate. Georgia Tech’s School of Economics and School of Public Policy are working to change that. 

This year, the two Schools launched a joint Health Policy and Economics minor in which students explore topics such as artificial intelligence in healthcare and stem cell science, policy, and ethics. Now, the Schools are further expanding their health specialization with the new Health Economics and Policy Innovation Collaborative (HEPIC).

“The idea behind HEPIC is to promote research among the current generation of scholars while training the next generation,” said Economics Professor Jason Lindo. “The collaborative will involve researchers at many career stages, from students to junior and senior faculty members, and encourage mentoring among them.”

Lindo’s work focuses on youth and families, including several recent studies quantifying the effects of changes in access to reproductive healthcare. He will direct the HEPIC lab, working with fellow economics faculty members Assistant Professor Mayra Pineda-Torres, who studies how women’s access to reproductive health care affects their health, educational, and economic outcomes, Assistant Professor Cici McNamara, who specializes in the effects of financial incentives and competition on healthcare market outcomes, and Assistant Professor Daniel Dench, who recently examined how access to in-person care affects birth outcomes and the effect of e-cigarettes on birth outcomes. 

Public Policy faculty in the collaborative include Assistant Professor Lindsey Bullinger, who studies how public policies affect child and family health and well-being among low-income families, and Assistant Professor Ashley Bradford, who studies the economics of risky behaviors and substance use, with an emphasis on how public policies shape health outcomes within the United States.

The interdisciplinary group of researchers will use advanced data analytics to answer pressing health-related questions, such as how changes in access to healthcare affect outcomes, how economic circumstances and health are linked, and the effects of local, state, and national health policies.

“Research on these topics is critical because policy-makers need to be able to draw upon data to assess current circumstances and understand how to improve them,” Lindo said.

Students working in the lab will have the opportunity to see how faculty approach these issues differently, Lindo explained, and will get to take part in the research process, from idea generation to wrestling with roadblocks to writing papers for public dissemination. 

Through HEPIC and the new Health Policy and Economics Minor, the two Schools use an interdisciplinary approach to help students, faculty, and alumni tackle healthcare questions around the ethical use of new technology and the high costs and inequality plaguing the system today.

The relationships expand the School’s strong global footprint into the southern hemisphere, creating possibilities for faculty and student exchange, joint programs, research collaborations, and more.

In addition to the two new partnerships, the School signed a third agreement to continue its existing work with the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy in Japan. 

“Partnerships with institutions around the world enable our faculty and students to take part in a global exchange of ideas,” said Cassidy R. Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton Chair of the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. “They help us learn how we can innovate efficiently and equitably in our national science and technology policy systems — both in the U.S. and around the world.”

Sugimoto added that expanding and nurturing such partnerships gives the School opportunities to share and translate its expertise globally and provides public policy students with unique opportunities to experience and understand different national contexts.

A Global Kaleidoscope of Policy Innovation

While the School of Public Policy is widely recognized for its deep expertise in U.S. science and technology policy, Sugimoto said that its international presence and global connections are key to its success in policy education and research.

“Focusing on U.S. policy alone ignores the whole global array of innovations,” she said. “There are lessons we can learn from other countries’ policy systems that we can pull into our own domestic space, and vice versa. That’s why we are deeply embedded in a global network of institutions who care about science and technology policy systems all over the world.”

Associate Professor Richard Barke, director of Undergraduate Studies, is one of several public policy faculty who have taught courses in Georgia Tech’s study abroad programs. He agrees with Sugimoto that combining international experience with policy study gives students and faculty a perspective that simply can’t be gained any other way.

“When I teach policy courses overseas, students are exposed to subjects I wouldn’t normally teach about in Atlanta,” said Barke. “When I taught a policy course in Oxford, there was a comparative focus between U.S. and U.K. politics. When I taught that course in New Zealand, we focused on policy issues associated with the rights of the indigenous Maori. In Australia students learned about environmental policies affecting the Great Barrier Reef.”

Universidad Externado: The School of Finance, Government, and International Relations

The School of Public Policy has strong existing relationships in Colombia, including collaborations with the Colombian government, the World Bank, and other national and international agencies to promote competitiveness, productivity, and innovation through science and technology.

The new agreement with the Universidad Externado began with a Georgia Tech alumni connection. Gonzalo Ordóñez, dean of the School of Finance, Government, and International Relations (FIGRI) at Externado, received his Ph.D. in public policy from Georgia Tech. When he became dean at FIGRI, Ordóñez reached out to his alma mater to help build the program’s international presence.

The agreement lays the groundwork for new collaborative research and joint academic programs, including a possible joint capstone program, as well as faculty and student exchanges between the two institutions.

University of Stellenbosch: The Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science, and Technology

Similarly, the agreement with the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa paves the way for collaborations between the School of Public Policy and The Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science, and Technology (CREST), which is housed at the university. CREST is the major research evaluation unit within the country and the aggregator of all data produced by the country’s institutions of higher education, working with the National Research Foundation in South Africa and the National Science Foundation in the U.S.

“The partnership with the University of Stellenbosch is exciting, in part because CREST curates and houses incredible amounts of data,” said Sugimoto. “We look forward to working with our colleagues at Stellenbosch to gain insights into changing mechanisms in South Africa’s policy ecosystem — and to learning how those insights might be applied in other national science and technology policy systems.”

Brown was reappointed for a third three-year term. Yaszek was reappointed for the first time following her initial appointment in 2020.

They are among 16 Georgia Tech faculty appointed or reappointed to the prestigious Regents’ positions, awarded by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia for outstanding contributions to their institutions.

The title is granted to faculty members in recognition of outstanding research and scholarship. It is awarded upon the unanimous recommendation of the institution’s president, chief academic officer, dean, and three other faculty members named by the president. The nominations also require the approval of the chancellor and the Board of Regents Committee on Academic Affairs.

Yaszek is one of the leading researchers in science fiction studies. She specializes in research at the intersections of science fiction with issues of gender, race, and technology. She is an influential voice on science fiction and the vital role of the humanities in our technological age, in both academia and the wider public.

Her recent edited volume, The Future Is Female! Vol. 2: The 1970s was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Anthology.

Some of her other books include The Self-Wired: Technology and Subjectivity in Contemporary American Narrative, Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women’s Science Fiction, and Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction.

She is frequently cited in the popular media, including in publications such as The Washington Post and USA Today. She also provided authoritative commentary for the AMC miniseries James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction,  BBC4’s Stranger Than Sci Fi, and Wired.com’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Brown, who was first named a Regents’ Professor in 2017, is Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in Public Policy, where she founded and directs the Climate and Energy Policy Lab. Her research focuses on the design and modeling of energy and climate policies, with an emphasis on the electric utility industry, energy resources on the customer side of the meter, and issues of access, equity, and reliability. She has authored more than 250 publications and six books.

She leads the science team that underpins the Drawdown Georgia climate initiative. She also is one of the few scholars at Georgia Tech with appointments to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Brown also was a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report whose authors were acknowledged in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize that was shared with Vice President Al Gore.

She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a distinguished career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and became a leader in analyzing and interpreting energy futures in the United States.

This year, we are proud to welcome 15 tenured/tenure-track faculty, 26 non-tenure-track faculty,  including Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellows and new cadre members in our ROTC programs, and six research faculty.

For example, when a study is women-led, it's more likely to include women as subjects — something that's critical to medical research. Unfortunately, Sugimoto finds, "without strong interventions, several generations will pass before men and women have equal opportunity to shape scientific knowledge." 

"It'll take us until the year 2158 at the rate we're going to reach parity in physics, and we're looking at more than a century before we have parity in the sciences," Sugimoto said in a presentation. "As a mother of two daughters, that's a little too long for me to wait."

So, why is women’s representation in research still so unequal, and what can we do to change it? In Sugimoto's new book Equity for Women in Science, she and co-author Vincent Larivière of the Université de Montréal explore the systemic barriers preventing the advancement of women in science. They examined millions of published papers and found:

• In fields where the most senior position is listed last on publications, the last author is a man 75% of the time. 
• When women are the last author, they select another woman for the first author position — a junior role important to career retention and advancement — 46% of the time. In comparison, men only select a woman 32% of the time. 
• Men are more likely to be funded than women and to receive greater amounts, with men securing $220,000 on average and women receiving $170,000. 
• Women are less likely to travel or move, two activities that are associated with a higher number of publications and citations.
• Articles written exclusively by women are less cited than articles written solely by men.

To combat this, Sugimoto and Larivière lay out 26 recommendations for scientists, universities, professional societies, and science communicators.

"When science is representative of the full population, the benefits of science will also extend to the fullest," they write. While that's not yet the case, these 26 action items can help us move closer to that goal.

Recommendations for scientists

1. Acknowledge the work of women scientists

2. Provide training and mentoring for women scientists

3. Be fair and transparent in the division of labor, authorship, and reward

4. Avoid gender segregation in meetings

5. Use research indicators responsibly

6. Demonstrate zero tolerance for harassment in science

7. Embrace plurality of career trajectories

Recommendations for Universities

8. Create more inclusive promotion and tenure guidelines and processes.

9. Make increases in women's authorship an institutional goal

10. Support women scientists and provide resources for success

11. Take care to avoid cultural taxation when increasing representation

12. Promote women and women's work

13. Reimagine the ideal worker

14. Support inclusive hiring practices

15. Take a firm stance on sexual harassment and gender discrimination

Recommendations for Professional Societies and Publishers

16. Evaluate and fund projects, not simply people 

17.; Monitor and report on gender indicators

18. Institute mandates that encourage gender equity and justice

19. Reduce bias in peer review

20. Create opportunities for greater visibility and mobility for women scientists

21. Increase transparency and fairness in peer review 

22. Adopt inclusive publication practices 

23. Create safe spaces for women

24. Increase the visibility of women scientists

Recommendations for Science Communicators

25. Amplify women scientists and their work

26. Provide opportunities and training for women in science communication

Equity for Women in Science was published by Harvard University Press in 2023

While some policy classes will continue to be held in D.M. Smith throughout the Fall semester, students who need to meet with faculty will need to make the one-minute walk to the Rich Computing Center, the temporary home of the public policy at Georgia Tech through the 2025 academic year. While there, they will be able to take advantage of community and meeting spaces that will be available for students and faculty.

“We encourage students to make Rich their home for the next two years,” said Cassidy R. Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton School Chair in the School of Public Policy. “To foster community in the temporary space, we have identified a lounge room targeted for our undergraduate students, as well as two quiet study areas that will seat a few dozen graduate students.”

In 2022, the Board of Regents approved a $26-million renovation of the 100-year-old structure originally named the Carnegie Physics Building. Georgia Tech later renamed the building to honor David Mellville Smith, who taught mathematics at Georgia Tech for over four decades.

Renovations will include renovated offices and classrooms, a policy innovation lab, and hoteling spaces. The building’s infrastructure will also receive upgrades, including new mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, permanent wheelchair access, and an elevator. Work is expected to continue through the 2024-25 academic year.

“We’re grateful to the Board of Regents for providing the resources and our partners in Georgia Tech’s Planning, Design, and Construction department for collaborating with us to make this important renovation plan a reality,” said Priti Bhatia, director of facilities and capital planning for the Ivan Allen College, which includes the School of Public Policy. “Once complete, the renovated D.M. Smith building will be a great asset to Georgia Tech, Ivan Allen College, and our entire community for years to come.”

Faculty and staff are already packed and prepared for the move. Preparations to accommodate the School at Rich were completed last week with new paint and carpeting in the first- to third-floor spaces the School will occupy. Facilities crews began to move furniture from D.M. Smith to Rich last week, as well, but faculty and staff will not be fully operational in their new spaces until Aug. 15.

As always, students can contact faculty and staff via email, phone, and course sites in Canva.

“We may be changing locations, but we will continue to be accessible to students and dedicated to ensuring they have the resources they need to succeed,” Sugimoto said.

The recipients from Ivan Allen College are Saira Draper, Stuart Michelson, Laura E. Powell, and Hira Batool Rizvi. 

Draper, Powell, and Rizvi are School of Public Policy graduates. Michelson holds degrees from the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. 

Draper, who graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy, is a civil rights attorney and state representative for Georgia House District 90. Known for her work in law, politics, and public service, Draper has dedicated her career to advocating for the rights of others, particularly in the realm of voting rights. 

Michelson received a Bachelor of Science in Science, Technology, and Culture in 2011 and a Master of Science in Human-Computer Interaction in 2013. He is a senior research scientist and branch head in the Human-Centered Engineering Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.  

Laura E. Powell, a 2013 Public Policy graduate, is a senior associate at international law firm WilmerHale. Powell also maintains a pro bono practice in Indigenous rights advocacy, emphasizing environmental justice 

Rizvi, who earned her Master of Science in Public Policy in 2015, is the co-founder and CEO of SheKab, Pakistan’s first subscription-based monthly carpool service for working women. The company is also digitizing traditional community-based carpooling services through a web-based platform and smartphone app. 

Congratulations to these terrific Ivan Allen College alumni! 

They are among 128 faculty members campuswide honored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Seven of the Ivan Allen College faculty members are on the list for more than one class or section. They are Lionel Gall of the School of Modern Languages (two recognitions); Zita Huesing of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (three recognitions); Bo Kyoung Kim of the School of Modern Languages (two recognitions); Aki Matsushima of the School of Modern Languages (two recognitions); Samba Sy of the School of Modern Languages (two recognitions); Samuel Wunderly of the School of Economics (two recognitions), and Chris Vidmar of the School of History and Sociology (two recognitions).

Fifteen of the faculty members come from the School of Modern Languages. Eight faculty members were from the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and three were from the School of History and Sociology. The School of Economics and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs each had two faculty members honored. One faculty member was from the School of Public Policy.

John Cressler, Regents Professor and Schlumberger Chair in Electronics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was also honored for teaching in IAC 2002: Science, English, and Religion.

The College congratulates these excellent instructors and scholars on their commitment to educating the next generation of leaders prepared to advance technology and improve the human condition.

Here is the complete list:

Small Classes:

• Matthew Breece, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• John Cressler, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Sean Dolan, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Lionel Gall, School of Modern Languages (2 recognitions)
• Carla Gerona, School of History and Sociology
• Alzbeta Hajkova, School of Public Policy
• Zita Huesing, School of Literature, Media, and Communication (3 recognitions)
• Hyoun-A Joo, School of Modern Languages
• Masato Kikuchi, School of Modern Languages
• Bo Kyoung Kim, School of Modern Languages (2 recognitions)
• Kathrin Koppe, School of Modern Languages
• Laura Levy, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Chao Li, School of Modern Languages
• Lu Liu, School of Modern Languages
• Caroline Machado, School of Modern Languages
• Aki Matsushima, School of Modern Languages (2 recognitions)
• Yuko Ogawa, School of Modern Languages
• Yumi Parks, School of Modern Languages
• Jacob Richter, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Sonia Serafin, School of Modern Languages
• Jennifer Singh, School of History and Sociology
• Aleksandra Starcevic, School of Modern Languages
• Anne Sullivan, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Satomi Suzuki Chenoweth, School of Modern Languages
• Samba Sy, School of Modern Languages (2 recognitions)
• Ren Tan, School of Modern Languages
• Christopher Vidmar, School of History and Sociology
• Katja Weber, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
• Amanda Weiss, School of Modern Languages
• Hongchen Wu, School of Modern Languages
• Xueqing Yan, School of Economics
• Lisa Yaszek, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Ida Yoshinaga, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Alasdair Young, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs

Large Classes:

• Douglas Flamming, School of History and Sociology
• Lenny Stendig, School of Economics
• Christopher Vidmar, School of History and Sociology
• Samuel Wunderly, School of Economics (2 recognitions)

As a human factors researcher, Farmer’s research areas have ranged from modeling human performance to applied research in the field of accessible design. She is the managing director of HomeLab, a human factors research initiative at Georgia Tech. HomeLab is made up of researchers with various specialties, including human factors engineering, psychology, universal design, industrial design, and electrical and mechanical engineering. HomeLab also consists of a pool of participants, with a focus on older adults and people with disabilities.

Farmer contributes to the NIH's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, launched in May 2020 in order to speed the innovation, development, commercialization, and deployment of COVID-19 diagnostic technologies. She established and leads the human factors sub-core for the RADx Test Verification Core (TVC), tasked with evaluating and providing support for candidate COVID-19 diagnostic technologies in the areas of clinical validity, regulatory processes, usability, and robustness of design.

The data collected within the human factors sub-core are provided to technology companies to aid in improving the design and performance of their product, and to NIH leadership to assist in determining if a technology should proceed in the program.

Farmer and her team conduct rapid evaluations of candidate technologies. For her contributions to this research program, she was part of the team that received the Institute Research Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development, which is awarded each year to a research team that pioneers new research areas, develops interdisciplinary initiatives, has societal impact, and significantly expands Georgia Tech’s research portfolio.

Farmer is also a member of Ivan Allen College’s 2023 Million Dollar Club, recognizing faculty who secure at least $1 million dollars in external research and have external funding in the current year.

Ivan Allen College participants in the event included Hans Klein, professor in the School of Public Policy, who took part in a roundtable discussion on the Atlanta Beltline rail proposal and later delivered a presentation on the topic. 

Allen Hyde, assistant professor in the School of History and Sociology, presented on “Serve-Learn-Sustain Youth Participatory Action Research Pilot Program: Lessons Learned for Future Opportunities.” 

In addition to helping organize the event, An gave a presentation titled, “Who Owns Urban America? Identifying Property Owners and Analyzing the Impact of Ownership Scale on Code Violations.” 

Recent Public Policy graduate Jenny Moody closed the conference by presenting research she and other students conducted on commercial property tax inequities in Atlanta. 

These incredible students have inspired and surprised us during their time at Ivan Allen College. They've been challenged to think critically, innovate, and positively affect the world around them. They have honed their communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills, and embraced the liberal arts as a powerful tool for understanding complex issues and creating meaningful change. 

But the journey doesn't end here. As these graduates move forward, they will undoubtedly face many challenges and opportunities, entering a workforce where they will encounter new ideas, cultures, and ways of thinking. However, we know they will find themselves prepared by the values that Ivan Allen College has championed, of empathy and understanding, of the importance of different perspectives, and of continuous learning and growth in their careers and throughout their lifetimes. 

Two hundred and thirty five graduates of Ivan Allen College will walk across the stage this weekend — 158 bachelor’s students, 69 master’s students, and eight earning their Ph.D — and we hope they take a moment to celebrate their achievements and reflect on the incredible potential that lies ahead. The world is waiting for their unique contributions, and we can't wait to see all that they will accomplish.

Congratulations to the Ivan Allen College Spring Class of 2023!

Meet a few of our outstanding graduates

Rylee Calhoun, B.S. Economics

• Read our Q&A with Rylee, who will work as a data analyst at General Motors while pursuing a master’s degree at Georgia Tech.

Nora Fahim, B.S. Economics and International Affairs with a minor in Middle Eastern and North African Studies

• Read our Q&A with Nora, who will work as a risk and financial advisory analyst at Deloitte.

Galen Hughes, M.S. Global Media and Cultures (Japanese)

• Read our Q&A with Galen, who plans to attend the Inter-Univ Center for Japanese Studies in Japan.

Vikas Madhav Nagarajan, M.S. Public Policy

• Read our Q&A with Vikas, who hopes to work on Capitol Hill.

Isabelle-Yara Nassar, B.S. International Affairs with minors in Global Development and Law, Science, and Technology

• Read our Q&A with Isabelle-Yara, who hopes to work in global development with a focus on international children's rights.  

Jacob Young, B.S. History, Technology, and Society, B.S. International Affairs

• Read our Q&A with Jacob, who will pursue an M.S. in International Affairs at Georgia Tech. 

The event featured opening remarks by Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair, and an awards ceremony recognizing outstanding students, faculty, and staff. 

It was a time for reflection and celebration as the College community recognized the achievements and contributions of its members over the past academic year.

Congratulations to our 2023 award recipients and the entire Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts community on another successful academic year.

Student and Legacy Awards 

Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Awards  

• Undergraduate: Natasha Valluri, School of Literature, Media, and Communication 

• Graduate: Zinet Kemal, School of Public Policy 

• Faculty: Willie Pearson, Regents’ Professor, School of History and Sociology 

Academic Excellence Award for Graduating Seniors  

• School of Economics: Apueela Wekulom 

• School of History and Sociology: Jacob Young 

• Sam Nunn School of International Affairs: Isabelle Yara Nassar 

• School of Literature, Media, and Communication: Ariel Watson 

• School of Modern Languages: Angela Howard 

• School of Public Policy: Divali Legore 

Graduate Student Research Conference Sessions Winners 

• Session 1: Zhuoqi Helen Dong, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs 

• Session 2: Kallysta Jones, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs 

• Session 3: Ricardo Martínez, School of Literature, Media, and Communication 

Outstanding Student Leadership Awards 

• Undergraduate Student Advisory Board President: Lily Kachmar, School of History and Sociology 

• Graduate Student Advisory Board Co-Lead: Ben Wills, School of History and Sociology  

Buzz Awards for Staff & Academic Professionals 

Buzz Award for Administrative Service   

• Brittany Skanes, administrative professional III, School of History and Sociology 

• Debra White, administrative professional III, School of Economics 

Buzz Award for Impact to our Community    

• Priti Bhatia, director of facilities and capital planning, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts  

• Jillann Hertel, senior academic professional, School of Literature, Media, and Communication 

Buzz Award for Student Support  

• Frances Baumgartner, satellite counselor, Counseling Center 

Buzz Award for Spirit of Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts  

• Camille Liverpool, career educator, Career Center 

Faculty Teaching Awards 

Tenured/Tenure-Track Academic Faculty Distinguished Teaching Awards  

• Richard Barke, associate professor, School of Public Policy  

• Narin Hassan, associate professor, School of Literature, Media, and Communication 

Non-tenure-track Academic Faculty Distinguished Teaching Awards   

• Danielle Geary, senior lecturer, School of Modern Languages 

• Aselia Urmanbetova, academic professional, School of Economics 

Outstanding Achievement in Interdisciplinary Activities Award 

• Rachel Whitlark, associate professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs 

• Ida Yoshinaga, assistant professor, School of Literature, Media, and Communication 

Faculty Research Awards 

Silver Star Awards, honoring first-time grants of more than $50,000, distinguished grants, or prestigious fellowships.   

• Andrew Buskell, visiting assistant professor, School of Public Policy  

• Lelia Glass, assistant professor, School of Modern Languages   

• Salimah LaForce, research scientist II, Center for Advanced Communications Policy  

• Sherie M. Randolph, associate professor, School of History and Sociology  

Gold Star Awards, recognizing “cumulative grants of $250,000 within five years of the first grant.”   

• André Brock, associate professor, School of Literature, Media, and Communication 

• Lindsey Rose Bullinger, assistant professor, School of Public Policy  

• Margaret E. Kosal, associate professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs  

• Neha Kumar, associate professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs  

• Cassidy R. Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton Chair and professor, School of Public Policy 

Million Dollar Club, recognizing faculty who secure “at least one million dollars in external research and have external funding in the current year.” 

• Omar Asensio, assistant professor, School of Public Policy  

• Michael Best, professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs  

• Marilyn A. Brown, Regents’ Professor, School of Public Policy  

• Jason Borenstein, principal academic professional, School of Public Policy  

• Sarah Farmer, research scientist I, Center for Advanced Communications Policy  

• Brad Fain, Regents’ Researcher and executive director, Center for Advanced Communications Policy  

• Ute Fischer, research scientist II, School of Literature, Media, and Communication  

• Seymour E. Goodman, professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs  

• Allen Hyde, assistant professor, School of History and Sociology  

• Natalie Khazaal, associate professor, School of Modern Languages  

• Gordon Kingsley, associate professor, School of Public Policy  

• Aaron Levine, associate dean for research and outreach, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts   

• Brian Magerko, professor, School of Literature, Media, and Communication  

• Janet Murray, professor, School of Literature, Media, and Communication  

• Nathan Moon, principal research scientist, Center for Advanced Communications Policy  

• Juan Carlos Rodriguez, associate professor, School of Modern Languages  

• Phil Shapira, part-time professor, School of Public Policy  

• Adam N. Stulberg, Sam Nunn School Chair and professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs  

Faculty Excellence in Research Awards 

• Casey Wichman, assistant professor, School of Economics  

• Sherie Randolph, associate professor, School of History and Sociology  

• Fei-Ling Wang, professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs  

• Brian Magerko, professor, School of Literature, Media, and Communication  

• Stéphanie Boulard, associate professor, School of Modern Languages  

• Omar Asensio, assistant professor, School of Public Policy  

Special Acknowledgements  

Departing Leaders  

• Lt. Col. David Cumings, commanding officer and professor of the practice, Air Force ROTC   

• Lt. Col. Clifford Woodburn, officer-in-charge and professor of the practice, Army ROTC  

• Hanchao Lu, interim chair, School of History and Sociology  

• David Shook, interim chair, School of Modern Languages  

The School’s Environmental Policy program reached its highest-ever ranking at No. 8, up from No. 14 the previous year. The Information and Technology program was ranked No. 4, and Public Policy Analysis was No. 21, up from No. 22 last year.

“This is very exciting news that delivers a clear message,” said Cassidy Sugimoto, School Chair, Tom and Marie Patton Chair, and Professor in the School of Public Policy. “The exceptional quality of our programs, the extraordinary caliber of our students, our dedication to innovative advancements in policy research, and our location at one of the nation’s premier technological research universities all provide an unbeatable advantage for students who want to become agents of positive change in an increasingly complex world."

The School’s graduate program offers a Master of Science in Public Policy in six concentrations: energy and environmental policy; information and communications policy; science and technology policy; urban and regional economic development policy; policy analysis and evaluation; and public management.

Students also may pursue a Master of Science in Cybersecurity with a policy focus, the Master of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management, or a dual masters degree in Public Policy and City and Regional Planning in conjunction with the College of Design.

The School also offers a doctoral degree and a bachelor’s degree in public policy.

For more information, see U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 Graduate School Rankings at www.usnews.com/grad.

The School of Public Policy is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Brown, an internationally noted scholar in climate and energy policy, is among 269 eminent experts from academia, the arts, and private industry chosen by the organization this year and one of just two from Georgia Tech. Rafael Bras, professor in the College of Engineering and Georgia Tech’s former provost, also will join the academy — which in addition to being an honorary society seeks the counsel of its members to help solve significant global challenges via a range of cross-disciplinary research programs. 

“I’m grateful and honored to be elected to the company of such esteemed experts,” said Brown. “I look forward to working with them to foster smart and achievable policy solutions to help advance moves towards a new green economy and more sustainable tomorrow.” 

She joins 11 other Georgia Tech faculty members in the organization, including Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. 

“In its earliest days, the Academy sought members who would help address issues and opportunities confronting a young nation,” Nancy C. Andrews, chair of the academy’s Board of Directors, said in a release announcing the new members. “We feel a similar urgency and have elected a class that brings diverse expertise to meet the pressing challenges and possibilities that America and the world face today.” 

Brown already was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of just six living Georgia Tech faculty elected to the NAS and 36 who are members of the NAE. 

An international leader in clean energy policy, Brown is known for her pioneering work developing economic-engineering models incorporating behavioral and social science principles into policy analysis of energy systems. Her influential research quantified the “energy-efficiency gap,” which highlights the importance of promoting cost-effective energy conservation improvements as a tool to improve energy security and reduce the impact of climate change. 

In 2000, she led the Scenarios for a Clean Energy Future project, which at the time was the most detailed carbon-reduction analysis funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  

Later, she contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group that was a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. 

More recently, she has been the principal investigator leading the science team behind Drawdown Georgia, a multi-institution effort funded by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation to identify the most promising solutions to slash Georgia’s carbon emissions by 2030. 

Each year, the College presents three categories of awards: the Dean’s Appreciation Award, honoring steadfast friends and supporters of the College; the Distinguished Alumni Awards, recognizing graduates from each of the six schools and the ROTC units; and the Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Awards, honoring a faculty member, graduate student, and undergraduate student. 

“Our honorees embody the vital role the liberal arts play in improving the human condition,” said Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “Their engagement and support allow us to transform lives, ideas, and learning as well as resolve the pressing and persistent issues of communities.”

The 2023 ceremony took place at the Tech Hotel Ballroom on March 29. This year’s honorees are:  

Dean’s Appreciation Award

• Roberta M. Berry, associate professor of Public Policy at Georgia Tech and director of the Georgia Tech Honors Program

Distinguished Alumni Awards

• 2nd Lt. Zach McGee, Army ROTC, CS 2022
  • Read our Q&A with Zach, a cyber officer in the U.S. Army.
• Ignacio Montoya, Air Force ROTC, MBID 2018
  • Read our Q&A with Ignacio, chief scientific officer at HINRI Labs.
• CDR Dan DeCicco, Navy ROTC, IE 2001
  • Read our Q&A with Dan, a military operations research analyst at U.S. Central Command.
• Vernon O'Neal, ECON 1979
  • Read our Q&A with Vernon, senior vice president at USI Insurance Services.
• Rodney Jordan, M.S. HSTS 2009
• Jason Ellis, STC 2006
  • Read our Q&A with Jason, associate professor of English at New York City College of Technology.
• Daniela Galvez Sghiatti, ALIS 2016
  • Read our Q&A with Daniela, a first grade dual immersion teacher at the Dual Immersion Academy in Salt Lake City.
• Susan Graff, M.S. TASP 1985
  • Read our Q&A with Susan, vice president and partner, global corporate sustainability at Resource Recycling Systems.
• Alexious Butler, M.S. INTA 2002
  • Read our Q&A with Alexious, senior development advisor at U.S. Central Command.

Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Awards

• Natasha Valluri, B.S. Computational Media — Undergraduate Legacy Award 
• Zinet Kemal, M.S. Cybersecurity — Graduate Legacy Award
• Willie Pearson Jr., Regents’ Professor in the School of History and Sociology — Faculty Legacy Award

Congratulations to our 2023 winners! See more past and present award winners here.

Nagarajan has been appointed to the LGBTQ Advisory Board for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. The board makes recommendations for inclusive city policies and procedures, and ways the city can enhance engagement with LGBTQ residents, according to its website.   

Nagarajan, who will serve on the Youth Affairs subcommittee, is excited to get working.  

“It’s an honor to be approached to take on a position like this, and I’m excited to contribute to making Atlanta as inclusive a place as possible,” he said. “I especially want to reach out to the trans community. I see them hurting, and it is my responsibility as a civilized human being and ally to step up and protect them.”  

Nagarajan arrived at Georgia Tech in 2021 after receiving a degree in chemical engineering in India, a subject the avid birdwatcher and environmentalist chose to gain insights into how industrial society can degrade the environment.  

He is now studying for the Master of Science in Public Policy and expects to graduate in May. He said the opportunities he has been afforded as an Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts student, including U.S. House and Senate internships, have set him up well for this role, and his future.  

“I feel like I’ve been well-nurtured and well taken care of,” he said.   

After graduation, he hopes to land a job in Washington helping legislators make sound environmental policy. 

Nagarajan encouraged LGBTQ students seeking to make a difference like he is to get involved through organizations such as Georgia Tech's LGBTQIA Resource Center or Georgia Tech Pride Alliance. 

Nagarajan also had a message for fellow LGBTQ students at Georgia Tech and beyond: “I know there are a lot of queer people who especially right now are feeling unseen and who are scared. I want to assure them that there are people who are there for them.”  

“Do not let Twitter anxiety dictate your life,” he said.  

Standouts included Lyla Zedell, who received an Outstanding Witness Award, and Maya Iyer and Julia Chen, who were recognized with Outstanding Attorney Awards.

At mock trial tournaments, students take on the roles of attorneys and witnesses in cases they receive and prepare for before the event. Last year, Georgia Tech’s team earned sixth place in their division at the national championship. They started this season ranked 18th out of more than 700 teams in the American Mock Trial Association based on their performance in the previous three seasons. 

School of Public Policy alumnus Andy McNeil has led the team since 2007, and Atlanta-area lawyer Will Warihay joined McNeil as a co-coach in 2014. Both also share their expertise as part-time lecturers in the Law, Science, and Technology program in the School of Public Policy. However, Mock Trial is not just for pre-law students — all are welcome to join! If interested, follow along with the team’s 2023 Nationals bid on their social media accounts and watch for try-out information over the summer for next semester.

The study found that single mothers with academic careers are 15.3% less productive in terms of publishing output when compared with women who reported they equally share parenting roles with a non-academic partner. Men in such relationships were 5.6% more productive, while women who reported being secondary caregivers were 8.9% more productive. Parenting engagement also led to fewer citations in future years. 

The findings come despite responses from men and women in academia in which both partners say they are doing roughly equal amounts of work caring for children, says Sugimoto, the School’s Tom and Marie Patton Chair. 

“When we asked which of these tasks you are in charge of when you’re sharing responsibilities, we found that women were more likely to be leading all of the tasks and activities except for dropping children off at school and coaching sporting events,” Sugimoto said. 

Sugimoto was a co-author of the paper published in December 2022 in Scientific Reports. Gemma E. Derrick of the University of Bristol was the lead author. Other co-authors were Pei-Ying Chen, Thed van Leeuwen, and Vincent Larivière. 

Survey Insights on Academic Caregiving 

The results are based on an analysis of 10,445 survey responses from published academics worldwide. The researchers found that women academics were nearly eight times as likely — 30.6% to 3.9% — to report serving as primary caregivers. However, 57.1% of men in academics and 52% of women reported parenting roles were equally divided. But the researchers’ analysis of time and task reporting showed that even women in self-described dual parenting relationships or who described themselves as secondary caregivers still turned out to be handling the majority of caregiving duties. 

“These asymmetries between labor and credit show that even in the perception of equality between parents, women carry a higher burden of labor,” the researchers wrote. 

The research also found discrepancies in the impact of parental leave. Men who took leave after the birth of a child were more likely to take shorter amounts of leave, but because they often perform fewer childcare tasks, they ended up being more productive at work. On the other hand, women took longer leaves but were often recovering from childbirth and consumed with even more childcare tasks, further reducing the time available to catch up on research work. She said they also miss out on other crucial aspects of their job. 

“It’s not just not having time in the lab to produce knowledge. It’s also not having opportunities to be on the circuit to disseminate and amplify your knowledge,” Sugimoto said. 

Sugimoto, a mother herself, said she benefitted from a highly engaged partner when her children were young. 

“And I see that across the board for highly successful women in academics, that they typically have a partner who is disproportionately engaged relative to the population. And I don’t think that’s a success story.” 

She said that success in an academic career “should not depend on who you have children with,” she said. 

Policy Changes to Support Women Researchers 

The research suggests a variety of policies that could be changed or implemented to better support the needs of women researchers, Sugimoto said. They include: 

• Reimagining the ideal worker to allow for more seamless integration between work and family life.  

• Providing resources to support scholar parents, such as lactation rooms, on-campus childcare, childcare subsidies, and travel accommodations for scholars traveling with children.  

• Changing policies that grant equal amounts of parental leave to men and women, or a single allotment of leave that couples must share; because of disparate attention to childcare, such policies tend to favor men over women. 

“When I was a new Ph.D. and putting myself on the market, people told me to hide it, don’t tell anyone you have babies because it will be seen as a liability,” Sugimoto said. “I was explicit that I didn’t want to go to an institution that didn’t recognize me as a mother, and I hope through this research, we can begin to build a fair and equitable system that recognizes, supports, and respects the contributions of women who are both scholars and mothers.” 

The paper, “The Relationship Between Parenting Engagement and Academic Performance” was published in Scientific Reports in December 2022. It is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26258-z 

“It illuminated that we desperately need more research on public policies and children,” said co-organizer Lindsey Rose Bullinger of the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. “There are too many unanswered questions. And it brought policy-focused researchers together to share their important research in a way that isn’t often done.”

The conference, also sponsored by the School of Public Policy and the School of Economics, was held March 10-11.

It brought together researchers from four countries and provided a platform for sharing policy-focused research on child well-being across various disciplines. The keynote speaker was Lisa A. Gennetian, Pritzker Professor of Early Learning Policy Studies at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.

The conference facilitated conversations on topics such as prevention of adverse childhood experiences, promotion of child well-being, child welfare, child health, parenting behaviors, pregnancy-related and birth outcomes, food insecurity, housing insecurity, and education.

It featured a wide range of papers and presentations from established researchers and emerging scholars in a variety of fields. Just a few highlights:

• Doctoral student Katherine Engel from American University presented her research on the intriguing link between birth month, family income, and early childhood development in a paper titled "Baby Bump? Birth Month, Family Income, and Early Childhood Development."
• Tara Watson from Williams College explored the impact of social security on child well-being in her paper "Does Old Age Social Security Help Children?"
• Valentina Duque from American University discussed the effects of public housing on children's education with her study "The Effects of Public Housing on Children: Evidence from National Experiment in Colombia."
• Cody Vaughn of the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse presented "Medicaid Generosity and Food Hardship Among Children”; the paper delves into the relationship between healthcare policy and food security.

Georgia Tech scholars also presented their research at the conference.

Mayra Pineda-Torres, assistant professor in the School of Economics, shared her study titled "Improvements in Schooling Opportunities and Teenage Fertility." The study examined the relationship between educational access and adolescent pregnancy rates. School of Economics Postdoctoral Fellow Erdal Asker presented work on "The Impact of School Spending on Civic Engagement: Evidence from School Finance Reforms."

Olga Shemyakina, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, served as a discussant on Duque’s presentation.

The event also provided an opportunity to increase collaboration and engagement among researchers, aligning with the Ivan Allen College's goal of promoting interdisciplinary work, said Daniel Dench, an assistant professor in the School of Economics who co-organized the event with Bullinger.

“Bringing together experts from the many dimensions of child well-being; education, poverty, income support, foster care, maternal and infant well-being, etc., was a unique experience. It allowed for cross-pollination of ideas across content areas and disciplines,” Dench said.

As Georgia Tech celebrates the 2023 SDG Action and Awareness Week, explore how the Ivan Allen College community has spent the last year turning these ideas into action through research, classes, alumni careers, and more.

Read more: From Idea to Action: How UN Sustainable Development Goals Come to Life in IAC

The portal is open to anyone with an active Georgia Tech login. It offers information for students on every step of the journey, including finding undergraduate legal internships, preparing for the LSAT, getting letters of recommendation, and writing personal statements for law school applications. According to Chad Slieper, LST director, scholarship opportunities will be added soon.

“This resource is a great way to start learning what you need to do to prepare for law school,” Slieper said. “We’re excited to give more options to students and provide a 24/7 supplement to the in-person counseling and advice we’ve always offered.”

LST also offers the Minor in Law, Science, and Technology, which recently celebrated its 20^th anniversary, as well as pre-law advising, a pre-law newsletter, and events of interest to members of the Georgia Tech community with an interest in the intersection of law and technology.

The School of Public Policy is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

"If decision-makers — both in Washington and Beijing, as well as around the world — gain a firmer grasp of what compels China's innovation efforts, they may be better able to shape [China’s] policy and investment decisions," the researchers wrote.  

Aum and Wang first hypothesized that China's efforts to innovate are defensive in response to external national security threats, including from the military, economic, and diplomatic domains. Their work builds on the original creative insecurity theory established by Associate Professor Mark Zachary Taylor in the School of Public Policy. Taylor's theory counts weighted patent citations to measure innovation outputs in times of threat. 

"This paper seeks, however, to assess whether creative insecurity also explains inputs, measured by changes in [China's] innovation policies and R&D expenditures," the researchers wrote. "Assessing inputs is a more direct way to test the threat-response relationship: doing so allows a closer look at a country's reactions to the balance of internal and external threats rather than solely the results of the innovation efforts." 

Aum and Wang found the results of their study were mixed. While China increased its push for innovation when it faced more significant external threats than internal threats, the country also did so when the external threats dissipated. So, the researchers proposed the complementary theory of creative ambition, asserting that China may also pursue innovation to exert greater global power and influence. Depending on the threats China perceives from the rest of the world, the country's innovation investments could be inspired by creative insecurity, creative ambition, or both in tandem. 

One example of China's creative ambition is its Strategic Emerging Industries program, Aum said. Launched in 2010, the program focuses on 20 emerging industries, including next-generation information technology, biotechnology, and high-end machinery. 

"By focusing on areas where there were no entrenched incumbents, China has the opportunity to bypass legacy systems and assume the lead in select emerging technology industries," Aum said. 

The theory of creative ambition is an essential addition to the original creative insecurity theory because science and technology advancements affect so much internationally, "including trade, the balance of power, and alliances," the researchers wrote. By understanding which force is driving China at which time, other countries can alter their behavior toward China to influence its innovation efforts and the risks and rewards that come with it.  

While Wang believes the creative ambition hypothesis reveals something positive about international relations — competing countries drive human progress — he also says it matters who is leading the race. 

“Innovative technologies in the ‘right hand’ or the ‘wrong hand’ mean something very different to one specific nation and to all nations,” he said. “Regarding the U.S.-China competition, the U.S. probably should have more creative ambition of its own, such as more attention to its industrial policy, R&D investment, and supply chain security.”  

"Innovation is one of the key frontiers in the U.S.-China competition," Aum agreed. "Both countries seem driven by a mix of creative insecurity and creative ambition to stay ahead of the innovation curve. The United States wants to maintain its global leadership role. China wants to claim the apex position or at least be more resistant to U.S. influence. The end of the story is not predetermined. Innovation will contribute to each nation's capabilities in many domains, from engineering and computer science to economics and the military. The cutting-edge research that Georgia Tech students and faculty produce will contribute to those fields — and also to the direction of geopolitics." 

"Insecurity and Ambition: Dual Drivers of Chinese Innovation?" was published in Defense and Peace Economics in December 2022. It is available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2022.2155903. 

The Center also published the Fall 2022 CIOS Honor Roll featuring 30 Ivan Allen College faculty members, second only in number to the College of Engineering. This amounts to about one out of every ten teaching faculty in IAC receiving the accolade.

CTL earlier announced the recipients of the Summer 2022 honor roll. Those recognized are Bo Kyoung Kim, Yongtaek Kim, Kyoko Masuda, and Brigitte Stepanov in the School of Modern Languages, and Xiaoyu Dong, a Ph.D. student in the School of Economics and the first graduate student in the College to be named to the list.

Congratulations to each faculty member who received such stellar feedback — your hard work and dedication to our students does not go unnoticed!

Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: 2022 CIOS Award Winners

Large Classes

• Wang, Qi — LMC 3254

Small Classes

• Chang, Seung-Eun — KOR 2002
• Jonsson, Andrea — FREN 4200
• Kim, Bo Kyoung — KOR 1002
• Liu, Jin — CHIN 4031
• Markley, Eliza — NTA 3221
• Oh, Lee — KOR 1001
• Parks, Yumi — JAPN 1002
• Pilkington, Melissa — SPAN 2002
• Slieper, Chad — PUBP 4843
• Stepanov, Brigitte — FREN 3420
• Suzuki Chenoweth, Satomi — JAPN 1001
• Sy, Samba — FREN 1002
• Weiss, Amanda — ML 2500

Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Fall 2022 Honor Roll Winners

Large Classes

• McDonald, Mary — HTS 3073
• Oliver. Matthew — ECON 3300
• Wang, Qi — LMC 3254

Small Classes

• Bullinger, Lindsey — PUBP 3030
• Chang, Seung-Eun — KOR 3001
• Gall, Lionel — FREN 1001
• Givens, Marlee — GMC 6002
• Huesing, Zita — ENGL 1102
• Jonsson, Andrea — FREN 4011
• Khapaeva, Dina — RUSS 3222
• Kikuchi, Masato — JAPN 3001
• Kim, Bo Kyoung — KOR 1001
• Kim, Yongtaek — KOR 4001
• Koppe, Kathrin — GRMN 1001
• Landrieux Kartochian, Sophie — FREN 2002
• Liu, Jin — CHIN 4031
• Matsushima, Aki — JAPN 2002
• Oh, Lee — KOR 2001
• Parks, Yumi — JAPN 1002
• Richter, Jacob — LMC 3404
• Stepanov, Brigitte — FREN 3420
• Sullivan, Anne — LMC 4725
• Suzuki Chenoweth, Satomi — JAPN 1001
• Sy, Samba — FREN 1002
• Taylor, John — ENGL 1102
• Viezure, Dana — HTS 3028
• Weiss, Amanda — JAPN 3401
• Wichman, Casey — ECON 4803
• Wu, Hongchen — CHIN 3003
• Yaszek, Lisa — LMC 3214

Let's connect! Follow Ivan Allen College on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to keep up with our students, school news, and upcoming events. 

Twenty years ago, Jennifer Collins graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in History, Science, and Technology and a minor in Law, Science, and Technology. While the former has served her well, it’s the minor that turned out to be more closely aligned with the path she would take in life — that of an attorney. 

“We’re excited and proud that Georgia Tech teams have continued to successfully compete against top universities nationally in this important competition,” says Omar Isaac Asensio, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy and director of the Data Science & Policy Lab.  

The annual student competition is sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Participation in the JUMP into STEM challenge is integrated in Asensio’s PUBP 3042 Data Science & Policy course. The winning Georgia Tech teams for 2022 – 2023 included students from the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, the College of Computing, and the College of Engineering. 

The first-place team, made up of Yash Gupta, Vibha Narasayya, Daksh Sehgal, and Krishnav Bose, won the sustainability and resiliency category for their project investigating whether rainwater can be harvested to supplement water infrastructure during times of crisis. Due to climate change, crises like these have become more common in the U.S. and are disproportionately affecting minority and low-income communities.  

The group set out to solve the issue using Jackson, Mississippi, a predominately minority and low-income city that is highly affected by water crises, as a case study. They developed a solution using rainwater collection cisterns that are installed in low-income households, along with a public initiative to make the solution accessible to low-income communities. 

A second Georgia Tech team, including Joelle Dlugozima, Ila Sharma, Patrick Young, and Gururaj Deshpande, were runners-up in the electric category for their Solar Savings Web Estimator project. The project focuses on raising awareness for — and reducing informational barriers to incorporation of — rooftop solar panels into low-income housing projects in Atlanta. The team proposed a user-friendly web-based app that allows users to view average savings and tax breaks if they decided to use solar power based on their current energy usage.  

In all, 10 teams from Georgia Tech competed in the competition. 

JUMP into STEM Finalists will be invited to present their solutions during the 2022 – 2023 Final Competition in January 2023 and compete for a paid summer 2023 internship at NREL, ORNL, or PNNL. 

Learn more about JUMP into STEM. 

Nine students will graduate this Fall, including six Bachelor of Science in Public Policy (BSPP) candidates and three Master of Science in Public Policy (MSPP) students.

Alana Barr, who participated in the BS/MS program, will graduate with a Master of Science in Public Policy. After graduation, she will travel to Geneva to pursue a traineeship in Maternal Health with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

“My new role will entail developing and enhancing a breastfeeding educational initiative through designing and implementing e-learning modules, identifying relevant stakeholders to disseminate the modules, and assessing and analyzing the effectiveness of these modules in educating people about the benefits and importance of breastfeeding,” Barr said.

Tyrek Shepard, graduating with an MSPP, will join the Black Teacher Collaborative as a senior research assistant. In June, he will move to Philadelphia to join Bristol Myers Squibb’s MBA Technology Leadership Development Program.

“Studying at Georgia Tech has been the experience of a lifetime, and it was a transformative experience,” Shepard said. “I was drawn to the School of Public Policy because of the program’s strong ability to develop researchers at the master’s level. I knew that being trained as a researcher would open numerous doors for me, but I’ve been floored at the reality of it all.”

Sarah Kallis, graduating with a BSPP, will work for Georgia Public Broadcasting as a state politics reporter.

“One of my favorite memories of my time at Tech is finally getting approval to start 3484 Magazine in Spring 2019,” Kallis said. “We have now published six issues!”

And not to be outdone, fellow BSPP graduate Emily Chesser will spend some time backpacking in Europe with some of her best friends before joining the work world (don’t forget to send pictures!).

Other BSPP graduates are Casey Barton, Audrey Carroll, Isabel Knofczynski, and Annabel Luong.

Alexandra Slack joins Shepard and Barr in earning the MSPP.

Congratulations and best wishes to all of our graduates!

So before you close down the office for the year, unwrap the presents, light the menorah, or clink those champagne glasses, spend a few minutes looking back on Ivan Allen College’s Top 10 stories for 2022.

Low-income parents who switched to Medicaid under Affordable Care Act expansions often reaped benefits that appeared to help their financial and home lives, according to a pair of recent studies co-authored by Lindsey Rose Bullinger of the School of Public Policy. 

With the recent and rapid growth of distributed renewable technologies — wind, solar, and hydropower, and storage assets like batteries — a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology is reimagining the planning paradigm for electric power infrastructure. The hope is to help shape new models that are better suited to community needs and include input and decision-making at the local level.

As envisioned, the Georgia Energyshed (G-SHED) will analyze the benefits, costs, and effects of various electricity generation, distribution, and usage-and-demand scenarios via use-case tests and modeling. That data will then be used to inform policy decisions at the local level and the implementation of new ideas for the 11-county metro Atlanta area as defined by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC).

“What’s unique about this proposal is we’re using this funding to explore a new planning mechanism that would really listen to the voices of these communities around their energy matrix,” said Richard Simmons, director of research and studies at Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute.

The U.S. Department of Energy award, announced on November 2, is part of the federal agency’s push to encourage a regional approach to understanding local energy demands and needs — and the best solutions to solve them tailored to those communities. Through its Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, the DOE funding is part of a wider strategy to help communities understand the impacts and benefits of consuming energy that they generate locally.

“The idea is not only to better include these communities in the conversation, but demonstrate that they can realize more local benefits from their and input and decisions.”

Leading the initiative is the Energy, Policy, and Innovation Center (EPICenter). An arm of the Strategic Energy Institute, EPICenter is tasked with marrying innovation with energy technology and policy; contributing to sound recommendations for the Southeast through unbiased research and analysis.

“This grant is ideally suited for the mission of the EPICenter, which really tries to take leading energy technology and apply it in a local context that is mindful of the economic and social implications,” Simmons said.

The Georgia Tech team also includes researchers from the School of Public Policy, the School of City and Regional Planning, and the College of Engineering.

To conduct the work, Georgia Tech is collaborating with key partners: the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), which has engaged in similar planning and modeling processes for regional water and transportation usage and trends; and the Southface Institute, a sustainability non-profit with extensive experience in outreach, and community engagement research. Another nonprofit, the Partnership for Southern Equity, which advocates for sustainable practices and equity across the metro area, has also provided a letter endorsing the initiative.

A New Approach to Resource Management
The G-SHED idea is modeled after the watershed concept, which takes a regional, solutions-based approach to address water demand and usage at the community level. Much like watersheds, where water collection, processing, distribution, use, and discharge is determined at the community level, Simmons said the idea is to explore how a similar approach can be valid for planning and infrastructure related to energy systems, such as electricity.

“There do appear to be some critical advantages by looking at local generation, consumption and even storage of renewable energy,” said Simmons. “That might help not only meet the needs of the local populace, but it could have conversion efficiency benefits and have more direct impact on both the economic and environmental wellness of the area.”

While individual people and organizations already make energy-related decisions — consumers buying electric vehicles or developers erecting green or sustainable office buildings, for example — there’s greater impact when broadened to the community or regional level, said Joe Hagerman, EPICenter director.

“So, when decisions are made, they are being made at a community level and capture a more representative local understanding. That information can be shared both upstream and downstream to the utilities, planners, and policymakers,” Hagerman said. “We’re hoping to create a tool that will help people make those decisions in a more holistic way, rather than making it all individually.”

Ensuring All Voices Are Heard
A key component of the G-SHED effort is to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion by ensuring that underserved communities are included in the regional energy planning and decision-making processes.

Marilyn Brown, Regents’ Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, has conducted pioneering work on energy burdens in the Southeast, and contributed substantially to the proposal’s diversity, equity, and inclusion vision.

“The goal is balanced growth and shared prosperity in the Atlanta metropolitan area by helping local communities and neighborhoods,” Brown said. 

The Southface Institute and ARC will leverage novel socio-technical tools developed by Georgia Tech to assess ways metro Atlanta can ensure all residents benefit from the transition to a cleaner and more sustainable energy economy. The team will survey underrepresented groups about energy use and service options, access to rate plans, ease of understanding electric bills, and familiarity with community energy options. Then, they will build an online toolkit to address these needs and help them learn how to use it.

“Focusing on that aspect is critical to the overall project’s success because rising energy and utility costs fall disproportionately on those who can least afford them and yet have limited influence in the decision making,” said Chandra Farley, the city of Atlanta’s chief sustainability officer.

Nationally, Atlanta is 4^th highest in median energy burden levels (behind Memphis, New Orleans, and Birmingham, respectively) and 3^rd highest among low-income household populations.

“Evaluating energy needs at the local and metro area level with direct input from the communities who have typically had no voice in energy decision making is an important tool in ensuring equity in energy planning,” Farley said. “The work that Georgia Tech is leading on energysheds will support community-informed energy planning and reinforce our efforts in the city of Atlanta to address energy affordability and advance equitable access to the benefits of renewable energy projects leading to healthier communities and economic empowerment.”

In a little over a month since launching GT@DC, 32 students from across Georgia Tech have applied to join the fully immersive, semester-long internship experience in Washington. The program is a partnership of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Public Policy but is open to all Georgia Tech students. 

Assistant Professor Omar Asensio and Regents’ Professor Marilyn Brown co-chaired the Energy and Environmental Policy section, while Ph.D. student Becky Rafter chaired the Student Activities Committee.

Additionally, at least 16 Public Policy faculty members, students, and alumni presented papers and posters, participated in discussions, or helped coordinate community events.

“The School’s influence on APPAM was evident by the many sessions that involved our faculty and our current students as well as our alumni and their students,” said Brown, who is also Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems. “It’s a bit like Thanksgiving dinner with lots of grandparents and grandchildren. The session I chaired involved two of my Georgia Tech Ph.D.s and two of their students.”

Other faculty highlights included:

• Brian An presented two papers on Covid-19 and a third on the impact on home purchasing by institutional investors. He also participated in a panel on urban housing affordability.
• Jason Borenstein had a paper with recent Ph.D. graduate Jason Schiff on “Understanding Undergraduate Social Responsibility Development in STEM.”
• Brown served on a panel discussion on “Clean Energy Technology Adoption”
• Lindsey Bullinger presented three papers, served on panels discussing four others, and hosted a community event during the conference.
• Nadiya Kostyuk and Ph.D. student Jen Sidorova presented a paper on “Network Event-History Analysis of Cybersecurity Policy Diffusion.”
• D. Cale Reeves and Daniel Matisoff had a poster with student Mathias Zacarias on “Policy Levers to Traverse the ‘Valley of Death’; Matisoff also presented a paper on “Sustainability Transitions: Leveraging Public and Private Initiatives to Meet Climate Challenges.”
• Travis Whetsell chaired the panel on Innovations in Science and Technology.

Some student highlights included:

• Aline Banboukian presented a poster on “Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Policies.”
• Jennifer Kang was selected for the APPAM Entrepreneurship Policy Student Fellowship and presented a paper on “Interstate Mobility of Human Capital in the United States.”
• Yifan Liu presented a paper co-authored with Asensio on “Machine Learning and the Reliability of EV Charging Infrastructure.”

Rafter, who also coordinated the “Live From APPAM” podcast, called the event a resounding success.

“The next generation of researchers is taking on the trickiest and wickedest problems by centering directly affected communities,” Rafter said. “They are unapologetic about righting wrongs, even if it means interrupting and interrogating how they have benefitted from it.”

Next year, APPAM’s fall conference will be held in Atlanta.

“We look forward to welcoming the national community to Atlanta, where we will be able to showcase the incredible research of our students and faculty and how we connect our policy work to this vibrant city,” said Cassidy Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton Chair.

The event allowed the 30 students to apply their classroom learning to real-world problems, a major goal of the popular degree program housed in the School of Public Policy. For instance, one group was tasked with brainstorming how to develop a validation study to verify the benefits of statewide adoption of household composting technology. Another group worked on ways to help a company reduce what are called “Scope 3,” or indirect, greenhouse gas emissions.

“I left the night feeling more confident in the direction I want to pursue my sustainability career,” said MSEEM student Meyer Willson. “The variety of organizations in attendance demonstrated how important sustainability is becoming across industries, and their presentations gave us an idea of what it would be like to work in this space after graduation.”

Interested in a sustainability degree? Apply to the MSEEM program by Feb. 15

This is the second iteration of the problem-solving session, which included companies and organizations, such as Pela.Earth, Southface, Guidehouse, Kimley Horn, and Magna International.

“It feels good being able to take the knowledge we’re learning from our classes at Tech and use it to help problem solve issues companies actually face,” said Spencer Clifford, who also is pursuing the MSEEM degree.

MSEEM is a flexible multidisciplinary program with courses taught in schools across the Georgia Tech campus, including the School of Public Policy, the School of Economics, the College of Engineering, the Scheller College of Business, and the School of City and Regional planning.

The curriculum allows students to develop individualized courses of study to supplement their current strengths, giving them the skills necessary to achieve career goals. The program prepares students to work in a variety of fields, including government, non-profits, and the private sector.

For more information about the MSEEM program, visit the program website.

MSEEM student Jared Isaacs contributed to this story.

One of those projects is our new partnership with the City of Atlanta’s Mayor’s Office to launch the Center for Urban Research in the School of Public Policy. The center will support community resilience, sustainability, research, policy analysis, and more throughout the city and already has projects up and running with community partners in Atlanta neighborhoods. 

Read more about the Center for Urban Research.

We’re also grateful to launch our new semester in D.C. — led by a partnership between the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Public Policy — for students to explore careers in public policy. Georgia Tech students can now “study at home” in Washington D.C., taking a full academic course load with six professional internship or audit credit hours. 

Read more about Georgia Tech’s new semester in D.C.

Finally, after more than four years of work and dedication, faculty members in the School of Economics and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs debuted the new Master of Science in Global Development with four days of festivities during Global Development Week. In partnership with the School of City and Regional Planning, the one-year program will prepare global development professionals to work to reduce poverty and inequality for people worldwide. 

Read more about global development at Georgia Tech.

Whew. We can’t say thank you enough for all of the hard work by our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the College who put their time, effort, and joy into programs like these, which truly make a difference and have an impact in Atlanta and beyond. 

Now it’s time to take a moment to sit back, give thanks, and enjoy a well-earned break before we head into the holiday season — until we launch our next new project, that is! 

Let's connect! Follow Ivan Allen College on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to keep up with our students, school news, and upcoming events. 

Led by a partnership between the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs (INTA) and the School of Public Policy (SPP), it will offer a “pathways to policy” program of courses, internships, research opportunities, and extra-curricular activities. 

“Georgia Tech students seek to develop and apply their skills and therefore need exposure beyond the classroom and beyond Atlanta. They want opportunities to work in or for government agencies, NGOs, global consulting firms, and commercial enterprises that are based or have key locations in Washington, D.C.,” says Mark Zachary Taylor, associate professor and associate chair of the School of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “It will thereby create a critical bridge between Georgia Tech’s interests and its collective skillsets.” 

Students will enroll in a full academic course load that fulfills degree requirements, consisting of six academic credit hours for two classes, and six professional internship or audit credit hours. Applications are now being accepted for Fall 2023. 

GT@DC provides an opportunity for Georgia Tech students to become connected with important networks of policy and practice in Washington, D.C. Students can create a strong and enduring network outside Atlanta, gain valuable work experience, integrate scholarly and policy dimensions into their program of study, and explore public service as a possible career path. 

“After years of planning, I'm very excited about this initiative moving forward and being able to give students a meaningful and valuable experience in Washington, D.C. that will set up them up for a successful career,” says Lawrence Rubin, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. 

“The ultimate goal of this program is to produce a cohort of Georgia Tech alumni who have created a strong and enduring connection to our Nation’s capital, gained valuable work experience, integrated policy dimensions to their program of study, and now consider public service as a possible career path,” says Cassidy R. Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton School Chair and professor of Public Policy. 

Through their internships, students can work with government agencies, NGOs, global consulting firms, and commercial enterprises in Washington D.C. Through their courses, students will learn how politics and policy work. Students also will have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities to learn more about Washington, D.C. 

“Georgia Tech already provides a unique spectrum of expertise across a range of applied domestic and global issues coupled with an entrepreneurial focus on problem solving. By creating a site for education and research in Washington, D.C., GT@DC will provide an opportunity for GT students and faculty to better connect into the important networks of policy and practice in D.C. and for Georgia Tech to amplify our impact at the federal level,” says Robert Knotts, executive director of federal relations at Georgia Tech. 

For more information on GT@DC or to apply, visit https://pathways2policy.gatech.edu/ 

The Center’s mission is to build mutually beneficial partnerships with university, community, non-profit and municipal leaders across the city to support community resilience and sustainability, leverage private and philanthropic investment for research and programming, provide policy analysis and recommendations, and increase non-profit capacity.

“Atlanta has been at the forefront in the fight against social injustice and the fight for equity and opportunity,” said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. “It is in that spirit that the Atlanta community leverages our power at the local level to directly address economic inequities and lack of upward mobility. Thank you to Georgia Tech, Atlanta’s HBCUs, and the many partners involved in the Center for Urban Research, which will allow our city to demonstrate to the nation the immeasurable value of investments made in urban communities.”

“We are excited to launch a center dedicated to eliminating racial equity gaps in our city by improving the conditions in our most distressed neighborhoods,” said David Edwards, founding director of the Center, and policy advisor for neighborhoods at the City of Atlanta. “Atlanta has an abundance of academic expertise in this space, and we look forward to leveraging all of the faculty and student resources our universities have to offer in support of our work in the field.”

The Center will serve as a research, evaluation, and reporting hub to develop cutting-edge research on community development based on the Atlanta experience and best practices from around the world. Former Mayor Shirley Franklin, Integral CEO Egbert Perry, and CARE USA CEO President Michelle Nunn are among those who have agreed to serve on the center’s Advisory Board. The Center’s work will also be guided by a Scientific and Planning Advisory Committee comprised of scholars from across Atlanta’s academic community.

“Georgia Tech’s new Center for Urban Research will create a collaborative space where faculty experts will work alongside municipal, community, and nonprofit leaders to strengthen and support the people of our city at the neighborhood level,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “This combination of scholarship, research, and outreach will develop solutions that address the daily needs of our hometown citizens — housing, quality of life, education, opportunity, and more — in an effort to reduce inequity and build resilience everywhere.”

With its well-established history as a center for the advancement of civil and human rights and institutions dedicated to the development of Black leaders, Atlanta is a perfect city to pioneer strategies to tackle racial inequality in our cities.

The new Center has hit the ground running and is already supporting several City of Atlanta projects including neighborhood improvement planning, developing an Atlanta Thriving Neighborhood Index, evaluating place-based public safety programs, assessing the equity of property tax assessments and more. Current target areas include the Hollowell Corridor, Campbellton Road Corridor and Thomasville Heights.

The Center’s public sector partners include City of Atlanta agencies, Invest Atlanta, Atlanta BeltLine, Atlanta Public Schools, Atlanta Housing and MARTA. Community partners include the Atlanta Regional Commission, United Way of Metro Atlanta, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta and Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Faculty and researchers from Georgia State University, Morehouse College, Emory University, Spellman College, University of Georgia, AU Center and Kennesaw State University will collaborate on research and service on the center’s scientific advisory and planning committee.  

For local government partners, the Center will provide policy expertise and guidance, long-term continuity by maintaining the “long view” and serve as an execution arm for advancing racial and economic equity goals.

The Center will provide a central source of guidance and expertise for neighborhoods in the development of their improvement strategies and bring infrastructure, partners, and resources to support the implementation of those strategies.

For the academic institutions, the Center will provide an avenue to advance community improvement and racial equity goals in partnership with local government agencies, provide a “public policy makers-space” for research and implementation of community development ideas, and provide real-world experience for students and faculty.

For the philanthropic community, the Center will ensure collaboration among non-profits operating in the community development space, increase the capacity of non-profits and other NGOs serving the community, provide a central clearinghouse for data and research to measure outcomes and improve performance, and demonstrate best practices and scalable strategies that can be replicated in other cities.

The Center will be housed within the School of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen College.

“We are honored to host activities that will have positive, real-world impact in the community we call home,” said Kaye Husbands Fealing, Dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “We are excited to get started.”

Artificial intelligence is a groundbreaking problem-solving tool that can spark tremendous innovation. But it also carries risks — from bias baked into AI algorithms to its potential impacts on jobs and inequality. That’s why two School of Public Policy professors, Justin Biddle and Philip Shapira, are part of the team engaged with the Georgia Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing Technology Corridor (GA-AIM).  

Read the full story on the Ivan Allen College website.

Georgia Tech’s mock trial team won its first tournament of the season, hosted by the University of Georgia at the Fulton County Courthouse on Oct. 22-23.