Public Policy Alumni and Students Share Time and Knowledge

May 2015

News from the School of Public Policy

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Public Policy alumni may be gone from class rosters, but many return to campus to

conduct seminars and teach. Jamie Chriqui (PhD, '00), a professor in the School of

Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a senior research scientist at

the Institute for Health Research and Policy, returned to UMBC in February to present

her research on the influences of obesity-related policies on communities and schools.

In May, Steven Hemelt (PhD, ’09), assistant professor of public policy at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducted a brown bag seminar for faculty

and students to discuss his research on how financial aid for low-income students

affects college outcomes.

Below, left: Kathleen Zwarick (PhD, '03) with Jamie Chriqui, on right. Right: Steven

Hemelt, after his brown bag session at UMBC.

Networking with alumni is valuable to students from a professional and personal

perspective. According to Mandi Koch, a PhD student in the education track: "From a

practical perspective, meeting with alumni exposes current students, such as myself,

to possible career paths and ways of navigating those paths. From a personal

perspective, meeting with alumni is encouraging; exposure to graduates who are both

dedicated and enthusiastic about their work serves as a welcome reminder that my

own work here at UMBC is worth all the effort."

PhD alumni also return to teach courses at UMBC, bringing their experiences from full-

time jobs in government, nonprofits and industry into the classroom. Alumni teaching

for UMBC include Sarah Archibald (PhD, '12), Brent Gibbons (PhD, '13), Elyse

Grossman (PhD, '14), Francis Kelly (PhD, '06), Arpit Misra (PhD, '14), Ryan Mutter

(PhD, '06), Luis Pinet-Peralta (PhD, '10), and Danielle Schwarzmann (PhD, '13).

Students in the UMBC Political Science

Department selected urban track PhD

candidate Laszlo Korossy (left) as the 2015

Part Time Teacher of the Year. One of 12

part-time instructors in the Political Science

Department, he taught Urban Politics and

Chinese Politics. Other current PhD students

who have taught undergraduate courses at

UMBC include Charles Bondi, Jeremy

Spahr, and Nadwa Mossaad.

Faculty News

Tim Brennan (Public Policy) was an invited speaker for two symposia this past

spring. In May, he spoke about “Storage Market and Policy Issues,” at the Storage,

Renewables and the Evolution of the Grid Symposium, sponsored by the MIT Energy

Initiative. In March, he addressed “Policy Aspects of Time-Variant Pricing (TVP) of

Electricity,” at a forum on the role of time-variant pricing in New York, sponsored by

the New York Department of Public Service, the Environmental Defense Fund, and

the New York University School of Law.

The University of Southern California has awarded a $75,000 grant to Scott Farrow

(Economics) and Anupam Joshi (Computer Science and Electrical Engineering)

through the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR) to develop

a set of detailed economic models that reflect cyber security microeconomic

concerns. This project, a model that links economics with cyber security guidance

taxonomies, may help guide investments and policies in cyber security.

The International Center of Mental Health Policy and Economics has awarded UMBC

researchers David Salkever (Public Policy) and Brent Gibbons (PhD, '13, MIPAR),

along with co-authors Robert E. Drake, William D. Frey, Thomas W. Hale, and

Mustafa Karakus, an Excellence in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research

Award – 2015 for the article "Increasing Earnings of Social Security Disability Income

Beneficiaries with Serious Mental Disorder." The article, which was published in the

Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics (2014, Vol. 17 No. 2), reports the

results of MIPAR research conducted in collaboration with Westat for the Social

Security Administration. The award was presented on March 27 in Venice, Italy at

the Twelfth Workshop on Costs and Assessment.

Public Policy Professor John Rennie Short gave a keynote address, “The New

Imperative: Green Cities for an Urban World,” at the French Embassy in Washington,

D.C. on March 6. The event was a forum that brought together mayors from the U.S.

and France to start a long-term and formal cooperation among officials and

practitioners concerned with sustainable urban development in France and the

United States.

Student News

Governor Larry Hogan appointed Public Policy PhD student James Kruger, III to the

Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission. The Sustainable Growth Commission

makes recommendations on growth and development issues and celebrates smart

growth achievements with an annual awards program. Commission members

represent local and state government, business, and nonprofit organizations.

Mandi Koch, a PhD student in the education policy track, presented a paper she co-

authored with Lauren Hamilton Edwards (Public Policy) at the 2015 Midwest Political

Science Conference in Chicago, IL. The paper was titled: "Public participation as a

strategy in planning: Evidence from Texas cities."

Public Policy PhD student Cheryl Camillo has been selected for a Fulbright

award to carry out her dissertation work comparing approaches to monitoring

population health. She will spend nine months on-site in Canada fostering

exchanges between Canadian and U.S. health policy officials.

Cheryl is shown here with her dissertation mentor Dave Marcotte (Public Policy).

Alumni and student photo credits: Sally Helms

Alumni News

Kristerfer Burnett (MPP, '11) has been named one of the Daily Record's 2015

"20 in their Twenties." He is the director of community organizing for CHAI

Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes

healthy neighborhoods in Baltimore. He also serves as the board chair of the

Edmondson Village Outreach & Empowerment Committee, as a member of the

Harlem-Denison Avenue Community Garden project, B.E.S.T. Democratic Club,

and the Greater Baltimore Leadership Association, and as a mentor in the Real

Life 101 project.

A poster presentation, "Demographic and socioeconomic inequality in a highly

educated and increasingly immigrant workforce: The case of biomedical

research," co-authored by Frances Carter-Johnson (PhD, '11), received the

best poster award at the Population Association of America 2015 Annual Meeting

in San Diego, CA. Dr. Carter-Johnson is a policy fellow at the National Institutes

of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific Review.

Keith Elder (PhD, '02) received the outstanding mentorship award from the

Saint Louis University College of Public Health and Social Justice. Dr. Elder is

professor and chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy.

New Publications

Public Policy PhD candidate and Hilltop Institute senior research analyst Michael

Abrams co-authored a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics (2015, Vol. 166 No.

1), “Transcranial Doppler screening of Medicaid-insured children with sickle cell

disease.” The study, conducted largely at the Hilltop Institute, found that letters to

parents and doctors of children with sickle cell disease (SCD) did not succeed in

increasing their use of a simple screening technique (Transcranial Doppler Imaging or

TDI) for stroke risk, even as children with SCD are known to be at heightened risk for

stroke.

PhD candidate Pradeep Guin co-authored an article "Health status and access to

health services in Indian slums" that found that the lack of sanitation, garbage disposal

and potable water, along with a lack of government facilities and services and high

health care expenses, indicate the continued vulnerability of the urban poor to acute

illness, and the need for urgent government action. The article was published in Health

(2015, Vol. 7 No. 2). He also presented a poster, "The impacts of exposure to natural

disasters on children's education and health outcomes," at the Association for

Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) 40th Annual Conference in Washington D.C. in

February.

An article by George La Noue (Public Policy emeritus), "Chiseling away the equal

protection clause on campus," discusses two recent affirmative action cases that

reached the Supreme Court. The article was published in the Winter 2014 edition of

Academic Questions, a publication of the National Association of Scholars.

Nancy Miller (Public Policy) and Adele Kirk (Public Policy) co-authored two articles

with Michael Kaiser (PhD, '10) and PhD candidate Lukas Glos that examined health

care disparities among US adults with disabilities. "The relation between health

insurance and health care disparities among adults with disabilities" was published in

the American Journal of Public Health (2014, Vol.104 No. 3). "Disparities in access to

health care among middle-aged and older adults with disabilities" appeared in the

Journal of Aging & Social Policy (2014, Vol. 24 No. 2). Dr. Miller, along with Robert

Rubinstein (Sociology), also co-authored a study of certified nurse aid (CNA) duties

that provides a description of the care tasks CNAs are allowed to perform in an

attempt to find uniformity state-by-state. The article, "Certified nurse aid scope of

practice: state-by-state differences in allowable delegated activities," was published in

the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (2015, Vol. 16 No. 1).

Sarah Archibald (PhD, '12) authored a book, Capital

Punishment in the U.S. States: Executing Social

Inequality (2015, LFB Scholarly Publishing), that

identifies variables that can explain the variation not

only in the adoption of the death penalty, but also in

the implementation of capital punishment. Dr.

Archibald is a research compliance specialist in the

Human Research Protections Office at the University

of Maryland, Baltimore and an adjunct professor of

Sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore

County.

"City marketing," an article by John Rennie Short in

the International Encyclopedia of the Social &

Behavioral Sciences (February 2015, Elsevier),

explores the symbolic reconstruction of cities through

a discussion of strategies and tactics of city

marketing.

In his latest book, Human Geography: A Short

Introduction (2014, Oxford University Press), Dr.

Short investigates the complex human geography of

the contemporary world. The book is written for

introductory college courses.

Upcoming Events

Learn about the UMBC Master's Degree in Public Policy (MPP) at an information session on

Wednesday, September 23 at 7:00 pm in Public Policy Room 438 on the UMBC campus. Enjoy a

light dinner and talk with faculty and current students about the field of public policy, career

opportunities, and how to apply to our MPP program. Those interested in the PhD are also invited

to the session.

This event is open to prospective students on and off campus. To register, e-mail your name, year,

and major to Sally Helms (helms@umbc.edu).

Go here for directions to UMBC and parking information.

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Our mailing address is:

Anne Roland, Editor

UMBC School of Public Policy

1000 Hilltop Circle

Baltimore, MD 21250

Comments or questions? Contact publicpolicy@umbc.edu

UMBC School of Public Policy