Michael J. Nicholson, MPP ‘17, has been awarded with the UMass Amherst Outstanding Young Alumni award for 2024. Nicholson has served as the mayor of Gardner, Massachusetts since winning his first term in 2020 and is the city’s first Latin American elected official. He is one of six recipients of awards from the UMass Amherst Foundation this year.
Last week, State Senator Jo Comerford visited Professor Bridgette Davis’ Policy Methods course to discuss policy challenges in western Massachusetts. Comerford, who represents the Hampshire, Franklin, and Worcester district, engaged in sit-down conversations with students on topics including housing, economic development, education, and regional rail. She also fielded questions on policy issues at both the local and national level.
In a new white paper released by the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Technology, Carolina Rossini and coauthors describe a technology design policy framework that centers sustainable and equitable economic growth, freedom, and innovation.
Viviana Wu has published new research on the influence of donor-advised funds on community leadership in community foundations in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
A new study tracks 400,000 scientists across 38 countries through their publications, and finds that high numbers of scientists leave science, with these numbers substantially higher for women. Misra comments about what the paper tells us, and how to consider why women are underrepresented in publishing, and how to analyze these questions further.
Dr. Viviana Wu’s latest research in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly investigates the balance between the donor logic and leadership logic in community foundations. The article, "Community Leadership and Donor-Advised Funds: Navigating Logics of Donor Services and Community Leadership in Community Foundations," reveals that foundations with a strong emphasis on donor services tend to engage in more leadership activities. Her mixed-methods analysis suggests that the pressures of donor preferences can coexist with, and even enhance, community leadership. This study highlights how
Dr. Libby Sharrow has been selected for a Distinguished Lectureship with the Organization of American
Historians. This lectureship coordinates public lectures with preeminent historians to bring historical context to contemporary issues. OAH Distinguished Lecturers can be booked as guest speakers for a keynote address, book talk, lecture series, community event, or panel discussion, or to headline conferences, historical commemorations, workshops and professional development events. This year's cohort includes 28 scholars on a host of topics in U.S. history. OAH Distinguished Lecturers are
Justin Gross (public policy/DACSS director) and Kelsey Shoub (public policy) are collaborating with faculty from the Department of Sociology and the College of Natural Sciences on an interdisciplinary project to improve STEM education, with a particular focus on attracting students from underrepresented groups in STEM fields.