Alumni news
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

Former ISP Research Associate Francisco Javier Arze (Ph.D. in Economics ’03) recently secured, with the assistance of ISP, an eight-month contract to work on World Bank Institute fiscal programs under its lead economist, Anwar Shah.

Bob Donaghue (M.S. in Public and Urban Affairs ’90, right) now directs the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He joined the division as assistant director when it was created in 1993.

Gregory Jones (M.P.A. ’03) is director of research and publications for the Georgia State University College of Law’s Consortium for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. Jones simultaneously earned three degrees at Georgia State University: the M.P.A., a law degree and a Ph.D. in decision sciences. See his story in “The Third Degree” in Georgia State Magazine (Fall 2004).

Former Muskie Fellow Serhiy Kostyuk (M.S. in Urban Policy Studies, ’03, right) now serves as the Chornobyl Recovery and Development Programme reporting and communications officer for the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine. CRDP addresses the lingering consequences of the Chornobyl accident.

David Rein (Ph.D. in Public Policy ’03, left) has placed an article in the nation’s top health services research journal, Health Services Research. “A Matter of Classes: Stratifying Healthcare Populations to Produce Better Estimates of Inpatient Costs,” is based on his dissertation. Rein’s work has also been published in American Journal of Managed Care and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. He is a research economist at RTI International, a nonprofit research consulting company.

Abhijit Saptarshi (M.P.A. ’04, right), after completing an M.P.A. internship under the Georgia Governor’s Internship Program, joined the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, N.C., in the fall to earn a Ph.D. in urban policy.

Avon Thompson Whitehead, CPPO, CPPB (B.S. in Urban Policy Studies ’04), a procurement and services officer for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, was recently tapped to serve a two-year term on the Diversity Committee for the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing in Washington, DC. She was named “2004 Buyer of the Year for the State of Georgia,” and will represent Georgia for the “National Buyer of the Year” award in Anaheim, Calif.

Former Mandela Fellow Veronica Mafoko (M.A. in Economics ’00) e-mailed to update AYSPS on her newest position after reading her name in an earlier Briefing. “It’s nice to know that we are still remembered at Georgia State University and all over the world via the ‘net’,” wrote Mafoko, who now works in South Africa’s Department of Provincial and Local Government. As a director there, she deals with local government equitable share and related transfers to local government and other policy issues related to transfer programs.

Share news of your awards, new job or academic advancement with your peers. Please e-mail your news to ays@gsu.edu and we will post it online at www.andrewyoungschool.org and in a future newsletter.