Institutional Change signals a thriving policy school
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

One of the challenges of being part of a thriving institution is learning to be comfortable with the dynamics of growth and change. Although this process exists to some degree in any growing institution, there is a natural tendency to resist change.

Both growth and change figure heavily in the current life of the Andrew Young School.

We experienced it most significantly with our move last summer from various locations around the campus to the new Andrew Young School building. We experience it with the improvement in our students, programs and rankings. We experience it with all the new faces amongst our faculty and staff.

In 2004, we added Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President and CEO Jack Guynn to our advisory board. In early 2005, we added four exciting new members who will be announced in our next issue.

We are in the midst of a faculty recruiting season where we will fill up to nine positions: five in Economics and four in Public Administration and Urban Studies. Three of these positions are endowed chairs in experimental and environmental economics, labor economics and human resource policy, and nonprofit sector studies. All will enhance the strengths of our faculty and program offerings.

Topping this growth, we have begun reviewing applications and selecting the incoming class of graduate students for the fall 2005 semester.

While we welcome new faculty, we also recognize the departure of several faculty members and staff. We are grateful for their contributions to the growth and development of the school and to the foundations they have laid for our future growth.

Verna Willis, a beloved, now retired, human resource development faculty member is profiled in this issue. Professors Ron Cummings and Paula Stephan have retired from full-time employment, but both have graciously agreed to continue working with the school part-time. They will be profiled in the next issue. We mourn the untimely loss of Claudia Lacson, the rural health systems developer for GHPC.

Growth and change, though sometimes bittersweet, signal the vitality and richness of our school and its programs. We invite you to note the growth benchmarks we will continue to report while our school matures as one of the nation’s leading policy schools.

Robert E. Moore
Associate Dean