Academics

When the 84th session of the Texas Legislature convened on January 13, 2015, seven second-year Master of Public Service and Administration students from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University were getting an up-close view of the action.

Ten students from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, along with five students from the University’s Mays Business School and Department of Economics, were guests of the American Bar Association (ABA) at the ABA Section of Taxation Midyear Meetings held January 29-31 in Houston.

Dr. Kalena Cortes, an assistant professor in the Department of Public Service and Administration at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, has won the 2014 Richard A. Musgrave Prize for her paper “Ranking Up by Moving Out: The Effect of the Texas Top 10% Plan on Property Values.”

In the fall of 2014, nine students from the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, traveled to Germany to present research findings to their capstone client, Bosch Shifting. The capstone, entitled “Looking Eastward: Enhancing Trilateral Relations: Germany, the US, and China,” was coordinated by faculty member Dr. Gabriela Marin Thornton.  Thornton received a grant of 13,100 euros from the Bosch Stiftung to fund the capstone work.  This capstone project was the first Bush School capstone with an international client.

Students at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, recently participated in a video teleconference with their counterparts from the Russian Diplomatic Academy – the institution charged with training the Russian Federation’s diplomatic service. During the conference, Bush School and Russian students discussed a wide range of issues, including Ukraine, NATO, P5+1 negotiations, China and Middle East stability.

One of the nation’s leading foundations that encourages graduate students to pursue careers with the federal government in foreign policy and international affairs today announced that 14 students attending five of the nation’s top international studies graduate schools will comprise its 2016 class of fellows.

During the past summer, Dr. Jessica Gottlieb and three student interns from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University traveled to the West African country of Senegal to conduct two months of intensive field work and research.  Based out of a local research institute in Dakar, the nation’s capital, the team sought to understand how local elites—religious, traditional, or political leaders—can wield their influence to guide voters’ decisions, even when it goes against the voters’ best interests.

On June 17-18, the Bush School’s Certificate in Homeland Security program and the Emergency Services Training Institute in the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) co-sponsored a Homeland Security Seminar, the first such joint effort at Texas A&M University.

Members of the sixth class of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) National Security Leadership Program (NSLP) were presented with the Certificate in National Security Affairs by LLNL director, Bill Goldstein, on June 17 during a ceremony at the Bush School.

Scott Robinson, associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, and the Bush School’s Executive Associate Dean Arnold Vedlitz have been awarded the 2014 Herbert Kaufman Best Paper Award by the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Public Administration Section.