heller alumni news winter 2011

A mAgAzine for the Alumni of the heller School for SociAl Policy And mAnAgement

Alumni newS And viewS

brAndeiS univerSity

winter 2011

globAl heller the imPAct of heller Alumni Around the world

ALuMni newS AnD ViewS

a magazINE foR ThE alumNI of ThE hEllER school foR socIal PolIcy aNd maNagEmENT aT BRaNdEIs uNIVERsITy

page 1 lEttER FROM tHE DEAN pages 2–3

INSIDE yOUR SCHOOl pages 4–10

GlOBAl HEllER tHE IMPACt OF HEllER AlUMNI AROUND tHE WORlD

pages 11–14

VIEWPOINtS OPINIONS OF HEllER AlUMNI

pages 15–18

HEllER DONORS Fy’11

pages 19–25

AlUMNI MIlEStONES

Contents

Michelle Dworkin, M.A.’07, in a traditional music school funded by the Agha Khan trust for Culture in the old section of Herat City (a renowned cultural hub in Afghanistan). See page 5 to read about Dworkin’s work there.

LiSA M. LynCHDean and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy

SAMueL O. THieR, MDChair, Heller Board of Overseers

PAuLA PARiS, M.M.H.S.’79President, Heller Alumni Association Board

LeSLie GODOff ’71Director, Development and Alumni Relations

JennifeR RAyMOnD Assistant Director for Annual Giving and Alumni Relations

TRACey PALMeR Feature Writer

CLAuDiA J. JACObS ’70Director of Communications Initiatives

COuRTney LOMbARDOSenior Program Administrator, Development and Alumni Relations

bRAnDeiS uniVeRSiTy MS 035 PO Box 549110Waltham, MA 02454-9110

winter 2011

Dear Heller Alumni,

As we commence another academic year, I want to share with you the daily inspiration we all derive from the com-mitment and passion evident in our recently matriculated students. They have been drawn to Heller for its commit-ment to the research, education and public engagement that inform policies and programs designed to address disparities in well-being and promote social inclusion in a sustainable way. At a time when hope and optimism are in too short supply, I am proud to report that hope and commitment for social change still lie in great abundance at Heller.

The Heller School is a global community — in our backgrounds, in our ideas and in our aspirations. Today, students from almost 60 countries come to Heller to acquire the knowledge and skills that strengthen their abil-ity to be global agents of change. You too, our alumni, are giving voice and strength to those without it, all around the world. Through your work we see evidence of reduction in poverty, hunger, social inequality and environmental degradation.

This issue of Heller Alumni News and Views highlights some of that work from the perspective of a small handful of our remarkable alumni. I hope that these stories will be a source of hope and inspiration to you, and I urge you to reach out and share your successes and challenges with your Heller friends and community.

At a time of ongoing economic crisis, we continue to be so grateful to all our alumni and friends who have made Heller students one of their philanthropic priorities in the past fiscal year. Annual gifts are critical in helping to ease the financial burden our students incur in pursuit of a Heller degree. Including Heller in your estate plans is an addi-tional way to support the school. In this issue, Deborah Polivy, Ph.D.’78, shares the reasons she has chosen to designate a portion of her IRA to Heller. Thank you for each and every way you have chosen to give back to Heller and continue to support our current students and the mission of the school.

Warm regards,

Lisa M. LynchDean and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy

lETTER fRom ThE dEaN

2 | HEllER AlUMNI | WINtER 2011

Lurie institute inauguraL LectureThe Lurie Institute for Disability Policy Inaugural Distinguished Lecture on September 19, 2011, was delivered by Heller alumna Marsha Mailick Seltzer, Ph.D.’78, who spoke on “Psychosocial and Biological Markers of Stress in Mothers of Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders.” The evening was in honor of Nancy Lurie Marks for her long-term commitment to Brandeis University and her pioneering role in funding basic research that has given hope and enhanced the quality of life for individuals with autism.

ceLebrating HeLLer FacuLty autHorsProfessor Jody Hoffer Gittell and co-editor Mary Godwyn spoke to a Heller gathering on September 8, 2011, about their successful collaboration on the book “Sociology of Organizations: Structures and Relationships.” Hoffer Gittell’s expertise in organi-zational theory and Godwyn’s training as a sociologist, combined with their mutual appreciation of the early, landmark theories of Mary Parker Follett, have created a textbook that presents new perspectives on the formation and functioning of organizations.

new FacuLty appointmentIn the fall Alain Lempereur became the inaugural Alan B. Slifka Chair in Coexistence and Conflict. An interna-tionally recognized leader in mediation and conflict resolution, Lempereur comes to Heller from ESSEC Business School in Paris. He also has assumed the position of director of the Master of Arts in Coexistence and Conflict program.

m.b.s./m.b.a. programAfter 17 years of successful collaboration on the dual M.D./M.B.A. degree, Tufts University School of Medicine Dean Harris Berman and Heller Dean Lisa M. Lynch approved the first-of-its-kind dual M.B.S./M.B.A. program. The first cohort of Tufts Master in Biological Science (M.B.S.) students began taking M.B.A. courses at Heller this past summer. They will follow a curriculum that allows them to complete both degrees in 24 months.

inSide your School: whAt’S hAPPening At heller

On October 11, 2011, Professor Stuart Altman and co-author David Shactman spoke to Heller students, faculty and guests about their recently published book, “Power, Politics and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle.” Altman mentions in the book that his late mother once asked, “Who designed this crazy system?” Now her son has written an extensive study of health care policy that offers the answers.

WINtER 2011 | HEllER AlUMNI | 3

Professor Anita Hill spoke to members of the Heller community on November 2, 2011, about her new book, “Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race and Finding Home,” in which she explores the deeper meaning of home as a potent and enduring symbol of economic success and equality. Hill detailed how the current housing crisis, resulting in the devastation of so many families,

communities and even whole cities, imperils every American’s ability to achieve the American Dream and threatens to set back advances made by women and people of color. During her talk, Hill called for a “home summit,” a public conversation about solutions to the housing crisis, and offered new strategies for measuring and achieving equality in the 21st century.

institute appoints new DirectorOn January 1, 2012, Dolores Acevedo-Garcia will join the faculty as the Samuel F. and Rose B. Gingold Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and director of the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy (ICYFP). She is a distinguished scholar whose current work, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, focuses on racial and ethnic disparities in the health of children. Most recently she held concurrent appointments as associate professor at Northeastern University’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences and adjunct associate professor in the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Society, Human Development and Health.

regis coLLege appoints HeLLer aLumna as 10tH presiDent Heller alumna Antoinette M. Hays, Ph.D.’90, was installed as the 10th president of Regis College in Weston, Mass., on October 5, 2011. At the festive inauguration ceremony, Heller Dean Lisa Lynch received an honorary degree from the college and delivered the salutation from the academic community. Professor Stuart Altman represented Brandeis University among the delegates from academic institutions. To strengthen the ties between the two institutions, Regis and Brandeis recently signed a cross-registration agreement, providing students in both institutions an even richer range of courses.

globAl heller the imPAct of heller Alumni Around the world


• AfghAniStAnmichelle dworkin, m.A.’07, SuStAinAble internAtionAl develoPment

Program officerUnited StateS agency for international develoPment (USaid)

Working in Afghanistan was eye-opening in more ways than one for Michelle Dworkin, a native of upstate New York. For a year she was a USAID program offi-cer for the organization’s western regional platform, part of the U.S. Consulate in Herat. Since the consulate building was not yet completed at the time, Dworkin lived and worked at Camp Stone, a U.S. military base south of Herat City. Initially, Dworkin was skeptical of the military’s role in development, but during her year in Afghanistan she experienced strong cooperation between USAID and military counterparts in advancing shared goals for development in Afghanistan.

Some of Dworkin’s accomplishments include enabling local civil society orga-nizations — including female-run groups — to secure small grants from the U.S. government to implement educational, income-generating, training and environ-mental projects. For example, Dworkin helped a local group passionate about educating Afghans on the importance of environmental preservation win a grant to plant 4,000 trees on the Herat University campus. She also helped consolidate infor-mation about USAID’s programs and expenditures in western Afghanistan to better communicate such information and improve coordination with military coun-terparts and other donors.

“To this day, I remain grateful for all of the lessons I learned while at Heller,” Dworkin says, “and they continue to guide me in my work and help me focus on the importance of sustainability in develop-ment. I recall the three Es of sustainable

development — economic development, equity and environmental conservation — that Professor Howard impressed upon us in my very first ‘Planning and Implementation’ course. Even though I don’t focus specifically on environmen-tal projects, my courses with Professor Olson, as well as the lessons learned in the ‘Natural Resources Management and Conflict’ course I took with Professor Klein, continue to resonate with my work.” Dworkin also refers to lessons learned from Professors Ready and Short.

Before coming to Heller, Dworkin real-ized that she didn’t want to analyze foreign policy. Instead, she says, “I wanted to be actively engaged in doing things to improve the world we live in and living conditions for people around the world. In looking for graduate programs that addressed my interests in this respect, I found the M.A. (SID) program to be a perfect match for my career goals and social values.”

A former Heller student, Rhoderick Samonte, M.A.’06 (SID), who now heads the Institute for Negros Devel-opment in the Philippines, told his graduating class that “SID is not a passport to privilege but a call to social

responsibility.” That is true for all of Heller. This edition of Heller Alumni News and Views spotlights just a few of the many former students who answered the call to become thoughtful and humane agents of development and social change. They work toward improving societies all across the globe so that more than a billion people can be released from the health-poverty trap, where ill health drags millions of families each year into poverty and poverty denies access to decent health care. Our graduates are struggling to build functioning institutions, sound planning and accountability, and effective policies that remedy the underlying

social causes of preventable illness and abject poverty. With the rise of stronger economies in the global south, this must be the most exciting time to enter careers in health and development. The potential has never been greater to lessen vulnerability and to build societies where human dignity and happiness are the true measures of progress.

Laurence R. Simon is a professor of international development, director of the M.A. in Sustainable International Development (SID) program and co-chair of the Global Health and Development Ph.D. concentration. After a career that spanned Latin America, Asia and Africa, he founded the SID program 18 years ago and helped build it into one of the world’s largest and most diverse graduate programs for training of development practitioners and policymakers.

globAl heller the imPAct of heller Alumni Around the world by trAcy PAlmer


As Dworkin transitions to a USAID post in Guatemala, where she’ll be stationed for the next four years, she carries with her the knowledge that she is stronger than she once thought. When the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Herat came under attack, Dworkin was acting as the senior development officer for USAID in western Afghanistan and, as such, was respon-sible for accounting for personnel and mon itoring the security situation.

“I was surprised at my ability to stay calm and provide direction in the face of a major security incident,” she says.

• iSrAeldAvid Portowicz, Ph.d.’80, SociAl Policy

chairman and co-foUnderthe Jaffa inStitUte

A Rabbi born in Brooklyn, David Portowicz was inspired to found the Jaffa Institute, a child welfare organization in Israel, after 18 months of data gathering for his doctoral thesis at Heller.

“I was writing about underprivileged chil-dren and the reasons for their failure to achieve in school, and my research brought me to the most disadvantaged community in Israel — Jaffa. I discovered so many causal factors that prevented children growing up in the slums from maximizing their potential. All these causes were solu-ble if only the right programs were offered.”

Along with co-founder Col. Ze’ev Shaham, Portowicz started the institute with 16 children and an initial grant of $50,000 from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Back then he focused on keeping the kids gainfully occupied and out of the reach of drug peddlers, abusive family situations, gang lords and pimps. As the institute grew, Portowicz continued creating programs designed to combat the stumbling blocks in the path of educational success, starting a hot lunch program, a dental clinic, a tutoring program and a residential center. During the past 30 years, the institute has created 35 different programs. Its budget has grown from half a million in 1980 to $7.6 million in 2010, and the institute is now

recognized as a national model. The Jaffa Institute received Israel’s highest award for volunteerism and twice received the Ministry of Education’s award for outstanding educational program. “My two years in Heller were formative years,” says Portowicz. “I had the good fortune of studying with the finest profes-sors and advisers. Marshall Sklare and Leonard Fein taught me about responsibil-ity toward our fellow man. Roland Warren gave me insight into the impor-tance of community. Bob Perlman helped me to formulate my thoughts and translate them into words. David Gil helped me to understand what it means to be a child in need. All of these people and the atmosphere I absorbed helped me to decide to do something that would make a difference.”

And it seems he is doing just that — when the institute started giving out scholar-ships in 1992, only two students were college bound. Last year, that number rose to 311. The Jaffa Institute doesn’t have a political stance, says Portowicz. Jews and

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Arabs alike accept it. Today, it serves more than 4,000 children from the poorest sector of the country and boasts more than 30,000 graduates. But Portowicz is not satisfied to rest and bask in his accomplishments.

“If it were only possible,” he says, “I would reach out to all 20,000 children growing up in this community.”

• JAPAnAkiko merA, m.A.’05, SuStAinAble internAtionAl develoPment

execUtive directoroxfam JaPan

When a severe earthquake and tsunami struck the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, Akiko Mera jumped into action. As head of Oxfam Japan, Mera got ready to tap the international organiza-tion’s strong overseas partnerships to help. “We have received so much generosity from all around the world,” Mera says. “This has reminded us once again that we

are all vulnerable — some more than others — and that we all have a role to play to change things.”

Having personally experienced the Kobe earthquake in 1995, Mera had an idea of what to expect and what would need to be done.

“That experience helped me make the right decisions immediately after the 2011 earthquake,” says Mera, who estimates it will take at least 20 years for the country to fully recover. “I think everyone in Japan was affected in one way or another — I never thought I would experience food/water supply shortage in Tokyo. And now we are fighting something we cannot see — radiation.”

It is a testament to Japan’s own extensive emergency relief capabilities that a full-scale Oxfam emergency response has so far not been requested. The massive opera-tion has been executed efficiently by a collaboration of the government, the army and civil society.

“The Japanese state has the means to reach 99 percent of the population,” Mera says, “but there will always be some who need more specific assistance.” Oxfam Japan, a relatively small and fairly new affiliate to the confederation, is raising money for several local organi-zations active in the disaster areas.

“There are no boundaries in disasters. Now is the time to put people together — those who work in disasters and those who work to fight against poverty. I believe putting these people together will result in better reconstruction efforts and a better, sustainable future for all.”

1 Dworkin visiting the Qala Ikhtyaruddin (Citadel) in Herat, which is being restored with foreign assistance, including funds from the U.S. Department of State. 2 Children play together in a safe environment at the Jaffa Institute’s After-School Activity Center. 3 Mera speaking to villagers at the start of a groundbreaking ceremony. 4 Mera in the field for the ground-breaking ceremony.

3 4


• South SudAnPAnther Alier, m.A.’09, SuStAinAble internAtionAl develoPment

team leader, BridgeWinrock international

Panther Alier is a “Lost Boy of Sudan.” But this is no longer the most accurate way to describe him. Now a grown man in his 30s, he is making a new mark in his recently independent homeland of South Sudan as a positive force for change.

Alier is one of the thousands of orphaned and displaced children who fled the world’s longest running civil war in the mid-1980s and trekked thousands of kilometers through Ethiopia to find refuge in Kenya before being resettled around the world. Like many “lost boys,” Alier was a child out herding cattle when the northern army attacked his village. Even today, nearly 25 years later, he has recurring nightmares. With no food, no water and no shelter, he fled across the country in terror from the murderous army. The harrowing journey took him to Ethiopia for four years and

then to Kenya for a 10-year stay in a bleak refugee camp.

Finally, he was among 3,800 young Sudanese admitted into the United States in 2001. Settling in Boston, Alier enrolled at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he earned a degree in political science with a minor in international rela-tions and economics, all while working full-time as a security guard at night. At the Heller School, he knew he would gain the tools he needed to advance his personal social mission — to help the people of southern Sudan.

“I have always wanted to serve my people in any way I can,” he says.

Today, Alier is leading a field office imple-menting a USAID-funded project called Building Responsibility for Delivery of Government Services (BRIDGE). The program aims to build the capacity of local government in Jonglei State to deliver much-needed essential services.

“The region was severely affected by a civil war that lasted for more than 20 years,”

Alier says. “Life is almost at its most basic — there are no roads and no clean water, and insecurity is rampant.”

When South Sudan declared independence this past July, Alier was given the unprec-edented opportunity to help develop sustain-able government systems for a new nation.

“The diversity of the SID program, both in its curricula and student body, prepared me for the things I do now,” he says.

Alier’s current work includes giving orien-tation training to local government admin-istrative officers on understanding the constitutional requirements of planning and budgeting, administrative guidelines, community engagement, and gender inclu-sion and mainstreaming. His team is also helping government officials working with the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs to create a Council of Ministers’ handbook.

“This is an opportune time for me to be doing this building of government

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1 Alier participating in the formation of a community action group. 2 lisa (Kuo-yu) Wang at her university’s library opening celebration; the lights in the background are her design.

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capacity,” he says. “Although this is the final year for our funding, we hope for an extension to continue providing this much-needed help to develop systems for this new nation.”

• tAiwAnliSA (kuo-yu) wAng, Ph.d.’91, SociAl Policy

ProfeSSor and liBrary directornational chUng cheng UniverSity

For 20 years, Lisa Wang has been a major influence on disability policy, advocacy and research in Taiwan and Asia. And she cred-its the Heller School with preparing her for her long, successful career.

Wang, who had polio when she was 11 months old, has always had difficulty with mobility, but she has not let that hold her back. Her résumé is impressive. She helped establish the first social welfare program at a university in Taiwan. She participated in two major disabilities legislation revi-sions, under which policy was changed to a rights-based system adopted by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and the World Health Organization. She earned research grants from her country’s National Science Council more than 17 times, and she chaired three large-scale, household-based surveys on the Taiwanese disabled popula-tion. She has traveled to 35 countries, presenting her findings and leading train-ing workshops. She organized the first Asian Pacific Regional Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities, and she won that organization’s Distinguished Service Award. Wang serves on the boards of several international disability studies journals and is chief editor of the Taiwanese Journal of Social Welfare. In addition to her teaching and research, Wang somehow found the time and energy to take over the role of library director at National Chung Cheng University in 2008.

The Heller School, she says, has always been a source of inspiration for her. When Wang first joined the National Chung Cheng University, it was upon her recom-mendation that the fledgling social welfare department adopted an interdisciplinary approach like Heller’s to create its program. It recruited faculty with backgrounds in sociology, politics and economics, with a goal of providing students with a broad view on policy.

“Long story short, Heller School’s training provided me with the vision of how to develop a policy school in Taiwan,” she says.

Today, Wang has turned her attention back to theory and has recruited a team to write a book about disability study in the Chinese language.

“It is time to introduce disability study to the local academic community,” she says.

Perhaps no one has done more for disability policy in Taiwan than Wang. Much has changed in her country; however, she says, overall disability policy, just like welfare policy in Taiwan, does not have clear direc-tion and goals.

“People with disabilities in Taiwan have lower education levels, lower income status and lower participation rates in various social activities, with less than sufficient transportation support to assist them in getting to school, the hospital and social events.”

And, she adds, public attitudes still lag behind. “People from Asian countries tend to react like I need help or assume that my condition makes me dependent, while Western colleagues assume that I am an independent person, and they will help only when asked.” Even as her mobility declines and she adapts to getting around with the assis-tance of a scooter or wheelchair, Wang

1 Alier participating in the formation of a community action group. 2 lisa (Kuo-yu) Wang at her university’s library opening celebration; the lights in the background are her design.

only gains deeper insights into her work and who she is as a person. “No matter what my physical condition,” she says, “mentally and spiritually, I remain the same.”

• tuniSiASAfiA trAbelSi, m.A.’10, coexiStence And conflict

commUnication and PartnerShiP officerU.n. Women

The wave of revolutions that swept the Arab world this past spring started in the flatlands of Tunisia — and Safia Trabelsi was there. A native of Tunisia, the smallest country in North Africa, Trabelsi returned home after graduating from the Heller School. Fluent in Arabic, French and English, she found that her communication skills were invalu-able during the revolution. She helped cover the events for Al Jazeera International and CBS News and worked on a documen-tary for Al Jazeera English. Trabelsi’s mother is from Egypt. “So I am a mix of Tunisian and Egyptian cultures, coun-tries of the Arab Spring,” she says.

A corrupt and ruthless dictator, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, ruled Tunisia for 23 years; he was overthrown by a popular uprising in early 2011. Armed with her new education in coexistence and conflict, Trabelsi felt well prepared to help with the country’s democratic transition.

Today, she is a communication and part-nership officer for U.N. Women, an orga-nization focused on promoting women’s leadership and political participation. Founded in 2010, U.N. Women is the United Nations’ entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

“It is a huge challenge to help shape a real democracy where men and women can participate equally and effectively to build the democratic institution,” she says of her


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work in post-revolution Tunisia. “This is a lifetime opportunity to work with women’s organizations throughout the country to push for equality and parity between the genders and to build capacity and support of this movement during a crucial time.”Trabelsi came to Brandeis on a Fulbright International Student Scholarship. What she learned at Heller prepared her well for her current work.

“It was a great international experience to find people coming from all over the world with experience in development or conflict, and that was a great exchange opportunity,” she says. “We had the chance to work with professors who had outstanding back-grounds and work experience.”

In supporting the needs and efforts of Tunisia’s fledgling women’s movement, Trabelsi tracks the progress of women’s political participation and the laws and actions taken by the transitional govern-ment in support of women.

“The biggest challenge today is to succeed with a common effort toward parity in the next elected council and to have women holding high positions,” she says.

• united StAteSmAry brookS, m.A.’03, SuStAinAble internAtionAl develoPment

lectUrer and aSSiStant director for StUdent and academic ServiceS heller School for Social Policy and management

Mary Brooks works in the United States, but her reach is global.

Brooks was a marine biologist for 25 years before joining Heller. Her work took her to Latin America, the South Pacific, Africa and China. Wherever she traveled, she always had in interest in environmental conservation and social policy. When she was a teenager, Brooks’ family moved to South America from California, following her father, who worked for USAID. She’s always considered herself a “global citizen.”

Mary Brooks (center) during a class discussion.

“I loved discovering that, while cultures were different everywhere, there was also something inside all human beings that is common across cultures,” she says.

When she came to Heller for a master’s degree, she discovered a place she could call home.

“I really fell in love with the values of the school, the community, the diversity and the commitment people here have to making a difference.”

Brooks can now count herself among those committed people as she teaches advanced seminars for Heller’s international students working on their master’s papers and advises other students on practicums in the field.

“The goal of a social development program is to build capacity of people in every place where they are facing challenges. I didn’t have time to go to all those places, so I shifted my focus to staying home and seeing if I could help from there. Now I travel the world by staying put,” Brooks comments.

Through her students, Brooks is making an impact around the globe.

“In some way,” she says, “I feel part of their work.”

In describing Heller today, Brooks refers to something she once heard on the radio. “There are two kinds of stories,” she says. “Someone goes on a trip, and someone comes to visit. Either way we are changed. That’s Heller now.”


E nvironmental protection and development are profoundly interconnected. This is the basic premise of the latest policy paper by the journal InterAction, “The Nature of Development: Integrating Conservation and Develop ment

to Support Sustainable, Resilient Societies.” Published in June 2011 (www.interaction.org/conservation-development), the report calls for the integration of global development and environmental policies in order to improve the effectiveness of U.S. for eign policy investments. As concerns about resource degradation and success of foreign aid continue to run high, this paper aims to demon-

strate how aligning the two usually separate issues can benefit all parties involved. According to the report, integrating conservation and development policy could create jobs in the United States by increasing the number of exports. It would also improve security by tempering situations in the developing world, where food-price hikes and other resource shortages are creating full-blown conflicts. Functioning ecosystems are the foundation of human well-being, the paper says, and are fundamental to lasting development. Following are responses from three Heller alumni, representing different perspectives and experiences in the field.

viewPointS: oPinionS of heller Alumni “the nAture of develoPment: integrAting conServAtion And develoPment to SuPPort SuStAinAble, reSilient SocietieS”


viewPointS

Peter bAumAn, m.A.’06, coexiStence And conflict

Peter Bauman is a senior project manager for International Relief and Development, providing technical assistance on new business development opportunities focused on community stabilization, countering extremism, and conflict management and mitigation. He has worked in conflict-affected countries throughout the world.

I agree with the premise of “The Nature of Development.” However, I am not convinced of the viability. Such ideas are too often trumped or diluted by greed and realpolitik. Aid, particu-larly from the United States, is an extension of our foreign policy, which is dictated by politics, not environmental protection and the reduction of human suffering. For integration to occur, this dilemma would need to be taken into account and the current practices of the development industry would need to be reformed.

While assessing the impact of the tsunami and tsunami interven-tions on the conflicts in Sri Lanka and Indonesia/Aceh, I was alarmed by the careless response that ignored existing divisions and disregarded local capacities and the natural environment.

Yemen faces a different problem. It will likely be the first country in the world to run out of water, which could cause major regional instability. Yet, the shrub that yields khat (a leaf chewed as a mild stimulant) and consumes 40 percent of the country’s water supply still dominates agricultural production. Currently, there is no incentive for farmers to diversify crop production.

In the Sahel region of Africa, climate change and desertification are affecting traditional livelihoods, causing urban migration, emigration, increased conflict between agriculturalists and pasto-ralists, and vulnerability to trafficking and violent extremists. In Southern Sudan, wildlife migration routes and arable land lie on the surface above oil, water aquifers, gold and other valuable natural resources. After the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ministries began drafting policies without consulting each other, and, because donor funds are siloed, nonintegrated policies were reinforced. The lack of integrated policies makes it

difficult to manage and use these resources in ways that provide short-term finance without hindering long-term development. To overcome this challenge, the United States supported the formation of an intergovernmental natural resource management group aimed at harmonizing such policies. The program is still running, but limited resources, capacity and political will have made it difficult to move from words to action.

Currently there is little focus on long-term macro impact. Donors emphasize outputs, placing tremendous pressure on producing short-term results regardless of the potential negative effects. As a result, NGOs and contractors write unrealistic proposals, spend exorbitant amounts of money, and implement activities in ways that are often incongruent with sustainable development, much less conservation. Beneficiaries and host governments dependent on aid lack the knowledge or will to challenge such unproductive practices. As a result, a culture of impunity is endorsed, with little accountability to the people being served and the environ-ment on which they depend. Perhaps a first step would be for developed countries to focus on role-modeling change. It is hypo-critical to promote environmental protection while continuing to destroy and extract one’s own and others’ natural resources at an alarming rate. But without the enforcement of serious incentives and disincentives, I am afraid that integration of conservation and development will not happen on a scale large enough to make a significant impact.


mArion howArd, m.A.’04, SuStAinAble internAtionAl develoPment

Marion Howard, M.A.’04, is a senior lecturer and associate director of Heller’s M.A. in sustainable international development. She also serves as environmental adviser to Coralina, Colombia’s sustainable development agency for the San Andres Archipelago. She coordinated the development of Colombia’s first marine protected area, was adviser to the project to establish the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and is a team member of Colombia’s national climate change initiative. She also works with the InterAmerican Development Bank on a new project to conserve marine biodiversity in the Southwestern Caribbean.

InterAction is to be commended for its new policy document. The paper is comprehensive, timely and welcome. For those inter-ested in international development, it is also important to recog-nize the purpose and context of the document. As stated in the forward, it is a call to action for U.S. politicians and policymakers. InterAction is not presenting a new approach; the concepts in the paper have been around for decades. However, adopting this approach would be new for the United States. What is “ground-breaking” about the paper, as InterAction’s president and CEO, Samuel Worthington, terms it, is the paper’s carefully crafted approach, designed to make these ideas understandable and palatable to a U.S. audience.

For three decades, the United States has been an outlier in the field of sustainable international development. Even the business community now warns that the U.S. position as a “significant outlier” in the world’s move to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is detrimental to national well-being (see HSBC, January 2011, among others). But our national approach goes well beyond a refusal to acknowledge climate change. U.S. policy continues to regard economic development and environmental management as incompatible. Since 1992, while the rest of the world was adopt-ing Agenda 21, the U.N.’s sustainable development action plan; ratifying the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biological Diversity; setting up environment ministries and national environment systems; incorpor ating

citizens’ rights to a healthy environment into revised constitutions; and enacting legal and policy frameworks to institutionalize the integrated approach to development expressed in the InterAction paper, the United States excluded itself. This position not only diminished our influence in the field of international development, it also negatively impacts our country domestically. The U.S. ranking — 61st out of 163 countries — in the 2010 Environ mental Performance Index reflects the ineffectiveness of our approach (http://epi.yale.edu/Countries).

That InterAction’s paper is targeting the U.S. Congress, adminis-tration and other national institutions is evident in its presentation and arguments. The threat of climate change is minimized, human security and stability are emphasized, and the goal of sustained economic growth through partnerships is highlighted. InterAction stresses that an integrated approach will be cost-effective, help protect U.S. investment and generate jobs, and that new bureau-cracies and institutions are not needed; rather we can work within existing structures if we begin to see the interconnections among environmental, economic and social development. Indeed, if the world is to achieve international development goals, it is essential that the United States adopts an integrated, sustainable approach. The InterAction paper offers cogent arguments, a clear way forward and specific recommendations designed to encourage the United States to move forward responsibly in policy and practice.


Seth Purcell, m.A.’09, SuStAinAble internAtionAl develoPment

Seth Purcell is a program manager with Catholic Relief Services who worked in Uganda and on flood relief and recovery efforts in southern Pakistan. Formerly, he worked in West Africa on both microfinance and food security issues with Oxfam and the World Food Programme.

“The Nature of Development” is a call for greater integration of conservation in development efforts worldwide. The seemingly inevitable deterioration of the natural environment in the face of economic progress has long plagued development. It has become increasingly apparent that the deleterious effects of the charge for growth cannot be ignored — more frequent and exacerbated natural disasters, social and political upheaval, and heightened insecurity have highlighted the need to overcome these realities in order to foster truly sustainable growth.

The range of examples cited by InterAction — from the desiccated Sahel to the troubled Horn of Africa to the plains of Pakistan — illustrates what has been called a “tragedy of the commons.” People are operating under conditions in which incentives for short-term gain through exploitation are too strong, and the subsequent depletion of natural resources and compromised ecosystems not only erode the ability of countless people to earn a living but also limit options for improvement.

For sustainable change to take place, more local people must secure ownership of local natural resources. In many areas outside of the Western Hemisphere, legally recognized tenure of land is in short supply. Subsistence farmers often work fields that, while they may have been passed down from generation to generation, lack a formal title. The tenuousness of this situation deters long-term investment and fosters the use of the resources at hand for maxi-mum short-term gain. When forced to live for today, rural farmers will do just that.

In contrast, local actors with secure land rights have time and again proven their willingness and ability to provide responsible stewardship for their environment. Despite currently employing exploitative practices, subsistence farmers would readily admit their dependence on a healthy ecosystem for survival and, if prop-erly incentivized, would likely take steps to ensure its availability for posterity. Securing land rights would establish a foundation from which other developmental gains — such as improved nutri-tion, health and education — could be made, while simultane-ously advancing the cause of conservation.

Without bottom-up forces driving and implementing change, the difficulties of conservation will remain. By adjusting the time horizon with which people view their surroundings, by giving them a stake in the sustainability of local resources, we can make conservation and development mutually reinforcing concepts. Enhanced land rights for local actors may prove to be a vital first step toward improving and protecting the natural environment on which we all depend.

viewPointS


Starting with this issue of Heller Alumni News and Views, we celebrate and acknowledge both alumni and friends of the Heller

School who have made gifts of $100 or more to support Heller and our students during the past fiscal year (July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011).

In these uncertain times, domestically and globally, the commitment of Heller students, faculty members and researchers to seeking equitable social policies and effective organizational leadership is more critical than ever. Securing the funds to support these vital agents of change is central to Heller’s mission. On behalf of Heller’s students — today’s and tomor-row’s — we thank you for your past and ongoing support.

Throughout the coming year, we look forward to keeping in touch to share news about our students and alumni around the world. While the Heller network grows larger each year, the ties that unite us grow stronger.

* fy’11 Heller Alumni Association board Member

+ fy’11 Heller board of Overseers Member

^ Deceased

~ Consistent donor (five years or more)

deAn’S circle ($5,000+)Anonymous Stuart AltmanNeal Bermas, Ph.D.’81 ~Ellen Block + Rosalind Chaikin ^ Jack Connors Jr. Ronald and Joan CurhanMoses Feldman ’62 +~Linda + and Michael Frieze ~ May Futrell, Ph.D.’76 ~Jody Hoffer Gittell Thomas P. Glynn III, M.S.W.’72, Ph.D.’77 +~Leonard Goodman +~Sherwood ’55 and Judith Gorbach ’58 ~Steven and Nancy Faye Lear Nancy Lurie Marks Family FoundationDavid Pokross Jr. and Laurie S. Gill Muriel Pokross ^ William Pokross Daniel and Susan Rothenberg +~ M. Bryna Sanger, Ph.D.’76 +~Phyllis Segal ’66 +Carl and Ruth Shapiro ~ Adam Sheer ’92 +~Jason Sheer Robert ’69 and Laura Sillerman Alan Slifka ^ and Riva Ritvo David + and Patricia Squire ~ Edward ’52 and Nancy Stavis ~ Lisbeth Tarlow + Stanley and Anya Rader Wallack, M.A.’01, Ph.D.’07 ~ Rhonda + and Michael Zinner ~

Alumni leAderS circle ($1,000–$4,999)Anonymous (2)G. Lawrence Atkins, Ph.D.’85 +~Ned Bandler ~ Christine Bishop ~ Robert and Nancy Blank Eric Cahow, Ph.D.’04 *~Stephen Coan ’84, M.M.H.S.’90, Ph.D.’97 ~

Irene Cramer, Ph.D.’99Harold Demone Jr., Ph.D.’66 ^~Diane Disney, Ph.D.’89 ~Michelle Dworkin, M.A.’07Len Fishman + Alejandro Garcia, Ph.D.’80John Hansan, Ph.D.’80Jonathan Katz, Ph.D.’81 +Mary Jo Larson, Ph.D.’92Edward Lawlor, Ph.D.’85 ~Marc and Janie Levey Lisa Lynch Eva Marx, M.M.H.S.’80 ~Jane Mattson, Ph.D.’94Laura Oskowitz Gail Robinson, Ph.D.’80 +~The Sabourin Family Barbara Skydell Safran, Ph.D.’83Alan Shakin ’69Jason Soloway, M.A.’01, M.M.’01 *~Michael George Tauber, M.M.H.S.’94Samuel + and Paula Thier Sidney Topol

ASSociAte ($500–$999)AnonymousDoris Toby Axelrod ’63, Ph.D.’99Stuart Carter, Ph.D.’91 ~Betty Jane Cleckley, Ph.D.’74 ~Paul Francis Creighton Jr., M.M.H.S.’81Austin Patrick Egan, M.B.A.’09Sheldon Gelman, Ph.D.’73 ~Lillian Labecki Glickman, M.S.W.’71, Ph.D.’81 *~Leslie Godoff ’71Elizabeth Levy Merrick, Ph.D.’98 ~Paula Paris, M.M.H.S.’79 +*~Julie Rosen, M.M.H.S.’89Margo Rosenbach ’78, Ph.D.’85 ~James Schulz Arthur and Barbara Sheer ~ Debra Rahmin Silberstein, M.A.’05, Ph.D.’09 *Myrna Weissman ’56Mary Ann Wilner, M.M.H.S.’81, Ph.D.’86 ~

heller donorS fy’11


founder ($250–$499)AnonymousNick William Alex, M.P.P.’09 *Laura Altman, Ph.D.’88 ~Mary Battcock, M.A.’08Mary Elizabeth Belgard, M.M.H.S.’91 ~Samuel Berger Mary Bouchard, M.B.A.’05Thomas Broussard Jr., Ph.D.’06Victor Capoccia, Ph.D.’78 *Joseph Castellana, Ph.D.’02 ~David and Wendy Greene Chaikin ~ Joel and Pamela Cohen ~ Gerben DeJong, Ph.D.’81Susan Hampton Edwards, M.M.H.S.’86 ~Sarah Emond, M.P.P.’09 *Dan Finkelstein, Ph.D.’05 ~Ross Schuyler Gibson, M.M.H.S.’85David and Eva Gil ~ Evelyn Bullitt Hausslein, M.M.H.S.’84 ~Elizabeth Hibner, M.M.’98Margaret Hobbs, M.B.A.’09Colin Holmes, M.A.’07 *Lois Horton, Ph.D.’77Christina Jameson, Ph.D.’81Leslie Pechman Koch, M.M.H.S.’93Sarah Larson, M.B.A.’04Walter Leutz, Ph.D.’81 ~Michael Levine, Ph.D.’85David Li, M.A.’00, Ph.D.’01Nick Littlefield Nancy Lohmann, Ph.D.’77, and Roger Lohmann, Ph.D.’75 ~ Laura Lorenz, M.A.’06, Ph.D.’08 *~Patricia Mail Nan Maley Lynne Man, M.A.’05, Ph.D.’08Ricardo Millett ’68, M.S.W.’70, Ph.D.’74Avis Pointer, Ph.D.’74 ~Craig Thomas and Sharon Ramey Daniel Rodell, Ph.D.’76 ~Robert Seidner ’98, M.B.A.’03Linda Simoni-Wastila, Ph.D.’93 ~Yvonne Eleanor Thraen, Ph.D.’77 ~Ione Dugger Vargus, Ph.D.’71 ~

Roberta Ward Walsh, Ph.D.’89 ~Jonathan Wasserman ’92, M.B.A.’08Steven Wisensale, Ph.D.’83Robert Wooler, M.M.H.S.’80 ~

contributor ($100–$249)AnonymousMarilyn Hoderny Amento, M.M.H.S.’78Nancy Ruth Aries, Ph.D.’82Jessie Evans Babcock, M.B.A.’09Lawrence Bailis Jonathan Barnett Jeremy Benjamin, M.A.’99, M.M.’99Sunindia Bhalla, M.B.A.’11Carol Blixen, Ph.D.’89Brenda Bond, Ph.D.’06Elliott Bovelle, Ph.D.’80 ~J. Kent Boynton, Ph.D.’80Ruth Brandwein, Ph.D.’78 ~Jacqueline Daniels Braunthal, M.M.H.S.’84 ~Doris Breay Dean Briggs, Ph.D.’85Richard Brooks, Ph.D.’74Jeffrey Stuart Brown, Ph.D.’02Eugene and Phyllis Brusiloff Charlotte Cherington Burrage, M.M.’97James Callicutt, Ph.D.’69 ^~Carmen Canino, M.M.H.S.’78Alexander Capron Cecilia Rivera Casale, Ph.D.’79 *~Karen Chaikin Mady Chalk, Ph.D.’90 ~Andrew Coburn, Ph.D.’82Marc Aaron Cohen, Ph.D.’87 ~Nancy Sachne Cooper, M.M.H.S.’89Jennifer Kane Coplon, Ph.D.’94 ~David Culberg ’06Mary Edna Davidson, Ph.D.’75Julie Anne Dennehy, M.M.’99Taletha Derrington, M.A.’07Carol DeVita, Ph.D.’85 ~Michael Dorfman Almas Dossa, Ph.D.’07Gilbert Dumas

Efrat Yeshva Eilat, M.B.A.’00Carola Eisenberg Sumru Erkut Ronald and Selma Farkas Jonathan and Edith Fassberg Virginia Fitzhugh, M.M.’03 ~Murray Frank, Ph.D.’74 *~Ruth Israelite Freedman ’69, Ph.D.’82Lori Berman Gans ’83, M.M.H.S.’86 ~Hollis Gauss, M.A.’01, M.M.’01Jack Gettens, M.A.’06, Ph.D.’09 ~Janet Giele Shirley Ann Girouard, Ph.D.’88John Gleason, M.M.H.S.’93Howard Goldman ’70, Ph.D.’78Heidi Goldsmith, M.M.H.S.’82Elizabeth Goodman James Gorman, M.S.W.’73, Ph.D.’78 ~Eric and Carolyn Gould Flora Greenberg Maura Jane Griffin, Ph.D.’86Ariela Gross Gary and Rebecca Guenther Toni Gustus, M.B.A.’99 ~Ruth Hanft Wayne Michael Harding ’70, Ph.D.’92 ~Oscar Harrell, Ph.D.’95 *Joan Danziger Hechtman, M.M.H.S.’83Miriam Hodesh, M.B.A.’07 *Gilbert and Betty Hoffman M.C. Terry Hokenstad Jr., Ph.D.’69 ~Francis Holt, M.A.’06, Ph.D.’11Constance Horgan Kathleen Hunt, M.M.H.S.’98 ~Sharon Hunt, Ph.D.’01 ~Clare Hurley, M.M.’05 ~Forsan Hussein ’00Herbert Hyman, Ph.D.’67 ~Robert and Ceil Jacobs Shiney James, M.B.A.’06Daniel Jimenez, Ph.D.’77Jean Klerman Cynthia Koslow Sanford Kravitz, Ph.D.’63 ~Sheldon and Rita Kwiat



Michelle Lackie, M.B.A.’03 ~Ann Lee, M.M.H.S.’95Alan and Ivy Leibowitz Roberta Leibowitz David Robert Leslie, M.M.H.S.’84Marya Randall Levenson ’64Roberta Leviton, Ph.D.’99 ~Philip Levy Katharine Kranz Lewis, Ph.D.’07Nancy Ellen Lightman, M.M.’02Christine Lux-Whiting, M.M.H.S.’81Carl MacMillan, M.M.H.S.’88 ~Diane Feeney Mahoney, Ph.D.’89 ~Mari Mary Matsumoto, M.M.H.S.’90Nancy McAward, M.M.H.S.’84Robert and Jane McCord June Ellen Mendelson, Ph.D.’86Akiko Mera, M.A.’05Jacqueline Michelove, M.M.H.S.’81 ~William Richard Miner, Ph.D.’76Paula Minihan, Ph.D.’03Vincent Mor, Ph.D.’79Susan Moscou, Ph.D.’06 ~Ann Mowery, Ph.D.’92Christina Murphy, M.M.’02 ~Sara Nechasek, M.M.H.S.’97Sharon Neuwald, M.M.H.S.’82Eleanor Newirth Edward Newman, Ph.D.’68Chrisann Newransky, M.A.’05 *~, and Jose Suaya, M.A.’02, Ph.D.’06 Andrew Nilsson, Ph.D.’92William and Kristie Oberlies Darlene O’Connor, Ph.D.’87 John Oliver, Ph.D.’75Bonnie Orlin Deborah Pearlman, Ph.D.’90 *~Sylvia Perlman, Ph.D.’85 ~Sandra Phillips Janet Poppendieck, M.S.W.’71, Ph.D.’79 ~Sue Porter David Portowicz, Ph.D.’80George Potamitis, M.M.H.S.’98Jessica Ratey, M.B.A.’10Betty Holroyd Roberts, Ph.D.’75 ~

Beatrice Lorge Rogers, Ph.D.’78 ~Shirah Kate Rosin, M.A.’10, M.P.P.’10Janis Rothbard, M.M.H.S.’81Richard Rowland, Ph.D.’70Blair and Arline Rubel Craig David Schneider, Ph.D.’04Magueye Seck, Ph.D.’95Dolores Selenkow Vijay Shah Elissa Nelson Sherman, Ph.D.’99Windsor Westbrook Sherrill, Ph.D.’00 ~Nina Silverstein, Ph.D.’80 *~Diane Skufca, M.M.H.S.’86Michael and Alice Solomon William Spector ’67, Ph.D.’81Susan Squire and David Hirshey Walter Stern, Ph.D.’67 ~Emma Stokes, Ph.D.’78 ~Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski, Ph.D.’06Lynne Sullivan, M.B.A.’02 ~Jeanette Takamura, Ph.D.’85James Wilson Trent Jr., Ph.D.’82Michael Trisolini, M.A.’00, Ph.D.’01 ~Cameron Tucker, M.M.H.S.’83Winston Turner, Ph.D.’87 ~Denise Tyler, M.A.’06, Ph.D.’07Julio Alejandro Urbina, Ph.D.’01 *~Michele Visconti, M.A.’00, Ph.D.’01 ~Miranda Rains Waggoner, M.A.’08Janet Wasserstein, M.M.H.S.’90 ~Jack and Evelyn Weinstein Joel Weissman, Ph.D.’87 ~Judith Weissman Jean Whitney, M.M.’01 ~Donna Yee, Ph.D.’90Assunta Young, Ph.D.’79 ~Jessica Zander, M.M.H.S.’94 ~Leona Zarsky, M.M.H.S.’78 ~Caroline Budney Zimmerman, M.P.P.’09

Every effort has been made to accurately list the names of all donors. Please let us know if your name has been inadvertently omitted or incorrectly listed. For more information, please contact the Heller Office of Development and Alumni Relations at 781-736-3808 or visit heller.brandeis.edu, where you can also make a gift online.


your PlAnning helPS Secure heller’S future

Brandeis University’s Sachar Society recognizes and honors those alumni and friends who have chosen to include the university in their estate plans. When such gifts are designated for Heller, you help to secure the future financial strength of your alma mater.

We invite you to join this select group of legacy donors in one of the following ways: by including Heller in your will; by listing Heller as a beneficiary on a retirement plan (IRA) or a life insur-ance policy; or by creating a charitable gift annuity to secure personal income now and provide a future gift to Heller. To learn more about these and other options to extend the benefits of your generosity, please call the Heller Development Office at 781-736-3808, or log on to Brandeis’ interactive website, http://givingto.brandeis.giftplans.org.

On behalf of future generations of Heller students, faculty and researchers, thank you!

An irA hAS more thAn one PurPoSeby deborAh kAPlAn Polivy, Ph.d.’78

All of us, to some extent, owe our successful careers to the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. We succeeded in part because of our education; the peers and faculty members with whom we studied; and the reputation of the Heller School in the world in which we operate.

How do we say thank you? We give to the Annual Fund. But that is really not very much in comparison to what we have gained.

I said thank you through my IRA — by leaving a named endow-ment fund to the Heller School. Most of us as professionals don’t have huge amounts of assets. Those of us with children have prob-ably made sure that they, like us, are well educated.

One of the few assets we do have is our retirement plans, and, according to current law, distributions from these will be taxed if left to our heirs. We did not pay tax on these funds when we put them away into some kind of savings plan, and the government will get its due unless — like other charitable gifts — we designate that these are transferred on death to charity.

I have designated two nonprofit organizations to receive my retire-ment funds upon my death — organizations that have had a huge

impact on my life and to whom I want to say “thank you.” I also have instructed on the beneficiary designation form that the funds earmarked for the Heller School be used to establish an endow-ment in my name.

Deborah Kaplan Polivy works as a consultant helping nonprofit organizations create fundraising plans, especially endowment programs. Visit her website at www.deborahpolivy.com.

recent grAdS giving bAck

bAbAtu AdAm, m.A.’09

“For me, there is personal satisfaction in giving to and serving others. And it is more satisfying when you give back to an institu-tion that has given you so much! That is what Heller represents in my life. I have a lifetime commitment to give back to the Heller community whenever I have the resources to do so.”

JeSSie bAbcock, m.b.A.’09

“As a Presidential Management Fellow, I have found my Heller MBA invaluable in preparing me for a career in the public sector. Heller’s focus on mission-driven management and quantitative skills, combined with opportunities to apply those skills in real-world contexts, gave me tools that I use on a daily basis. Moreover, my friendships with Heller students from truly diverse backgrounds have helped me better understand the complex environments in which I work.

“The reason I give to Heller? So that future generations of social justice leaders and policymakers may benefit, as I did, from a world-class education.”


BaBatu adam


New Jobs/Degrees/DirectioNs

Laura Alpert ’96, M.M.H.S.’98, has joined Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood as vice president for development. She previously worked with the Northeast Parent & Child

Society for eight and a half years, most recently serving as vice president of grants development and vice president of commu-nications. She lives in Albany with her husband, Chris. ([email protected])

In May, Jessie Babcock, M.B.A.’09, a presi-dential management fellow (PMF) working at the Pentagon, delivered a talk at the Heller School’s Coexistence and Conflict Conference titled “The 3D Approach (Development, Diplomacy, Defense) at Work in the Pentagon.” She will finish the PMF track at the Department of Defense in Stuttgart, Germany, where she will work as an international politi-cal-military specialist at U.S. Africa Command. After completing her fellowship in December 2011, Babcock plans to return to the Pentagon to start work in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy as the country director for Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. ([email protected])

Bibiana Irene Bangpuori, M.A.’04 (SID), is the national program coordinator with Venture Strategies Innovations, Population Council (Accra, Ghana). She is involved in introducing and evaluating the impact of the medication Misoprostol in preventing and treating postpartum hemorrhage.

William Bloomfield, Ph.D.’02, was a featured artist in the major sculpture exhibi-tion at Bridgewater State University sponsored by the New England Sculptors Association (NESA). “Kinesis,” a carved soapstone piece by Bloomfield, was selected for several juried competitions in 2011, including one at the Concord Art Association. Described as “abstract, yet somewhat representational,” it was exhibited on the website “ArtSlant” after winning an international competition.

Bloomfield is also a member of NESA’s Board of Directors. ([email protected])

Faustina Alimatu Braima, M.A.’10 (SID), continues to work in Accra, Ghana, on microfinance for urban women.

Pashupati Chaudhary, M.A.’04 (SID), successfully completed his dissertation defense for a Ph.D. in environmental science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, on July 7, 2011. ([email protected])

David Chivo, M.A./M.M.H.S.’96, is the vice president of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. His family has relocated to Seattle. ([email protected])

Lee Cohen, M.A.’10 (SID), became a foreign service officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in November 2010, and he spent eight months working for the agency in Washington, D.C. In September he began his first international post in Bamako, Mali, where he is helping manage USAID’s education portfolio over the next two years. ([email protected])

Kevin Corbin, M.A.’05, continues to manage education and youth develop-ment programs in Southeast Asia, and he continues to surf whenever possible. He is also doing Olympic distance triathlons as often as possible and working toward developing a more just and equal

society ... and always keeping the stoke! ([email protected])

Consolata Soyiri Dassah, M.A.’10 (SID), is a program officer for a major NGO and recently transferred to the central part of Ghana.

Mohammed Dawuda, M.A.’11 (SID), entered a doctoral program in planning at the University of Florida in Tallahassee in September.

Behzad Dayanim, M.A./M.B.A.’06, was appointed head of school of the MetroWest Jewish Day School (MWJDS) in Framingham, Mass. Most recently, Dayanim served as head of school at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford in West Hartford, Conn. Dayanim was the director of creative arts at MWJDS for the first three years after the school’s founding. While at Heller, Dayanim was honored with the Ribakoff Fellowship in Jewish Communal Service.

Caitlin Deschenes-Desmond, M.B.A./M.A.’11 (SID), received an Education Pioneers Fellowship and did a 10-week consult-ing project with an education organization in San Francisco. Education Pioneers is a national network of leaders and entrepreneurs committed to improving leadership within public educa-tion. The organization received more than 2,000 applications from students at top schools throughout the country and accepted fewer than 15 percent. ([email protected])

Susan Edwards, M.M.H.S.’87, traveled to Ghana, West Africa, in May with her four high school and college-aged children to build a basketball court and participate in a feeding/deworming program for children vulnerable to child slavery in the fishing villages of Lake Volta. She and her children continue their work for City of Refuge/Finding Refuge in their hometown and colleges, raising funds, supplies and awareness about the problem of child slavery. ([email protected])

Lori Gans ’83, M.M.H.S.’86, was appointed national director of institutional advancement for the David Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and inspiring strong voices for Israel. Previously Gans served as

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the director of alumni relations at Brandeis University, the director of development and campaign director at Hebrew Senior Life, and interim chief development officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. At the David Project, she will oversee the organization’s development and marketing work in Boston, New York and around the country. ([email protected])

This past May, Pertula George, M.A.’08 (SID), welcomed Britain’s Prince Charles to Common Good City Farm, where she is execu-tive director. It is dubbed the only urban farm in Washington, D.C. Prince Charles is a long-time supporter of sustainable agriculture.

Heidi Goldsmith, M.M.H.S.’82, returned to live in Israel at the end of April and is working at the Goldstein Youth Village in Jerusalem — a residential school for unaccompanied immi-grant children and for children whose parents’ immigration to Israel was problematic. She left Israel in 1981 to attend the Heller School’s M.M.H.S. program and is delighted to return. ([email protected])

Ben P. Granger, Ph.D.’71, has held the following positions since earning a doctor-ate at Heller: associate dean, College of Social Professions, University of Kentucky; dean, College of Social Work, University of Tennessee; and director, School of Social Work, Colorado State University (CSU). Now retired, he primarily taught in the social policy practice/advocacy area. Granger continues to be active in promoting and advocating for key social legislation and working with university students interested in this area. He and his wife are co-directors of HABIC (Human-Animal Bond in Colorado), a center of CSU. ([email protected])

John “Jack” E. Hansan, Ph.D.’80, has developed a social welfare history website (www.socialwelfarehistory.org). It is a source of easy-to-read information about many of the individuals and organizations prominent among the rich panoply of America’s social welfare pioneers who helped make our nation a more humane place to live and work. Because it is a work in progress, Heller alumni who are interested in social welfare history or who have

historical materials to share are most welcome to submit entries and be listed among the website’s distinguished contributors.

Antoinette M. Hays, Ph.D.’90, was appointed the 10th president of Regis College, Weston, Mass. Hays, previously dean of the Regis School of Nursing, Science and Health Professions, assumed her presidential responsi-bilities on July 1.

Yan Huang, M.S.’08, is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University in the Department of Applied Health Science. He and his wife and their daughters, Crystal and Valonia, live in Bloomington, Ind. ([email protected])

Esther Kamau, M.A.’11 (SID), is working for World Vision Kenya as a program officer and is responsible for strategy development and resource acquisition. She assists in emer-gency response to the current drought that has rendered 12 million people in the Horn of Africa in need of immediate food assistance. In Kenya alone, 3.75 million people are in dire need of immediate assistance with food and non-food items. The U.N. has declared this the worst drought in Kenya in more than 60 years. “Our strategy is to respond to immediate life-saving needs of the affected people while working to reduce communities’ vulnerability to disaster by putting in place both medium and long-term measures — mainly irrigation schemes, improved farming technology and water systems, and taking care of the environ-ment,” Kamau says.

Purity Karuga, M.A.’10 (SID), accepted a new job position in June 2011 as program coor-dinator for the Africa Ecolabelling Mechanism/Eco Mark Africa under a contract with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale

Zusammenarbeit). This is a Pan-African initia-tive whose aim is to promote intra-African and international trade and to enable African econ-omies to adapt and contribute to mitigation of climate change. Currently, certifiable sustain-ability standards are being developed for agri-culture, forestry, fisheries and tourism sectors, with the aim of having an African label known as Eco Mark Africa (EMA), which will be given to producers who meet the criteria. In addition, a benchmarking and recognition system is also being developed for other sustainability stan-dards that will use the EMA label. The program is currently under the auspices of the African Union Commission and other partners.

Ruth Kelley, M.M.’04, chief behavioral health officer at the Dimock Center in Roxbury, Mass., is pleased to announce the opening of two new programs at the center for women with substance abuse disorders. My Sister’s House (a long-term residential program) and Women’s Renewal (a clinical stabilization service to address addiction and trauma) are funded by the Department of Public Health/Bureau of Substance Abuse Services. They complete a full continuum of substance abuse programs for women, men and their families: detox, clinical stabilization services, outpatient and residential services, and transitional and permanent housing programs. The Dimock Community Health Center is the only health center in the state with a full range of substance abuse and mental health services on campus. www.dimock.org. ([email protected])

Amy Klotz, M.M.’00, M.A.’01, has a new job as the annual campaign director at the Rashi School in Dedham, Mass. ([email protected])

Samuel Kwotuah, M.A.’07 (SID), is involved in program management for the USAID West Africa Program, in Accra, Ghana.

Michael Levine, Ph.D.’85, recently provided the closing keynote address to the Games, Learning and Society’s Seventh Annual Conference in Madison, Wis., on the topic of gaming education reform. He also recently appeared as the guest on the PBS program “The Open Mind” to discuss innovation in children’s media. He is the executive director of the Joan

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Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. ([email protected])

David Macarov, Ph.D.’68, has been appointed to the Board of Life Tools, an NGO head-quartered in Amsterdam that is concerned with arrangements for orphans throughout the world. ([email protected])

Sa’adatu Maida, M.A.’08 (SID), is one of seven commissioners on the Electoral Commission of Ghana. She is involved in upgrading technology for transparent elections in 2012.

Ann Marchewka, Ph.D.’94, recently was appointed to a faculty position at Norwich University in Northfield, Vt. She has served as a nurse, health care executive and consultant for 25 years. Marchewka’s early training was focused in child psychiatry, and she worked with families throughout the Boston area. Over time, her work extended to designing systems to increase quality and efficacy of health care delivery systems. She has led orga-nizations during times of complex change, transition and realignment, and she directed leadership through major strategic shifts, building high-performance teams. Areas of interest include health care policy, complex-ity science and indigenous healing practices. Marchewka’s experience extends into Kenya, China, Nicaragua, Poland, Thailand and Brazil. ([email protected])

Danna Mauch, Ph.D.’07, principal scien-tist/research associate at Abt Associates in Cambridge, Mass., has been appointed to serve as chairman of the 2011–12 National Board of Directors of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), a national school-based, peer-to-peer prevention, education and activ-ism organization formerly known as Students Against Drunk Driving. Mauch will join other professionals in the youth health and safety field and serve as an advocate for the 30-year organization, which has nearly 10,000 chapters and more than 350,000 active participants in schools nationwide. Mauch was elected to the board in March 2009. ([email protected])

Gracia M. McGovern, M.A.’07 (COEX), is the office manager/project assistant for Meister Consultants Group/IFOK, a Boston-based leading international consulting firm in sustain-able development specializing in conflict resolu-tion through communication and participation. McGovern is currently working on a mini-research project regarding Somalia/Somaliland relations. ([email protected])

Tamar Moskowitz ’08, M.A.’09, M.A.’11, M.B.A.’11, upon graduating from Heller, accepted the position of volunteer and food coordinator at Family Table, the largest kosher food pantry in New England. Family Table is a program within Jewish Family & Children’s Service that reaches Jewish and non-Jewish clients in the North Shore and the Greater Boston area. Moskowitz prepares the monthly food distributions for more than 600 clients and 100 volunteers and is growing the program’s reach. She loves the professional rigor applied to the cause, the positive working environment and the tangible difference she can make in the local community. ([email protected])

Emara Nabi, M.S.’08, research coordinator at the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, was selected for the 2010 Clinical Effectiveness Program Scholarship at the Harvard School of Public Health. Nabi’s abstract on “Parents Smoking in Their Cars With Children,” which used data from a national tobacco control trial, the Cease study, was selected for presenta-tion at the American Academy of Pediatrics Presidential Plenary session during the 2011 Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Denver.

Thu Nguyen, M.A.’09 (SID), has enrolled in the Ph.D. program on land-use planning, manage-ment and design at Texas Tech University, where she started this fall. She, her husband and two young daugh-ters moved to Lubbock, Texas, in August. ([email protected])

Tung Nhu Nguyen, M.B.A.’10, reunited with his family in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and was selected to be a full-time lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City International University — the first public university offering degree programs fully in English in Vietnam. He is teaching management courses, including operations management and project management. Proud that he could transfer higher-education knowl-edge gained at Heller to students in Vietnam, he is dedicated to a teaching and research career and would appreciate opportunities to network with Heller alumni. ([email protected])

Andrew T. Nilsson, Ph.D.’92, retired after 33 years of teaching at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he was coordinator of the university’s social work program. On his retirement, Nilsson was honored as the Social Work Educator of the Year by the Connecticut Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Kalu Obuka, M.A.’10 (COEX), is currently the conflict management specialist with Meta-Culture in Bangalore. Meta-Culture helps corporations, communities, civil society orga-nizations and government agencies leverage the opportunities inherent in conflict and resolve seemingly intractable disputes. The organiza-


tion is establishing a new field, bringing the practice of dialogue to India. “I am excited to be a part of it,” Obuka says. ([email protected])

Jeffrey Richard, M.M.H.S.’96, was appointed vice president for university development at Columbia University in January 2011. Since leaving Heller, he has held various development positions at Combined Jewish Philanthropies, New York University and Columbia. He lives in New York with his partner, Marc Kramer, and their three children. ([email protected])

Jeffrey Roberts ’07, M.P.P.’09, is complet-ing a postbaccalaureate certificate program in premedical studies at the University of Louisville. ([email protected])

The Watertown Community Foundation has hired Jennifer Ross, M.P.P.’11, to work part-time as Watertown’s riverfront coordinator. Her task is to stimulate interest, awareness and activity along the Charles.

Catie Ryan, M.A.’08 (SID), living in New York, has been at the environmental consulting firm Terrapin Bright Green for three years and is now the LEED project manager for a new 100-story tower in Malaysia. It’s an exciting project that aims to set a new precedent for sustainability in tall buildings. Her other work includes biophilia for health and well-being in the built environment, biomimicry as a guide for energy efficiency innovation, and deep ecological history as a tool for sustainable urban planning. It’s a wonderful, ever-changing field of work, and she so enjoys being a part of it. “To anyone who’s passing through New York City — you are always welcome to visit!” she says. ([email protected])

Cedric Schuster, M.A.’99 (SID), was elected in March 2011 to the Samoa Parliament for a five-year term. He is a member of the Opposition Party (Tautua Samoa Party) and the spokesperson for the environment. He continues to own a small environmental consultancy based in Samoa. He also serves as

the Pacific coordinator for the Pacific Advisory Board of Global Greengrants Fund and as the Samoa field representative of Seacology Foundation, facilitating the development and implementation of grassroots projects for communities in Samoa. He and his wife have four children, sons ages 12, 10 and 4 and an 8-year-old daughter. ([email protected])

Rafael M. Semansky, M.A.’08, Ph.D.’10, is a research manager with the Pew Charitable Trusts, conducting policy research for the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign. ([email protected])

Alane Karen Shanks, M.M.H.S.’87, was installed as president of Pine Manor College on October 14, 2011. She has more than 25 years of experience in the educational field, including leading administrative roles at Harvard Medical School and Roxbury Community College.

Power to the People, a nonprofit founded by Jenean Smith, M.A.’05 (SID), completed its fifth off-grid solar project in rural Nicaragua in July. Volunteers traveled to Nicaragua with Power to the People and installed a 900W solar electric system and a 175W battery-charging station on an elementary school in the town of Santa Maria on Zapatera Island. With no grid electricity on the island, the solar system now provides the school with lights and AC power so community members can hold meetings at night, charge cell phones and car batteries, and use more advanced teaching methods. Power to the People leads three trips a year and is supported by volunteers, including several SID alumni. (www.powertothepeople.org, [email protected])

Robin Spath, Ph.D.’02, received tenure with a promotion to associate professor at the University of Connecticut in May 2010. She also gave birth to a son and daughter: Matthew Alexander on July 13, 2009, and Ava Elizabeth on August 12, 2011. ([email protected])

Allen R. Stata, Ph.D.’94, is chair of the Department of Social Work at Judson College in Marion, Ala. Stata is building a new social work program and taking it through the accreditation process. He came to Judson from

Eastern New Mexico University after success-fully building a new social work program there and guiding it through accreditation. ([email protected])

Lawrence Sticca, M.A.’01 (SID), holds a postgraduate advanced certificate in adult studies from the University of Southern Maine. Since acquir-ing his degrees, he has taught sustainable development, tourism, business and humanities courses in several colleges, most recently in Belize. Now in Singapore, he began a two-year contract in July 2011 teaching tourism and hospitality at Raffels College of Higher Learning. ([email protected])

Laurie R. Stillman, M.M.H.S.’82, recently was promoted to chief strategy officer (CSO), filling a new position created by the president of Health Resources in Action (HRiA), a national nonprofit public health and medical research organization located in Boston. The CSO is charged with creating, communicating and implementing strategic initiatives as well as providing innovative thinking, increasing

business opportuni-ties and cultivating key community, government and orga-nizational relation-ships. She previously directed and founded the Public Health Policy and Strategies Center at HRiA

and served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. She lives in Milton, Mass., with her husband and two children. ([email protected])

After graduating, Joel Thompson, M.A.’11 (SID), returned to Kenya, where he had completed his practicum. Now living in Nairobi, he is pitching complementary currency system design, implementation, administration and consultancy services to donors, donor programs and networks. In particular, he is

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working on a product called the NGO Credit Circuit — an online marketplace where NGOs can trade resources and capacity using a unique medium of exchange. He looks forward to welcoming Hellerites and alumni to Kenya at any time. ([email protected])

Anne Waisman, M.S.W.’72, retired as CEO of Arizona Capacitors after the sale of the company to Electrotechnik Industries (ETI). ([email protected])

In June, Andrew Westbury, M.A.’07 (SID), joined the Brookings Institution as assistant director for the Africa Growth Initiative. ([email protected])

Clay Matthew Westrope, M.A.’11 (SID), has accepted a position at ACTED International as an appraisal, monitoring and evaluation officer in Tajikistan. ([email protected])

PublicatioNs

Diane Feeney Mahoney, Ph.D.’89, recently authored two publications — “The Aging Nurse Workforce and Technology” in Gerontechnology (2011) (1091): 13–25 and “An Evidence-Based Adoption of Technology Model for Remote Home Monitoring of Elders” in Ageing International (2011) 36 (1): 66-81. She also served as a faculty member at the NIH/NIA July Summer Institute on Aging Research, speaking on managing your first clinical inter-vention trial. ([email protected])

Leonard J. Marcus, Ph.D.’83, is lead author of “Renegotiating Health Care: Resolving Conflict to Build Collaboration,” Second Edition (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2011). Written with co-authors Barry Dorn, M.D., and Eric McNulty, this thoroughly revised and updated edition offers a practical guide to negotiation and conflict resolution in the health care field. It explores how unresolved conflict hampers timely, cost-effective decisions and strategic development. The book focuses on the complex interactions between those

who deliver, receive, administer and oversee health care. It defines negotiation techniques and conflict resolution approaches designed to improve efficiency, quality of care and patient safety. Marcus directs the Program of Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Harvard School of Public Health. ([email protected])

awarDs/HoNors/boarDs/graNts

Ruth A. Brandwein, Ph.D.’78, was honored by the National Association of Puerto Rican Hispanic Social Workers in June, receiving their Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the incoming legislative chair for the National Association of Social Workers in Sarasota, Fla. ([email protected])

Gerben DeJong, Ph.D.’81, gave this year’s Distinguished G. Heiner Sell, M.D., Lecture at the joint meetings that the American Spinal Injury Association and the International Spinal Cord Society held in Washington, D.C., this past June. DeJong spoke on the role of value-based purchasing and innovation in spinal cord injury management. After noting the enormous

gains made in spinal injury management over the last 35 years, he argued that, in the future, innovation would be less about the science and more about how we deliver care, because new health payment systems will emphasize value over volume. DeJong is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Post-Acute Innovation & Research with the National Rehabilitation Hospital and MedStar Health Research Institute. He is also a professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. ([email protected])

Charles E. Drum, Ph.D.’95, was appointed director of the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire and a profes-sor of health management and policy. He is an internationally and nationally known researcher in disability and health and was the lead editor of the first textbook on disability and public health, published jointly in 2009 by the American Public Health Association and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Among other honors and awards, he received the 2009 National Distinguished Disability Researcher Award at the Southwest Conference on Disabilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the 2008 Distinguished Faculty Award for Collaboration from Oregon Health & Science University. ([email protected])

Ruth I. Freedman, Ph.D.’82, associate dean for academic affairs at Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW), received the 2011 BUSSW Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to the School of Social Work. She also was appointed to serve on the Council on Social Work Education Commission on Educational Policy. ([email protected])

The American Council on Education has presented Mary K. Grant, Ph.D.’00, with its Massachusetts National Network of Women’s Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing the college president’s leadership and promotion of women in the field of higher education. “Over her lifetime of working in higher educa-tion, Mary has been an exemplary role model and advocate for women in all stages of their

Gerben DeJong (right) with Kris Ragnarsson, M.D., chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New york. Ragnarsson is a leading voice in spinal cord injury medicine.


career in higher education. She’s a tireless and dedicated person who gives so much of herself. She has all the attributes of a great leader,” said Denise Hammon, the state chairwoman of ACE. Grant is the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ 11th president and the first alumna to hold the position.

Amy Hanes, M.A.’11 (SID and Women and Gender Studies), was awarded the 2011 Mother Board Writing Prize, granted by the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies (GCWS) to honor graduate student research and writing in the field of women’s and gender studies. Hanes was recognized for her unpub-lished written work that exemplifies the three tenets central to the GCWS mission: interdis-ciplinary inquiry; innovative thinking; and epistemologically self-conscious investigation. ([email protected])

At the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Immunization Program’s third annual statewide conference in March, Edward Ihejirika, M.S.’10, was one of six individuals and programs presented with the Excellence in Immunization Partnership award. The prize honored his work at the Mascoma Valley Health Initiative in Canaan, N.H., developing local support for school-based flu shot clinics and increasing the number of students successfully vaccinated.

Vincent Mor, Ph.D.’79, the Florence Pirce Grant Professor of Community Health at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School’s Public Health Program, was awarded the Distinguished Investigator Award from Academy Health at the June 2011 annual meeting.

Janet Poppendieck, Ph.D.’79, was selected as one of 10 winners, along with First Lady Michelle Obama, of the first annual James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards, which recognize “visionaries in the business, govern-ment and education sectors responsible for creating a healthier, safer and more sustain-able food world.” Her most recent book, “Free for All: Fixing School Food in America,” won the Book of the Year Award for 2010 from the Association for the Study of Food and Society. Last year, Poppendieck was selected by Share

Our Strength to address the chefs who gath-ered to launch the First Lady’s Chefs Move to Schools Initiative. ([email protected])

Alzad Sattar, M.A.’10 (COEX), was named Outstanding IIS Alumnus for Peace, 2011, by the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS), University of the Philippines. Since 1996, Sattar has been a professor of Islamic studies and political science at the Basilan State College in the Philippines.

birtHs/Marriages

Benjamin Bloomenthal, M.B.A.’08, reports the birth of his son, Aron Meir Bloomenthal, on February 17, 2011.

Cara (Freedman) Eule, M.M.’03, and her husband, Jason, welcomed their second son, Noah, on Aug. 8, 2011. They reside in Orlando, Fla., where Eule has spent the last four years as director of a housing program for home-less women and children. She now joins her family’s Florida-based consulting firm focusing on the areas of program development, evalua-tion, grant writing and technical assistance for nonprofits. ([email protected])

Anna E. Gazos, M.P.P.’09, married Dan O’Connor on May 21, 2011, at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. ([email protected])

Diah Irawaty M.A.’08, from Indonesia, gave birth to a son, Allegra Zeal Ganesha Tierra Rafa, in her hometown of Medan, North Sumatera, on June 14, 2011. ([email protected])

Rebecca Pearl, M.A.’01 (SID), and Justin Martinez welcomed a baby girl, Vega Pearl-Martinez, on May 22, 2011. Pearl is the senior researcher for climate change at Oxfam America. ([email protected])

Matt Saxton, M.B.A./M.S.’09, married Sara McClellan on April 19, 2011, in Grand Cayman. The newlyweds live in Washington, D.C. ([email protected])

Faculty/staFF Notes

Dr. Stuart H. Altman was listed in Modern Health Care’s top 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare again this year.

Brenda Anderson, director, M.B.A. program, received the 2011 Teaching Excellence Award from Brandeis’ International Business School.

Lawrence Bailis, associate professor, was elected chair of the board of the Massachusetts Service Alliance. The nonprofit serves as the state commission on service and volunteerism, granting more than $10 million a year for AmeriCorps, Commonwealth Corps and other service and volunteer programs in the state.

Christine Bishop, Atran Professor of Labor Economics, was appointed to the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Mental Health Workforce for Geriatric Populations. In February, she testified before the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Financing and Policy, questioning the method used by MassHealth to set Medicaid rates for adult day health services, based on her study of adult day health costs. In August, Governor Patrick signed into law a statute providing for a working group to make recommendations concerning the Medicaid payment method for adult day health.

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Many thanks both to Christine Bishop and Kay Bennett, program director and program administrator respectively, who are stepping down after eight years of dedicated service. Bishop remains at Heller, while Bennett is taking on responsibilities outside of Heller.

The Ph.D. program announces its new direc-tor is Susan Parish, the Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Disability Policy and director of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Heller. Working with her is the new program administrator, Cheryl Sweeney, who returns to Heller after eight years. Most recently she was working as the academic administrator for the American studies and journalism programs at Brandeis.

Professor Susan Holcombe won this year’s Mentoring Award for her outstanding support and encouragement of the research, educa-tion, professional and personal development of Heller students. Professor Susan L. Parish won the 2011 Teaching Award for her excellence in fostering excitement about learning, stim-ulating intellectual curiosity, and challenging and inspiring students to become engaged citi-zens of the world. Students and recent alumni of Heller’s six degree programs submitted nomi-nations for these awards; the final selections were made by a committee composed of Heller faculty, students, staff and alumni.

The M.A./SID program has a new associate program director, Marion Howard, M.A.’04 (SID), who will become acting program director for the spring term while Larry Simon is on sabbatical.

Robert Mechanic’s paper “Opportunities and Challenges for Episode-Based Payment,” was published in the Sept. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The paper examines the potential benefits of episode-based payment — an approach that bundles reim-bursement for medical services delivered during episodes of care across multiple providers (i.e., hospital, physician, post-acute, home care) over a defined time period (i.e. 30 days) into a single episode of care payment. Mechanic, senior fellow at the Heller School and executive director of the Health Industry Forum, argues that private payers and the federal government

should rapidly develop pilot programs to test different strategies for implementing episode-based payments that could work for health care providers at varying levels of readiness for payment reform.

Tatjana Meschede, research director at the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP), was recently promoted to senior scientist. Meschede, along with IASP Director Thomas Shapiro, Research Associate Laura Sullivan, M.A.’08, and Demos — a public policy research and advocacy organization — recently published the report “From Bad to Worse: Senior Economic Insecurity on the Rise.” (http://iasp.brandeis.edu/pdfs/FromBadtoWorse.pdf )

This year, Allyala Krishna Nandakumar will serve as program director for the M.S. program in international health policy and development with Wu Zeng, M.S.’05, Ph.D.’09, as assistant program director.

Building From Within: Alumni at CYC Heller In May, the Center for Youth and Communities (CYC) was pleased to welcome Heller graduate Alexandra Piñeros Shields, Ph.D.’07, as senior research associate. Shields joins the ranks of many more Heller alumni at CYC, including Professor Andrew B. Hahn, Ph.D.’78, scientist Susan Lanspery, Ph.D.’89, Senior Research Associate Erika Moldow, Ph.D.’07, Research Associate and Ph.D. candidate Thomas Piñeros Shields, Research Associate and Ph.D. candidate Sara Plachta-Elliott, M.A.’10, and Research Associate Toni Schwarzenbach, M.P.P.’09.

To read more about faculty, researchers and staff publications, grant awards, presentations and other scholarships, go to the Heller Highlights website at http://heller.brandeis.edu/research/highlights.html.

iN MeMoriaM

Harold Demone, Ph.D.’66, died suddenly at home on Cape Cod in September. Born in 1924, he was a U.S. Army veteran of WWII. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from Tufts University and a Ph.D. from Heller. During his social work career, Demone consulted in more than 20 states. He was a driving force behind federal and state legislative initiatives related to services and research regarding mental health, mental retardation and alcoholism, and several other areas. Dean of the School of Social Work at Rutgers University from 1977 to 1987, he was also a prolific writer, with eight books and dozens of articles to his credit. He leaves behind his wife, Marguerite F. (Reilly) Demone and daughter Deborah Jan Demone, along with several nieces and nephews.

WINTER 2011 alumNI NEWs aNd VIEWs

Lisa M. LynchDean and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy

Samuel O. Thier, MDChair, Heller Board of Overseers

Paula Paris, M.M.H.S.’79President, Heller Alumni Association Board

Leslie Godoff ’71Director, Development and Alumni Relations

Jennifer Raymond Assistant Director for Annual Giving and Alumni Relations

Tracey PalmerFeature Writer

Claudia J. Jacobs ’70Director of Communications Initiatives

Courtney LombardoSenior Program Administrator, Development and Alumni Relations

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heller alumni news winter 2011

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