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Issue Number 11
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December 2015
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Another calendar year is coming to a close. As we prepare to face a presidential election year in 2016, our colleagues in the Graduate School of Political Management will be in the forefront of research relevant to the field of applied politics. Our students will be actively engaged in campaigns for the candidates of both parties: analyzing and designing winning strategies, developing communications and public relations plans, and being workers or consultants to the campaigns of their favorite candidates armed with the knowledge and techniques they have learned in their respective GSPM programs, which are based on the long traditions of democracy and a thorough understanding of democratic elections. It should be a fascinating year for those who are closely attuned to the latest developments in politics.
Beyond the intense activities of an election year, our CPS colleagues in other fields will continue their excellent work in learning and discovery and in educating the next generation of leaders in their respective professions. CPS Leads will continue to chronicle the progress of our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends, as well as showcasing their impressive and extraordinary accomplishments.
In this last edition of 2015, I would like to wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.
With Best Wishes,
Ali Eskandarian
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Of Note:
A Sweet Sorrow Farewell to Derek Haseltine
Derek Haseltine, CPS' proficient, personable and popular Director of Career Services, has left GW for a new position at Baylor College of Medicine. As Assistant Dean of Students Melissa Feuer put it, "I am happy (for Derek) and sad (for all of us) to let you know that Derek will be leaving GW on December 9th. Derek and his family will be moving to Houston where he will become the inaugural Director of Career Development at Baylor College of Medicine, tasked with building a career center serving students, fellows and junior faculty across four schools."
In his three years as CPS' Director of Career Services, Derek raised the level of student advising and employer interaction by providing individual career counseling to students and alumni and by introducing site visits to facilitate networking opportunities with employers and industry professionals. His contributions also included implementation of new technologies and forging strong relationships with university-wide career services. At Baylor he will be working to expand career and professional development opportunities of Ph.D. and MD students and postdoctoral/clinical fellows from four schools: Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Tropical Medicine and Allied Health Sciences.
We thank Derek for his professionalism and deep care for students and wish him, his wife Holly and their children Eden, Alivia and Lucas all the best in their new life in Houston.
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Adele Ashkar: Not Your Typical Landscape Architect
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ASLA Fellow Adele Ashkar
(center)
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As first reported in the August 2015 issue of CPS Leads, Adele N. Ashkar, CPS Associate Dean for Academic Excellence and Director of Landscape Design Program was named by The American Society of Landscape Architects as one of the members elevated to the ASLA Council of Fellows for 2015. Dean Ashkar was officially recognized as a Fellow at the 2015 ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO held November 6-9, in Chicago.
Adele Ashkar isn't your typical landscape architect. Her career path has taken her from working full time at a practice to becoming a respected educator to designing pro bono public projects. Through it all, she carried with her a passion for design and a dedication to sustainability that was recognized at last Starting out as a landscape architect at the global design firm HOK, Ashkar soon found it difficult to balance her professional aspirations and her growing family. Her temporary solution to this challenge ended up shifting her career path. "I ended up in education almost by mistake," says Ashkar. "I was drawn into teaching as a part-time job while I was raising a family. I thought I would just do it for a bit to keep active professionally, but it turned out to be incredibly rewarding, and so eventually I became an academic full time at GW."
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$250,000 in Prizes for Students, Alumni, Faculty and Staff!
The GW New Venture Competition is now accepting applications until the January 19, 2016 deadline. This year the competition will award $125,000 in cash prizes and another $125,000 in in-kind prizes to GW Startup Teams. The competition is open to students, alumni, faculty and staff from all GW schools and offers tracks for social entrepreneurship ventures as well as commercial ventures.
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Attention: Graduating GW Seniors!
The University has announced that it is renewing its Grad2Grad program for next year, offering a 10 percent tuition reduction to 2016 GW graduates who continue to a graduate program by spring 2017. Most CPS and GSPM programs are eligible for this special discount.
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CEPL: Leading the Way in Global Leadership
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President Steven Knapp
Speaking at the Welcome Reception
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President Steven Knapp, Senior Associate Provost for International Strategy Doug Shaw, CPS and VSTC Dean Ali Eskandarian, CEPL Executive Director Jim Robinson and a group of academics and staff from across the University welcomed the participants in the GWU Global Leadership Development Program at a reception on November 23rd.
Sixteen executives from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) will be spending 10 months at GW acquiring leadership and management skills which would prepare them for an increasingly complex and globalized world. These women and men are all rising professionals who come from across China and were selected by their employer because of their expertise in their banking specialty and their leadership potential. ICBC is the largest bank in the world by total assets and by market capitalization and it is one of China's 'Big Four' state-owned commercial banks.
As President Knapp told the audience in his welcoming remarks, Washington, DC is increasingly turning into a hub for headquarters of big domestic and multinational corporations and the ICBC executives' almost year-long sojourn in the Nation's Capital will provide them with an excellent opening into our country's politics, business and culture.
The Center for Excellence in Public Leadership (CEPL) was chosen by GW to run this prestigious program because of the expertise of its staff, track record and its flexibility to organize such a complex project with little advance notice. The program was designed to introduce participants to their new cultural and academic environment through cohort-based classes but then have the group immersed in the American experience by taking elective classes from GW's existing course catalogue with other GW students. The final part of the program is a 10-week practicum where participants will be assigned to a host company or organization in groups of 2 or 3 where they will gain real-world experience of working in an American corporation or major organization.
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Law Firm Management
Student's Client Blitz!
Ashley Tenney of the Master's Program in Law Firm Management, Class of 2016 has been awarded the inaugural Sales & Service Executive of the Year Award at the Legal Sales & Service Organization's 12th Annual Conference in Chicago. Ms. Tenney was honored for implementing the "45-Day Client Blitz", an innovative program for corporate attorneys to generate more revenue.
The 45-Day Client Blitz program's goal was to increase revenue through existing clients and through dormant and/or new relationships. It was designed as a competition between individual attorneys, including the chairman of the firm, to see who earned the most points in doing outreach to the two groups. Eighty percent of the firm's attorneys participated in the competition which resulted in contacts with more than 300 clients, 59 new cases and more than $2.6 million in fees.
On learning about Ashley's award Carl Leonard, program director for Master's in Law Firm Management, said: "From the first day in class I could see that Ashley Tenney would be a great contributor to our program, her law firm and the legal industry. My expectations have been more than fulfilled. We are very proud to have her as a graduate."
Ashley is the Practice Manager of the U.S. Corporate Group at Dentons and works in their Atlanta office. Dentons is a multinational law firm and the world's largest. It has more than 125 offices across 50-plus countries with approximately 6,600 lawyers.
According to Beth Cuzzone, co-founder and board member of Legal Sales & Service Organization and director of client service and business development at a Boston law firm, the 45-Day Client Blitz program shows how one can successfully change the sales culture of a slow moving organization like a law firm:
"Step One: Have a Clear Strategy for Rolling Out Your Initiative." You must carefully plan each step of a new sales program and get buy-in from your workers by showing them how they will benefit from it.
Step Two: Test your Process with Champions. After developing your roll-out strategy, enlist a beta group of leaders within your organization to test, refine and tweak your process before unveiling it to the whole group.
Step Three: Focus on Progressive Success.
No organization will adopt a new sales program completely and one hundred percent right from the beginning. As you roll out the new program, measure and reward adoption of each part one step at a time, just as Ashley's Client Blitz program at Dentons."
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Pomp and Circumstance: REDP Graduation Ceremony
On October 23rd in a splendid graduation ceremony witnessed by dignitaries and families of the graduates, and consisting of singing of the national anthem and presentation of colors by the Montgomery County Police Honor Guard, 31 professionals received their certificates for completing the Regional Executive Development Program (REDP). The graduates, mid to senior level managers from 12 county and city governments and community organizations in and around Washington, DC, received their designation as Certified Public Managers at the event.
This was Cohort 13 in a program that is co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), COG Institute for Regional Excellence and GW's Center for Excellence in Public Leadership (CEPL), with CEPL staff having the responsibility for organizing and running the year-long program.
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During the 12 months, participants work full time, complete graduate coursework consisting of 300 contact hours, travel to DC three days a month including some Saturdays, conduct research on five policy analysis projects and make policy recommendations for improving government services in their jurisdictions.
Cohort 13's research projects covered a wide range of issues facing local governments as demonstrated by their titles: Washington Region: Open for Business Together; Child Sex Trafficking; Maximizing Regional Cooperation to Preserve Public Libraries; Composting: Sustainable Food Waste Reduction in the National Capital Region; and Next Generation 9-1-1: Building a Secured Network by 2020.
Jim Robinson, CEPL Executive Director, summed up the rigors of the program and the participants' perseverance well in his remarks: "A lot was asked of you and you responded at a very high level of performance."
The following awards were presented during the ceremony:
Inspiring Leader Award to Kimberly Alexander, City Manager, City of Manassas Park
Visionary Leadership Award to Wyatt Shields, City Manager, City of Falls Church
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Six Things You Should Know About Mass Shootings
Professor Frederic Lemieux, Director of Cybersecurity Strategy and Information Management and Security & Safety Leadership programs at CPS recently published an article in The Conversation website which was read by 656,000 persons in a five-day period and was later picked up by Huffington Post and other outlets as well. Based on original research of his own and also of other researchers, Professor Lemieux injects a large dose of facts and figures into an often emotional and at times irrational debate about mass shootings.
Here are the six things Lemieux wants Americans to know:
#1: More Guns Don't Make You Safer
A significant finding of his study is that mass shootings and gun ownership rates are highly correlated. The higher the gun ownership rate, the more a country is susceptible to experiencing mass shooting incidents. This association remains high even when the number of incidents from the United States is withdrawn from the analysis.Similar results have been found by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, which states that countries with higher levels of firearm ownership also have higher firearm homicide rates.
#2: Shootings Are More Frequent
A recent study published by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center shows that the frequency of mass shooting is increasing over time. The researchers measured the increase by calculating the time between the occurrence of mass shootings. According to the research, the days separating mass shootings went from an average 200 days during the period of 1983 to 2011 to 64 days since 2011.
#3:Mass Shootings Are Not Necessarily Terrorism-related
Journalists sometimes describe mass shooting as a form of domestic terrorism. This connection is dangerous and misleading.
There is no doubt that mass shootings are "terrifying" and "terrorize" the community where they have happened. However, few active shooters involved in mass shooting have a political message or cause. The church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina was a hate crime but still not a terrorism act. The majority of active shooters are linked to mental health issues, bullying and disgruntled employees. Active shooters do not share any political motivations and do not aim at weakening government legitimacy. Instead, they are inspired by revenge or a quest for power.
#4:Restricting Sales Works
Permissive gun licensing laws refer to a system in which all but specially prohibited groups of persons can purchase a firearm. In such a system, an individual does not have to justify purchasing a weapon; rather, the licensing authority has the burden of proof to deny gun acquisition. By contrast, restrictive gun licensing laws refer to a system in which individuals who want to purchase firearms must demonstrate to a licensing authority that they have valid reasons to get a gun -- like using it on a shooting range or going hunting -- and that they demonstrate "good character."
The type of gun laws adopted has important impacts. Countries with more restrictive gun licensing laws show fewer deaths by firearms and a lower gun ownership rate.
#5: Historical Comparisons May Be Flawed
In 2013, the FBI changed its definition, moving away from "mass shootings" toward identifying an "active shooter" as "an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area." This change means the agency now includes incidents in which fewer than four people die, but in which several are injured. This change in definition impacted directly the number of cases included in studies and affected the comparability of studies conducted before and after 2013.
#6: Background Checks Work
In restrictive background checks performed in developed countries, citizens are required to train for gun handling, obtain a license for hunting or provide proof of membership to a shooting range. Individuals must prove that they do not belong to any "prohibited group," such as the mentally ill, criminals, children or those at high risk of committing violent crime, such as individuals with a police record of threatening the life of another. Here's the bottom line. With these provisions, most U.S. active shooters would have been denied the purchase of a firearm.
Read the full Huffington Post online and check its interactive graphs and charts.
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IIST Students Celebrate Service-Learning Accomplishments
By Cassie Phillips
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(L to R) IIST Program Director Professor Sara Hooshangi, Zelalem
Tadesse, Johanna Mitton, Valeriya Myronenko, Marc McCarthy and Omar Mousa
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GW's Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service held its bi-annual Academic Service-Learning Symposium at the Marvin Center on December 9th. As part of the Symposium, a group of students from the Integrated Information, Science and Technology (IIST) program presented their research to a large group of CPS students, faculty and staff. Presenters and their projects were:
Elisa Schaengold
Project: Assisting Legal Aid Organization in Cybersecurity Protection and Policies
Combining her experience as a Paralegal and her interest and skills from her IIST studies, Elisa worked with a northern Virginia Legal Aid Office to develop plans and templates for e-mail and internet policies to protect against cybersecurity threats. She hopes to share these resources with the legal community and develop a website to disseminate the information to a broader audience.
Omar Mousa, Valeriya Myronenko and Zelalem Tadesse
Project: Code4Life After School Program
Working with DC middle school students at School Without Walls, Omar, Valeriya and Zelalem utilized the Code4Life curriculum to teach students how to create their own website using HTML and CSS. The student-teachers enjoyed fostering skills that allowed young people to express themselves and be creative with technology.
Johanna Mitton
Project: Teaching Computer Skills to Disabled and Low Income Adults
A veteran of Iraq war, Johanna worked with two organizations that served adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and adults from low income backgrounds technology skills for potential job placement. While Johanna found that each group presented different challenges she was grateful for the opportunity to serve these communities and improve her communication skills.
Marc McCarthy
Project: Cyber Pathway
Marc reviewed the System Administrative Networking and Security Institute (SANS) computer security training materials in the hopes of creating labs and videos for their "Learn and Share" section for educators. He enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about SANS and assist educators in teaching SANS.
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