Dear Colleagues and Friends of McCormack Graduate School,     

It's been an invigorating and really eye-opening first six weeks on the job. Each day brings me closer to understanding the range and depth of talent in our faculty, students, staff, alumni, centers, and programs. I continue to be inspired by the passion and commitment to excellence, inclusion and impact that I experience throughout the McCormack Graduate School. People ask me how I like it here and I reply to one and all: I love it here!

Located in one of the world's leading cities for history and politics, ideas and innovation, I envision McCormack emerging as the "go-to" school for policy and global studies. Locally and globally, I see McCormack making a difference and helping to create the future, today.

One of our signature strengths is in the field of gerontology. Some of you may have seen the misleading article in the Boston Globe earlier this month about the university suspending gerontology programs. The article was referring to the under-enrolled undergraduate program at the College of Public and Community Service. I want to let you know that the graduate programs in gerontology at the McCormack School are not only alive and well - they are thriving, with more than 140 students. We were the second school in the nation to offer a doctoral program in this field and have produced more gerontology PhDs than any university in the world. Our Gerontology Institute with its new Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging continues to do groundbreaking research and policy development on issues affecting older persons, including an incredibly useful new analysis on elder income security, called The National Economic Security Standard Index. The institute also houses a highly successful Osher Lifelong Learning Institute with more than 1100 senior members and a Pension Action Center  serving New England and Illinois. We are the only university to offer these programs in a school of policy and global studies and to house two peer-reviewed journals on aging.

I ask you to help me counter the negative buzz resulting from the misleading Globe article by letting others know about the cutting-edge gerontology research at the McCormack Graduate School on health and long-term care, retirement and economic security, productive aging and older workers, transportation, elder housing, and basic and social demographic research on aging. I invite you to encourage prospective students to enroll in our pioneering gerontology and award-winning management of aging services programs.

If gerontology isn't your interest, I invite you to visit our website to explore other interdisciplinary graduate programs in conflict resolution, global governance and human security, international relations, public affairs, public policy, and women in politics. At our research centers and institutes, our faculty, staff, and graduate students critically explore and offer cutting-edge remedies on social, political, and economic inequities - from poverty alleviation in the neighborhoods of Boston to important peace-building projects in Nigeria, Iraq, and other global hot spots.

Like me, the more you get to know the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, the more you will recognize our values-driven commitment to make a difference in local and global communities. Please join me in making connections, getting involved, and spreading the word!  

 


 Ira. A. Jackson, Dean 

March 5, 2013, 6:00 p.m.

Campus Center, 3rd Floor, Ballroom A