Alumni News & Announcements

Environment, Geography, and the Future of Warfare
May 11, 2020

Alum Shira Efron (cohort '11) and student Kurt Klein ('16) find that some of the most significant environmental and geographic trends that could affect U.S. national security and the future of warfare are rising global temperatures, the opening of the Arctic, sea level rise, extreme weather events, water scarcity, and increasing urbanization.
Alum: North Korean Provocations, Not Denuclearization
May 8, 2020

Kim Jong-un's reappearance raises questions about the course of U.S.–North Korea relationships in the coming year, writes Bruce Bennett (cohort '75). What should we expect? What can we learn from the past?
The Serious Side of Gaming: Q&A with Yuna Wong
May 8, 2020

Alum Yuna Wong (cohort '00), codirector of RAND's Center for Gaming, didn't expect to make gaming a focus of her career. In this interview, she discusses what drew her to the field, what makes a good wargame, and her latest research on the dangers of putting too much trust in artificial intelligence.
Alum and Prof Evaluate 24/7 Sobriety Program at Individual Level
May 7, 2020

24/7 Sobriety combines frequent alcohol testing with swift, certain, and modest sanctions for those who test positive for alcohol or miss a test. Alum Greg Midgette and Prof. Beau Kilmer used an instrumental variables approach for this study and found 24/7 reduced the probability a participant was rearrested or had probation revoked at 12 months by 49%.
A Natural Experiment to Test the Effect of Sanction Certainty and Celerity on Substance-Impaired Driving: North Dakota's 24/7 Sobriety Program
May 7, 2020

Over half of participants ordered to abstain from substance use complete 24/7 Sobriety without a detected substance use event. At the county level, the program is associated with a 9% reduction in substance-impaired driving arrests.
Alum: Don't Make the Pandemic Worse with Poor Data Analysis
May 6, 2020

The need for immediate answers in the face of severe public health and economic distress may create a temptation to relax statistical standards, write David Groves (cohort '01) and five fellow codirectors of RAND's Methods Centers. But urgency should not preclude expert analysis and honest assessments of uncertainty. Mistaken assumptions could lead to counterproductive actions.
Alum: Protecting the U.S. Supply on Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles
May 6, 2020

Bonnie Triezenberg (cohort '14) writes that her recent RAND report (with student Moon Kim, '18) on the global heavy lift launch market highlights the potential for a near term shortage of launch vehicles. An inability to launch U.S. defense and intelligence satellites in times of need could compromise national security.
Alum: IT Modernization Rolls on Amid the Coronavirus
May 1, 2020

Federal Drive interviewed Gordon Bitko (cohort '02), former FBI CIO, for a podcast about the strain that the pandemic has placed on the federal information technology infrastructure, which has highlighted the need for IT modernization.
Alum: The Government Can't Make You Happy
May 1, 2020

While arguing that "government is best at lowering the sources of unhappiness," Arthur Brooks (cohort '96) said in an interview that COVID-19 has created "an opportunity for personal spiritual transcendence and a laboratory for good ideas and public policy," in the near future.
Alum Jeremy Ghez Discusses His "Toolbox for Managers"
Apr 30, 2020

"If it wasn’t the pandemic, it would have been something else. Unless you accept the need for constant evolution and even reinvention, you’re unlikely to do well,” said Jeremy Ghez (cohort '06) in a Q&A with the website Poets&Quants about his recent book, Architects of Change: Designing Strategies for a Turbulent Business Environment. Ghez is a professor of economics and decision sciences at HEC Paris.
The Impact of the Air Force's Space Launch Acquisition Decisions
Apr 28, 2020

How could potential U.S. Air Force decisions in the near term affect domestic launch providers and the market in general? New launch market forecasts and vignettes illuminate potential strategies for U.S. firms.
Alum Comments on the High Rate of Latinos with COVID-19
Apr 27, 2020

"We know this happens. We've seen this before,” said Leo Morales (cohort '95) about the fact that Latino patients are testing positive for COVID-19 at twice the rate of white patients. Morales, co-director of the Latino Center for Health at the University of Washington School of Medicine, was interviewed by his local NPR station about why this might be the case.
Alum Proposes Next Steps on the Return to Normalcy
Apr 27, 2020

"It is natural to start thinking about what it might take to return to normalcy," writes Loren Yager (cohort '87). "Unfortunately, these decisions are vastly more complex than the stay at home orders because there is no 'one size fits all' strategy."
Alum Examines 7 Possible Outcomes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Apr 22, 2020

If not two states, then what? Shira Efron (cohort '11), lead author of the Israel Policy Forum report “In Search of a Viable Option,” joined her coauthor to discuss seven potential outcomes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict evaluated in the study.
Alum Examines Impacts of Segregation on Obesity Risk Among Hispanic Americans
Apr 22, 2020

The relationship between segregation and health for Hispanics is not uniform within a metropolitan area, according to research by D. Phuong "Phoenix" Do (cohort '00). Immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics living in segregated neighborhoods have different risks of obesity depending on poverty level.
Alum Reviews Inexpensive Options to Mitigate Pandemic Risk
Apr 21, 2020

A year before the COVID-19 pandemic began, David Manheim (cohort '12) examined interventions that could significantly reduce the impact of a large-scale pandemic by reducing transmission, reducing exposure, reducing impact for those infected, and increasing large scale resilience.
Alum Reports Findings of Early Tests: 4% of L.A. County Adults Have Antibody
Apr 21, 2020

An ongoing study led by Neeraj Sood (cohort '99) found that only 4 percent of the adult population of Los Angeles County has been infected with the novel coronavirus, "which means we are very early in the epidemic, and many more people in L.A. County could potentially be infected."
Alum Discusses Importance of Business Innovation in Pandemic Response
Apr 20, 2020

"We always have a full pipeline of projects that we're working on for innovation," said alum Jamie Gayton, (cohort '06) executive vice president of PenFed Credit Union, about his organization's response to COVID-19. "Innovation is the lifeblood of a credit union, it's what keeps us going into the future."
Alum: Elections and International Affairs in the Time of Coronavirus
Apr 17, 2020

In a roundtable discussion titled "Korea on the World Stage," Myong-Hyun Go (cohort '04), a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, explored a range of issues that Korea is facing, including COVID-19, the general election of 2020, and the ROK-U.S. alliance.
Alum Urges Congress to Include IT Modernization Funding in Future Rescue Bills
Apr 17, 2020

"The COVID-19 pandemic has created a significant strain on many of the federal, state, and local government resources across the United States that people depend on every day," said alum Gordon Bitko (cohort '02), senior vice president of policy, public sector at the Information Technology Industry Council. ITI was one of five tech trade groups that signed an open letter to Congress.