Alumni News & Announcements

Alum: How to Reform Military Gear Transfers to Police
Jul 13, 2020

Police officers equipped like soldiers have appeared on the streets of American cities amid recent protests over George Floyd's killing. Alum Jack Riley (cohort '88) asks, how should lawmakers reform a program that makes use of excess equipment and is popular with police departments, but that also raises substantial concerns about the militarization of policing?
Book Review: 'The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare' by Christian Brose
Jul 2, 2020

As the Pentagon and commercial technologists continue to explore the potential of commercial technologies for the military and work towards greater adoption, Alum Jon Wong (cohort '12) says they may wish to focus not only on lowering bureaucratic barriers but also on managing expectations about what technologies will be most beneficial and how they will be used.
Alums Suggest Opportunities for Including Information Environment in USMC Wargames
Jul 1, 2020

Research by alumnae Yuna Wong (cohort '00) and Ellie Bartels ('15) finds wargaming is enjoying renewed prominence in the defense community, but the information environment remains underdeveloped and underrepresented in U.S. Marine Corps wargames.
Revoking the 'License to Drink': Emerging Evidence on Mandatory Sobriety
Jun 29, 2020

After counties in South Dakota implemented a 24/7 sobriety program, repeat arrests for impaired driving decreased in the counties by an average of 12%. North Dakota implemented a similar program and also saw decreases in impaired driving. Alum Greg Midgette and Prof. Beau Kilmer ask, Can the same results be achieved outside of the Dakotas?
Profile of Black Emergency Doctors Features Alum
Jun 8, 2020

Janice Blanchard (cohort '98) was one of three DC-area black emergency physicians featured by local NPR station WAMU. "I think as a black doctor, it’s my responsibility to do everything in my power to make sure that a black patient is getting fair treatment," she said.
Bowman Honored as NM 40 Under Forty
Jun 2, 2020

As chief information and strategy officer for Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico's largest school district, alum Richard Bowman (cohort '06) is quite busy these days. But the recipient of a 2020 "New Mexico 40 Under Forty" award was happy to make some time for an interview.
Alum Describes Results of USC Antibody Study
May 28, 2020

Neeraj Sood (cohort '99) joined KTLA-TV live via Skype to talk about the results of the COVID-19 Antibody Study led by his team at the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Alum: How Would a Public Option on Health Insurance Affect Costs and Coverage?
May 28, 2020

Interest in a government-sponsored health insurance plan with publicly determined provider rates is growing. An analysis by Jodi Liu (cohort '12) and RAND colleagues looked at four such "public option" plans and found that lower provider payment rates would lower premiums. But the impact on enrollees would also depend on tax credits, and changes to the number of uninsured would be small.
Alum and Prof Present Options for Designing a Public Option
May 28, 2020

State and federal policymakers are considering adding state-backed public options to the individual market in an effort to expand health coverage and improve affordability. Alum Jodi Liu (cohort '12) and Prof. Christine Eibner analyzed what would happen if public options became available in U.S. health insurance exchanges.
Alum Finds Pandemic May Led to Increased Childhood Obesity
May 27, 2020

The childhood obesity rate in the United States may increase by 2.4% if school closures continue into December, according to a new study by Ruopeng An (cohort '08), an assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University who studies obesity and social determinants of health.
Alum and Prof: Emergency COVID-19 Aid Helps College Students with Food and Housing
May 26, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has expanded the pool of cash-strapped college students, but many were already struggling. Alum Lindsay Daugherty (cohort '05) and Prof. Drew Anderson say the crisis could draw attention to food and housing insecurity among college students, and give college leaders a chance to consider how to address these needs more systematically over the long-term.
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.