Pardee RAND News & Events

Pardee RAND Graduate School students, alumni, and faculty are often in the news, writing blogs, publishing research, speaking at events, and more. Other pages (student blog posts, alumni news, faculty blog posts, featured research) provide filtered views of Pardee RAND news and announcements; here we present a complete compilation of ALL the news that's fit to share.

Pardee RAND Celebrates 50 Years of Policy Impact
Fifty years ago, RAND led the charge for a new approach to public policy and the new field of policy analysis. This year, Pardee RAND Graduate School is celebrating 50 years of education and impact, and once again leading the way in redefining the field of policy analysis.

Los Angeles River Revitalization: Students Encourage Taking Inspiration from Near and Far
Feb 4, 2020
Currently a predominantly concrete channel running through the city, the Los Angeles River has great potential to revitalize Los Angeles's water resources, landscape, and identity. Students Keren Zhu (cohot '17), J. Luke Irwin ('16), and Stephanie Tanverakul ('18), along with Prof. Timothy Gulden, explain that creating a new vision for the river presents a complex challenge for policymakers, engineers, and urban planners.
More Than Stormwater: Students Explore Multiple Benefits of Green Infrastructure for Los Angeles Communities
Jan 29, 2020
California faces shortages in water supply amidst droughts, wildfires, and other natural disasters worsened by climate change. Students Joan Chang, Pau Alonso Garcia, and Jonathan Lamb argue that taking a systems thinking approach, in particular applying a systems framework, is essential to addressing complex problems for the sustainability of water resources that affect individuals, communities, and broader populations.
Student Examines Systemic Risk in the Broad Economy
Jan 21, 2020
After the 2008 financial crisis, research and policy focused on the risk that heavily interconnected networks could fuel the spread of economic crises—a problem known as systemic risk. Research coauthored by student Krystyna Marcinek (cohort '17) considers systemic risk in other sectors like technology, telecommunications, and health care.
Ink Tank: Research Gets Under the Skin of Some Pardee RANDites
Jan 10, 2020
Pardee RAND alum Jon Wong (cohort '12), student Hardika Dayalani ('18) and Prof. Robert Bozick explain how their tattoos reflect their research on the problems Marines face, migration-related issues, and the changing needs of the labor force.
Alum: North Korea Is Selling Political Deception
Jan 3, 2020
Why did Kim Jong-un substitute releasing the North Korean Workers' Party Plenary report instead of his traditional New Year's address? Alum Bruce Bennett (cohort '75) says that as with many things in North Korea, we do not know, forcing us to speculate.
Pardee RAND Celebrates 50 Years of Policy Impact
Jan 2, 2020
Fifty years ago, RAND led the charge for a new approach to public policy and the new field of policy analysis. This year, Pardee RAND Graduate School is celebrating 50 years of education and impact, and once again leading the way in redefining the field of policy analysis.
Alum: Where Science Says to Spend Any U.S. Opioid Settlement Money
Dec 19, 2019
A global settlement with pharmaceutical companies has started to appear more and more likely. But alum Bradley Stein (cohort '97) says even with billions of dollars, the settlement resources won't be unlimited. To avoid mistakes made in the tobacco master settlement agreement, any opioid funds must be carefully allocated.
Student Research: How Well Is DoD Positioned for AI?
Dec 17, 2019
The U.S. Department of Defense has articulated an ambitious vision and strategy for artificial intelligence. But if it wants to get the maximum benefit from AI-enhanced systems, writes Diana Gelhaus Carew (cohort '15) and colleagues, it will need to improve its posture along multiple dimensions.
The Next Generation Initiative: Faculty Leaders Program in Policy Research and Analysis
Dec 10, 2019
The Faculty Leaders Program, a professional development program for faculty who work with students or in disciplines underrepresented in public policy, is now accepting applications. Part of the Pardee RAND Graduate School's Next Generation Initiative, the program awards fellowships to 12–15 selected faculty to participate in a week-long policy analysis summer program.
Three Students Create Pardee RAND Legacies
Dec 10, 2019
Students Alexandra Mendoza-Graf (Cohort '16), Ashley Woo ('18), and Sohaela Amiri ('16) didn't have far to look when they decided to pursue a Ph.D. in policy analysis. While forging their own paths, they are also following in the footsteps of relatives who also happen to be Pardee RAND alumni: Marlon Graf ('12), Jonathan Wong ('12), and Sara Amiri Cohort ('05).
LLNL Externships, Events Provide Experiential Learning
Dec 9, 2019
Through a partnership with the Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, four students have had the chance to hold externships, conduct research, and participate in global security conferences and events.
Hackathon Lets Students Explore Dark Web
Dec 4, 2019
Ten students worked on teams for three weeks this fall to use machine learning and analyze data from cryptomarkets — what one team called a "craigslist for illegal things" — stored on RAND's Dark Web Observatory.
Career Services Talks Feature Six Alumni
Nov 25, 2019
A record number of alumni presented career talks this quarter, but the Career Services team is working hard to break that record in the near future.
Student-Prof Commentary: City Diplomacy Has Been on the Rise. Policies Are Finally Catching Up
Nov 22, 2019
Cities are not signing international treaties, nor do they have embassies around the world, write Sohaela Amiri (cohort '16) and Professor Rafiq Dossani. But cities can engage in all kinds of negotiations, reach agreements, and influence world politics. The State Department could tap into this power to further enhance U.S. diplomacy, global image, and influence.
Professor Ponders, Did No One Audit the Apple Card Algorithm?
Nov 21, 2019
Complex, opaque technologies like AI, machine learning and other algorithm systems provide significant benefits to society, writes Professor Osonde Osoba. They help speed up complex decisions, enable wider access to services, and in many cases make better decisions than humans. But those benefits do not obviate the need for accountability and transparency.
Alumni Help Plan 50th Anniversary
Nov 18, 2019
Eighteen terrific alumni are joining Jeffrey Wasserman (Cohort '85) on a task force to help plan activities and events to celebrate Pardee RAND's 50th anniversary throughout 2020.
Student-Alumni Research Finds Unintended Consequences of Policies that Punish Pregnant Women for Substance Use
Nov 13, 2019
Joshua Russell-Fritch (cohort '16), alum Bradley Stein ('97), and RAND colleagues found that state policies that punish pregnant women for illicit substance use are associated with higher rates of infants being born with opioid withdrawal.
Student Helps Create Database of Web Tools to Fight Disinformation Online
Nov 12, 2019
Hilary Reininger (cohort '16) and RAND researchers created a database of web tools that aim to fight the spread of disinformation. These include fact-checking tools, bot detectors, media literacy applications, and more.
Student-Alum Research Finds Australia Is Not Prepared to Deliver an Alzheimer's Treatment
Nov 11, 2019
As in other countries, the Australian health care system has limited capacity to rapidly move a future treatment for Alzheimer's disease from approval into wide clinical use. Sangita Baxi (cohort '17) and Jodi Liu ('12) find that could leave thousands of older people without access to transformative care if such a breakthrough occurs.
Economic Experiments for Global Impact
Oct 23, 2019
Implementing effective solutions for global socioeconomic development and poverty alleviation is a daunting challenge. However, RAND has seen over its decades of work in this area that data-based decisions can improve the welfare of the world's most vulnerable populations.
Tech Leaders Join Advisory Group
Oct 23, 2019
To help guide the development of Pardee RAND's Tech & Narrative Lab, director Todd Richmond and Pardee RAND dean Susan Marquis have assembled a veritable who's who of tech policy leaders to serve on the lab's new Advisory Group.
Alumni, Students Explore Next-Generation Wargaming for the U.S. Marine Corps
Oct 16, 2019
The U.S. Marine Corps has an opportunity to adopt wargaming best practices, tools, and approaches from other sources and adapt them to suit its needs. Yuna Wong (cohort '00), Ellie Bartels ('15), and Benjamin Smith ('15) explore what courses of action the Marine Corps should take toward building its next-generation wargaming concept.
Are States Using Cyber Operations to Coerce Others?
Sep 17, 2019
Cyber operations have become another tool of statecraft. Have any cyber operations sponsored by Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea met the definition of cyber coercion? Krystyna Marcinek (cohort '17) and colleagues explore this question and consider what the United States should do to respond.
Findings Features Students' Summer Activities
Sep 10, 2019
In addition to highlighting Soledad O'Brien's generous gift in support of inclusion, diversity, and equity, our quarterly newsletter shines a spotlight on what our students did this past summer to Be the Answer at home and around the world.
Saving Farmworkers from Slavery-Like Conditions, Field by Field
Sep 5, 2019
Those at the bottom of the European agricultural supply chain are vulnerable to horrible abuse. But Dean Susan Marquis explains that the same was true in the tomato fields of Florida in the United States until not too many years ago, and the solution developed there may offer a roadmap for doing right by those who put food on the market shelves.