Buzz McClain

Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

Schar School News for August 2024

Campus News

George Mason researchers collaborate on $1.5M NSF study to electrify bus fleets

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 19:02:13 +0000

George Mason researchers collaborate on $1.5M NSF study to electrify bus fleets Andrew J Schappert Wed, 08/21/2024 - 15:02

A new $1.5 million study funded by the National Science Foundation will draw on the expertise of a transdisciplinary research team from ��AV, the University of Virginia, and Syracuse University, in an effort to address the challenges involved in transitioning public bus fleets, including transit and school buses, to electric power.

Principal Investigator Jie Xu will lead the NSF study. Photo provided.

The study, “SCC-IRG Track 1: Community-Responsive Electrified and Adaptive Transit Ecosystem (CREATE): Planning, Operations, and Management,” is headed by the principal investigator (PI) Jie Xu, a professor at George Mason’s Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC).

The project team’s co-PIs from George Mason include Fengxiu Zhang from the Schar School of Policy and Government, Ran Ji from the Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research in CEC; and Wenying Ji from the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering in CEC. Also on the team is Jundong Li from the University of Virginia’s department of electrical and computer engineering.

Electrifying the nation’s bus fleets could significantly improve air quality and public health, especially in communities that have suffered from diesel exhaust pollution, says the Schar School’s Zhang. However, the shift to electric buses is complicated by several issues, such as limited driving range, long charging times, high upfront costs, downtime, a lack of skilled workforce, and varying priorities among stakeholders.

“Electrifying public fleets is crucial for reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality, and enhancing public health, particularly in traditionally disadvantaged communities,” she said. “Our project seeks to address the complex challenges of planning, operating, and managing fleet electrification by developing comprehensive sociotechnical solutions to facilitate achievement of those outcomes.”

A key focus, she added, “is the integration of environmental and transportation justice principles, ensuring that the electrification process prioritizes communities burdened by environmental injustices while not compromising the accessibility and reliability of bus services.

Fengxiu Zhang: ‘Electrifying public fleets is crucial for reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality, and enhancing public health, particularly in traditionally disadvantaged communities.’ Photo provided

“We will adopt a user-informed approach by extensively engaging with our partners to co-develop tailored solutions that meet their specific needs and priorities to ensure the relevance, applicability, and effectiveness of our solutions.”

The goal is to create a scalable, sustainable path for public transit systems to transition to electric buses. Researchers say this will involve developing intelligent decision-support tools that help in planning and managing the fleet, while considering the unique challenges of electric buses compared to traditional ones. For instance, factors like charging capacity and locations are more crucial for electric buses due to their limited range and longer refueling times than conventional buses.

The project will bring together various partners, including local transit agencies, schools, utility companies, bus service providers, and national labs, to develop innovative technologies that meet both analytical and practical needs. These technologies will include advanced machine-learning and optimization tools to handle the complexities and uncertainties of electrifying bus fleets.

These tools will help optimize daily operations, such as maintaining the right charge levels in buses, managing charging schedules, responding to incidents, and performing maintenance—all while ensuring the buses are used efficiently and the overall costs remain competitive.

The project will also assess collaborative governance in public bus fleet electrification planning and policy-making. In addition, it aims to build a skilled workforce that can support the transition to electric buses, ensuring that the shift is sustainable in the long term.

At the end of the project, the researchers will deploy the CREATE Suite, a set of intelligent decision-support tools developed during the study in a pilot program in collaboration with public transit systems and school districts that are partnering in the project. The project will also establish an electric bus clearinghouse as a centralized platform to disseminate lessons learned, best practices, and other information to help other transit agencies and schools electrify their bus fleets.

Other experts in the project team include David Wong from the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science and Vivian Genaro Motti from the Department of Information Sciences and Technology, both from George Mason, and Professor Saba Siddiki from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

In This Story

Jie Xu

Topics

Research

National Science Foundation

College of Engineering and Computing

Strategic Direction

Schar School Adjunct Professor Lee Roberts is ‘Teacher of Distinction’

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 19:22:09 +0000

Schar School Adjunct Professor Lee Roberts is ‘Teacher of Distinction’ Andrew J Schappert Thu, 08/15/2024 - 15:22

In This Story

Lee Roberts

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Schar School of Policy and Government adjunct professor Lee Roberts was recognized as a 2024 Teacher of Distinction by ��AV’s Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning. Roberts is a U.S. Army strategic intelligence officer in his 17th year of active-duty service.

Schar School adjunct professor Lee Roberts receives his Teacher of Distinction award from E. Shelley Reid, executive director of engaged teaching at George Mason’s Stearns Center. Photo by John Boal Photography.

The Stearns Center, which promotes and develops innovation in teaching among the university’s faculty, recognizes Teachers of Distinction as those who have been finalists for Teaching Excellence Awards and are known for their commitment to teaching and teaching-related activities.

As an active practitioner in the field, it’s important to Roberts that the subject of international security—I-SEC—is taught the right way.

“First and foremost, students in the [Schar School’s] I-SEC program are talented, driven, and conscientious future—and in some cases current—practitioners whom it is my privilege to work with,” he said. “I want to do everything I can to help them clear a path into this professional field whether as a government servant or in an adjacent field such as think-tank analysis or security journalism.”

Roberts, who has been teaching at the Schar School since 2018, is assigned to the Joint Staff from the Defense Intelligence Agency and works in the Pentagon, located not far from the Schar School’s Mason Square Campus. That proximity allowed him to earn a master’s degree in international security in 2017—he was also a fellow at the Center for Security Policy Studies—and a PhD in political science in 2022.

His academic pursuits, as well as his teaching, inform his profession.

“Essentially, I direct the design and delivery of joint studies into future military intelligence capabilities that establish the requirements used by armed services, defense agencies, and the defense industry to develop and build those capabilities,” he said. “I primarily focus five to 15 years in the future, and I really love my job—it makes excellent use of the educational experience I got at the Schar School.

“By keeping a foot in both worlds, I am able to help students realize their goals, and students’ fresh perspectives and the seminar content from the classes helps me to be a better practitioner.”

While receiving the Stearns Center’s Teacher of Distinction recognition is gratifying, it’s the success of his students that Roberts finds truly rewarding.

“I have on multiple occasions run into recent alumni in the halls of U.S. government agencies implementing America's intelligence, national security, and foreign policy priorities, and I cannot adequately describe the pride I feel in having played even a small part in their journey,” he said.

Topics

Center for Security Policy Studies

PhD in Political Science

Master of International Security

International Security

Adjunct Professors

Schar School News for August 2024

Schar School Student Spotlight

Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Government and International Politics

Military

Ian Candy’s First Year: Combining Politics, Neuroscience, and Forensics—to Help Others

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 14:00:36 +0000

Ian Candy’s First Year: Combining Politics, Neuroscience, and Forensics—to Help Others Andrew J Schappert Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:00

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Ian Candy’s interest in politics developed early, at age 10, when he found he enjoyed watching political news shows with his parents instead of cartoons.

“My parents love watching the news,” he said. “And oddly enough, I enjoyed it. I ended up becoming very invested with the political side of the news…. This love for democracy that was planted in me as a child has only grown. The roots of this seed have cemented, making the study of government and international politics dear to my heart.”

Ian Candy: ‘It is no secret that our democracy can light up a room in a second, but just as quickly cover it in shadows.’

As a first-year student at the Schar School of Policy and Government at ��AV, Candy will major in government and international politics at a Carnegie Research 1 institution that happens to be located just a few miles from Washington, D.C. Both of those were “huge check marks on my list” of potential schools, he said.

“It is no secret that our democracy can light up a room in a second, but just as quickly cover it in shadows,” he said. “No stranger to governmental legislation targeting my communities, I have and will continue to advocate for anyone facing those shadows.”

The South Dakota native will double major in neuroscience at George Mason’s College of Science, a program that prepares students for medical and health-related fields.

“I truly believe that the breadth of both fields lends themselves to a great deal of intersectionality not seen in many other double majors,” he said. “Neuroscience captivates me, but imperatively, I feel a duty to study this field.”

Candy said that “the people in my life that are closest to me have and continue to struggle with mental illness and brain function disorders. Researching the causes and solutions to ‘give back’ [to those in need] would be incredibly fulfilling.”

Candy is convinced that he can overcome what he calls “the ambiguous intersectionality between neuroscience and government” with a third interest of his: storytelling. In fact, the University Scholar and Honors College student will hone his storytelling skills as a member of George Mason’s forensics team, which placed second in the nation in 2024.

“What I found most remarkable about him was that he is very engaging and likeable,” said forensics director Dawn Lowry, who recruited Candy at the National Speech and Debate Association’s high school expo in Des Moines, Iowa. “He has a great energy and when he is into something, he wants to know everything about that subject.”

Meeting Lowry and other members of the team made Candy feel “welcomed and at home, just from the few conversations I had,” he said.

While a career path is still uncertain for the new college student, “I hope to achieve what 10-year-old me envisioned: to help other people.

“Whether that looks like a career defending others in the courtroom, providing psychiatric assistance to patients, drafting science and technology-based policy, or working on something that doesn’t even exist yet, helping others—while hearing and advocating for their stories—is my main goal.”

Topics

Honors College

Schar School News for August 2024

Students

College of Science

Forensics Team

Schar School Student Spotlight

University Scholars

first year students

Schar School Hosts ‘Scholar in Exile’ from Ukraine: Tetiana Khutor

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 17:26:55 +0000

Schar School Hosts ‘Scholar in Exile’ from Ukraine: Tetiana Khutor Andrew J Schappert Mon, 07/08/2024 - 13:26

‘Scholar in Exile’ Tetiana Khutor: ‘It’s hard to find any Ukrainian who is not involved in this fight.’ Photos by Ron Aira/Creative Service

When Tetiana Khutor was 5 years old she told her parents, “We have to establish an anticorruption commission that will go to all the regions of Ukraine and check everything,” she recently recalled. The Kyiv native got the idea from watching television news programs about rampant corruption in her home country in the years following the fall of the Soviet Union.

At 8 years old, her primary school classmates were so impressed with her potential that they wrote in essays, “When Tetiana is president, she will make changes for the better,” she recalled with a laugh.

Now at 31, Khutor is doing just as predicted. She is the founder of the Institute of Legislative Ideas, a Ukraine-based think tank that devises legislative strategies and policies to combat corruption, assist asset recovery, and encourage good governance. She also teaches anticorruption policy as a professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

And since March, she has been a professor of practice at ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government as an academic participating in the New School’s New University in Exile Consortium, made up of a global group of colleges dedicated to supporting scholars facing threats at home that force them to leave or prevent them from performing meaningful work. George Mason is one of 12 in the United States participating in the program.

In her case, Khutor’s research and teaching was interrupted by Russian missile attacks.

“You cannot work in such conditions,” she said. It’s not just the danger, she said, but “you want to do everything you can to help [the war effort]. To volunteer, to help Ukrainian forces. So, thinking about science and research, for scholars, it is impossible to work in such a condition.”

As a professor of practice at the Schar School, Tetiana Khutor hopes to build support for her work in Washington, D.C.

The war has inspired Khutor to change the focus of her studies in an effort to help rebuild the country. At George Mason, she is lecturing on “the instruments of confiscation” in seized Russian assets—billions of dollars that could be used to defend and reconstruct Ukraine.

Things are happening rapidly for her. In just her first few weeks at the Schar School, she was an invited panelist at the Ukraine Action Summit on Capitol Hill, where she addressed the need for the adoption of the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act (aka the REPO Act) and the confiscation of Russian assets. The summit gathered more than 500 delegates from 47 states and convened some 350 meetings with elected officials to advocate for Ukraine. The bill was adopted.

She also served as a guest speaker in a panel discussion at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. She cowrote an op-ed in the widely read Washington media outlet, the Hill, about paying for Ukraine’s reconstruction. The piece was coauthored by Schar School postdoctoral researcher and European Union Marie Curie fellow Maurizio Geri.

Khutor came to the Schar School through the scholar in exile program at the behest of Distinguished University Professor Janine Wedel, a renowned expert on corruption in post-Soviet Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. Wedel said she admires Khutor’s “courage and sheer chutzpah in analyzing what’s happening and taking appropriate action. She’s very impressive.”

Khutor is the third Scholar in Exile to come to the Schar School in five years and the second at the invitation of Wedel. Other scholars previously hosted by the Schar School include Ararat Osipian and Anton Liagusha.

“I’m not interested in inviting someone who is just looking for a place to land” away from danger at home, Wedel said. “I’m looking for somebody who is truly accomplished and committed to the country, and Tetiana is a top-notch academic and practitioner. And she’s someone who can really contribute to the Schar School and what we’re trying to do.”

Wedel said Khutor can, given George Mason’s proximity and access to Washington, successfully work for her country while maintaining her nongovernment organization at home. “She has staff in place for that,” she said.

“She’s fighting like hell for Ukraine. The networking and groundwork that’s been laid for her here will make her efforts more effective when she goes back to Ukraine,” Wedel added. “She’ll go back with a wealth of new contacts and knowledge about how things operate here.”

Meanwhile, Khutor’s husband remains in Ukraine, contributing to the war effort by developing and producing drones for the Ukranian army.

“It’s hard to find any Ukrainian who is not involved in this fight,” she said.

In This Story

Janine R. Wedel

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Topics

Scholar in Exile

Schar School News for July 2024

Campus News

George Mason to Launch Nation’s First Center for Small Business AI Innovation with $1M Grant

Andrew J Schappert — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 14:40:17 +0000

George Mason to Launch Nation’s First Center for Small Business AI Innovation with $1M Grant Andrew J Schappert Fri, 06/28/2024 - 10:40

In a groundbreaking move set to bolster the economic competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Virginia, ��AV has been awarded a $1 million grant to establish the nation’s first Center for AI Innovation for Economic Competitiveness (CAIIEC).

J.P. Singh: ‘Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of the U.S. economy at the local level.’ Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

This pioneering initiative aims to place Virginia at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption among SMEs, which often fly under the radar in discussions dominated by federal and big-tech AI advancements.

The $1 million grant, which was sponsored by Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, is directed through the U.S. Small Business Administration. The center will draw expertise from several George Mason colleges, including the Schar School of Policy and Government, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the College of Engineering and Computing.

“Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of the U.S. economy at the local level,” said the Schar School’s J.P. Singh, the Distinguished University Professor serving as principal investigator. “We will work with SMEs to strengthen their efforts in AI adoption all over Virginia and learn from global cases such as Germany, where its famed SMEs have been called ‘the hidden champions.’”

“I'm excited George Mason’s Center for AI Innovation for Economic Competitiveness is receiving $1 million in federal funding, which I was proud to have helped secure in the recent government funding bill,” said Senator Kaine. “This will help prepare small businesses and Virginians to harness AI and lead to new opportunities for economic growth and jobs in the commonwealth.”

The new center promises to provide much-needed leadership, support, and training to these enterprises, ensuring they do not get left behind in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. George Mason’s interdisciplinary team, comprising computer scientists, public policy experts, economists, environmental and medical scientists, and ethicists, is uniquely positioned to drive this initiative.

“I am proud to have helped secure funding for the Center for AI Innovation for Economic Competitiveness at George Mason,” said Senator Warner in a statement. “This investment will help position Virginia as a leader in AI development by creating programs to help small businesses and communities thrive in the digital market, marking a huge win for Virginians across the commonwealth.”

The university has long been a leader in AI research, and the center aims to extend this expertise beyond academia to make a tangible impact on local businesses.

Amarda Shehu: ‘This is much needed to better position industry in an innovative and competitive environment.’ Photo by Office of University Branding

“Here is another great example of how George Mason continues to deliver on our commitment to access and community-engaged technology diffusion, partnering with diverse communities in new and innovated ways,” said Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact Andre Marshall. “What better way to broadly support our local and national economy by providing our small businesses with the disruptive tech and best practices that will shape our future?”

The center will both train and encourage students at George Mason to work with SMEs in Virginia, Singh added, highlighting the initiative’s educational component.

Co-principal investigator Amarda Shehu, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and a longtime AI researcher, emphasized the practical benefits the center will offer.

“As an AI researcher, I see firsthand how fast AI is moving,” said Shehu, who is also associate dean for AI Innovation in the College of Engineering and Computing and associate vice president for research at George Mason's Institute for Digital Innovation (IDIA). “I also get to see through my various interactions with industry that such a pace can be challenging, particularly for small businesses. So, we thought about how Research 1 universities, such as George Mason, can unlock the power of AI for small and medium enterprises.”

This center will do that, she said.

“To respond to AI technologies and regulatory requirements moving rapidly, the center will develop an AI toolkit to help small and medium enterprises capture and operationalize the value of AI for the enterprise,” she said. “This is much needed to better position industry in an innovative and competitive environment.”

The center is a collaboration between the Schar School, IDIA, the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, and the Center for Regional Analysis (CRA). These four entities will leverage their existing collaborative connections to jointly oversee and manage the project.

Project leaders include Singh, who is also codirector of George Mason’s Center for Advancing Human-Machine Partnership and a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow with the Robert Bosch Academy, Berlin; Shehu; Terry Clower, CRA director; Naoru Koizumi, Schar School professor and associate dean of research and grants; and Jesse Kirkpatrick, research associate professor and codirector of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center.

In This Story

Amarda Shehu

J.P. Singh

Join the Mason Nation

Topics

Center for Regional Development

Center for AI Innovation for Economic Competitiveness

Schar School News for June 2024

Research

Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA)

Mason Square

Artificial Intelligence

Strategic Direction

Rona Jobe, MPP ’13, Named Rising Star by National Association of Women Business Owners

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 20:19:22 +0000

Rona Jobe, MPP ’13, Named Rising Star by National Association of Women Business Owners Andrew J Schappert Tue, 06/25/2024 - 16:19

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Rona Jobe, a 2013 graduate of the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Master of Public Policy Program at ��AV, has been presented the Deborah Farnell Rising Star Award by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), a nonprofit organization advocating for more than 10.6 million women entrepreneurs and business owners around the country.

Rona Jobe: The Master of Public Policy program ‘helped me understand the intersection of policy and business practices.’ Photo provided

“The award recognizes entrepreneurs who excel at strategy, operations, finances, problem solving, innovating, overcoming adversity, and giving back to her community,” NAWBO said in the announcement.

Jobe is the CEO of LVL-Up Strategies, a consulting firm based in Arlington, Virginia, that works to help women-owned enterprises reach the next level of success. As a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines and the wife of a U.S. Foreign Service employee, her company employs U.S. military spouses and Foreign Service spouses while partnering with minority-owned businesses. It helps that she’s fluent in Tagalog, Kapampangan, and Brazilian Portuguese.

While at the Schar School, Jobe worked as a management consultant with a focus on policy implementation. Her work involved technology, data governance, and assisting health practitioners in transitioning to electronic records.

With such a varied client portfolio of widely varied goals and needs, LVL-Up Strategies needs to be tactical and calculated in how they achieve success for their clientele. That’s where the Master of Public Policy degree comes in, she said.

“The program helped me understand the intersection of policy and business practices,” she said. “It gave me a deep understanding of how policies impact business practices. Courses in tech-based policy, statistics, and survey methodologies were instrumental in developing goal-oriented metrics.”

The program also taught her how to “guide and manage projects effectively, even without being the expert in every detail,” which she said is a crucial skill as a consultant. “And the practical project management advice from professors was invaluable in shaping business strategies,” she said.

As for the Rising Star award, Rona said, “This award is a validation that we, foreign service and military spouses, have the support of fellow women leaders as we pursue our own career and business and personal development.”

Topics

Master of Public Policy

Schar School Student Spotlight

Schar School News for June 2024

Taiwan President Bestows Medal to Gerrit van der Wees

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 29 May 2024 12:20:36 +0000

Taiwan President Bestows Medal to Gerrit van der Wees Andrew J Schappert Wed, 05/29/2024 - 08:20

In This Story

Gerrit van der Wees

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Taiwan then-president Tsai Ing-wen, right, awards Schar School adjunct professor Gerrit van der Wees with the Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon. Photo by CNA.

Schar School of Policy and Government adjunct professor Gerrit van der Wees has been presented with a presidential medal by outgoing Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (her term ended May 20). The Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon, conferred on the former Dutch diplomat on May 19, is one of Taiwan’s highest civilian honors.

The award was given primarily for van der Wees’ founding editorship of Taiwan Communiqué, a bimonthly, prodemocracy publication covering the island’s transition to democracy beginning in 1980 to 2016. The publication played a key role in informing the U.S. Congress, the Department of State, and the international community of Taiwan’s successes and challenges.

In receiving the honor, van der Wees told the Taipan Times the publication will continue to keep records of Taiwan’s transformation for future generations. He stressed that there remained dangerous challenges for Taiwan, such as continued threats from Beijing to isolate it on the international stage.

Van der Wees has taught the History of Taiwan at ��AV’s Schar School since 2012, as well as a graduate course on Current Issues in East Asia since 2020. He continues to write commentaries on Taiwan’s history and political developments in and around Taiwan for the Taipei Times and the Diplomat.

Topics

Awards

Schar School News for May 2024

Faculty and Staff News

Study: More Medicaid Needed for Incarcerated Individuals with Substance Abuse Disorders

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 22 May 2024 16:31:54 +0000

Study: More Medicaid Needed for Incarcerated Individuals with Substance Abuse Disorders Andrew J Schappert Wed, 05/22/2024 - 12:31

A new study examining how state Medicaid programs are helping people with substance use disorders (SUD) uncovered the need to expand the programmatic features to assist individuals who are transitioning in and out of the criminal justice system.

Faye Taxman: ‘There is a clear need for more states to adopt such initiatives, particularly given the high risk of overdose deaths in this population.’

The study, “State Medicaid Initiatives Targeting Substance Use Disorder in Criminal Legal Settings, 2021,” was published in the American Journal of Public Health and was cowritten by Faye Taxman, director of the Advancement for Correctional Excellence (ACE!) at the Schar School of Policy and Government at ��AV.

In 2021, a survey was sent to all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. The survey asked if they had any special programs for individuals with SUD in the criminal justice system, including jails, prisons, and community corrections. An impressive 90 percent of those contacted responded to the survey.

The survey found that most states did not have specific Medicaid programs targeting people with SUD in the criminal justice system.

However, 18 states and Washington, D.C., introduced at least one type of Medicaid initiative. The most common efforts involved providing medication to treat opioid addiction before release and helping individuals sign up for Medicaid.

Another frequent initiative involved making it easier for individuals to keep their Medicaid by suspending rather than canceling their benefits when they are incarcerated. The least common initiative involved coordinating care for individuals with SUD.

“There is a clear need for more states to adopt such initiatives, particularly given the high risk of overdose deaths in this population,” said Taxman. “This has implications for new policies that states can apply for in terms of [Social Security Act] Section 1115 waivers to enhance Medicaid funding for those in the criminal legal system.”

The full text of the study is available on the American Journal of Public Health website.

In This Story

Faye S. Taxman

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Topics

Advancement for Correctional Excellence

ACE!

Research

Schar School News for May 2024

Schar School Alum Bilal Wahab Named President of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 16 May 2024 14:10:28 +0000

Schar School Alum Bilal Wahab Named President of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani Andrew J Schappert Thu, 05/16/2024 - 10:10

In This Story

Louise I. Shelley

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Bilal Wahab, PhD ’15: ‘I am equally honored and humbled.’ Photo provided.

Bilal Wahab, a 2015 graduate of ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government’s PhD program, has been named the president of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS). The not-for-profit university, founded in 2007, is among the top-ranked private universities in the Kurdistan region.

Wahab takes the reins of the 1,400-student campus from AUIS president Bruce Walker Ferguson, who announced his departure in July. The school teaches primarily in English and focuses on liberal arts, critical thinking, and leadership skills in graduate and undergraduate studies.

“I am equally honored and humbled,” Wahab said of the AUIS board of trustees’ unanimous vote for his appointment. As a AUIS faculty member from 2012 to 2016, Wahab taught courses on the petroleum industry, public policy, and international politics and founded the school’s Center for the Development of Natural Resources. His Schar School dissertation focused on oil federalism in Iraq.

Wahab came to George Mason as a doctoral student from American University when University Professor Louise Shelley moved her Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) to the Schar School from American University.

Shelley has nothing but the highest praise for her former student, who was among the first Iraqis awarded a Fulbright scholarship.

“When he came to the U.S. to study at American, he was the number one choice of the Fulbright selection committee out of the many thousands of applicants,” she said. “I always knew he would be a president but the question for me was, ‘of what?’

“He is so articulate in English and so poised and showed such leadership. He has been such a good analyst of Middle East politics and has such great fluency in so many different languages—Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish.

“Going back to the American University of Iraq is so characteristic of Bilal,” she added. “He wants to give back and help students grow.”

As for his experience at George Mason, where he was a research assistant from 2008 to 2012 at TraCCC, “It is my sincere and heartfelt thanks for the unwavering support extended to me by the Schar School and the many scholars I studied under,” he said. “It has been a journey, but here I am, embarking on a new personal and professional chapter.”

Topics

Terrorism Transnational Crime and Corruption Center

TraCCC

Schar School News for May 2024