News & Calendar
News: Student and Faculty Highlights
The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education selected PhD candidate David Nieto as a Graduate Fellow. As part of this honor, David will travel to their next conference in Costa Mesa, CA and deliver a policy brief.
Robert Kramer is our newest alumnus. On September 24, he successfully defended his dissertation, "Why Massachusetts College Students Drive after Drinking: Do current policies to stop them make sense?".
Congrats to Ndumba Kamwanyah who successfully defended his dissertation proposal on September 23rd. His research is ""The Tower of Babel? Examining Ordinary Citizens’ Perceptions of Reconciliation in Post-Independence Namibia".
Kudos to Bunmi Fatoye who has accepted a Duke University Scholar in Residence position (to complete her dissertation).
Congrats to Shelley Tinkham who successfully defended her dissertation proposal on September 9th. Her research is entitled "The Value of Getting Out: The Impact of Short-Term Study Abroad on American Primary and Secondary School Administrators".
Alumna Dr. Michelle Portman has accepted on a one-year post-doctoral fellowship at Hebrew University's Department of Geography in Jerusalem, Israel. She will be working mainly on an eight-country EU-funded study that looks at environmental conditions such as climate changes in selected coastal metropolitan cities.
Academic Calendar
Fall 2009
November 26 to 29 (Thursday to Sunday) Thanksgiving Recess
(Holiday/no classes/offices open on Friday)
December 14 (Monday) Classes End
December 16-22 (Wednesday to Tuesday) Final Exams
December 23 (Wednesday) Final Exam Snow Make-up Day (if needed)
December 28 (Monday) Grades due
Spring 2010
January 25 (Monday) Classes Begin
Calendar of Public Policy Events
December 2, 12:00 noon- 2:00 PM
McCormack Graduate School Recruitment Expo
at Massachusetts State House, Beacon Street, Boston
Grand Staircase Lobby
(lunched provided, no RSVP necessary)
December 15, 4:00-5:15 PM
Departmental Faculty Meeting
M-3-415
Learning to Build an Equitable Society
For more information on our academic program or any of our events, call us at 617-287-6938 or contact us via e-mail at public.policy@umb.edu ; see our PhD Program contact page for additional ways to reach us.
. .Read our annual report (July 2009)
Congrats to our newest alumni!

Congratulations to our newest alumni, Dr. Randall Wilson who successfully defended his dissertation on March 12th, "Finding the Will and the Way: Applying the Framework of Commitment and Capacity to the Implementation of Career Ladders in the Long-term Care Sector" and Dr. Jean Winsor who presented her research on " Increasing Integrated Employment Outcomes: How are States Using Commitment, Capacity building, and Choice to Impact the Distribution of People in Day and Employment Services?" on March 27th and Dr. Mandira Kala (pictured below) who also successfully defended her dissertation on April 3, “Decentralization in Kerala: Revealing the Deliberative Sphere, Political Agency and Citizen Well-Being".