March 14, 2016
In his first-ever trip to the state of Rhode Island, Congressman Elijah Cummings delivered the Noah Krieger ’93 Memorial Lecture to a packed MacMillan auditorium on March 8. In his rousing speech, titled “The Fierce Urgency of now,” Cummings spoke of “battling for the people left behind” in society. He repeatedly asked the audience, “Do they see us? Do they really care about us?”
February 23, 2016
Nicole Pollock ’08 (environmental studies), Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Providence, recently spoke at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs about her role in enacting meaningful change in the public sector. Pollock was appointed by Mayor Jorge Elorza in January 2015, and as part of the Mayor’s senior staff, works towards streamlining areas of efficiency and services in Providence government and public policy.
January 19, 2016
Jim Morone comments on the likelihood of Bernie Sanders becoming the Democratic nominee over Hillary Clinton, despite his recent surge in polls. "Sanders is such a long shot that he needs spectacular media attention." Six things that must happen for Bernie Sanders to beat Hillary Clinton (comments by Jim Morone) – Cleveland.com
January 14, 2016
Nicole Alexander-Scott, Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, recently spoke about the agenda and direction of the department at a public talk hosted by the Taubman Center. Alexander-Scott was appointed Director by Governor Gina Raimondo early in 2015, and has since launched a multi-faceted initiative to eliminate health inequality across Rhode Island.
January 12, 2016
Emily Oster, associate professor of economics and international and public affairs, comments on the behavior of people as the Powerball jackpot reached unprecedented levels. "This should be taken with extreme caution, since it is out-of-sample and it is difficult to know how people would behave at jackpots of this magnitude," she wrote in a 2004 paper. "People enjoy the opportunity to dream about what they might do if they were rich, which generally fuels a desire to play," she wrote to CBS MoneyWatch.
January 3, 2016
On January 4, 2016, the TIAA-CREF Institute announced that Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Soren Leth-Petersen, Torben Heien Nielsen, and Tore Olsen won the 20th annual TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security. The five awardees were honored for their paper, “Active vs.