Orchestrating, Innovating, and Agitating: Celebrating McCormack Graduates in a Time of Pivotal Change
In their article, “Should You Agitate, Innovate, or Orchestrate,” Julie Battilana & Marissa Kimsey studied hundreds of social change initiatives over multiple years and interviewed social entrepreneurs, civil society leaders, and public officials around the world. Their research findings identified three distinct roles played by those who participate in movements for social change: agitator, innovator, and orchestrator. They defined an agitator as one who brings the grievances of specific individuals or groups to the forefront of public awareness. An innovator, they argued, creates an actionable solution to address these grievances. And an orchestrator coordinates action across groups, organizations, and sectors to scale the proposed solution. Their article concluded that any pathway to social change requires all three roles: “Agitation without innovation means complaints without ways forward, and innovation without orchestration means ideas without impact” (Battilana, Julie, and Marissa Kimsey. "Should You Agitate, Innovate, or Orchestrate?" Stanford Social Innovation Review, September 2017).
The John W. McCormack School’s June 2023 newsletter edition chronicles an end-of- year spring semester of faculty and student achievements as agents of change. We celebrate our faculty and students who have been agitators, innovators, and orchestrators! We recognize faculty who have been named among the world’s top-cited scholars and researchers, Professors Mark Warren and Eddie Miller. We send hats off to our retiring faculty par excellence, Professor Nina Silverstein. Students celebrated inside are exemplars of public service learning at the McCormack School this year. They are recipients of the John McCormack Public Service Award, the McCormack Dean’s Outstanding Student awards, numerous Global Governance, Gerontology, and Public Policy excellence awardees, and a range of students who have been recognized for their special accomplishments as a result of the generous support of McCormack’s giftors: Donald Paulson, Roni Lipton, John W. McDonald, Matthew P. Sullivan, Carol Torto, John Moakley, Richard A. Hogarty, Robert C. Wood, David Matz, Ben Slomoff, David Nyhan, Vincent and Robin Loporchio, Elaine Werby, Winston Langley, Carlos Lopes, and many more.
Adam Hinds, Dahlia Lithwick, Sumbul Siddiqui, Ellen Cassedy, Carlos Lopes, and alum JD Chesloff are just some of Boston’s, the nation’s, and the world’s community stalwarts who have helped us usher in prospective change and transformation these spring and summer semesters at the McCormack School. As we end another dynamic year of accomplishments at the School, we say goodbye to our friends of twenty years in the department of Gerontology and the Gerontology Institute, which will move to the Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences soon.
For the new, smaller John W. McCormack School—the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance and the Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs—and our flagship centers—the Center for Women and Politics in Public Policy, the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management, the Center for Peace, Democracy and Development, the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration, the Center for Social Policy, and the Center for Sustainability and Governance—our key question for ourselves will be, what do “policy” and “global studies” mean in the context of liberal arts education?
Our two-year program partnership with the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), the Policy Across Disciplines program, may shed some light on preliminary answers. With the CLA’s provision of a liberal studies’ foundation to McCormack’s approach to policy and global affairs’ studies, we will now together engage and expand our 40-year, deep-seated engagement with interdisciplinary, problem-solving, community-engaged, transnational public affairs and public interest studies to a larger base of students and faculty.
Congratulations to all 2023 graduates, thank you to our community supporters, and more to come!
Rita Kiki Edozie (PhD)
Interim Dean and Professor, the John W McCormack School of Policy and Global Studies
University of Massachusetts: Boston
Latest University News
- Chancellor Urges Students, Faculty: Use Education to Heal the WorldBe the ones whose knowledge emboldens the voices of the unheard, inspires advocacy for the underserved, creates technological access for the unconnected, and pioneers cures for the unhealthy.This was the message Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco had for the campus community at convocation Thursday morning, urging everyone to embrace the responsibility that comes with education and learning.
- UMass Boston Community Encouraged to Run in Pursuit of ChangeKeynote speaker Massachusetts Secretary of the Executive Office of Education, Patrick Tutwiler, PhD, had one request for students, faculty, and staff at this year’s UMass Boston Fall Convocation: Run.
- NIH Awards $2.9M Grant to Physics Professor for Transcranial Temporal Interference Stimulation ResearchSumientra Rampersad, PhD, a professor of physics in the College of Science and Mathematics, received a $2.9 million grant from the NIH-NINDS National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The award will fund a five-year research project titled, Overcoming the Barriers to Effective Transcranial Temporal Interference Stimulation in Humans.
- New UMass Boston Program, Real Economic ImpactUMass Boston’s College of Management has officially completed their pilot for a new program named BEST (Business Engagement for Students) Boston. It gives students the ability to apply for 10-week paid consulting engagements to solve real-world problems with local small businesses. This impactful program is developing a pipeline of talented and diverse business professionals.
- Sustainable Solutions Lab Awarded $100K Grant by National Science Foundation to Advance Research on Climate InequalityThe signs of climate change are everywhere. This summer was marked by devastating wildfires in Hawai'i and Canada, a hurricane in northwest Mexico and southern California, record rainfall in New England, and a deadly heat wave in the southwest. These climate-related events will only become more common in the coming years, impacting everyone in some way. But the impacts of climate change will not be felt by everyone equally.
- American Psychological Association Honors Professor Jean Rhodes with Urie Bronfenbrenner AwardThe American Psychological Association, Division 7, earlier this month recognized UMass Boston’s Frank L. Boyden Professor of Psychology Jean Rhodes with the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for her lifetime contribution to the field of developmental psychology.