Sumientra 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.

UMass 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.

The 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.

Lindsay Fallon, associate professor of school psychology in the College of Education & Human Development, has received a four-year award for $1,999,991 from the United States Department of Education to develop resources that will help educators provide culturally relevant social, emotional, and behavioral supports in the classroom.

Moving infrastructure, people, and property out of vulnerable coastal areas is one of many ways in which communities can prepare for and respond to the impacts of sea level rise and climate change. This strategy, sometimes called “managed retreat”, is not widely implemented in Massachusetts; however, as sea levels continue to rise, retreat may become necessary in some areas.

Students will Share Their Findings on July 27 at Roxbury Community College

(BOSTON) — Mass General Brigham and UMass Boston’s Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences today announced an expanded collaboration to enhance the college’s Clinical Leadership Collaborative for Diversity in Nursing program.

Boston, Massachusetts — Sagamore-Venture Publishing is pleased to announce a new release: Best Practices for Inclusive Camps from editors Gary N. Siperstein, Stuart J. Schleien, Martin E. Block, and Emily D. McDowell. This comprehensive resource is designed to help camp leaders and staff create inclusive programs that welcome campers of all abilities, guided by the newly developed "Standards for Inclusive Recreation Programs." Part I of the book addresses best practices in various aspects of camp, while Part II is a series of case studies about inclusive camps that represent both day and overnight programs across a range of organizational affiliations and geographical locations.

The Wipro Science Education Fellowship program, as administered by the Center of Science and Math in Context (COSMIC) at UMass Boston is pleased to announce that Tal SebellShavit and Cambridge Public Schools have been awarded a grant in the amount of $19,800 to implement vertical teams within their educational framework. This competitive funding opportunity has been secured through a rigorous selection process, marking an exciting new chapter in Cambridge Public Schools' development.

Under my leadership, student success continued its upward trajectory at the John W. McCormack Graduate School (MGS). An important benchmark in higher education, student success is a life-cycle process. It involves, (1) recruiting students to join an academic institution, (2) keeping them actively engaged in their academic pursuits (retention), (3) ensuring that students complete their degree programs within a designated time (time-to-degree), (4) facilitating overall student well-being, (5) helping students with building successful careers after they complete their degrees, and (6) keeping them connected and involved as lifelong alumni.

At the John W. McCormack School of Policy and Global Studies, programs are led by a team of faculty and staff who make significant contributions to their fields as academics and have real impacts in our local and global communities. Celebrating the real-world impacts of the next generation of policymakers and academics who are current students at McCormack, the Dean’s Office awards the John W. McCormack Public Service Award.

Part of a student’s well-rounded education in programs at the McCormack School includes a balance of time in the classroom and time out of the classroom, through fieldwork, research, fellowships, and public events. Each is regarded as a distinct opportunity for learning. The Benjamin and Sylvia Slomoff and Judith Green Loose Lectureship in Conflict Resolution series, hosted annually by the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at the McCormack School, is one platform for students to learn outside of the classroom from people working in the field, often with high stature and reputation.

JD Chesloff, an alum of the McCormack School, has maintained close ties with his alma mater since graduating from the McCormack Institute’s Master’s in Public Affairs program in 1993. Reflecting on his MPA program in a recent interview, Chesloff was grateful for the community he was able to find here. “If I could draw a straight line through my career trajectory, it would all come back to relationships, collaboration, and treating people well,” Chesloff commented.

To celebrate the many accomplishments at the McCormack School throughout the 2022–2023 academic year, the school concluded its year with an awards ceremony in May. Among several awards given by the school’s departments, the Dean’s Office honored a select number of students who stood out among all programs offered at McCormack. In particular, the Dean’s Office selected graduating students from each level—undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral—to be recognized for their outstanding academic work while at McCormack.

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).

On April 18th, 2023, the McCormack School hosted its 25th annual iteration of the Robert C. Wood Professorship in Public & Urban Affairs. Special guest and award recipient Dahlia Lithwick, a respected lawyer and legal correspondent and author on the U.S. judicial system, presented her new book Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America in a public lecture, which was followed by participation in a panel discussion with Professor Erin O’Brien (of Political Science) and Professor J. Shoshanna Ehrlich (of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies), moderated by McCormack interim Dean Rita Kiki Edozie.

After earning an undergraduate degree in biology at Lesley University in 2017, Adriana Hernandez worked for a few years at Boston Medical Center, supporting a research study by collecting basic health data from patients. Along the way, she realized she was drawn to the older patients, an interest that prompted her to switch her focus to supporting research about centenarians. The more she learned about the field of gerontology, the more she decided that training in policy and applied research was the best way to meet her professional goals.

The next generation of McCormack Scholars celebrated their graduation from the McCormack Graduate School at the annual awards ceremony in May 2023. Addressing graduates of an institution dedicated to addressing social inequalities and inequities through the pursuit of scholastic excellence and its practical applications in public service on local and global scales, interim Dean Rita Kiki Edozie lauded graduates on their achievement. She noted, “As newly graduated McCormack Scholars, you will now become ambassadors who represent the next generation of public intellectuals and public servants leading social change that matters.” As students of a school steeped in the legacy of its namesake, graduates of the John W McCormack School have a tradition of chartering careers that bridge disciplinary and sectoral gaps within the institutes that characterize an interconnected local, national, and global system.

As the assistant program director of the Gender, Leadership, and Public Policy graduate certificate program, the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy’s (CWPPP) Muna Killingback seems to do it all—and then some. On top of her work in the CWPPP, Killingback is a PhD student in Global Governance and Human Security at the McCormack School. Having completed her coursework in the program, she is currently in the process of writing her dissertation proposal, which is shaping up to be on the dimensions of feminist peacebuilding, particularly the impact of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 from 2000, which called for greater inclusion of women in all aspects of peacemaking, peacebuilding, and peacekeeping. Her dissertation will investigate the impact of that resolution on the advocacy work of feminist and women’s NGOs.