[Front Row: Thanh Nguyen, Margaret Post, Robin Donovan, Jane DaSilva, Sadhana Hall; Middle Row: Kyle Krater '07, Andrew Samwick, Danielle Thompson '97, Andrea Allbee, Joanne Needham; Back Row: Ronald Shaiko, Benjamin Cole, Timothy Ruback; Missing from Photo: Gil Welch, Ellen Meara.]
Andrew A. Samwick is the Director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences and a professor of economics at Dartmouth College and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2003 and 2004, he served as chief economist on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Since joining the Dartmouth faculty in 1994, his scholarly work has covered a range of topics, including pensions, saving, taxation, portfolio choice, and executive compensation. Professor Samwick has been published in American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Finance, Journal of Public Economics, and a number of specialized journals and conference volumes. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in economics from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He blogs about economics, politics, and current events. Professor Samwick's academic web page.
Sadhana Hall is the Deputy Director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. She has over 20 years of experience in health and development including strategic planning, staff and program management, financial planning, program development, community needs assessment, implementation, evaluation, and customer relations. Sadhana has developed programs targeted toward addressing public policy issues and has designed, developed, implemented, monitored, evaluated, and managed community development programs in Tuvalu, Bhutan, and the Caucasus. Her experience also includes managing primary health care programs for the state of New Hampshire. She has directed three annual conferences for a nonprofit organization with 1,500 participants representing 80 countries and served as a liaison for the Peace Corps volunteers program in the Pacific. Hall holds a B.S. from the University of Delhi, India (1978); an M.A. from the University of Rajasthan, India (1980); and an M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health (1986).
The Curricular and Research area manages the curricular activities at the Center. These include the Public Policy Minor, Policy Research Shop, Dartmouth-Oxford Exchange, Senior Honors Thesis Grants, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, Faculty Workshops, Classroom Enhancement Grants and Faculty Grants.
Ronald G. Shaiko is a Senior Fellow and the Associate Director for Curricular and Research Programs at The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. The 2012-2013 academic year marks his twenty-sixth year of university teaching and his twelfth year at Dartmouth College. In November of 2007, he received the Linda '82 and Paul Gridley Faculty Fellow Award from the Dean of the College; the award recognizes exemplary faculty involvement outside of the classroom. Prior to coming to Dartmouth, Shaiko was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Politics in the American Studies Center at Warsaw University in Poland during the 2000-2001 academic year. Throughout the decade of the 1990s, Shaiko taught at American University, where he founded and served as the academic director of the Lobbying Institute. During his 10 years at American, Shaiko served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1993-1994 and as a Democracy Fellow at the United States Agency for International Development in 1998-1999. During his twenty-five years of teaching, he has received more than $1.3 million in grants, awards, and fellowships. Shaiko holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from Ursinus College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
Ellen Meara, Ph.D., is a health economist who joined Dartmouth in 2010 as Associate Professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center. Prior to that, she spent 11 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy. Dr. Meara’s research focuses on two areas: 1) the influence of health, legal, and social policy on health care utilization and outcomes, especially among vulnerable populations; and 2) understanding broad trends in medical spending and population health in the U.S. Her recent work has examined the impact of reforms to US welfare and disability programs on economic and health outcomes of individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders. Dr. Meara is the recipient of an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act award to study the impact of federal parity legislation on the behavioral health service use of children who are income-eligible for state Children’s Health Insurance Programs. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. Since 2000, Dr. Meara has been a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH, is a general internist and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center whose research focuses on the problems created by medicine's efforts to detect disease early: physicians test too often, treat too aggressively and tell too many people that they are sick. Most of his work has focused on overdiagnosis in cancer screening: in particular, screening for melanoma, cervical, breast and prostate cancer. His recent book, Should I be tested for cancer? Maybe not and here's why" (UC Press 2004) was written while he was a Visiting Scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer - the cancer section of the World Health Organization in Lyon, France.
Charles Wheelan, '88, Senior Lecturer and Policy Fellow, formerly a senior lecturer in public policy at the Harris School at the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Center welcomed Professor Wheelan back to Dartmouth fulltime in June 2012. Since 2006, Wheelan has taught economics and public policy courses at Dartmouth during sophomore summer. He has also served as a correspondent for The Economist, and written freelance articles for the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Wheelan's first book, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, served as an accessible and entertaining introduction to economics and is now published in 10 languages. The Chicago Tribune described Naked Economics as "clear, concise, informative, and (gasp) witty," and was selected as one of The 100 Best Business Books of all Time by 800-CEOREAD.
Margaret Post is a Post-Doctoral Fellow, Co-Manager of the Policy Research Shop, and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. Post holds a Doctorate in Social Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, and a Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. For over ten years, she has worked as a community organizer, educator, and scholar. Her research interests include the role of grassroots organizations in social policy change and the civic development of young people and new immigrants. In addition to teaching courses on organizing and public policy, Post conducts trainings for a broad range of non-profit and political organizations. In 2007, Post received the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Bailis Family Social Justice Award from the Heller School at Brandeis University. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the publication, Diversity and Democracy, and is a member of the Next Generation Engagement Project at the New England Resource Center for Higher Education. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Center, Post was Director of the Donelan Office of Community Based Learning at Holy Cross (Worceseter, MA).
Matthew Cravens is a Post-Doctoral Fellow, Co-Manager of the Policy Research Shop, and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and graduated from Tufts University magna cum laude. Prior to beginning his graduate studies, he worked as a research associate and research assistant in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where he conducted quantitative research and co-authored reports on health care financing, the uninsured, and medical expenditures. His current teaching and research interests are broadly in the areas of political behavior, public policy, and quantitative methods. His dissertation develops and tests a theory of habitual voting that describes the psychological factors responsible for the formation of voting habits over time, and the electoral policies and get-out-the-vote messages that make and break voting habits. He is currently completing research projects on how criminal justice policies diffuse and are reformed across states, and the influence of material, pocketbook interests on health and economic policy attitudes.
Timothy Ruback is a Visiting Assistant Professor and Policy Research Shop Mentor at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. Ruback received his B.A. from Bates College and did his graduate training at Arizona State University (Ph.D. 2008). His research interests focus upon the ways in which intersection of theory and methodology works to shape and enclose our understandings of global political life. These themes were addressed in his dissertation, titled The Thucydides Function: International Relations Theory as Interpretations of The Peloponnesian War. His current research addresses these themes in the context of border politics and militarized interstate manhunts. He is most recently the author of "'Let Me Tell the Story Straight On: Middlemarch, Process-Tracing Methods, and the Politics of Narrative" which won the British Journal of Politics and International Relations award for the Best Article in 2010. Before coming to Dartmouth, Professor Ruback taught courses in international relations and foreign policy at Smith College. His courses at Dartmouth will address themes of leadership and global public policy.
Jane DaSilva Jane DaSilva is the Program Coordinator for Curricular and Research Programs at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. She manages the Public Policy Minor, the Policy Research Shop, the Dartmouth-Oxford Exchange (Keble College), the Senior Honors Thesis Grants, the Classroom Enhancement Grants, Faculty Workshops and Faculty Grants. She has worked at the Rockefeller Center for nearly six years, coming from a six year stint at Tele Atlas in Lebanon, NH, where she worked in the Sales and Marketing Department. Prior to Tele Atlas, Jane worked 13 years in the Controller’s Office at Dartmouth College, bringing a broad background to her work here at the Rockefeller Center. Jane is originally from the Midwest and has lived in Louisiana for a time. Drawn by her sister, as well as the music and culture, the Upper Valley has been her home now for twenty-five years.
[Front Row: Andrew Samwick, Robin Donovan, Thanh Nguyen, Joanne Needham; Back Row: Kyle Krater '07, Danielle Thompson '97, Sadhana Hall, Andrea Allbee.]
The Co-Curricular Program team manages a variety of activities at the Center that complement and support academic learning and helps students to develop their skills as future leaders. These include Student Discussion Groups, Internship Funding, Management and Leadership Development Program, Civic Skills Training, Rocky Leadership Fellows Program, First-Year Fellows, Student Special Projects and Public Programs. In addition, the Co-Curricular team facilitates the work of the Center through financial management of the Center’s resources, developing and managing a consistent and effective communications strategy, providing an effective approach to information management and the use of technology, overseeing the Center’s development efforts, and managing the Center’s space and facilities.
Danielle Benware Thompson '97 MS '98 is the Assistant Director for Co-Curricular Programs at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Center team, Danielle worked with public health non-profits in Vermont and New Hampshire as a community coalition coordinator and as an executive director. She has also been an adjunct instructor and coordinator of academic services at the Community College of Vermont, teaching Bioethics and other courses and developing health careers programs. Committed to community activism and leadership development, Danielle has served on the boards of several local, regional and state non-profit organizations devoted to health care access & other public health interests, early childhood care & education, community partnerships and non-profit leadership. She is an elected school board member and a nonprofit board member of the Mascoma Youth Sports League. A native of northeastern Vermont, Danielle was a government major as a Dartmouth undergrad and earned a Masters of Science degree in Evaluative Clinical Sciences from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in 1998. She lives in Enfield, NH with her husband and three young children.
Andrea Pineau Allbee is the Financial Manager at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. She manages the financial affairs, as well as facilities and office management for the Rockefeller Center. Prior to coming to the Center, she has worked in various capacities of the accounting profession ranging from public accounting for PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP to Business Manager for a Supervisory Union in Vermont. While working in public and private accounting, she has worked with a broad array of companies ranging from SEC companies to not for profits to privately held fortune 500 companies. Allbee holds a B.A. in Psychology from Castleton State College in Vermont; M.A. in Criminology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Pennsylvania; and M.B.A. in Accounting from Union College in New York. As a native Vermonter, she and her husband live in southern Vermont with their menagerie of pets.
Robin T. Donovan is a Program Coordinator for Co-Curricular Programs for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. Prior to joining the staff at the Center, she was the departmental administrator for the Department of Classics and the Program in Linguistics and Cognitive Science. Before coming to the College she managed the marketing and inventory for NT Ferro Jewelers in Woodstock, V.T. She is a graduate of Hanover High School and holds a Bachelors Degree in marketing from Franklin Pierce College where she graduated cum laude. She also holds an Associates Degree in sales and marketing management from Hesser College, where she graduated magna cum laude and was a member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society. Ms. Donovan also owns and manages a rental property in Lebanon, NH.
Joanne B. Needham is the Coordinator of Public and Special Events for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. She manages all details associated with the visit of public lecturers to the Rockefeller Center and their interaction with students and faculty. Before joining the Center in 2011, Joanne worked for 10 years at the Global Health Council, most recently as the Director of the Annual International Conference and previously as Conference Program Coordinator. In her role as Director, she oversaw all processes related to the planning, development and operations of the conference, with specific responsibilities of establishing the conference theme and the plenary session topics and speakers. During Joanne's tenure, the conference grew to 2,500 attendees from more than 70 countries. Prior to working at the Council, she spent 10 years as an editor for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, publishing books on neurosurgical best practices and the peer-reviewed monthly journal, The Journal of Neurosurgery. For 10 years before that, she worked as a project manager/programmer for Houghton Mifflin Company, producing educational software products. Joanne holds a BS in Mathematics from Fairfield University, CT. She lives in White River Junction, VT will her husband Andy and her dog Lily. Joanne volunteers as an usher at the Hopkins Center and Northern Stage, and as a reading mentor at White River Elementary School in the Everyone Wins VT program.
Thanh Nguyen is a Program Coordinator for Co-Curricular Programs for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. Since graduating magna cum laude from Keene State College in 2005 with a B.A. in Psychology, he has served in the public sector at the local government level as a law enforcement officer, case manager for the state of New Hampshire's first alternative sentencing program and mental health court, and also as project manager for Cheshire County. Dedicated to improving public health and safety, he has taken on multiple efforts to reduce alcohol and other drug abuse, including managing a safe medication disposal campaign which contributed to the development of policy and legislation across NH. In addition, Thanh is committed to leadership development and community building and has been involved with the Leadership Monadnock program and Kiwanis International. He has also served on the boards of the Psi Chi honor society and the Keene Young Professionals Network. Having lived in NH for nearly his entire life, Thanh has recently relocated from the Monadnock Region to the Upper Valley.
Vincent L. Mack is the Program Officer for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Center's staff, Vincent lived in Germany, working extensively for the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals, a program partnered through the United Nations and the Department of the State. As his fluency in Germany progressed, Vincent also served as the first American with Germany's largest international development organization, Kindernothilfe, working as a grant writer in their Program Evaluation department. With a focus on recruitment, leadership development, and service at the University level, Vincent spent two additional years abroad in Germany working with Connexxion, a Christian non-profit organization at the Technical University of Braunschweig. He holds a Masters degree in Public Administration with a concentration in Human Resources from Valdosta State University. In 2005, he graduated from Georgia Southern University with a B.S. in Political Science and a concentration in International Affairs. Although a native Bostonian, Vincent was raised in Warner Robins, Georgia. An avid traveler, he thoroughly enjoys one-on-one conversations, exploring other cultures and places, and has been to nearly 25 countries. His experiences abroad continually inspire him to encourage Dartmouth students to widen their global perspective through leadership and public service.
