Call for Applications: Truman Scholars Association Board of Directors

The nominating committee for the Truman Scholars Association is now accepting applications for open seats on its board of directors.  Truman Scholars from all classes and backgrounds are encouraged to apply by Friday, August 5, 2011.

About the Truman Scholars Association

The Truman Scholars Association (TSA) is comprised of all recipients of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship.  TSA’s mission is to empower Truman Scholars, promote public serve, and change the world.  TSA strives to cultivate fellowship among scholars and highlight the value of public service.  TSA activities include a biennialnationalconference, finalistdinners across the country, maintaining the TSAblog, presence in socialmedia, and fundraising and development via theTrumanScholarsAnnualFund.

About the TSA Board of Directors

The board of directors designs and implements TSA’s activities.  TSA is an all-volunteer organization, and directors commit time to helping TSA accomplish its goals.  Directors serve three-year terms on a voluntary basis.  Directors commit to attending two-plus conference calls per month (committee and full board meetings).  Other calls are held as needed to accomplish TSA’s work, and directors are expected to work between meetings on TSA activities.  The board also meets in person one weekend each fall.  While the board’s work fluctuates over the year, directors generally commit 4-8 hours per month on TSA business.

TSA’s Specific Needs

The nominating committee seeks applicants with a diversity of skills vital to TSA’s goals.  The nominating committee is specifically seeking candidates with the following:

1.     Experience, networks, and energy to contribute to TSA fundraising and development efforts

2.     Time to contribute to and manage TSA’s social media presence on at least a weekly basis

3.     Technical proficiency, such as experience with Google Forms, HTML, and e-newsletter platforms

If you have skills or experience in any of the above areas, please mention it in your statement of interest.

How to Apply

All interested scholars -- of any background, from any class, in public service or not -- are invited to apply via a simple two-part process:

●      Complete the short online form at http://bit.ly/tsa-app.

●      Email one attachment in PDF format containing a short statement of interest and a resume to tsa@trumanscholars.org.  The attachment’s file name should include your full name.

The statement of interest should be approximately 250-500 words and address the following questions:

●      What is your vision of TSA?

●      Why do you want to join the TSA board of directors?

●      How would you help TSA develop and reach its goals?

The nominating committee may conduct 20-minute phone interviews with finalist candidates as needed. 

Election Process

The nominating committee of current board members will propose nominees to the full board in late August.  New directors will be notified shortly thereafter.  TSA’s first board meeting for 2011-2012 will take place on September 13, 2011, at 9 PM ET.  Applicants are expected to reserve this date and attend this meeting if elected.

Please send any questions to tsa@trumanscholars.org or contact any currentdirectors.  We hope you will consider applying for this important role in our Truman Scholar community.

Pooja K. Agarwal (MO '05) is graduating from her Ph.D. program in Experimental Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis this July. She will be joining the Illinois State Board of Education as the Assessment Division Administrator in Springfield, Illinois. She looks forward to giving back to the state of Illinois (her home state) and also to serving the public! Due to her Ph.D. defense, a family wedding, and moving, she regrets that she is unable to attend the 2011 National Conference. She looks forward to seeing everyone again at the next National Conference!

Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza (NC ‘09) appeared on MSNBC to speak about the Change.org petition on "Caylee's Law.” Watch her here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqRhKJwlP_g

Don Gomez (NY '09) authored a commentary piece, "When Hero Rings Hollow," published in The New York Times: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/when-hero-rings-hollow/

Those of you attending the conference in person and those who want to follow it from afar can join the conversation using the Truman Conference Twitter App, located at www.trumanconference.org/app. The App, which is accessible from your computer or mobile device, feeds in all tweets using hashtag #TrumanScholars, as well as official announcements from the Truman Scholars Association and what's next on the conference schedule. You don't have to be on Twitter to see what's going on, just go to www.trumanconference.org/app.  To participate, simply join Twitter and join the conversation using #TrumansScholars.  Attendees, starting tomorrow evening we'll be sending official announcements out on this app, not by email, so check it out!

For years I’ve been honored to come back to Truman Scholars Leadership Week (TSLW) as a Senior Scholar, and inevitably some of the incoming Truman Scholars always ask, “Why do you keep coming back?”

Their intent is never to insinuate that I’m crazy; it’s mere, adorable curiosity, and it’s a fair question. Senior Scholars have careers and commitments, and many of us spend our spare hours at TSLW catching up on the work we left behind. The bottom line is that our commitment to public service transcends our professional careers, and it includes giving back to the larger Truman community.

Coming back is an absolute delight. Nothing keeps you motivated like a hit of Truman Scholars. The new class has an incredible energy every year, and you return home more motivated to serve and with a wonderful set of stories and new dance moves. The moves have been getting more challenging every year though. I completely failed to master the art of “smanging” during TSLW 2011, but the dance lessons at my local studio are working wonders so far.

We learn and grow more from the incoming Scholars than anything they collectively get from us. Being amongst Truman Scholars is a special setup. Not since Summer Institute could I banter with the people around me about the seemingly inane policy topics I hold dear – my favorite from TSLW 2010 was a riveting discussion on fecal contamination from ranching and the potential for zoonotic diseases as an environmental justice concern – only then to rush across the room to a game of “Mafia” about to start. Everyone brings such wonderful knowledge and experiences. Once Tara Yglesias (PA ‘93), the beloved figurehead of TSLW and Deputy Executive Secretary of the Truman Foundation, course corrects everyone with the “you’re all ‘special little snowflakes’” routine, you can learn a lot from just the casual chatter.

The only people I learn more from while at TSLW every year are the other Senior Scholars. I’ve had the pleasure to get to know a gang-busting attorney, distinguished educators, political geniuses, and a whole lot of amazing public servants. They are at the top of their fields for their age, but what’s more striking is their sense of character and good humor.

The other question I get a lot from the incoming class is, “Do the Senior Scholars talk about us?” The answer is “Yes, absolutely.” Truman Scholars are such interesting people, and you deserve to be discussed. Every class has its own collective personality and cast of characters from year to year.

Madeleine Albright, President of the Truman Foundation, once commented to me that her time as Secretary of State was somewhat akin to running a zoo, and there’s probably a comparison to be made to TSLW. In my years though as a “keeper” at TSLW, I’ve never seen the animals throwing excrement at each other or anything like that, but there are sometimes discussions amongst the “keepers” about which animals might be courting and whether or not they’ve been fed enough the night of the Hunger Banquet. In all honesty though, we spend the vast majority of our time talking about how wonderful everyone is while laughing at the constant hilarity emanating from the Truman Foundation staff, the Scholars, and each other.

For future Truman Scholars and others who are curious about what really happens at TSLW:

• If a Senior Scholar makes fun you, it means that we respect and love you… honestly
• Yes, the Senior Scholars get disappointed in Scholars when they break the rules and act like 20 year olds (even though they are)
• Senior Scholars do socialize outside of the TSLW schedule and beyond the William Jewell Campus, but we’re allowed to
• The Senior Scholars don’t actually have “favorites” – we don’t care enough to make the effort of crafting lists
• There are such things as boundaries, no matter how much you want to dance with your favorite Senior Scholar
• The only expectation of Senior Scholars for their policy groups is to not be embarrassed by them
• There are even more snacks for Senior Scholars stashed away in the basement
• We will “tweet” the hilarious things Scholars say ;)

Michael Gale (WV ’02) co-coordinates the Conserving the Future vision process for the National Wildlife Refuge System (www.AmericasWildlife.org). Follow him on Twitter @generationwild. 

Dear Scholars,

I am pleased to report that the President of the Truman Foundation, the Honorable Madeleine Albright, has accepted our invitation to speak at the conference on Saturday morning July 23!

Dr. Albright was the first woman named as Secretary of State in 1997--and at that time the highest ranking woman in US government. She will speak during the plenary session, and afterward she has offered a Q and A session with the audience.

Within the next few days I will be updating the conference agenda online to reflect this exciting news as well as some other, smaller changes.

I encourage you to visit www.trumanconference.org and register TODAY! Don't forget to book your room at the OmniShoreham Hotel.

Jessica Sotelo
Conference Director

Don Gomez (NY '09) authored a commentary piece, "When Hero Rings Hollow," published in The New York Times.

Read the full article.

Stephen Honan (VA '10) was spotted (by Westbrook Murphy) in Annapolis' The Capitol newspaper. Honan (pictured at right, third from right) was graduated from the United States Naval Academy.

Rachel Ackoff (CA ‘06), after four years living and working in Washington, DC first for the U.S. Student Association as their Electoral Project Director and then for the Sierra Club's Trade and Labor Program, is moving to New York City to pursue a dual degree program in Nonprofit Management and Jewish Studies at New York University this fall. She is sad to leave the DC Trumans behind but looks forward to hanging out with the NYC Trumans.

Joe Wells (IN ‘03) recently relinquished command of an infantry company that he led for the last year and half.  This company was responisble for partnering with Iraqi security forces and local leaders in Muqdadiyah and facilitated safe and secure elections in the spring of 2010.  In his next assignment, Joe will serve a two-year tour as an exchange officer with the Royal Netherlands 11th Airmobile Brigade. Pictured is the change of command ceremony.

Eric Greitens (MO '95), a Navy SEAL who recently authored the book The Heart and the Fist, was interviewed on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report: http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/wed-may-11-2011-eric-greitens

Andy Sears (MO ‘77) joined George K. Baum & Company as Senior Vice President & General Counsel. For the past 12 years he served as in-house counsel at U.S. Central.

By Westbrook Murphy, General Counsel, Truman Scholarship Foundation

For this summer’s TSA National Conference, Matt Garza (CA ’09) is putting together a map of Washington, DC sites associated with Harry Truman.  It includes the HST Scholarship Foundation’s offices at 712 Jackson Place—a townhouse on the west side of Jackson Square across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

That townhouse—formerly No. 8—once had been owned by Major Henry Rathbone, whose story is told below.  So don’t be surprised if Tara or Tonji sometimes act a bit strangely…

The Tragedy of Major Rathbone
(from "GHOSTS: Washington's most famous ghost stories," by John Alexander)

Major Rathbone was a brilliant and successful young officer when he moved into Number 8 Jackson Place. At that time he was hopeful of making New York Senator Harris's daughter Clara his wife. It was Miss Harris who accompanied the Major the night he went with President and Mrs. Lincoln to see "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre. Major Rathbone was stabbed in the head and neck by John Wilkes Booth before the assassin made good his escape by jumping onto the stage from the presidential box.

Although seriously wounded, Major Rathbone responded to treatment and physically recovered from his wounds, but his mind was never quite the same. He was distracted, moody. He and Clara Harris were eventually married, and his wife accepted his moods, thinking that some day he would again become the man she used to know. Perhaps that is why she agreed to move with him to Germany.

Hoping to escape his recurring depression, the Major resigned his commission and with his wife set out for Hanover. Another country and another life, however, proved no panacea. He became more despondent. As his wife and children prepared for the coming Christmas holidays, Rathbone seemed to lose touch with reality altogether. He took a gun, shot his wife to death, and would have killed his children if a nurse had not intervened. He then shot himself. Whether or not Rathbone was reliving that struggle some eighteen years earlier with John Wilkes Booth is only conjecture.

Doctors were able to save what was left of the life of Henry Rathbone, but he spent the rest of his days in an insane asylum far from his former home on Lafayette Square. The news of the Rathbone tragedy quickly reached Washington. Some of his former neighbors wept at the misfortune, but as they walked along Jackson Place they often took their children by the hand and crossed over into the park rather than walk directly in front of the old Rathbone house. They seemed to be afraid the web of fate that had entangled so many victims of the Lincoln assassination might still hang in the air around the house of the unfortunate Major. A few expressed fear that his deranged spirit would cross the ocean, while others contended it already had. They whispered of hearing a man crying. Tales spun over backyard fences or on porches at night told of heartbreaking sobs drifting from the old home where, for a few brief years Rathbone had known success, joy and happiness.

Westbrook Murphy serves as General Counsel of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.

Sitting in Arlington Cemetery on a beautiful Memorial Day Monday surrounded by those whose dedication to service is awe-inspiring, I am struck by the commonality of all those remembered for their service to our country and the Truman Scholars in their dedication to public service. Although none of the 2011 Truman Scholars has given the ultimate sacrifice of our life in the service to others, their passion to serve others is something that is inspiring.

When I arrived in Liberty, Missouri for the Truman Scholar Leadership Week (TSLW) 2011, I was surrounded by some of the most incredible people I had ever met. So, needless to say, I was a little nervous. And yet, my pre-mature nervousness was instantly quelled by my fellow Trumans, through their humility and warm reception. Reflecting on the week I have found it divided into three parts: conversations, activities, and community.

Conversation: The conversations during TSLW were unparalleled and varied from the healthcare system to energy policy and economics. The depth of the Truman Scholars and their interests was amazing. My first conversation was with a scholar from California who had just re-enacted the Freedom Ride, retracing the 1961 rides from Washington, DC to New Orleans, LA. With forty other selected students he toured the country meeting civil rights activists and heard memories of their fight for equal rights. Another scholar and I discussed energy policy and his role in formulating Obama’s campaign strategy for energy. These conversations not only showed me the impressiveness of the students who were scholars, but allowed us to learn from one another’s passions and share our own. Whether it was investigating various religions (including Buddhism), or discussing the importance of food trucks, TSLW was alive with conversations that occurred deep into the night and early in the morning.

Activities: Throughout the week, our class was brought together by workshops, activities, and testimonials. We collaborated on some of the most difficult issues in the “Decision-Center” of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, worked on group policies culminating in one group’s project of the Harry S. Loris Twitter and Facebook, learned about graduate programs from admissions counselors and how to finance one’s education, and heard senior scholars experiences in leadership and finding their identities. It was a week filled with a discovery of new paths and dismissal of previously held beliefs. As one speaker put it, we were put into a state of “constructive confusion.” At the end of the week many of the scholars shared their new friends with their family at the banquet and awards ceremony. At TSLW I was not only able to share the new friends I had made with my mother but I gained a new family, one brought together by shared aspirations for the future.

Community: The Truman Community is something that was previously unimaginable. It is a catalyst of some of the brightest minds in the country, who are not only some of the most achieving college students, but who are incredibly humble. During the week, our class grew as a community as we participated in service activities that included volunteering at a food bank, a free health clinic, a domestic violence center, and a homeless shelter. We played mafia at night, rolled down hills, raced on piggy back, ran in the early morning, and even had a dance. Now you may be wondering the dance expertise of the Truman scholars, but you would be very impressed with the ability of scholars to “Swang it” and do the “Dougie.” Also, doing the “slow loris” is something that will always be infamous to our class. I was also extremely impressed with our scholars when there were two tragedies: a scholar’s father passing away and a deadly tornado in the nearby town of Joplin. The scholars were always there for her to talk to as well as offer a comforting hug. One of the students proposed a group effort by the Truman Scholars to raise funds for the Joplin residents. Immediately the Trumans galvanized their ideas on how to best help the suffering community. The reaction to these two great heartbreaks evidenced the strength and solidarity of the 2011 class.

With guidance from our senior scholars, Tara Yglesias and Andy Kirk of the Truman Foundation, and Westbrook Murphy of the Foundation Board, I will forever cherish the week I had with my fellow Trumans. While we came from diverse backgrounds and large age ranges, our class instantly became a close family. Brought together by a common drive for service we, as one scholar commented were able to “find our people.”

Elizabeth Davis (MT ’11) is completing her final year at the University of Notre Dame.

Fellow Truman Scholars,

I’m excited to announce that the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation has chosen its next Executive Secretary: Dr. Andrew (Andy) Rich, a 1991 Truman Scholar from Delaware. 

The 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004 Scholars will remember Dr. Rich as a Senior Scholar at your TSLW in Independence.  More recent Scholars may remember Dr. Rich from the New York interview panel.  Other Scholars will know him as an advisor at the City College of New York (CCNY) and Wake Forest.  However you may know him, I’m sure those of you who do are just as excited as I am that he is taking on this new role in the Truman Community.

Dr. Rich received the Truman Scholarship while at the University of Richmond, where he received his Bachelor’s in Political Science.  He went on to Yale University where he received his Masters and then Ph.D. in Political Science.  Dr. Rich has been a professor at Wake Forest, a professor and department chair at CCNY, and a consultant and advisor to institutions such as the Open Society Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Ford Foundation.  While at CCNY, he was also Deputy Director and Director of Programs at the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies there.

Dr. Rich is currently the President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute.  Since joining the Institute in January 2009, he has transformed the Institute from a support organization for the FDR Presidential Library and Museum to a national think-tank developing substantial programs of idea leadership and public policy development.  Dr. Rich also oversees the Institute’s efforts to expand and strengthen the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, which currently connects 100+ college campuses and more than 10,000 students and alumni to a programs that engage them in discussing progressive values, empower them to develop public policy, and promote their ideas to policymakers at all levels of government.

Dr. Rich is the author of Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise (Cambridge University Press, 2004), as well as a wide-ranging number of articles about think tanks, interest groups, foundations, individual donors, and the role of experts and ideas in the American policy process.  Dr. Rich has appeared in a number of news outlets including “All Things Considered” from National Public Radio, CNN, The Economist, and the Washington Post.  Dr. Rich will officially take office in January of 2012 but will be working with the Foundation in the intervening months.  If you haven’t already met Dr. Rich, you can do so at the 2011 National Conference in Washington, DC, so register now.

The search committee for the Executive Secretary included members of the Foundation’s Board, former Executive Secretary Fred Slabach (MS ’77), Deputy Executive Secretary Tara Yglesias (PA ’93) and myself as a representative of the Truman Scholars Association.  We had very strong applicants and appreciate all the Truman Scholars who applied.  We certainly have a committed and talented community, and I’m excited to have Dr. Rich at the helm.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Andy Rich as the 4th Executive Secretary of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.

Sincerely,

Adair Ford Boroughs (SC '01)
President
Truman Scholars Association

In November 2010, Truman Scholars witnessed an historic first for our community when Chris Coons (DE ‘83) won election to the US Senate. A collaborative and intergenerational effort, the campaign embodied many of the values for which the Truman family is known: loyalty, camaraderie, and a commitment to public service.

For this article, Bill Rivers (DE ‘09) had a conversation with a few of the many Scholars who supported the Coons campaign: Terry Babcock-Lumish (PA ‘96), Eric Tucker (IA ‘01), and Russ Dallen (MI ‘83).  

Though regarded for his longstanding commitment to public service – as Delaware’s New Castle County Executive and for his work with the “I Have a Dream” Foundation – Chris Coons was not a household name across the country in early 2010. 

But for members of the Truman community, his recent Senate bid was not the first time they’d heard the name “Chris Coons.” Trumans are long familiar with this 2001 Staats Award recipient, a regular in the annual Truman Scholars Leadership Week in Missouri, a highly involved member of the Truman Scholars Association, and an active supporter of the Foundation’s efforts. Consequently, for many of us, the decision to get involved in Chris’s US Senate race was an easy one, a natural result of shared commitments and Truman friendships.

Last autumn, Eric Tucker traveled from Brooklyn to join Brendan Kelly (MN '97) and Terry Babcock-Lumish to help the Coons Campaign in the state’s southern, historically conservative Sussex County.

“I was interested in the campaign because I believe in Chris Coons and in his vision for our nation and the state,” Tucker said. “The decision for me was all about Chris. Thoughtful and reflective, he has both a global vision for justice and a commitment to Delaware and his neighbors. That made the decision for me.” 

Together, Tucker, Kelly, and Babcock-Lumish collaborated with local Democrats and the DC-based Human Rights Campaign to coordinate the down-state get-out-the-vote efforts.

Russ Dallen, a classmate of Senator Coons’ from the Truman Scholars Class of ’83, is further proof of Trumans answering the call. In 2000, he helped raise money in New York City for Coons’ very first campaign. At that time, Coons was running for Delaware’s New Castle County Council, the same body in which Joe Biden served before his first campaign to represent the First State in the US Senate in 1972.

“When Chris called me in early 2010 telling me that he would be running for Joe Biden's Senate seat, I knew the drill,” Dallen explained. Except this time, Dallen would help Coons fundraise in major cities across the country, not just New York. Bringing the Coons Campaign of 2010 full circle with the Biden Campaign of almost 40 years ago, he even helped organize a fundraiser in Miami with Delaware’s former US Senator, now Vice President Joe Biden.

“The Tea Party publicity was raising large sums of money for competing candidate Christine O'Donnell,” Dallen explained. “And the Coons campaign needed all the funds it could get its hands on. I am pleased that I was able to help.”

It worked. The Coons Campaign raised over $3.8 million dollars, with roughly 70% coming from individual contributions. But beyond money, the Miami event and others like it across the country highlight one of the Truman community’s most instantly recognizable features and an enduring constant of the Coons Campaign: fidelity to other Trumans.

“We have this ready-made network of help from politically-minded, driven leaders—some with time, some with expertise, some with connections, and others with money,” Dallen went on to say. “Other Trumans have also successfully tapped into [this] over the years to help in their campaigns.  I think that it may end up being the most powerful benefits of the scholarship.”

“Truman Scholars of all decades, from all over the country, came together for this,” Eric Tucker said. “They served as a national brain trust, raising money, introducing Chris to friends and potential supporters all over the country, and just being supportive. The Truman Scholarship community was a galvanizing force in bringing all these different supporters together.”

Traveling from England to support Chris’ Senate bid, Babcock-Lumish affirms that the bond of fellowship between Scholars runs deep. “Truman Scholars care greatly about each others’ professional efforts, of course, but it’s also personal.  To spend any time with Chris, his commitment to serving his community and our society is made abundantly clear – but one also learns just how much he loves his family, one learns what drives his ideas and efforts.  He is a role model,” she said. “What struck me was fielding calls and emails from Truman Scholars who had never met Chris and who were excited to learn how they might support the campaign. Chris was my Senior Scholar back in ’96, and I was hearing from Scholars across the country for whom I served as their Senior Scholar at TSLW.  This transcended generations of Truman Scholars, and I trust it will continue to do so.”

One of the most compelling reasons for such loyalty was the candidate himself.

Recalling the first time he met Chris Coons at TSLW, Tucker relates, “When he spoke about his professional experiences, how he balanced his deep commitment to his family with his desire to have an impact in the world, it was one of the most meaningful experiences of the week for me. Chris embodied integrity and compassion. To me, Chris Coons represents the best of what it means to be a Truman Scholar.”

Even among Republican circles in Delaware, the Amherst and Yale-educated Chris Coons is known for his integrity.

Bill Rivers managed several local and state representative campaigns in Delaware for the Republicans this cycle. Though not directly involved with the battle for US Senate, he was a keen observer: “Even if they disagreed with him—sometimes vigorously so—Republicans in the down-ticket races understood Chris Coons to be as honest as the day is long.”

Most of all, the campaign’s underlying theme was a serious commitment to Delaware, a fealty to home that is yet another hallmark of Truman Scholars. Senator Coons was raised in Northern Delaware, and throughout the campaign, “consistently spoke to issues for Delawareans,” Babcock-Lumish explains.

The commitment to home combined with the significance of the campaign for the Truman community led to some emotional moments, the most memorable of which was a rally held in the City of Wilmington, at which Vice President Joe Biden once again made an appearance, and delivered the opening remarks.

For Eric Tucker, the event was a historic moment. “It was fantastic for us as members of the Truman community to see Chris on that stage, standing up for Delaware. The continuity was impressive too, because Joe Biden made such a contribution during the time that he served in the seat. Chris at once embodied continuity of leadership, and was beginning the next chapter.”

“It was a special moment, simultaneously a homecoming and a send-off, as Delaware’s voters decided to put their trust in him as their newest US Senator,” Babcock-Lumish adds, reflecting on the rally.

*          *          *

Whether campaigning full-time like Tucker, Kelly, and Babcock-Lumish, leading Election Day voter protection efforts like Bryan Townsend (DE '03), or simply donning a “Chris Coons for US Senate” T-shirt and working the crowds at Sussex County’s world-famous Apple-Scrapple Festival like Abbas Ravjani (TX '03) and David Zipper (NC '99), Delaware witnessed an extraordinary effort from the Truman Community to elect one of their own.

No one is better-suited to speak to that effort then Senator Coons himself:

“I was deeply moved by all the encouragement and support I received in my 2010 campaign from Truman scholars young and old, from those I met many years ago, to those I have just met for the first time. Trumans contributed to the campaign, both financially and with volunteer time, from across the East Coast and across the world.  I got Facebook messages, emails and blog postings, online contributions and volunteer phone bankers, folks who came out for a weekend and folks who were with me every step along the way.  It was a great community effort, and I am eternally grateful!”

“The Truman community is like no other community I know,” Terry Babcock-Lumish confides. “I count Truman Scholars as trustworthy colleagues and as my closest friends.”

“Truman Scholars are family,” Eric Tucker concludes. “We keep each other honest. Senior scholars like Chris remind me of what’s possible from a life in public service, and the newer generation of scholars reminds me of my passion for making a difference.”

Now, thanks in no small part to so many Truman Scholars, Chris Coons can continue to play this role, now in the US Senate.

Bill Rivers (DE ‘09) is currently Executive Director of the A Rose & A Prayer Education Group (www.aroseandaprayer.org), a nonpartisan, interfaith, multiracial social action nonprofit working to lower the abortion rate in the First State. 

Eric Greitens (MO '95), a Navy SEAL who recently authored the book The Heart and the Fist, was interviewed on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report.

Watch the full episode.

V. Paul Chattergy (HI ‘88) started work in April as the Investment Specialist with the State of Hawaii Employees' Retirement System (HIERS). He reports directly to the Chief Investment Officer of the approximately $11.5 billion pension fund, which provides retirement benefits to the employees and their dependents of the state, county, and judiciary of Hawai'i. He is very pleased to be back in the public sector, and able to bring his broad experience in financial markets to the position.

Ms. Shawn Vogt Sween (MN ‘99) was named one of Minnesota Lawyer's "Up & Coming" Attorneys for 2011: http://www.svslawoffice.com/2011/04/minnesota-lawyer-recognizes-shawn-vogt-sween-as-2011-up-and-coming-lawyer/ 

Wendi Adelson (FL '00) will begin a new position as Clinical Professor and Director of the Medical Legal Partnership at Florida State University College of Law in August. The Medical Legal Partnership at Florida State University, a collaboration between the Colleges of Law and Medicine, is an innovation in interdisciplinary education. Law students will partner with medical students, social work students, lawyers and physicians to examine patients’ social determinants of health. Wendi would love to connect with other Trumans working in public health.

Dr. Marcia Chatelain (IL ‘00) was appointed Assistant Professor of History at Georgetown University.   She and her husband Mark Yapelli will be moving to Washington, DC in August.  Her first book "South Side Girls: African-American Girlhood in Chicago, 1890-1950" will be published by the University of Illinois Press.a

Marie-Adele (Sorel) Kress (MD ‘04) was married to Jeremy Kress in Washington, DC on April 3. “It's great to be starting a new phase of life, and we're looking forward to a delayed honeymoon in Big Sur at the end of the month,” she said.

Sarah Sattelmeyer (GA ‘04) complete an MPP and an MPH at the University of California - Berkeley in May. She is returning to Washingotn, DC to work on health and welfare policy.

Anthony Shop (MO ‘04) was a member of the winning team in The George Washington University Business Plan competition (www.gwbizplan.com). He and his teammates received $25,000 in seed funding for their new venture, LeadDriver, which develops software. Shop will graduate from GWU with his MBA in May.

Pooja K. Agarwal (MO '05) is recently engaged to Chuck Rickert. Chuck, an "honorary Truman" pursuing a public service career in medicine, has met many a Truman over the years and he enjoyed the 20th Anniversary of TSLW in Independence, MO last year. They look forward to spending the rest of their lives together, in public service, and as part of the Truman community.

Brett Keller (AR '07) will be working this summer as an Epi Scholar with the New York City Department of Health, studying childhood lead poisoning in the city.

By Jessica Sotelo (ID '00)

We are now less than three months away from our 2011 National Conference and I hope you are as excited as I am!

If you haven't heard, registration is now open. Please visit www.trumanconference.org and register now in order to get the "Early Bird" rate! The registration is a 2 step process so once you have input your information, you will need to click on the payment (Step 2) option and input your payment information.

I have a quick update about the White House Tour we are requesting for Friday, July 22. Our very own Kyle Gracey will be leading the tour! Kyle has experience with White House tours and its always nice to get "inside information" from someone who has worked there. As of right now we have over 35 people signed up for the tour!

Just a reminder that our confirmed keynote speakers include U.S. Senator Chris Coons (DE '83) and Ambassador Michelle Gavin (AZ '85), both Truman Scholars, as well as Clifton Truman Daniel, author and grandson of President Truman.

For more details about the agenda and speakers visit www.trumanconference.org and register now!

Jessica Sotelo (ID '00), executive director of Partners for Prosperity, is the 2011 National Conference Director.

The Truman Scholarship Foundation named Pat Gilbert (AZ '91) as recipient of the Elmer B. Staats Award for Public Service.

The Elmer B. Staats Award is presented annually to a Truman Scholar who has made substantial contributions in public service and has demonstrated commitment to Truman Scholars.  Named for the Chairman Emeritus of the Truman Foundation, who himself has had an extraordinary career in public service and continues to serve as an example to Truman Scholars, the Staats Award is the highest honor the Foundation bestows.

Pat Gilbert
1991 Truman Scholar from Arizona

Former Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel for Marc Center, Executive Director of Mesa Community Action Network and Assistant Attorney General, Pat Gilbert is reinventing his career path by re-entering private law practice and consulting focused on building nonprofit development capacity.

Even prior to his selection as a Truman Scholar, Pat was investing in his local community.  In 1988, he co-founded a nonprofit affordable housing corporation.  The corporation used a unique financing tool that has resulted in hundreds of families accessing homeownership.  In 1998, Arizona’s Public Housing Directors recognized his ongoing support for affordable housing.

In 1988, Mesa, Arizona recognized his efforts by naming him “Young Man of the Year.”  In 1998, he was honored as “Man of the Year.”  He has been a quiet advocate for children in the local court system and been named Advocate of the Year by the Children’s Law Project and as one of Arizona’s top 50 pro bono lawyers by the Arizona Bar Foundation.

While in school, Pat ran for and was elected to Mesa’s city council.  Serving two four-year terms, he also served Mesa’s Vice Mayor from 1994 to 1998.  He ran for mayor in 2000 losing by 1,200 votes in a tight election.  Many Trumans helped with the effort.  In the right circumstance, he might hint that he’s not quite done on the political battlefield.

For the last 15 years, his work has been in nonprofit management working to ameliorate poverty and expand opportunity for people with cognitive disabilities and mental illness.  In his new venture, he has been asked to lead a regional effort of a consortium of nonprofits dedicated to developing and operating permanent, supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals and families.  Some of his innovative thinking about the built environment has been featured by the Urban Land Institute.

Pat’s work on behalf of the Truman Foundation has been extensive.  Since 1993 he has served on the Phoenix regional selection panel.  He has been among the readers assembled to review the written applications, and he has been a Senior Scholar at Truman Scholars Leadership Week at least 4 times. Pat is an actual member of the Truman Scholar Association. He has also participated in a number of special projects designed to enhance the services the Foundation offers.

Pat is an Arizona State University law school and undergraduate.  While an undergrad, he was named a USA Today Academic First Team All-American and was selected as a Truman Scholar.  Since 2000, Pat has been a part of ASU’s Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation serving on its advisory board and occasionally teaching graduate level classes.

Pat’s most important accomplishment is being smart and lucky enough to have incredibly supportive family members: Rory, his wife of 39 years, Matt and Sada, his children and their spouses Amy and David, and his grandsons Morgan and Alex.  All of the effort has been as a team.

Growing up in rural Illinois, Maryland Delegate Heather Mizeur (IL ’94) never thought that her first Washington, DC, job would lead to a life there, let alone a successful political career in one of DC’s suburbs. Although believing she would return to the Midwest, this self-described “old soul” knew from an early age that she was gay, that she held strong Catholic spirituality, and that she saw her life in elected public service.

“I always thought I was heading back to Illinois” Mizeur said. “I moved to DC in 1994 and didn’t rule out moving back to Illinois until 2001―when I set roots and bought a house in Takoma Park, Maryland.”

Those roots quickly flourished. She ran and won a seat on the Takoma Park City Council in 2003. After serving for two years, she later ran for the Maryland House of Delegates, winning a seat in its 20th district in 2006. In the Maryland House, she has led on health care and LGBT equality, working specifically on a bill that increases low-income children’s access to health care. She successfully won reelection for her second term in 2010, and The Advocate magazine recently named her as one of the "Forty Under 40" emerging LGBT leaders.

Interview with

Heather Mizeur (IL ’94), Maryland Delegate for the 20th District

By Adam Amir (FL ’09), Policy Analyst, NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg

April 26, 2011

AMIR: What was your public service passion as an undergraduate and how has it changed, if it all?

MIZEUR: Health care has always been the issue I’ve been most passionate about. I got my start in politics as a child of the labor movement. My father was a member of the United Auto Workers. My Catholic background also tied me closely to social justice. I volunteered in missions in the Yucatan region of Mexico as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In terms of a policy issue in this country, I have always been tied to health policy: Medicare, Medicaid, and state child health insurance programs, and trying to expand access to these services. It’s what I focused on the federal, state level, and in my private practice.

AMIR: What do you think about the budget cuts proposed by the House Republicans? Is the gutting of Medicare or Medicaid merely political posturing?

MIZEUR: I think it poses a real threat. We need to mobilize seniors and low income folks to stand up for health care programs in the same way that the other side mobilized people to voice their opposition to health reform at town hall meetings last summer. We’ve got to take these cuts very seriously, agitate, and defeat these proposals. I had to work really hard this session to avoid a $20 million Medicaid cut in Maryland. In tough budget times, we need to be smart. We should still pay for it (Medicaid coverage) because people will still be sick no matter what. We can pay for their care in an emergency room where it is expensive or we can give them health insurance. You might as well give people access to primary care, which is more affordable. I don’t see it as a budget saving mechanism to be whacking away at the Medicaid program. 

AMIR: Insurance and Medicare are such complicated issues. How do you simplify the messages?

MIZEUR: I think about how I would explain it to my parents and my grandparents back in Illinois. I try to use human stories and explain what it means for individuals in a tangible way, rather than just talking about esoteric policy. But it’s an interesting blend, because in my district, I represent people who work in government and like to talk about policy specifics. I get to have it both ways.

Sometimes you have to use the media to get the message out, to larger constituencies. That’s where the message does have to be a little more simplistic.

AMIR: I saw that you had worked for John Kerry. Many in the Truman Scholar community work or have worked for an elected official. How do you transition from staffing an elected an official to becoming one?

I was with Senator John Kerry for almost four years. I think the biggest difference is that as a staffer you have one-fifth of the issues a legislator must understand. As a staffer, you’re really an expert on a certain small cadre of issues. You watch your principal hoping that they say the right thing. As a staffer, you compete with other staffers to push the issue you care about most and hope the Member agrees.

Now as the elected official, I can work on issues I cared about while working in other levels of government. Many of the good ideas I had staffing for a Member of the House of Representatives in the minority party, I later retooled to be part of my campaign platform— initiatives like expanding insurance coverage for young adults, allowing them to remain on their family’s plan until they are 25 years old. I worked with Senator Kerry to make this an element of his 2004 Presidential health reform plan and then turned it into a state initiative, and I actually got it done three years before it became a part of national health reform. It sounds cliché, but states really are the laboratories of democracy.

AMIR: Shifting gears a bit, I wanted to know how the disparity in partner benefits for same-sex couples affects you on both a personal and policy level.

MIZEUR: Well there are different tiers of discrimination. Even if we fixed everything at the state level, until the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is repealed there will still be unfair treatment of tax on the federal level. I’ve experienced this in Maryland. At one point, the Governor decided to bring domestic partners onto state employee insurance plans. My wife would be eligible to be on my state insurance policy, except that she would have to pay taxes on that benefit at the federal level. Something no straight married couple must pay. There are about 425 state benefits that come with a marriage certificate and nearly a thousand more at the federal level.

We have had a parallel approach in the General Assembly in Maryland. While working ultimately for marriage equality, my colleagues and I have attempted to address a range of individual issues like inheritance rights, visitation rights, and burial decisions for same sex partners at the state level.  We’ll chip away at those 425 rights, one-by-one, until we get full marriage equality.

AMIR: In a passionate and emotional floor speech about a marriage equality bill in the Maryland House, you described yourself as an “old soul.” What did you mean by that?

MIZEUR: The technical term might be more “self-actualized at a young age.” I knew at age seven a lot of things about myself that it takes others a lifetime to find out. I knew I was gay. I knew that I wanted a career in elected public service. I was also very tied to my Catholicism, and knew that it informed my identity, drive, and relationship with God. Sometimes it required extra work to reconcile these seemingly conflicting identities, but they motivated me at an early age.

AMIR: My last question is very controversial. Where is the best place to get blue crabs in Maryland while you’re in session?

MIZEUR: It’s not crab season during session in Annapolis. Though you can get crab cakes in the winter, you should  ask if they are pasteurized because they are not as good without fresh crabmeat. During the summer, my favorite place to pick get crabs is in Rock Hall, Maryland at a restaurant called Watermans.

Seth Andrew (RI '99), founder of three Democracy Prep charter schools, was quoted in the New York Times article, "Charter School Space: Free of Rent, Maybe, But Not of Hurdles."

Read the full article.

By Westbrook Murphy, General Counsel, Truman Scholarship Foundation

Sixty years ago today—April 11, 1951—President Harry Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his commands in Japan and Korea.  Doing so firmly re-established the Constitutional principle of civilian control; of the military.  The back story also shows how Truman took responsibility for his decisions as announced by the famous sign on his desk: “The Buck Stops Here.”

MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur emerged from Word War II as a wildly popular general.  Like Patton in Europe, MacArthur’s campaign up the island chain from Australia was aggressive and captured large amounts of territory and enemy prisoners with a comparatively low ratio of U.S. casualties. 

And—like Patton—MacArthur seldom missed a chance to glorify his own reputation.  His ego knew few bounds.  As Truman wrote privately: “Unlike MacArthur, the Cabots at least talked to the Lodges before telling God what to do.”

In a precursor of his contretemps with Truman, in the early 1930s MacArthur had gotten away with openly defying President Hoover.  MacArthur then was the Army’s Chief of Staff. 

In the depths of the Depression, World War I veterans marched on Washington to demand that a deferred bonus due to them in two more years be paid early.  This so-called bonus army set up a makeshift camp on the eastern side of the Anacostia River—across the river from the present sites of RFK and the Washington Nationals Stadia. 

One day the bonus army crossed the Anacostia and marched in a demonstration up Pennsylvania Ave.  Shots were fired—no one knew by whom—and one or two people were killed.

President Hoover called out the Army to restore order.  Col. Dwight Eisenhower, then MacArthur’s principal aide, advised MacArthur to assign some other officer to lead the Army’s peacekeeping operations.  But MacArthur ignored this advice.  Putting on his full uniform, he took personal command of the operation.

President Hoover’s original orders were explicit: a U.S. Army detachment was to force the bonus marchers back across the Anacostia, but to stop there without itself crossing the river.  When Hoover sent a messenger repeating his order, MacArthur dismissed it, declaring that he was not bound by any so-called orders from the President.

MacArthur did not stop at the river, but crossed the Anacostia and razed the bonus army’s makeshift camp.  He then went to the White House and defied Herbert Hoover to challenge what MacArthur had done.  Hoover refused to do so.

You may read more about this and other events in MacArthur’s life in William Manchester’s American Caesar. 

The Korean Situation

The first few months of the North Korean’s surprise late June 1950 attack across the 38th parallel were highly successful.  They drove the United nations forces (mostly U.S.) into a defensive line around the southeast Korean port of Pusan. 

MacArthur conceived a daring plan of an amphibious landing at Inchon, a port mid-way up the peninsula’s western side—not far from the capital of Seoul and the 38th parallel.  If successful, UN forces then could cut off the North Korean Army. 

But the 20-foot+ tides at Inchon made the entire operation a huge gamble.  Landing craft could reach the shore only for an hour or so during the high tides that occurred about 12 hours apart.  The Pentagon brass was highly skeptical, but President Truman backed the Inchon landing.

The Inchon landing in September, 1950, turned the war around.  Many North Koreans were killed or captured between UN forces who had landed at Inchon and those who broke out of the Pusan perimeter.  The UN forces drove what remained of the North Korean army back across the 38th Parallel, and continued the campaign northward—but without any clear strategic goal having been established. 

The Wake Island Meeting

In October, 1959, President Truman met personally with MacArthur, traveling much further to the meeting place—Wake Island—than did MacArthur.  Two asides, before resuming the principal story:

• Mrs. Truman was deeply concerned about the President flying so far in what was then a propeller-driven presidential plane across so much of the Pacific—particularly the last leg from Hawaii to Wake Island.  White House Physician Wallace Graham told her not to worry:  the Navy would have a line of ships stationed along the route which quickly could go to the rescue if the plane should need to ditch.  When Mrs. Truman realized that the Navy lacked enough ships to cover that vast stretch of the Pacific, Dr. Graham reassured her that the entire route would be covered because, as the planed passed over the ship at the end of the line, that ship would steam around to the front.
• President Truman wanted to take with him a gift for Mrs. MacArthur: See’s chocolate candies of which she was known to be fond.  While the plane stopped over in San Francisco, he sent my father Charles Murphy out to search for candy.  My father could find only 1-pound boxes, and returned with five of them.  During the next stop at Honolulu, he tried again and found a 5-pound box for the President to give to Mrs. MacArthur.  I never learned what happened to five 1-pound boxes.

One of the main topics discussed on Wake Island was whether the Chinese Communists might intervene militarily as the UN forces pushed northward toward the Chinese border.  MacArthur told the President that the Chinese would not intervene, but—if they did—he pitied them.  They would be slaughtered like sheep.  In describing that conversation years later, may father said that MacArthur was the most persuasive man he ever heard.

When they parted, President Truman thought that MacArthur agreed with the President’s military aims as described below.

Differing War Aims

MacArthur—and Truman too—badly misjudged Chinese intentions.  In late November, 1950, tens of thousands of Chinese “volunteers” stormed across the frozen Yalu River and inflicted great casualties on the UN forces while driving them back to about the 38th Parallel.

President Truman’s goal in Korea was limited:  he wished to beat back the North Korean aggression and restore order on the Korean peninsula.  He feared that widening the war would give the Soviet Union an opportunity to initiate military action in Europe while the U.S. was bogged down in Korea, and might even lead to World War III.

Declaring that, “There is no substitute for victory,” MacArthur wanted to attack Communist China, and perhaps even restore to power the Nationalist Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek.  MacArthur made public his disagreement with the President through, inter alia, a message he sent to an American Legion Convention and a letter he wrote to Joseph Martin, the House Republican Leader. 

For more detail, read David Halberstam’s last book, The Coldest Winter.  You’ll find there that MacArthur was well past his prime even as a military commander. 

The Last Straw

In the spring of 1951 the Truman Administration had feelers out to the Chinese that might have brought an end to the Korean fighting.  MacArthur sabotaged these efforts by publically announcing that any truce would have to be negotiated with him.  Truman then decided that McArthur must be relieved of his commands.  But he kept this decision to himself.

He had a file assembled of the correspondence between MacArthur and his nominal superiors in Washington.  He gave copies of this file to each of one of the most sterling set of advisors ever assembled for a U.S President:

• Secretary of State Dean Acheson,
• Secretary of Defense George Marshall,
• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Omar Bradley, and
• Special wartime advisor Averill Harriman.

He instructed each to read the file and then reassemble the next day.  They did so, agreeing that MacArthur should be relieved. Gen. Marshall, however, advised caution because of the expected public reaction.  Truman then told them of his decision to relieve MacArthur.

What a President!

Under my father’s direction the White House staff and the Pentagon begin to prepare the necessary papers to carry out the President’s decision to relieve Gen. MacArthur and appoint Gen. Mathew Ridgeway in his place.  Out of respect for MacArthur, they trued to arrange for Army Secretary Frank Pace, who then was in Korea, to fly to Tokyo and personally inform MacArthur that he was being relieved.  The effort to reach Pace was unsuccessful. 

Reacting to a possibility (false, as it turned out) that MacArthur had learned of the President’s decision and would try to gain a public relations advantage by resigning, the White House rushed to announce the President’s decision late at night.  About 10 p.m. President Truman, as was his habit before making an important decision, assembled his staff to ask their individual opinions.

A young aide to Averill Harriman named Ted Tannenwald spoke up to push an idea that my father had rejected earlier in the day.  Tannenwald urged that the White House press release should recite that Truman was acting on the advice of his principal civilian and military advisers—the group listed above.

Truman looked at him and said: “No, Son, not tonight.  All that will come out eventually.  But tonight this is the President acting as President on his own authority.”

In The Coldest Winter, supra, Halberstam calls this President Truman’s finest hour.

The day before MacArthur was relieved Herblock’s Washing Post editorial cartoon showed artillery captain Harry Truman cowering under his desk before the towering figure of the great General MacArthur.  Herblock’s cartoon the next day was simply a drawing of the White House flying a large American flag from the roof, with the caption: 48 Star General.”

Aftermath

Relieving General MacArthur created the greatest public furor of any of Truman’s decisions.  MacArthur returned to a hero’s welcome in the United States, including a tickertape parade down Broadway.  He delivered to a joint session of Congress his famous speech that “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

Truman, on the other hand, was accused of being mentally unbalanced.  There were calls in Congress and elsewhere for his impeachment.  Congressional hearings were convened.  But the MacArthur bubble burst when Army Chief of Staff Omar Bradley’s crisply summarized for the Congressional committee that: “Gen. MacArthur wanted to get the United States into the wrong war in the wrong place with the wrong enemy at the wrong time.” 

Westbrook Murphy serves as General Counsel of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.

Seth Andrew (RI '99) wrote a piece published by The Huffington Post: "A New Approach to Holding Charter Schools Accountable."

Read the full article.

State Representative Jake Zimmerman (MO' 95) was elected St. Louis County Assessor in the first election for that position in 51 years.

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