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/

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.

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.

Maryam Banikarim (CA ‘87) has been named senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI).  She will be responsible for all companywide marketing, communications and research efforts.

Laura Peck ('92) is co-author of the latest textbook, American Public Policy: An Introduction, 10th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, with Clarke E. Cochran, Lawrence C. Mayer, T.R. Carr, N. Joseph Cayer, and Mark McKenzie.

Brad Snyder ('93) continues to blog at http://www.ivebeentalkingtoyourkids.com/ about children, public affairs, public policy, the media and what we should know about from the latest research on children and adolescents.

Jake Zimmerman (MO '95) was elected as St.Louis (Missouri) County Assessor in the first election for that position in 51 years. He previously served as a State Representative. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_71427cd7-5777-5bdf-8f53-50a472cb49b6.html

Kara Slaughter (KS ‘98) helped to organize the tractorcade that rolled around the capitol square on March 12 in Madison, Wisconsin to protest the governor's budget repair bill and biennial budget proposal.  Slaughter is Government Relations Director for Wisconsin Farmers Union, a grassroots family farm organization.  "The governor's proposals would decimate rural schools, tear the heart out of our state's farmland preservation program, and slash BadgerCare, which provides health insurance coverage for 11,000 Wisconsin farm family members," Slaughter said.

Wendi Adelson (FL ‘00) was appointed to the position of Clinical Professor at the Florida State University College of Law directing a Medical Legal Partnership. The law students will practice disability rights and immigration law while doing health law in a poverty context.

Kenneth DeGraff (TN ‘02) was appointed to serve as policy advisor for energy and technology issues to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). He previously served as Rep. Mike Doyle’s (D-PA) legislative director: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/04/01/pelosi-names-gay-adviser-for-energy-and-technology/

Melissa Boteach (MD ‘04), Director of The Center for American Progress Half in Ten initiative to reduce poverty, was interviewed on NPR’s Marketplace: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/01/pm-employment-picks-up/?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d977249be848ed5%2C0

Kendra Key (AL '09) was named one of "America's Most Daring Young Black Activists" by Campus Progress: http://campusprogress.org/articles/the_friday_list-down_10_of_americas_most_daring_young_black_activists/

Please submit Class Notes to news@trumanscholars.org.

By Lauren Hashiguchi (OR '10)

Eric Greitens, 1995 Truman Scholar from Missouri and Navy SEAL, has served on the front lines: in Mother Teresa’s homes for the destitute, with refugees in Bosnia and genocide survivors in Rwanda, in Navy SEAL training and counterterrorism combat, and with wounded and disabled warriors at home. In his book The Heart and the Fist, which comes out on April 11^th, Greitens shares the story of his extraordinary journey, offering his reflections on what it means to find fulfillment on the front lines of service as a both a humanitarian and warrior.

This candid story of service speaks especially to the community of Truman Scholars. Greitens, reflecting on the central motivation for his service, remarks, “I think what’s at the heart of all of it is something that is probably at the heart of it for many Truman scholars, which is a passionate sense to use my time and whatever gifts I have been given to be of service to others.” With the support of the Truman Foundation, he completed his doctoral thesis, Children First, at Oxford. The thesis investigated how international humanitarian organizations can best serve war-affected children. He says, “One of the obligations that we have as scholars is to figure out how we use this tremendous gift and investment in our education to do the best possible service work that we can in our communities, for our country, and in the wider world.”

Central to Greitens’s motivation for writing The Heart and the Fist is realizing a flourishing and complete life through service. To Greitens, the bond between strength and compassion unify his service as both a humanitarian and a warrior. He explains “I think that The Heart and the Fist speaks to what every Truman Scholar probably knows instinctively, and that is that if you really love something, if you really care about something, then you have to act with compassion. But just as surely if you want to protect something you also have to respond with strength. If you want to be effective in any service endeavor…it’s going to take a combination of a compassionate response to people who are in need and the demands of courage that it takes to be effective at any level of the policy arena.”

Courage is especially meaningful for Greitens, who returned from service in Iraq to found The Mission Continues, a non-profit organization that empowers wounded and disabled veterans to find courage and purpose in beginning new lives as citizen leaders at home. Service is not easy, he remarks: “One of the things that I hope the book will also show is how difficult it was and how many times I struggled and failed along the way…I try to make clear The Heart and the Fist is that real courage is not just bravery that happens in a flash, in a moment. It is actually the courage of perseverance, the willingness to do that thing that has to be done day after day which actually helps people to transform their lives,” he says.

The ranks of Truman Scholars occupy a diversity of roles in public service, but at the heart of our collective service is the underlying passion to apply scholarship and leadership to the genuine service to others. By sharing the lessons he has learned from those on the front lines, Greitens hopes to help people approach service on their own front lines with greater purpose.

Lauren Hashiguchi (OR '10) will begin work as a Truman-Albright Fellow after graduating from Saint Louis University in May.

By Tomiko Brown-Nagin (SC ’91)

As an elementary school student, I planned to serve the public as a civil rights lawyer.  I was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina, a place of racial extremes and the home of the plantation rich and poor.  U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond—known for his record-long filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964—James Longstreet, the Confederate General—and Governor Ben Tillman, the architect of Jim Crow laws—also hailed from Edgefield County. Within this context, my keen interest in civil rights took root.

Happily, the Truman Foundation awarded me a Harry S. Truman scholarship. It pleased me to be associated with the president who desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces and campaigned on a platform that endorsed civil rights.  I intended to use the Truman scholarship to defray the costs associated with law school.

Over the years and for a variety of reasons, however, my career goals changed, and my conception of public service broadened. I did obtain a law degree and have devoted time to civil rights practice.  But the chief way that I now honor Truman’s commitment to equality—and pursue my own abiding interest in the subject—is through scholarship on constitutional law and history.  

This past month, I published Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement (Oxford University, 2011).  Courage to Dissent moves the historical lens away from familiar actors of the civil rights era such as the legendary lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, who famously prevailed in Brown v. Board of Education, and the inner workings of U.S. Supreme Court.  The book shifts the focus to lesser-known, but no less important, lawyers and grassroots activists.  It discusses the careers of attorneys on the political Right and the Left—called “pragmatic” and “movement lawyers”—who sometimes disagreed with Thurgood Marshall’s conception of equality. These lawyers and their clients sought something different from, or more complicated than, “integration.”  The book argues that these figures shaped constitutional law and the path of civil rights in powerful, yet unacknowledged or largely forgotten, ways.

Courage to Dissent adds to the pantheon of historic public interest lawyers three pioneering lawyers from distinct eras.  A.T. Walden, one of the South’s first African- American lawyers and the elder statesman of civil rights, courageously challenged barriers to black voting. But, the book shows, Walden never fully embraced Marshall’s school desegregation strategy.  Donald Hollowell, a skilled legal craftsman and ally of student activists during the 1960s, earned the title “Mr. Civil Rights” for his clever tactics. He also mentored a new generation of activists. Howard Moore, Jr., Hollowell’s protégé, represented clients in three social movements.  He labored for the civil rights, anti-poverty, and peace movements, changing his practice as the concept of “equal rights” evolved during the 1960s and 1970s.   

Each of these attorneys—like so many other African America men across time who sought opportunity and hoped to prove entitlement to first-class citizenship—served in the U.S. Army.  Their experiences in the armed forces tell us much about racial change and stasis in postwar America. Walden, who attended a segregated officers’ training school, served the Army with distinction during a tour of duty in WWI-era France. He rose to the rank of captain.  Hollowell served in an all-black “Buffalo Soldier” regiment during the 1930s; during WWII, after fighting in the European theater, Hollowell also rose to the rank of captain.  Moore, the youngest of the three attorneys, served in the U.S. Army, as well.  But Moore served during the 1950s, in a desegregated armed forces—the army that Harry S Truman built.  Moore served on desegregated posts at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and Ft. Gordon, Georgia—apparent oases of equity surrounded by segregation.  Nevertheless, like Walden and Hollowell before him, Moore experienced instances of discrimination—both before and after he mustered out of the Army. Hence, whatever the era, each man’s experiences as an African-American solider fortified his pursuit of equality through law.

In his own way, these unsung lawyers—Walden, Hollowell, and Moore—veterans of the Army and soldiers for freedom—together with cooperative members of the Court, Congress, and the Executive Branch, such as President Truman—remade the social and legal orders. Local people, banished from citizenship, nevertheless gave new meaning to the U.S. Constitution. These architects of a more perfect union teach us a lesson about human agency that should endure: it speaks to the issues of our times.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin (SC ’91) is Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law & Professor of History at the University of Virginia.

by James Gibson (AL '02)

Birmingham, Alabama is the setting for the latest Truman Scholar success story.

The Birmingham News recently published a piece on John Joseph (AL '00) and Global Grad, his innovative startup that draws on his experiences as a teacher and in education policy to provide a “step-by-step plan for personal, academic, and professional success in college” and helps students stand out from all the other future college graduates. John (full disclosure: a personal friend of mine) is an accomplished person who stepped away from a promising career in law and development to craft Global Grad. He is committed to this venture because, as we all know, it has been the case for some time now that a college degree alone is no longer enough to guarantee postgraduate educational or career options. 

There is a crucial need for Global Grad, both in Alabama and nationally, and in making it happen John is truly living up to the “change agent” label the Foundation bestowed on him 11 years ago.

The web site is www.globalgrad.com, and you can find Global Grad on Facebook as well. John can be reached directly at johnj@globalgrad.com. Please don’t hesitate to contact him, and to circulate the article and links widely – to parents, educators, or just anyone who may be interested in the next great innovation in undergraduate education: http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2011/02/birmingham_entrepreneur_john_j.html.

James Gibson (AL '02) is an attorney in Washington, DC. 

Joyce A. Baugh (SC '79), a political science professor at Central Michigan University, authored The Detroit School Busing Case:  Milliken v. Bradley and the Controversy Over Desegregation, which is being published this month by the University Press of Kansas as part of its Landmark Law Cases and American Society series.

Frederick S. Lane (MA '83) appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning on February 6 to discuss the history of privacy in American and his book (now in paperback), "American Privacy: The 400-Year History of Our Most Contested Right." You can read more about his book on his Web site, www.FrederickLane.com, or watch the interview online: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/06/sunday/main7323148.shtml

Michelle Gavin (AZ ’95) was named “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Botswana.” For the last two years Michelle has been on the staff of the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs. Michelle met her husband David Bonfili (WV ’95) at Truman Scholar interviews. They are parents of a 2-year old daughter.

Jake Sullivan (MN '97) will be soon be named the State Department's Director of Policy and Planning: http://www.trumanscholars.org/blog/2011/02/22/sullivan-to-be-named-state-dept.-director-of-policy-planning

Tico Almeida (WI '98) wrote a guest blog piece, "President Obama Strengthens ENDA by Rejecting DOMA" for The Bilerico Project: http://www.trumanscholars.org/blog/2011/02/26/almeida-president-obama-strengthens-enda-by-rejecting-doma

Kimberly Jones (CT '99) was recently promoted to the position of Associate Vice President for Public Policy at the Council for Opportunity in Education in Washington, DC.

County of Hawai'i Mayor William P. Kenoi recently appointed Hawai'i-born Truman Scholar, Becky Kawaihae Simmons (HI ‘00), as his Deputy Director of the Office of Housing & Community Development.  Since winning the Truman Scholarship 10 years ago, Becky has worked in the healthcare, education and housing fields serving in administrative and executive positions at both nonprofit and government organizations.  "I am really excited to return home and contribute to Mayor's vision for our county," she said.  "After being away, I developed a world-view that makes me a better citizen of my hometown." The Office of Housing & Community Development has an annual operations budget of $17 million and is staffed by 51 employees.

Lauren Finzer (CA ‘08) is finishing up a Fulbright Scholarship in New Delhi, where she has been researching how supermarkets are affecting fruit and vegetable supply chains and consumption. In July she will be heading back to the San Francisco Bay Area to look for a job in a social enterprise related to healthy, sustainable food.

Please submit Class Notes to news@trumanscholars.org.

By Sophie Rutenbar (TX '05)

I could start this story off by talking about learning to avoid ill-tempered, semi-domesticated ostriches strolling through villages, or the one time I was trapped in my hotel for three days when fighting broke out in a town I was visiting, or vast herds of antelope grazing to the horizon.  Or the voters I encountered during the referendum on independence for South Sudan would be a good choice.  One older gentleman stood out, who voted holding one Southern Sudan flag and wearing another, cardboard version clamped to his head, wrapped in a sheet like a Southern Sudanese Statue of Liberty.  But the moment I choose is quiet, the short space between work and night, while the sun sets, the air cools, and before the mosquitoes emerge.  

I’m in Nasir, a town closer to Ethiopia than it is to the capitals, Juba or Khartoum.  This part of South Sudan is uncompromisingly flat.  Flocks of sparrows, pelicans, and storks fly overhead as if the whole country were a bird bath, which it seems to be in rainy season, when water spreads out in sheets over the vast plains.  For the next few months, those grasslands are dry, which means my work at the moment is doubled to make up for the half-year when the rains drown almost everything.  Right now, a few moments of peace and the chance to watch a sunset are to be treasured.

I’ve only spent a few months in South Sudan this time around, but my connection to the country stretches further back, even to the Truman.  Like many stories, mine involves an exceptional teacher, this one named Marie.  In the fall of my sophomore year at the University of Texas at Dallas, I took a course called War and Peace.  The summer before, I had made my first visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The effects of conflict and mismanagement were clear; I was shocked and horrified, then I quickly fell in love.  Marie’s teaching clarified and gave substance to my thoughts on conflict and the effects it has on people’s lives.  For all the problems of international development, one thing is clear:  you can’t have much of it in a country if you have war.

I won the Truman a year and a half later on the strength of my policy essay proposing Afghanistan-style Provincial Reconstruction Teams for a southern Sudan newly at peace.  I wanted to work to reconstruct war-torn nations in order to prevent conflict from reoccurring, as it does within a decade in close to half of cases.  I wrote the application in the fall of 2004, when news about Sudan was everywhere, especially in Washington, DC, where I was interning for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  Secretary of State Colin Powell declared to Congress that the Darfur conflict was genocide, and I was in the audience; the same when Dr. John Garang, legendary leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus that fall, months before his death.

So here in Sudan, I have the privilege of witnessing the culmination of a process I’ve followed since the beginning.  As an international observer with the Carter Center, I helped monitor first the voter registration process and, in January, the vote on independence.  Being able to witness an electoral process firsthand, to have intimate knowledge of an event so significant to millions, is a privilege as well as a position of trust.  I watched hundreds, even thousands, cast their votes, then walk out to an ululating, singing, clapping crowd.  The future of the young nation is unclear, but while studying conflict, I’ve learned to hold on to moments of hope.

As a result, I’ve stayed on in South Sudan to work with a contractor for USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives.  How could I leave, when independence and the creation of a new country are just around the corner in July?  To my surprise, and despite a few twists in my path, the job is almost exactly what I envisioned for myself five years ago with the Truman application, helping carry out local-level conflict mitigation initiatives in places in desperate need of them.  Attempting to understand and to address conflict on a profoundly local level is deeply satisfying.  Five years later, I see exactly how much those PRTs were and still are needed here.  In Malakal, the second largest town in southern Sudan, you need a four-wheel drive vehicle to attempt anything beyond a handful of main roads.  And outside the state capitals like Malakal, access to education, economic opportunity, government services or any sort of assistance is almost non-existent.  People live a semi-nomadic life, as they have for hundreds of years, herding their cows across the plains, seeking the water and green grass that becomes increasingly scarce as the dry season advances, occasionally fighting and sometimes warring to get it.

On the particular evening framing my story, I hear little else besides the call of birds and the hum of people.  The thrum of the generator won’t start until dark falls, a few minutes away.  As the sun sets, flocks of swallows swarm overhead and the hawks fly lower before disappearing to roost.  Tomorrow, I’ll repeat a boat trip I made more than a year previously, but this time the area is at peace.  Effective local administrators, targeted investments, and most importantly, a community-led peace conference have brought a cessation in a two-decade-long local conflict.  In one long swathe of the river between the two formerly warring groups, the crocodiles and grey-crowned cranes live undisturbed by humans.  But in other sections the difference is clear.  The villages sport an occasional tin roof and new reed fences, while the river is so clotted with fishing nets that our boat is forced to stop and raise its motor every few moments:  one version of progress having its price.  As far as I’m concerned, a measure of inconvenience is worth a little peace and prosperity in South Sudan.

Sophie Rutenbar (TX '05) is based in Juba, South Sudan, and is working in conflict mitigation.

Nearly 63 years ago, on July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, calling for “equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.”  He made this important decision in the aftermath of a period of intense racial violence against black veterans returning home to the Jim Crow South after serving in World War II.  His order to desegregate the nation’s armed services is viewed as a critical step in the long march toward racial justice.

The Truman administration’s support for civil rights extended to the Justice Department’s decision to try to end segregation in housing and education.  The Department submitted amicus briefs in several Supreme Court cases, including the challenge to racially restrictive covenants (Shelley v. Kraemer, 1948) and the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. (The brief in Brown had been submitted by the Truman administration at an earlier stage of the case.)  Brown overruled Plessy v. Ferguson’s pernicious “separate but equal” doctrine in the field of public education and held the promise of equal educational opportunity.

Twenty years later, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Milliken v. Bradley (1974) undercut efforts to desegregate metropolitan school systems outside of the southern United States and effectively undermined the promise of equal educational opportunities embodied in Brown.  Gary Orfield, Director of the Harvard Project on School Desegregation and a leading expert on this issue, argued that Milliken “rendered Brown almost meaningless for most of the metropolitan North by blocking desegregation plans that would integrate cities with their suburbs” and “lock[ed] millions of minority schoolchildren into inferior, isolated schools.” While Milliken by itself did not create the dire conditions that exist in public education across the nation today, it made it almost impossible to address the problems. My new book, The Detroit School Busing Case: Milliken v. Bradley and the Controversy Over Desegregation, explains in detail how and why Milliken came about, as well as its impact on the Court’s school desegregation jurisprudence and on public education in major metropolitan areas.

The controversy surrounding the Milliken case can also be viewed as a failure of public leadership – presidential and otherwise.  In a period marked by anger, fear, and racial hysteria, President Nixon and other elected officials added fuel to the fire, rather than using their positions to urge calm and restraint.  The Nixon administration, along with senators and representatives from Michigan and other states (from both parties), proposed constitutional amendments to prohibit the use of busing for desegregation purposes and used public concerns about busing as a wedge issue in their reelection campaigns.  Philip Hart, Michigan’s Democratic senior senator, was an important exception.  He took a courageous stand as the only white member of the state’s congressional delegation to support busing, noting that “Whenever there was a finding of deliberate school segregation in the South, I supported busing if that was the only way to correct it.  If I were to change my position now that the issue has come home, Michigan would have a fraud for a senior senator.”

The failure of the Nixon administration in providing principled leadership as the nation wrestled with the controversy over metropolitan school desegregation in the 1970s stands in sharp contrast to the role of the Truman administration in its battles over civil rights in the 1940s and 1950s.  While President Truman undoubtedly faced his share of criticism for not moving fast and far enough and for supporting civil rights merely for political purposes, his public statements and policy proposals did help to move the nation forward in the quest for equality and justice.

Joyce A. Baugh (SC '79) is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Central Michigan University. Her forthcoming book, The Detroit School Busing Case:  Milliken v. Bradley and the Controversy Over Desegregation, is being published this month by the University Press of Kansas as part of its Landmark Law Cases and American Society series.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan (MN '97) will soon be named as the next State Department director of policy planning, two State Department officials confirmed to Foreign Policy's The Cable.

Sullivan's appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, could come as early as today, the officials said. He replaces outgoing Policy Planning Director Anne-Marie Slaughter, who will return to teach at Princeton University at the end of this month. Sullivan, one of Clinton's closest and most trusted aides, won't even have to change offices on the State Department's 7th floor to take charge of the shop that is Foggy Bottom's main incubator for policy ideas.

Read the Full Article Here

The White House announced on Feb. 17 that President Obama has nominated Truman Scholar Michelle Gavin (AZ ’95) to be “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Botswana.” 

For the last two years Michelle has been on the staff of the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs.

Michelle met her husband David Bonfili (WV ’95) at Truman Scholar interviews. They are parents of a 2-year old daughter.

Howard Hawk (AL '78) was elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1994.  In 1998, he was reelected and became Chair of the Ways and Means Committee.  In 2001, he was appointed as an Alabama District Judge. In 2002, he was elected to a full term as District Judge.  In 2006, he was elected as an Alabama Circuit Judge.  Howard will be up for reelection in 2012.  http://www.howardhawk.com 

Cindy J. Crain (TX '91), Executive Director of the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition in Fort Worth, Texas, was recently awarded along with the TCHC, the 2010 Outstanding Coalition of the Year Award by the Texas Homeless Network. The honor highlighted some of her efforts, such as developing innovative solutions and resources through technology to prevent and end homelessness and the creation of multiple collaborations between emergency shelters, medical students, EMT, and County hospital resources to improve the health outcomes of the homeless and reducing the use of first-responders and 9-1-1 for non-emergencies resulting in significant savings in local tax dollars. http://www.AHomeWithHope.org

Jake Zimmerman (MO '95), a Missouri State Representative, is running for St. Louis County Assessor: http://chesterfield.patch.com/articles/assessor-candidate-zimmerman-says-hed-seek-to-rapidly-respond-to-taxpayers-4

Geoff Painter (OR '96) and his wife recently moved back to his hometown of Portland, Oregon, where he is practicing environmental and natural resources law with the Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior.  Previously, Geoff was a litigation associate with Covington & Burling LLP in San Francisco.  “It's great to return to public service and also wonderful to be back in Portland,” Geoff said.

Kristina Filopovich (OR ’96) started working as a part-time professor at American University's Washington College of Law, teaching on gender, international and comparative law.  Filopovich works full-time as a litigation associate at Jenner & Block and lives in Washington, DC. 

Amar Bakshi (DC ‘05) was named World Producer by CNN.com: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/27/cnn-com-names-new-hires-for-world-religion-beats-and-weekend-programming/

Please submit Class Notes to news@trumanscholars.org.

We are proud to report the November 2, 2010 election results for Truman Scholars and Harry S. Truman Foundation Board of Trustee Members. Some were landslide victories, some were really close (within 300 votes!), and some were disappointing, but we're proud of ALL of our fellow Truman Scholars.

For our live tweets via Twitter from election night, please visit http://www.twitter.com/trumanscholars. For our Facebook updates from election night, please visit http://www.facebook.com/trumanscholars. Please email us at news@trumanscholars.org with any broken links (as state governments may be updating results for awhile), omissions, etc.

Truman Scholars Running for Office or Reelection

WIN: Stacey Abrams (MS ‘94, Democrat), a State Representative in Georgia, has been reelected (unopposed). http://www.staceyabrams.com/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Jules Bailey (OR ‘00, Democrat), a State Representative in Oregon, has been reelected. http://www.julesfororegon.com/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Chris Coons (DE ‘83, Democrat), New Castle County Executive in Delaware, has been elected U.S. Senator for Delaware. http://www.chriscoons.com/ [Click Here for Election Results]

LOSS: Dan Gelber (FL ‘80, Democrat), a State Senator in Florida, lost the election for Florida Attorney General. http://www.dangelber.com/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Dusty Johnson (SD ‘98, Republican), Public Utilities Commissioner in South Dakota, has been reelected. http://www.johnsonforpuc.com/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Jeff King (KS ‘96, Republican), a State Representative in Kansas, has been reelected. http://www.jeffkingks.com/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Chris Nybo (IL ‘98, Republican), Elmhurst Illinois Alderman, has been elected State Representative in Illinois. http://www.chrisnybo.com/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Ryan Quarles (KY ‘05, Republican) has been elected State Representative in Kentucky. http://www.ryanquarles.com/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Kesha Ram (CA ‘07, Democrat), a State Representative in Vermont, has been reelected. http://www.kesharam.org/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Steve Simon (MN ‘90, Democrat-Farmer-Labor), a State Representative in Minnesota, has been reelected. http://www.stevesimon.net/ [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Jake Zimmerman (MO ‘95, Democrat), a State Representative in Missouri, has been reelected. http://www.jakezimmerman.org/ [Click Here for Election Results]

Elected Officials Serving on the Board of Trustees for the Harry S. Truman Foundation Running for Reelection

WIN: Todd Akin (Republican), U.S. Representative for Missouri, has been reelected. [Click Here for Election Results]

WIN: Dave Heineman (Republican), Governor of Nebraska, has been reelected. [Click Here for Election Results]

LOSS: Ike Skelton (Democrat), U.S. Representative for Missouri, was not reelected. [Click Here for Election Results]

Elected Officials Running for Office or for Reelection

Dan Gelber (FL '80), a State Senator in Florida, is running for Attorney General. He was elected State Senator in 2008, and served as a State Representative from 2000 until 2008. http://www.dangelber.com/home.php

Chris Coons (DE ‘83), New Castle County Executive in Delaware, is running for U.S. Senate. He was elected County Executive in 2004 and reelected in 2008. http://www.chriscoons.com/

Steve Simon (MN '90), a State Representative in Minnesota, is running for reelection. He was elected in 2004 and has served three terms. http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/members.asp?district=44A

Stacey Abrams (MS ’94), a State Representative in Georgia, is running for reelection. She was elected in 2006 and reelected in 2008. http://www.staceyabrams.com/

Jake Zimmerman (MO ‘95), a State Representative in Missouri, is running for reelection. He was elected in 2006 and reelected in 2008. http://www.jakezimmerman.org/

Jeff King (KS ‘96), a State Representative in Kansas, is running for reelection. He was elected in 2006 and reelected in 2008. http://www.jeffkingks.com/

Dusty Johnson (SD '98) is running for his second six-year term on the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. http://www.johnsonforpuc.com/

Chris Nybo (IL '98), a Alderman in Elmhurst, Illinois, is running for State Representative. http://www.chrisnybo.com/ 

Jules Bailey (OR ‘00), a State Representative in Oregon, is running for reelection. He was elected in 2008. http://www.julesfororegon.com/

Ryan Quarles (KY ’05) is running for State Representative in Kentucky. http://ryanquarles.com/

Kesha Ram (CA ’07), a State Representative in Vermont, is running for reelection. She was elected in 2008. http://www.kesharam.org/ 

Elected Officials Not Up for Reelection

Scott Ross (MS '80) is the Mayor of West Point, Mississippi. http://www.wpnet.org/About_Government.htm

Bill de Blasio (MA ‘81) is Public Advocate of New York City. He was elected in 2009. http://www.billdeblasio.com/

Bill Halter (AR ‘81) is Lieutenant Governor  of Arkansas. He was elected in 2006 and is not seeking reelection. http://www.billhalter.com/

Greg Davis (MS '86) is Mayor of Southaven, Mississippi. He was reelected to his fourth term in 2009. http://southaven.org/Directory.aspx?EID=40

Ted Deutch (PA ’86) is a U.S. Representative from Florida. He was elected in a special election in 2010. http://tedforcongress.com/

Jeff Rosen (CA ’87) is District Attorney-elect of Santa Clara County, Calfornia. He was elected in 2010 and will take office in 2011. http://www.rosen4da.com/

Brad Lander (MO '89) is a City Council Member in New York City. He was elected in 2009. http://bradlander.com/

Cindy Castañeda (CA '91) is a Trustee for the Garland Independent School District in Texas. She was elected in 2008.

Bill Gates (NV '91) is a Phoenix City Council Member in Arizona. He was elected in 2009. http://www.gatesforphoenix.com/

Nader Baroukh (CA '94) is the Mayor of Falls Church, Virginia. He was elected in 2010 after serving as a City Council Member since 2008. http://www.fallschurchva.gov/Content/Government/Council/NBaroukhBioWeb10%20_2_.pdf

Dayne Walling (MI ’95) is the Mayor of Flint, Michigan. He was elected in a special election in 2009. http://www.votewalling.com/

Monisha Merchant (CO '98) is a University of Colorado Regent. She was elected in 2008. https://www.cu.edu/regents/current/merchant.html

Todd Gloria (CA ‘99) is a San Diego City Councilmember. He was elected in 2008. http://www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/cd3/about/

Mac Schneider (ND '01) is a State Senator in North Dakota. He was elected in 2008.  http://macschneider.com/

Matt Delligatti (WV '07) is Mayor of Fairmont, West Virginia. He was elected in 2009. http://www.fairmontwv.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10#delligatti

Former Elected Officials

David Adkins (KS '81) previously was a State Senator and a State Representative in Kansas. He was first elected in 1992 until 2004.

Dave Cooley (TN '82) previously served as Deputy Governor of Tennessee. 

John Cranley (OH '95) previously was City Council member for the City of Cincinnati, Ohio. He served from 2000 until 2009.

Dan Nguyen-Tan (CA '95) previously was City Council member for the City of Chico, California. He served from 2000 until 2004.

Are you or someone you know a current or former elected official or currently running for office? Please email us at news@trumanscholars.org. 

Frederick S. Lane (MA '83) is working on his sixth book, tentatively entitled CyberTraps for the Young: How a Single Click Can Ruin Your Child's Life -- and What YOU Can Do About It. His fifth book, American Privacy: The 400-Year-History of Our Most Contested Right will be out in paperback in the first week of January. www.FrederickLane.com

Jeff Rosen (CA ’87) was elected District Attorney of Santa Clara County, which is in Silicon Valley. He will take office on January 3, 2011, and would welcome contact from other Truman Scholars who are prosecutors or criminal defense attorneys.

Chiraag Bains (MA '02) recently started a six-month detail from the Civil Rights Division to the U.S. Attorney's Office in DC, where he works in the Domestic Violence Misdemeanors section.

David Simon (MN ’03) has had a whirwind year: “In the past year, Keira and I bought a house, and became parents. Chase Alexander Simon was born on September 22nd.  He weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces, and is 21.5 inches tall.  At three weeks old, he is fiercely seizing each day.  We are as exhilarated as we are exhausted.  There's no better feeling. On a professional note, I'm still litigating, teaching law, and serving as the director of a poverty law clinic that I started up in 2009.”

Zara Snapp (CO ‘05) recently graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a master’s in Public Policy.  She is working at the National Democratic Institute as a Program Officer with the Latin America & Caribbean team, with a focus on Peru and Ecuador, and loves thinking about Latin American policy on a daily basis.  She is excited to be living in Washington, DC and close to many Truman friends and  former classmates from the Kennedy School.

By Caraleigh Holverson (IL ’08)

When we think about Harry Truman’s legacy, an enterprising entrepreneur may not be the first image that comes to mind.  In fact, Harry knew first-hand about the challenges that come with taking a leap of entrepreneurial faith; before his public service career, he actually started up both mining and men’s clothing businesses that didn’t quite take off.  While we’re all fortunate he didn’t have more success selling dress shirts and ties, I’ve no doubt that Truman’s experience of having taken those entrepreneurial risks contributed valuable lasting lessons for his later leadership.

I would submit that the lessons of social entrepreneurship – a term not yet in vogue in the early 1900s – are not such a far cry from the lessons Truman no doubt learned from attempted business endeavors.  The analogy of a business entrepreneur is quite apt to understanding the innovative dynamism that undergirds social entrepreneurship:

“Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.”  (Source: Ashoka)

The concept is of course nothing new to the dozens of Truman Scholars who have struck out as social entrepreneurs of their own, like Indra Sen (NC ’07), who founded Inspire Dreams, Inc, and many others.

I’m no enterprising social entrepreneur myself (…yet!), but I am proud to say that I currently work to support the efforts of young social entrepreneurs at Ashoka’s Youth Venture.  Youth Venture is the sister organization of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, the global organization of the world's leading social entrepreneurs.  Over decades of Ashoka’s work, a pattern was discovered:  The world’s most successful social entrepreneurs had a transformative experience of leading change at an early age.  Accordingly, Youth Venture’s mission is to support young people (ages 12-24) in launching and leading their own social ventures – and to help them realize tangibly their own capacity to create change. Our vision is to help build a world in which everyone is a changemaker and where the power of youth is universally acknowledged.

As many Trumans know, the experience of launching your own venture is uniquely empowering.  Something important happens when you are able to identify a problem, come up with an idea to fix it, mobilize your community around it, and get support from the outside to see it through. For our youth, these entrepreneurial and leadership skills carry forward – like so many Scholars, they will lead again and again to make their schools, businesses, and communities better places. 

Creating a society where youth-led changemaking is recognized and valued requires all of us to shine a spotlight on the power of youth – and to share their stories.  Storytelling is an immensely powerful (and universal) way of sharing not just our identities, experiences, and values, but a way of inspiring others to see themselves and their world in different way.

On November 13 in Washington, DC, Youth Venture will host an event to share these powerful stories of youth-driven change.  TEDxYSE: Unleashing Young Social Entrepreneurs will be an all-day event that brings together young social entrepreneurs and individuals interested in social innovation.  Our goal is to spark inspiration and action that creates positive social change.

Truman Scholars and friends in the DC area, you’re invited to get involved and join us to:

• Hear the amazing TED-model stories of eight of the most inspiring young social entrepreneurs from around the world
• Listen to speeches from actor James Cromwell and other professionals, including the founder of GlobalGiving, Dennis Whittle, and the founder of Making Cents International, Fiona Macaulay
• Learn about social entrepreneurship and using entrepreneurial principles to create social change 
• Meet and network with others interested in social entrepreneurship and innovation
• Enjoy music by talented performers, including internationally acclaimed Jourdan Urbach
• To learn, be inspired, have fun! (And enjoy the free food!)

For more information on anything (including the complexities behind hosting an independently organized TEDx event!), I’m always happy to talk. To learn more – or register for the event! – visit our website at www.tedxyse.com. For all in our Truman community that aren’t able to join us in DC that day, stay tuned for inspiring talks to be posted online afterwards!

All of us are driven by our core commitment to public service and our fundamental desire to see positive changes in our world.  I know each Scholar out there has his or her own inspiring story of how they’re working to create change, and I look forward to hearing more stories of how each you are a powerful changemakers.

Caraleigh Holverson (IL ’08) works at Ashoka’s Youth Venture as a fellowship and community builder.

By Christine Curella (NJ ’07)

Last month, Truman Scholars in Washington, DC, came together to participate in the National Day of Service and Remembrance, a day to remember and honor those lost on September 11, 2001, through volunteerism and community service. Our team, dubbed “Harryed Hands”, joined senior citizens at The Washington Home, a comfort care center that provides long-term services for elderly residents and their families. Our task: to interview residents about September 11 and contribute their stories to the oral histories compiled by StoryCorps and preserved at the Library of Congress.

Tia Trout-Perez (KY ’01) and I spoke with Mr. Washington, who remembered watching the coverage on the news and feeling sadness. In other cases, our conversations roamed to other memories that the residents had.  For Irene, interviewed by JoAnna Smith (IA ’07), speaking about September 11 led to stories of her life in Berlin. Marie, who had been a nurse in DC, shared the story of a friend who had lost three children and two godchildren.  I was at the World Trade Center, on my way to an international fashion show, the culmination of my first job in the Garment District and my years at a vocational high school for the needle trades in New York City.

Some of the stories were sad.  Some were inspirational and funny, with the residents sharing advice and letting us learn from their life experiences.  Knowing that these stories would be contributed to our oral histories and shared with others was elevating. But I only fully realized the importance of our efforts in my conversation with Annabelle, a native of Queens, New York, who had worked at Voice of America in the 1950s. For Annabelle, stories—such as the ones we were collecting—are how we communicate ideas , and also compassion.  The Trumans of Harryed Hands thank the residents of The Washington home for teaching us a little about both.

Christine Curella (NJ ’07) works at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and loves organizing events with Truman Scholars in the Washington, DC area.

Harryed Hands volunteers included Katherine Blaisdell (HI ’08), Matthew Garza (CA ’09), Amber Herman (TN ’06), Sheila Korth (NE ’07), Eleanor Ott (KS ’08), Patrick Reimherr (UT ’09), JoAnna Smith (IA ’07), Tia Trout-Perez (KY ’01), Tish Scolnik (NY ’09), Caitie Whelan (ME ’07). 

Oxford American magazine publisher Warwick Sabin (AR '97) is a new director of the pragmatic nonprofit Center for a Better South, a Charleston, S.C.-based regional think tank that develops new ideas for thinking leaders.

Sabin is publisher of the Oxford American magazine. In 2009, he was named to the FOLIO:40, a list of the 40 most influential people in the national magazine industry. Previously he worked on Capitol Hill, at the White House, at the U.S. Embassy in London and at Foreign Affairs magazine. He is a Marshall Scholar and a Truman Scholar, and he holds a master's degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University and a bachelor's degree (summa cum laude) in political science from University of Arkansas, where he graduated as valedictorian and was president of the student body. Sabin lives in Little Rock, Ark. 

Source: Better South

Lynn Boughey (ND ’77) now lives half time in Red Lodge Montana, the other half in Bismarck, ND, where he continues to practice law as a sole practitioner.  Many of his cases involve public policy issues, including a present case to determine if the ND economic development program violates the ND Constitution and federal Constitutional amendments.  He is also working on another novel, this one a murder mystery.  His twin daughters just started 2nd grade and his wife continues to teach criminal justice and social work classes, but now via internet through the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Pam Miller (MO '78) is now Development Manager - Planned Giving and Estate Administration for Children's Mercy Hospitals & Clinics in Kansas City, Mo.

David M. Eastis (CA ‘83) authored 7: The Magical, Amazing and Popular Number Seven, which explores the magnetism that the vastly popular number 7 has exerted, from ancient cultures to the present day. For more information, visit: http://www.theSevenBook.com.

Ted Deutch (PA ‘86) became the first Truman Scholar to serve as a member of the United States Congress when he was sworn in on April 13, 2010. A former State Senator, he represents Florida’s 19th Congressional District.

Dr. Christopher W. Kersey (SC ‘89) was elected to the Boards of Trustees of Johns Hopkins Medicine and The Johns Hopkins Hospital. For more information, see Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Debra Shulman Shushan (PA '96), Assistant Professor of Government at the College of William & Mary, and her husband have relocated to Doha, Qatar for the year so she could take up a fellowship at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service there. While in Doha, they would be delighted to host any Trumans who might be passing through!

Chiraag Bains (MA ’02) moved to Washington, DC, where he will be working as a Trial Attorney in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

Claudio Simpkins (NY '05) is engaged to marry Paloma Zepeda.  He, his new fiancee, and their puppy, Gipper, are relocating to the Washington, DC area in October.

Brett Keller (AR '07) is pursuing an MHS in Global Disease Epidemiology and Control through the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Please submit Class Notes to news@trumanscholars.org.