A Letter from the Editor in Chief

When I decided to attend Georgetown University for my graduate education, someone said to me, “Congratulations! You’ll be in one of the only places in the world where the local news is the world news.” As students at Georgetown University, we have a unique opportunity and privilege to witness policy in action almost every day. Whether it’s on Capitol Hill, in the White House,  a local government office in DC or Baltimore, or at one of the many nationally renowned think tanks and foundations, you can find a Hoya. So as the singular publication of Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, we have an enormous responsibility to provide timely analysis and commentary on today’s most pressing issues.

The McCourt School focuses on bridging the gap between the interdisciplinary study of public policy and actual government action. Many of our faculty are world-renowned and highly regarded for their careers of public service across parties and administrations. Our school boasts a broad and diverse international student body, and many of our faculty have held top positions at international organizations like  the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, or other premier NGOs and international governing bodies.

Communication is one of the biggest challenges policymakers face. As an Editorial Board, this was at the source of a set of questions we asked ourselves at the beginning of the summer. How do we engage a broader audience? How, in a time of unprecedented access to information, do we make critical policy issues accessible and relevant? How do we reflect the diversity of our student body and the issues that we debate every day in the classroom? This year, GPPR’s goal is twofold – to expand our reach to a wider audience and serve as a vehicle for policy discussion and debate at McCourt and throughout the entire campus.

We have a number of exciting developments and new initiatives planned throughout the year. First, we are transitioning all content and publications exclusively to our online platform. With more readers engaged in sites like Vox, Medium, and fivethirtyeight, we aim to take greater advantage of the role of digital mediums and data visualization to inform readers. We are also focusing more attention in a few key areas and launching a number of special series. We will have ongoing contributors to a series on the 2016 elections and a special spotlight on emerging practices and trends within state and local government. In the next few weeks we are hosting another series devoted to the exploration of emerging political and social unrest. These will include both a domestic focus, through the lens of movements such as BlackLivesMatter, and international aspects, like an exploration of the role of social media and other mechanisms used in political movements like the Arab Spring.

As we near the end of the year, readers can look forward to our most exciting development which will be the first ever digital format for our Spring Edition, featuring a new interactive and multimedia design. The GPPR Editorial Board selected a novel theme for this year’s Spring Edition: Post-Millennial. We’ll ask authors to contribute pieces that explore the potential problems, prospects, and implications of a post-millennial world, postulating the ways in which the millennium has or could continue to uproot conventional expectations of twenty-first century national and foreign policy.

In addition, we are excited to welcome the McCourt School’s brand new Institute of Politics and Public Service to campus this year and its distinguished Executive Director, Mo Elleithee. We can’t wait to work with Mo and his team bringing a spotlight to notable speakers, panels, and political events on campus.

At the heart of public policy is a sincere belief that there exist powerful mechanisms for social change. Here at McCourt, and GPPR, we hope to contribute to that end and leave a meaningful and lasting imprint on the dutiful legacy Georgetown University has within DC and the global policy community.

I am looking forward to this role as Editor in Chief and grateful for the privilege and opportunity to serve the Georgetown community. It’s an exciting time to be in Washington and it’s an exciting time to be a Hoya at McCourt.

Erin Mullally, Editor-In-Chief