Alumni
2.11.08: News From Riyadh
After receiving her CIR degree in 2005, Presidential Management Fellow Tara Foley took a position with the US State Department as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism. Part of her role is posting to Dipnote, the official blog of the U.S. State Department. Her posts chronicle her experience living as a woman in Riyadh, observations from her time in Saudi Arabia and, now that she is living stateside again, her comments on the issues she works on. The blog as a whole opens up a forum for citizen to comment on the information provided by State Department Officials and Foreign Service Officers living all over the world.
Alumni Association honored Wilson with 2006 Alumni Medal
The 2006 Alumni Awards were presented at the Alumni Convocation on Saturday, June 3, in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. The influential political scientist James Wilson (A.M.,’57, Ph.D.,’59), winner of the 2006 Alumni Medal, gave the convocation address.
The Alumni Medal
Created in 1941, the Alumni Medal is awarded to recognize achievement of an exceptional nature in any field, vocational or voluntary, covering an entire career. It is the highest honor the Alumni Association can bestow. Because its recipients define the value of the medal, it has been given sparingly. The medal is awarded to no more than one person each year and need not be awarded on an annual basis.
Wilson is one of the most influential political scientists in the nation. His scholarship has challenged conventional wisdom in academic and public thinking on a wide range of topics, including crime, poverty, bureaucracy, civil rights and human morality.
Wilson’s books on practical policy issues include Political Organizations, Thinking About Crime, and Varieties of Police Behavior. His widely known “broken windows" theory on violent crime prevention has influenced public policy on police administration and crime-fighting strategies. More recently, Wilson has turned his attention to ethical issues with his works On Character, The Marriage Problem: How Our Culture Has Weakened Families, Moral Judgment, and The Moral Sense. He also has written and published multiple editions of American Government, a leading text in his field.
Wilson has taught at Harvard University, the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, the University of California, Los Angeles, and now at Pepperdine University. He serves as chair of the Board of Academic Advisors of the American Electric System and was a director of State Farm Mutual Insurance Company, Protection One and the RAND Corporation.
Wilson is a former president of the American Political Science Association, which has honored him with three awards for exemplary scholarship in the field of public administration. He has received honorary degrees from six universities and the 2003 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.
Laura Gruen wrote and reported on this story.
