The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is welcoming new visiting and adjunct professors to the classroom for the spring semester. Several members of the LBJ School community are teaching courses* at the School for the first time.
Visiting and adjunct professors who will be teaching courses for the spring semester include:
Robin Doughty, professor in the Department of Geography at The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts; Ambassador Karen Hughes, former under secretary of state for public diplomacy; and William Ruger, research fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at Texas State University.
Members of the LBJ School community who will be teaching courses at the School for the first time include:
- Benedicte Callan, the Sid Richardson Fellow focusing on health policy and innovation and research affiliate of the LBJ School’s Center for Health and Social Policy;
- Ethan B. Kapstein, the Tom Slick Professor in International Affairs, Dennis O’Connor Regent’s Professorship in Business for 2009-2010;
- Evan Smith, CEO of Texas Tribune, fellow for the LBJ School’s Center for Politics and Governance;
- William Stewart, diplomat in residence;
- Veronica Vargas Stidvent, director for the Center for Politics and Governance.
*See detailed course descriptions below.
Visiting and Adjunct Professors:
Robin Doughty
Doughty is teaching a section of Advanced Topics in Public Policy titled Wildlife Conservation: The Evolution of Environmental Policy, which focuses on recent ways nations have engaged the natural world through the conservation of threatened and endangered wild animals and their habitats. Doughty is a professor in the Department of Geography at The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts where his research focuses on cultural geography, environmental resource management, landscape ecology and biogeography.
Karen Hughes
Hughes is teaching a section of Topics in Global Policy Studies titled Transforming Public Diplomacy, which focuses on public diplomacy, discussing its many tools and practices as well as its many challenges. Hughes is global vice chair for the strategic communications firm Burson-Marsteller where she focuses on providing clients with senior-level communications strategy and counsel. Hughes was under secretary of state for public diplomacy from August 2005 to December 2007. During that time, she led the U.S. State Department’s effort to communicate America’s values abroad. Hughes led several thousand public diplomacy professionals working in almost every country in the world, and oversaw three State Department bureaus: Educational and Cultural Affairs, Public Affairs and International Information Programs. Hughes has traveled to more than 50 nations in the past few years as part of her government service and personal humanitarian activities.
William Ruger
Ruger is teaching a section of Topics in Global Policy Studies titled Counter-Insurgency and Counter-Terrorism, which focuses on the theory and practice of terrorism/counterterrorism and insurgency/counterinsurgency. Ruger is a research fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas State University. He is an expert on international relations, U.S. foreign policy and civil-military relations. He is a veteran of the Afghanistan War. Ruger is also the co-author of “Freedom in the 50 States” and the book review editor for Armed Forces and Society.
Members of the LBJ School community:
Benedicte Callan
Callan is teaching a section of Advanced Topics in Public Policy titled Health Innovation and Policy, which focuses on the policies that influence technology development and use in the health care sector. Callan is a Sid Richardson Fellow for innovation and health policy and was a research affiliate of the Center for Health and Social Policy in fall 2009. Callan worked for 12 years at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) where she served in a number of capacities, most recently as head of the Biotechnology Unit, which focuses on the development and diffusion of innovative biotechnologies in a broad range of industrial sectors. She has also been principal administrator for health, executive assistant to the deputy secretary general charged with overseeing OECD work on development and the environment, and an administrator for science and technology policy. At the OECD, Callan gained experience in building international consensus on good policy practice in a broad range of science, innovation and economic policy issues.
Ethan B. Kapstein
Kapstein is teaching two sections of Advanced Topics in Public Policy: Economics of National Security, which focuses on the role economic reasoning plays in defense planning and decision-making, and development economics for policymakers, which focuses on the economics of poverty, inequality and growth, and analyzes the political economy of the public policies that governments can deploy to address these issues. Recently named non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C., Kapstein holds the INSEAD Chair in Political Economy at INSEAD, the international business school with campuses in Fontainebleau, France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Kapstein is also a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington and with the French Institute of International Relations in Paris. Previously, Kapstein was the Stassen Professor of International Peace at the University of Minnesota, vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations, principal administrator at the OECD and executive director of the Economics and National Security Program at Harvard University.
Harrison Keller
Keller is teaching a section of Advanced Topics in Public Policy titled Transitions to Higher Education, which offers an overview of recent policy discussions and deliberations and the theoretical and empirical literature regarding transitions from high school to higher education. Keller is the vice provost of higher education policy and research at The University of Texas at Austin and an officer in the United States Navy Reserve. Prior to coming to the university, Keller was director of research for the Texas House of Representatives and senior education policy analyst for the speaker of the Texas House. He is an appointed board member of the Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board that oversees the state college savings plans, has worked with leaders from both parties to develop and pass major education budget and policy proposals for the state of Texas and frequently works with state policymakers, foundations and national organizations on public and higher education policy issues. His research interests include education policy and finance, moral philosophy and democratic deliberation. He has taught at Georgetown University, St. Edward’s University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Evan Smith
Smith is teaching Public Affairs and the New Political Media, which focuses on the transformative powers that new media, has and will continue to have, on politics and public affairs. Smith spent nearly 18 years at Texas Monthly, stepping down in August 2009 as the magazine’s president and editor-in-chief. He was editor for more than eight years-the third person to hold that title. While he was editor Texas Monthly was nominated for 16 National Magazine Awards, and twice was awarded the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. A New York native, Smith has a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Hamilton College and a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University. He previously held editorial positions at a number of national magazines; most recently at The New Republic, where he was deputy editor. He hosts the weekly interview program, “Texas Monthly Talks.”
William Stewart
William Stewart is teaching a section of Advanced Topics in Public Policy titled U.S. Diplomacy: Organization and Practice, which focuses on execution of U.S. foreign policy by the U.S. Department of State and other U.S. government agencies at embassies and consulates overseas. Stewart, diplomat in residence at the LBJ School, is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, and was minister counselor for economic and political affairs at the United States Embassy in Cairo from 2006 to 2009. As minister counselor, Stewart was the senior economic and political adviser to the ambassador and a key member of her core Country Team. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo is one of the largest, busiest and most important American diplomatic missions in the world, with nearly 1,500 employees supporting a multitude of U.S. government agencies, including the departments of State and Defense, the FBI, DEA, Department of Homeland Security and the Library of Congress. Stewart led 20 political and economic officers and a dozen support staff whose portfolios included bilateral political and economic relations, internal political and economic issues, and regional concerns, including the Middle East peace process. Prior to this assignment, he was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Muscat, Oman from 2004 to 2006.
Veronica Vargas Stidvent
Stidvent is teaching a course titled U.S. Regulatory Policy, which focuses on giving students an understanding of the modern regulatory state, its challenges and the various and often opposing calls for reform. Stidvent is the director of the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School. She was the assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, where she provided advice and counsel to the secretary of labor on the array of labor issues that affect the American worker, including immigration reform, worker health and safety, and job training. Prior to her appointment as assistant secretary, Stidvent served in the White House as special assistant to the president for policy, where she helped develop policy on a wide range of issue areas, including labor, education, justice, homeland security and regulatory reform.
