Stephanie Watkins-Cruz grew up in southeast Charlotte where, she said, “There were families and people of every shade, shape, and size. However, it looks much different now.” Observing these changes and how they impacted people drew her interest in community work early on.

In fall 2017, Professor of Public Administration and Government Maureen Berner traveled to Belgium to conduct research on food insecurity and poverty as a visiting scholar at Ghent University and its Centre for Global Studies. Berner also exchanged homes with University of Antwerp historian Maarten Van Ginderachter, who visited the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to work on his book and collaborate with faculty here in the United States.

On February 22, 2018, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina announced a $50 million investment in community health initiatives across the state, including $390,000 to support the School of Government’s work in assisting local governments in addressing the opioid crisis.

Alice Rivlin, former director of the Office of Management and Budget and founding director of the Congressional Budget Office, will deliver the 2018 Deil S. Wright Lecture at 3:15 p.m. on Friday, April 6 at the UNC School of Government.  An expert in monetary and fiscal policy, Rivlin currently serves as a senior fellow in Economic Studies and the Center for Health Policy at the Brookings Institution and is a visiting professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown.

Nearly 200 are enrolled in MPA@UNC, the online format of the Master of Public Administration program housed at the UNC School of Government. One of those students, Lorrie Fair Allen, is returning to UNC more than a decade after her undergraduate tenure at Carolina, which included three NCAA women’s soccer championships.