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Robert C. Wood Visiting Professorship in Public and Urban Affairs
About the Visiting Professorship
Each year, the Robert C. Wood Professorship brings a distinguished public leader to campus for a lecture and conversation to engage students, faculty, and community members in discussions of public policy and public service.
The Robert C. Wood Visiting Professorship in Public and Urban Affairs was established in 1998 at the now John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. Conceived as a vehicle for bringing distinguished public leaders to lecture and engage on topics such as race, education, and government efficiency, the professorship links the scholarly pursuits of the McCormack Graduate School with practical problems and policies of the larger society. The selection of each year’s speaker is tailored to objectives developed by the McCormack Graduate School in consultation with the honoree, faculty, staff, and others.
The lectureship is named for Robert Wood, who served as president of the UMass System for seven years and was one of the nation's leading public intellectuals in the last half of the 20th century. His multifaceted career in public service also included was also a senior fellow and professor at the McCormack Institute, secretary of housing and urban development in the Lyndon Johnson administration, head of the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, Superintendent of Schools in Boston, and General Manager of the MBTA. He wrote and edited several books on topics related to politics and public policy, the presidency, and local affairs.
Following is a list of the Wood Visiting Professors beginning from the program's inception. Their titles are those which they held at the time of their appointed professorship.
Wood Professorship Committee Members
- Rita Kiki Edozie, Interim Dean & Professor, McCormack Graduate School
- Marcy Murninghan (Chair), Senior Advisor, Outreach & Engagement, McCormack Graduate School
- Christopher Graham PhD '20, Manager, Student Success & Undergraduate Advising, McCormack Graduate School
- Franny Wood, Daughter of Robert Wood
- Margaret (Peggy) Wood, Wife of Robert Wood
- Erin O'Brien, Associate Professor of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts
- Timothy Cronin, MPA '22 Student, Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs
- Michael Johnson, Professor, Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs
- Susan Crandall, Director, Center for Social Policy
Wood Professorship Lectures
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2022 Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH is a practicing physician and renown global and national leading voice on pandemics and public health. He was in 2022 appointed the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator. He is also the Dean of The School of Public Health and Professor of Health Services, Policy, and Practice at Brown University. Lecture Title: The Role of Public Service in Transitioning to a Post-COVID Era
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2021 Yamiche Alcindor is an American journalist who is the White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and a political contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. In the past, she has worked as a reporter for USA Today and The New York Times. Alcindor writes mainly about politics and social issues. Lecture Title: Reporting Truth Amid a Pandemic and Racial Reckoning Media Coverage: UMB News |
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2020 Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Founding Partner, Global Optimism, and Convener, Mission 2020 Lecture Title: The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis in the Age of COVID-19 Media Coverage: Nature Book Review |
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2018 Reuben E. Brigety, II, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University Lecture Title: America, Heal Thyself: Political Polarization and the Rebuilding of American Soft Power Media Coverage: UMass Boston News |
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2017 Peniel E. Joseph, Professor of Public Affairs and Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values at the Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas Austin Lecture Title: The Struggle for Black Dignity in the Age of Trump and the Era of Black Lives Matter Media Coverage: UMass Boston News |
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2016 Maggie Hassan, Governor of New Hampshire, Daughter of Robert Wood, and Current Junior United States Senator from New Hampshire Lecture Title: What I Learned from my Father about Public Service Media Coverage: UMass Boston News |
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2015 William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University Lecture Title: Reflections on Issues of Race and Class in the 21st Century: Revisiting Arguments Advanced in The Declining Significance of Race (1978) Media Coverage: UMass Boston News |
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Spring 2014 Lecture Title: Where Boston Can Lead: The Urban Education Crisis and What To Do About It Media Coverage: UMass Boston News |
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Fall 2014 Garrison Nelson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Vermont and Author of John W. McCormack, A Political Biography Lecture Title: Promises Kept: John McCormack, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid Media Coverage: UMass Boston News |
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2013 Shelley Metzenbaum, Associate Director for Performance and Personnel Management at the White House Office of Management and Budget Lecture Title: Performance: Delivering Effective, Accountable, Trusted Government Media Coverage: UMass Boston News |
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2011 Gordon A. Martin, Jr., Adjunct Professor of Law at New England School of Law and former judge and chief of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination Lecture Title: The Right to Vote: Access to the Polls from the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to the Elections of 2012 Media Coverage: UMass Boston News |
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2010 Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University Lecture Title: Barack Obama and American Politics |
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2009 Lecture Title: Building Social Capital in Divided Societies: Lessons from The Concord’s Work in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and the United States |
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2008 Lecture Title: How Cancer Crossed the Red Line: Race and Disease in America |
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2007 Lecture Title: No Margin for Error: Disadvantage and Success in the Immigrant Second Generation |
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2006 Gerald Torres, Bryant Smith Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law Lecture Title: Democracy Means the People Make the Law |
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2005 James Morone, Professor of Political Science at Brown University Lecture Title: Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in America |
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2004 Michael Keith Lecture Title: Globalizing Culture: Multicultural Cities and the Future of Racism |
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2003 Edi Rama, Mayor of Tirana, capital of Albania Lecture Title: Artful Democracy: Urban Government and Planning After Communism |
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2002 Lecture Title: Homeland Defense, Economic Security, and Civil Rights in the U.S. |
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2000 Xavier de Souza Briggs, Vice President for US programs of the Ford Foundation Lecture Title: Community Building: The New (and Old) Politics of Urban Problem Solving in the New Century |
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1999 Charles Hamilton Lecture Title: The Role of Government – the Perennial Debate |
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1998 Kick-off Lecture at UMass Boston and Dinner at JFK Library Lecture Title: Bob Wood as a Public Intellectual
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