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About the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies
Named in honor of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John W. McCormack, the
McCormack Graduate School was founded in 2003 to create a dynamic academic and
research center in policy studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. We are the
go-to school for a world class interdisciplinary education and values-driven, local and global
research that seeks to understand and remedy some of the most important social, political,
economic, and environmental issues of our times. A school with a teaching soul, we train
the next generation of local and global leaders in conflict resolution, gerontology, global
governance and human security, international relations, public affairs, and public policy.
UNIVERSITY RANKING
In 2010, the University of Massachusetts ranked 56th in the
Times of London’s Top 200 World University Rankings, making
it the only New England public university on the list, which
the newspaper describes as “the gold standard for worldclass research institutions.” The World University Rankings is
considered the premier global higher-education ranking project.
BOSTON’S PUBLIC RESEARCH UNIVERSITY
With a growing reputation for innovative research addressing
complex urban issues, the University of Massachusetts
Boston, metropolitan Boston’s only public university, offers
its diverse student population both an intimate learning
environment and the rich experience of a great American
city. UMass Boston’s 11 colleges and graduate schools serve
more than 15,000 students while engaging local, national,
and international constituents through academic programs,
research centers, and public service activities. To learn more
about UMass Boston, visit www.umb.edu.
WE’RE GROWING IN SIZE
AND REPUTATION
APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS
JOHN W. McCORMACK GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF POLICY AND GLOBAL STUDIES
www.mccormack.umb.edu
Tel: +1.617.287.5550
JOHN W. McCORMACK GRADUATE SCHOOL OF POLICY AND GLOBAL STUDIES
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125-3393
14.607rc
GROWING IN SIZE AND REPUTATION
GERONTOLOGY@UMASS BOSTON
Appointments and Promotions
John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies
DEPARTMENT OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION, HUMAN SECURITY, AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
New Assistant Professors
Jeffrey Pugh (PhD, The Johns Hopkins University) comes to us from Providence College, where he was an assistant
professor of political science. For the past 11 years he has also served as the executive director of the Center for
Mediation, Peace, and Resolution of Conflict, an organization he founded that is based in Ecuador and the United
States and has trained more than 4,000 adults and children from more than 15 countries with lessons on conflict
resolution, human rights, communication, and leadership. He has published articles on peace building and political negotiation in Latin America and has earned numerous fellowships and awards for his teaching and writings, including
the 2011 Peace and Justice Studies Association’s Best Graduate Dissertation of the Year Award.
Karen Ross (PhD, Indiana University) has taught as an adjunct professor at Drexel, Columbia, and Indiana,
where she earned the Outstanding Associate Instructor Award from the School of Education in 2010. Her areas of
teaching and research interests include peace education, intergroup dialogue, social activism, and identity and
conflict. Among her scholarly contributions, she has authored or coauthored four published articles, has contributed chapters to two edited collections, and has presented numerous conference papers. Ross earned an MA in
law and diplomacy at Tufts University and a BA in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. (Ross will
join the department in January 2015.)
New Department Chair
Darren Kew (PhD, Tufts University) is an associate professor in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human
Security, and Global Governance and the executive director of the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development. Kew’s work on how conflict resolution methods promote democratization of national political cultures
is one of the first of its kind linking these important fields. He is a leading expert on the Boko Haram in Nigeria.
His work supports the Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna, Nigeria, where he offers cutting-edge reconciliation services to Christian and Muslim communities torn by strife and threatened by this terrorist group. This work has been
recognized by the GlobalPost and others as groundbreaking and world class.
Promoted to Full Professor
J. Samuel Barkin (PhD, Columbia University) is a talented and prolific scholar in the fields of international
relations theory and international organization. He is a former associate member of the Madeleine Albright
Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley College. He has authored or coauthored six books and numerous articles.
His book International Organization: Theories and Institutions is a standard textbook in the field. Barkin’s work
has been published in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review,
Foreign Policy Analysis, Global Environmental Politics, Global Governance, Millennium, and Environmental Politics, among other
journals, as well as in numerous edited volumes. Barkin directs our Graduate Program in International Relations.
Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure
Maria Ivanova (PhD, Yale University) serves on the U.N. Scientific Advisory Board of Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon, placing her in the company of 25 eminent scientists from around the world and demonstrating her
expertise on important issues of global sustainability. She was a driving force behind the university’s first IGERT
(Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) grant award from the National Science Foundation
to conduct transdisciplinary, transnational research on coasts and communities. Ivanova’s scholarship focuses
on historical events, current issues, and future trends in global governance, international organizations and their performance, climate change governance, U.S. foreign environmental policy, U.N. reform, and sustainability on campuses and in
organizations. She is codirector of our Center for Governance and Sustainability.
New Director of the Gerontology Institute and Clinical Professor
Len Fishman (JD, University of Maryland School of Law) , a nationally recognized leader in the field of aging and
aging policy, brings enormous experience, intellectual and academic strengths, and institution-building skills
to his new role as director of the Gerontology Institute. He will guide the institute in its continued development
as an innovative thought leader, providing cutting-edge research, policy, and service focused on aging issues in
the 21st century. For 13 years, Fishman served as CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, New England’s largest nonprofit
provider of senior housing and health care. Under his leadership, this 110-year-old organization evolved into a national
leader in senior health care and housing, research, and teaching. He also led LeadingAge in Washington, D.C., and served
as the first nonphysician director of the New Jersey Department of Health under Governor Christine Todd Whitman. Before
joining Whitman’s cabinet, Fishman practiced health care law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
New Associate Professor
Kathrin Boerner (PhD, Free University of Berlin) brings a wealth of research experience in mental health and
aging, family caregiving and support needs, the long-term-care workforce, and end-of-life and bereavement
issues to her position as associate professor of gerontology. Previously a senior research scientist at the Jewish Home Lifecare Research Institute on Aging and an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai in New York City, she has published peer-reviewed articles in the Journals of Gerontology, European
Journal of Ageing, and Journal of Aging Studies. Boerner has earned grants from the National Institute on Aging and National
Institute on Mental Health, as well as from foundations in Germany. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America
and the American Psychological Association.
Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure
Pamela Nadash (PhD, Columbia University) has earned a growing national reputation for her research on the
role of consumer choice in long-term care and health services, managed long-term care, and comparative
long-term-care policy. She has extensive experience working for nonprofits, including the Center for Home
Care Policy and Research, the National Council on Aging, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her work
has been published in Health Affairs, Health Services Research, International Journal of Social Welfare, Journal of
Health Politics, Policy and Law, Public Administration Review, and other journals. She teaches in our Gerontology PhD
Program and Management of Aging Services master’s degree program.
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC POLICY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
New Director of Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy and Clinical Professor
Ann Bookman (PhD, Harvard University) is a leading researcher and social policy expert on women’s issues,
work-family balance, and community engagement with three decades of experience in academia and government.
Appointed by President Clinton as policy and research director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department
of Labor, Bookman was executive director of a bipartisan commission that studied the impact of the Family and
Medical Leave Act on workers and employers and was principal author of the commission’s report to Congress, “A Workable
Balance.” She has led research and evaluation projects at Brandeis’ Heller School and the MIT Workplace Center at the Sloan
School of Management. She is the author of a number of peer-reviewed journal articles, policy reports, and two books, Women
and the Politics of Empowerment and Starting in Our Own Backyards: How working families can build community and survive the
new economy. Bookman joined the school last summer.
New Visiting Assistant Professor
Domingo Morel (PhD, Brown University) recently completed his political science doctorate at Brown University.
His dissertation examined the effects of government intervention on Black and Latino political empowerment by
focusing on state takeovers of local school districts. He brings experience in teaching, curriculum development, and
student advising from positions at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island with additional research experience at Harvard University. Morel will teach in the Master of Science in Public Affairs and PhD in Public Policy Programs. He
is also the co-founder and co-chair of the board of directors of the Rhode Island Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams College.