O’Neill School celebrates 50 years of making a difference

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Leslie Wells

A woman stands at a wood podium, speaking to a crowd. A tall red banner is behind her with the words celebrating 50 years. In the foreground, we see two people watching the woman speak. — O’Neill School Dean Siân Mooney speaks to attendees at the O’Neill 50th Anniversary Celebration in Bloomington.

Written by: Leslie Wells and Ken Bikoff

2022 marks a major milestone for majoring in making a difference. It’s the 50th anniversary of the founding of the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs—a recognition of five decades of O’Neill students, alumni, faculty, and staff changing the world.

“The O’Neill School’s great strength is its unique ability to support science in service to society,” said Dean Siân Mooney. “O’Neill alumni have a long record of leadership and accomplishments, creating and implementing public policies that make a positive difference for Indiana and beyond.”

That tradition began in 1972, when Indiana University announced it was creating a new school, one that would focus on solving the world’s problems through a multisector approach to public service.

“There was considerable concern among faculty, staff, and students that we needed to make the university relevant to solving the problems of the real world,” Charles Bonser noted during the school’s 40th anniversary celebration in 2012.

Bonser was the founding dean of what was then known as the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Six years after the school was established, it expanded into the heart of Indianapolis at IUPUI. The new location provided O’Neill and its students with direct access to a bustling downtown city center, ripe with urban opportunities for involvement in state government as well as high-profile nonprofit and private-sector organizations that could make an impact on the community and beyond.

The new location also provided room for the expansion of O’Neill’s programs. In addition to degrees in public affairs, management, and sustainability, O’Neill IUPUI provided new opportunities for students to study criminal justice and public safety management all within a major metropolitan area. (more…)

O’Neill alum keeps purpose as career shifts

Posted on October 17, 2022 by Leslie Wells

A woman sits at a desk in her office, smiling while typing on the keyboard. — Kerri Alford (BSCJ’14) has used a diverse O’Neill degree to serve in many roles in the criminal justice field and now in education.

Kerri Alford (BSCJ’14) helps teens and young adults find their futures. After working as a career transition specialist for Atterbury Job Corps, guiding students into careers, she’s now an instructor with the program.

Some of the 16–24-year-olds she works with have been involved in the criminal justice system, but she’s quick to point out many haven’t—a misconception she says many people have about the program. Some students come to complete their high school degrees. Others come for trade job training programs.

Looking back, Alford sees how her past led to her present. It’s the culmination of her interests, experiences, and opportunities.

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O’Neill provides chance for students take education overseas

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Leslie Wells

Two women stand in front of a monument in Berlin at night. The monument is brightly lit in the background. — O’Neill student Ariel Mason (R) spent her Spring Break studying abroad in Berlin, Germany.

O’Neill IUPUI’s downtown Indianapolis location provides students with ample opportunity to gain diverse views on their career paths as they pursue their degrees. But sometimes, shifting your educational environment can provide perspectives students may have never considered.

Ariel Mason is a student in O’Neill’s Accelerated Master’s Program, pursuing degrees in Sustainable Management and Public Management.

“I had never been out of the country,” Mason says. “Studying abroad was an easy way to make that first trip happen. You get to experience a more organized approach to being in a new country which was comforting to me.”

Mason applied to O’Neill International to travel to Berlin for Spring Break 2022—one of three courses offered around the world:

Berlin: This course focuses on the policy approach of Berlin and Germany to generate economic resilience in a turbulent global economy.
Poland: This course provides a broad overview of the problems facing urban areas today and identifies past, current, and possible future urban problems in the United States.
Cayman Islands: This course allows students to conduct research in the distinct and diverse ecosystems found only in the Caribbean, including coral reefs and mangrove forests.

For Mason, the course topic and location’s history and culture all seemed exciting. She could also earn a scholarship to help cover some of the cost of the trip. To help others gain a better understanding of what it’s like to enroll in the Berlin study abroad program, Mason shared her perspectives of traveling overseas for the first time, her impressions of Germany and Berlin, and her most memorable takeaways from the experience.

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Learn a holistic approach to leadership with IU Executive Education

Posted on October 3, 2022 by Leslie Wells

Photo grid of three women. On the right, a woman wearing a cardigan holds a coffee mug sitting at a desk. In the center a woman wearing a patterned dress smiles. On the right, a woman wearing a turquoise shirt and glasses smiles. — Christy Shepard (L), Stellamaris Mulaeh (C), and Susan Sears (R) attended IU Executive Education’s Holistic Leadership Series.

It was 6 p.m. in Kenya when Stellamaris Mulaeh logged on to her computer. Even though her work day was over, she was joining a leadership development series being hosted live thousands of miles away in Indiana by IU Executive Education.

The time difference and distance didn’t matter to Mulaeh. She wanted to learn, form connections with others around the world, and become a better leader.

Mulaeh works in the nonprofit sector in Kenya and admits that after the past two years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, she needed fresh ideas and inspiration.

“I needed to refill my jar as a leader so that I could be much more effective, much more deliberate in influencing change in the institutions and people I work with,” she says.

Susan Sears, who works for IU Health in Indianapolis, also needed a recharge.

“I just felt kind of stuck, like I was traveling without a compass,” she admits.

The two were part of a group of global leaders enrolled in the Holistic Leadership Series offered by IU Executive Education and Consulus, a global innovation consultant group. They’re teaming up again to host the upcoming Holistic Leadership Series beginning October 19, 2023.

The program is based on Consulus’ HERO holistic leadership model:

Heart and spirit: The personal values and character that inform decisions and actions.
Embracive thinking: The ability to learn new information, think critically, embrace diverse thought, and apply knowledge to real situations.
Relational dynamics: How leaders’ physical presence, habits, and emotions impact how they relate to others.
Operational leadership: Functional leadership skills, such as creating a vision, planning, directing, and more.

“This was a leadership program experience that I had never experienced before,” Mulaeh says with a smile. “It was a program that emphasized finding yourself and your values. It wove different components of the sessions together in a way that I found very powerful.”

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Private sector provides examples of how to LEED on climate change

Posted on September 26, 2022 by Leslie Wells

Written by: Doug Noonan, Paul H. O’Neill Professor

Addressing climate change is not only about finding viable, effective policies, it’s also about recognizing and addressing the myriad barriers on our path to solutions. Political gridlock, special interests, and policy whiplash whenever a polarized electorate flips party control all hold us back from finding ways to renew and sustain economic growth, curb wasteful and unfair government regulation, and foster new opportunities and innovation.

The challenges facing our society are simply too complex, too dispersed, and too localized to rely on crude, top-down fixes. As such, climate challenges do not imply one particular policy response. In fact, we can often look to the private sector to find complementary approaches to policy.

Case in point: The great success story in green building. The building environment accounts for 40% of total carbon emissions. As a result, the industry needed a renovation. Greening our buildings is a massive opportunity to usher in innovation, economic growth, and better performance.

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