La Follette School of Public Affairs

On August 1, nominations are due for the @WisPolicyForum's Salute to Local Government Awards. The La Follette/Gladfelter award recognizes a government employee or program whose innovation solved a budgetary or programmatic challenge. Submit a nomination: buff.ly/R8Rjtoi

“[Wisconsinites] want to engage in important thorny issues even when they don’t necessarily agree with each other and they do want to do it in a civil way.” Hear the full @UWBadgerTalks episode with @SusanYackee and @AmberWichowsky: youtu.be/93oaPMBCquY?fe…

Professor @jasonmfletcher and Associate Professor @laurenlschmitz were featured in the Spring 2025 @UWMadisonLS Magazine for their research into social genomics, which aims in part to study the influences of both nature and nurture. Read more: buff.ly/YoQS7d0

Kunle Ojo is a Kinesiology major pursuing a Health Policy certificate and the first recipient of the David J. Krings Memorial Scholarship. The funding will cover his summer internship at the Cleveland Clinic. Read more: buff.ly/PrO1UTZ

Six years later, the late Senator Kohl's $10 million gift continues to have a transformative impact on our school, supporting several amazing initiatives this year alone. Read about ways his legacy lives on: buff.ly/x7FkZdp

How progressive is your water bill? Explore this PSJ article revealing how local governments use utility pricing as redistributive policy, especially where income inequality is high. By David Switzer & @MPTeodoro Read here: doi.org/10.1111/psj.70… #PSJ #PolicyStudiesJournal

PhD student @MattieBindl at the @NelsonInstitute and Assistant Professor @energymorgan published research that shows a path to correcting current trends and achieving the Paris Agreement by maintaining global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. Read more: buff.ly/XnKEUpY

Our director, @SusanYackee, and Associate Professor @AmberWichowsky spoke with the @UWBadgerTalks Podcast about the 2024 Main Street Agenda, a statewide initiative designed to encourage healthy discussion across the political aisle. 🎧 Tune in: buff.ly/pZ0QdVL

Associate Professor @AmberWichowsky joined La Follette this year and is an integral part of our community. Last spring she taught PA 230: Advancing Public Policy in a Divided America, a foundational course for our proposed undergraduate major. Read more: buff.ly/1ugo6Ds

What are the key indicators of a recession, and how close are we to experiencing one? Professor Menzie Chinn was featured on NPR's Planet Money to help answer these questions. 🎧 🔽 Tune In buff.ly/JU6Q17S

In memory of David J. Krings MA 72', a new scholarship has been created to encourage leadership in public service. The scholarship supports a graduate or undergraduate student’s summer internship related to public policy. Read more: buff.ly/FiZEb52

Professor @MPTeodoro's Wisconsin Waterworks Excellence Project has gained national media coverage and recently debuted at the Wisconsin State Capitol. Read more: buff.ly/m6yy4oW

MPA student Luis Navarrete was featured in @WisPolicyForum's newsletter! He is completing an internship there this summer. In addition to his La Follette degree, Luis is pursuing a dual master's in urban planning from @UWisconsinDPLA. Read the update: buff.ly/WWVhho0

Coffee prices are rising, with a 19% increase in beans for a Madison coffee shop. Coffee drinkers will likely see a price hike in their morning cup. Professor Jon Pevehouse says the increase is due to tariffs on South American countries. buff.ly/9GLwJcW

MPA alum Anna Barry is the Assistant Director of Social Media at UW–Madison's Office of Strategic Communication. “At La Follette, I developed critical skills in synthesizing policy and initiatives which I now apply to my work in communications.” Full Q&A: buff.ly/BNJErtV

Andrew VanderMeer is an MPA alum now working at the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau. He says required classes like statistical methods for public policy were his most challenging and rewarding experience. Read Andrew's full Q&A: buff.ly/PZ22xyu

Our associate director, Steve Kulig, received the Academic Staff Mid-Career Award from the UW–Madison College of Letters & Science in May of this year. This distinction highlights his outstanding leadership at UW–Madison. Read more: buff.ly/pkcc4lU

Congratulations to certificate student Helena Bello for receiving the Udall Scholarship, a prestigious national award that honors leaders in specific policy studies. Her research led to bird-safe building legislation in her home city. Read more: buff.ly/6mmbOrR

“I wanted to gain knowledge about how health policy works in the US so that I could expand my skill set and pair this knowledge with my studies in strategic communications in the School of Journalism,” says health policy certificate student Maire Webb: buff.ly/if48qxO

Muhammad Rehan, a recent MIPA grad and Fulbright Scholar, completed his capstone project for the Madison Metropolitan School District. His team analyzed enrollment trend data to determine the best policies for attracting and retaining students. Full Q&A: buff.ly/SZDeWV8