Mauricio Child, who graduated from Columbia's Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy (MPA-ESP) program in 2017, is now an Associate Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington, D.C., where he finances infrastructure projects across southern Africa with a focus on renewable energy. An engineer by training with a background in business consulting, Mauricio shares his path from consulting into development finance, what drew him to Columbia's MPA-ESP program, and his advice for current students and recent graduates.

SIPA welcomes a distinguished new cohort of faculty — including new program leadership — for the 2026–27 academic year.

Michael R. McAdoo, adjunct professor of international and public affairs, speaks to BNN Bloomberg about the U.S. pausing 50% tariffs on Canada.

Senior research scholar Julian Gewirtz provides a guided tour of the strange theater of U.S.-China presidential diplomacy.

Learn more about assistantship options here at SIPA!

"Change doesn’t spring from politicians; it comes when regular people take dramatic action and push the politicians beyond where they would ever go on their own," says IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow Mary Kay Henry.

On the White House's program to conduct cyber counterattacks, senior research scholar Jason Healey notes that "allowing a small number of vetted companies to disrupt adversaries, under government control, is a worthwhile experiment. These operations are not meant to be ‘hacking back’ but longer term surveillance and disruption to frustrate their operations."

"Before a generational shift becomes irreversible, Israel needs to return to a basic tenet of its national security strategy during the first 75 years of statehood: maintaining stable bipartisan support in the US, even at the price of difficult political decisions in Israel," says former US Treasury Secretary and Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew.

“A.I. is a creativity tool at the end of the day, and multifaceted, and platforms that handle [AI slop] in a poor way will see people walk and go to other places,” says Camille François, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs.

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, Clifford Chanin ’77JRN, ’80SIPA, executive vice president and museum director of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, keeps the events of that day in the public consciousness.