Year in Review: 2021–22 Highlights

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In its first in-person graduation since 2019, SIPA honored nearly 600 graduates from more than 50 countries on May 15. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the United Nations, was the featured speaker.

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When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the SIPA and Columbia communities responded. Faculty have been prominent and prolific commentators, at University events and in diverse news outlets, since the war's onset. Our students and alumni have been active, too, in varied ways. Read more about their continuing activities.

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A study by Professor Douglas Almond (pictured), PhD student Xinming Du, and Alana Vogel MIA ’20 examined the impact of Russian internet “trolls” on online betting markets, suggesting that the trolls’ activity influenced the 2016 U.S. presidential election in the direction of Donald Trump.

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SIPA's Center on Global Energy Policy, led by founding director Jason Bordoff, partnered with the Obama Foundation to host former President Barack Obama for a roundtable with youth activists, SIPA students (including Eduarda Zoghbi MPA ’22, pictured), and Obama Foundation Scholars Program alumni at COP26.

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Dean Merit E. Janow stepped down in December 2021 after eight-and-a-half years of leadership. Read about her legacy at SIPA and how the School has grown and changed since July 2013.

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Yasmine Ergas is one of three recipients of the inaugural IIE-SRF Vartan Gregorian Research Grants. Ergas will study attacks on gender studies programs and scholars.

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In March, a team of three SIPA students won top honors at a competition among representatives from the seven member schools of the Global Public Policy Network (GPPN). The winning project, known as Sourceable, would make it easier to document and verify human-rights violations that might otherwise be ignored, suppressed, or challenged.

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Karine Jean-Pierre MPA ’03 became President Biden’s press secretary on May 13, 2022. She is the first Black person and the first LGBTQ person to hold what the New York Times called “one of the most high-profile jobs in American politics.”

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Twelve SIPA students and eight SIPA alumni were selected to join the Presidential Management Fellows Class of 2022.

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SIPA’s Alumni Day returned after a two-year hiatus with a live presentation of the School’s inaugural alumni awards and a virtual seminar on climate change. The in-person portion of the program, held at IAB on April 30, also featured conversations with honorees Sumant Sinha MIA ’92 and Nicole Van Der Tuin MPA ’12.

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Claudia López MPA ’03, mayor of Bogota, visited SIPA in September to lead a panel on “Political and Economic Participation of Women in Latin America.”

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General John W. Raymond of the U.S. Space Force keynoted the annual NY Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge at SIPA.

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In response to the DEI self-assessment conducted in Spring 2021, SIPA restructured its diversity committee to move SIPA’s DEI agenda forward. In particular, the School launched the SIPA DEI Alumni-Student Mentoring Initiative and began the search for a new full-time administrator to focus exclusively on diversity and community relations at SIPA. Read additional highlights in the committee's year-end report.

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What Can Be: The Campaign for SIPA concluded in December 2021 having raised $160 million over five years. All told, more than 4,700 SIPA alumni and friends gave generously to support financial aid for our students, high-impact research by our professors, and new hiring in critical fields.

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Professor Robert Jervis, a giant in the field of international relations who taught at SIPA and Columbia for more than four decades, died at his home in Manhattan on December 9 following a battle with lung cancer.

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SIPA remembers John G. Ruggie, a political scientist who served as the School’s dean from 1991 to 1996 and went on to lead a seminal United Nations effort to definitively establish the responsibilities of countries and companies alike with respect to human rights.