A Message from SPIA’s Executive Director

Welcome to the inaugural—or at least first in a long time—SPIA Alumni Newsletter! For some time now, we have been searching for additional ways to engage with our graduates. While our social media presence has grown considerably, we simply haven’t had a consistent publication designed solely for our alumni until now. 

We hope the SPIA Alumni Newsletter serves several purposes:

First, it is a vehicle for communicating your stories. In this edition, you will read about the professional experiences of retired CIA Intelligence Office Pat Weninger (political science ‘91), and you can learn about the great work that MPA alumnae Debbie Woodbury is doing in the City of Alexandria.

The newsletter will be a place where you can find out about our current students, their activities, and their accolades. Check out the piece on 2021 American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Founders’ Fellow Paige L. Moore, and read about the career plans of recent Boren Scholarship winner Kassidy DeMaio.

We will also make space in the newsletter for stories on our new program initiatives—such as the professional development series launched by the MIS program—and our research and public service. Just see what we’ve been learning about the politics and policies associated with the COVID pandemic.

Finally, the newsletter will provide a venue for highlighting alumni engagement with current students, faculty, and staff. In this edition, be sure to read about Mitchell Moravec, the young SPIA alumni who has established a scholarship in honor of his friend, Jackie Gonzalez, NC State’s first Latinx student body president, and consider the impact of Susan Warren Rabon’s scholarship on the professional development of current political science major Tiffanie Smith.

If you have story ideas, or thoughts on how to improve this publication, please do not hesitate to contact me (ilmorri2@ncsu.edu) or spiacommunication@ncsu.edu. In closing, I have a favor to ask: “SPIA Alumni Newsletter” is a decent name, but I think we can do better. If you have a suggestion, send me an email. I’ll enlist the help of the Advisory Council in choosing a name at their next meeting.

Hope you and yours are well. Go PACK!

Irwin Morris,

Executive Director, School of Public and International Affairs 

William T. Kretzer Distinguished Professor of Humanities