I go to school at the "S-word"

The IRC aside, I thought I might go into the uncanny-ness of my stay in DC before I have to pick up and go a month from now. I've been her as one of the lucky ones from Stanford University, who has been able to stay in DC and work and learn from the craziness that governs us.

Week 1:
Meet the professors -

• (Prof.) Walter H. Pincus - From 1972 to 1975, he was executive editor of The New Republic. He covered the Watergate Senate hearings, the House impeachment hearings of Richard Nixon and the Watergate trial, writing articles for the magazine and op-ed pieces for The Washington Post. In 1975, he returned to the Post to write for the national staff of the newspaper.

  When he resumed writing for the newspaper, he also was permitted to work as a part time consultant to NBC News and later CBS News, developing, writing or producing television segments for network evening news, magazine shows and hour documentaries.

  At The Washington Post, Pincus has written about a variety of national news subjects ranging from nuclear weapons and arms control to political campaigns to the American hostages in Iran to investigations of Congress and the Executive Branch. For six years he covered the Iran-contra affair. He covered the intelligence community and its problems arising out of the case of confessed spy Aldrich Ames, allegations of Chinese espionage at nuclear weapons laboratories.

  Pincus attended Georgetown Law School part-time beginning in 1995 and graduated in 2001, at the age of sixty-eight.

  Pincus currently teaches a class at the Stanford in Washington center. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Pincus)
  

• Prof. Steven Radelet -

  Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he works on issues related to foreign aid, developing country debt, economic growth, and trade between rich and poor countries.

  He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Africa, the Middle East, and Asia from January 2000 through June 2002. In that capacity he was responsible for developing policies on U.S. financial relations with the countries in these regions, including debt rescheduling and programs with the IMF, World Bank, and other international financial institutions.

  He oversaw policy development on the U.S. response to Turkey’s financial crisis, Pakistan’s debt restructuring, India’s financial relationships with the U.S., the aftermath of Indonesia’s financial crisis, Nigeria’s re-engagement with the international financial institutions, and development issues throughout Africa.

  From 1990-2000 he was on the faculty of Harvard University, where he was a Fellow at the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), Director of the Institute's Macroeconomics Program, and a Lecturer on Economics and Public Policy.

  From 1991-95, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he was HIID's resident advisor on macroeconomic policy to the Indonesian Ministry of Finance. He served in a similar capacity with the Ministry of Finance and Trade in The Gambia from 1986-88. He was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Western Samoa from 1981-83.

  He currently serves as an economic advisor to the President and the Minister of Finance of Liberia and teaches a economic development course in the Stanford in Washington program. (http://www.cgdev.org/content/experts/detail/2680/)

• (Prof.) Randall Schriver - Randy Schriver is one of five founding partners of Armitage International LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in international business development and strategies. Armitage International incorporated in March 2005. He is also a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
  
  Immediately prior to his return to the private sector, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs responsible for the PRC, Taiwan, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. Prior to joining the Asia Bureau, he served for two years as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Prior to his work as a consultant, he served for four years in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) as a civil servant… Prior to his civilian service, he served as an active duty Navy Intelligence Officer for nearly three years (1989-91). His operational assignments were with Patrol Squadron Four (VP-4), and Special Air Reconnaissance Squadron Three (VQ-3). During his stint with VP-4 he completed a deployment in theater for service in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. After active duty, he served in the Navy Reserves for nine years (1991-2000). In his capacity as a reserve officer he completed active duty for training assignments as a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1999), and as an attaché at the U.S. Embassy Beijing (1997) and U.S. Embassy Ulaanbaatar (1996).

He teaches a foreign policy course for Stanford University's Stanford in Washington program. (http://www.armitageinternational.com/team/member.php?id=5)

And these are just the Professors. Imagine coming from Santa Fe, NM, getting thrust into the life of a Stanfordite, (which requires another blog devoted to that whole spiel...), and then transitioning into a Washington, DC lifestyle that no single person can get used to.

Meet the boss - Anne Richard, VP [extraordinaire] of Government Relations and Advocacy--basically the best boss and mentor anyone could ask for. The woman sweats brilliance, knows everyone in DC, and writes and speaks with Pulitzer Prize winning authority. Not to brag about her, but she's got it together. Did I mention she's awesome??

(If you ever read this, Anne, I promise this is off the record. I'm not just sucking up).

Week 2 -

• Supreme Court Justice Breyer comes to be the 'guest speaker' for his friend Walter Pincus's class, Government Oversight and the Press.
• Briefing on Jeffrey Sach's new book, courtesy of Brookings and the IRC Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet and made some sweet small-talk while sitting right next to his arch-nemesis, William Easterly. He was there to hear Jeff and then he bounced. I mean, c'mon, you read their books in polisci undergrads. I can salivate a little.
  

Weeks 3&4 -

• Andrea starts a journey into international public health. Lots of email lists and learning the
  
• Tour of the Supreme Court with Chief Justice Robert's clerk Josh Hawley. We get a mini-session with the Chief Justice John G. Roberts and we chat (off the record) about the couch that John Adams passed on, sitting inside his office and the fact that if he could ever review a single case, it would be "America's modern-day apartheid" in the way we have created 'sovereign nations' for Native Americans inside this country. Needless to say, the topic of discussion was impressive and thought provoking.
  

Weeks 5 -

• ACCESS Forum - 5-year global program, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), that aims to improve the health and survival of mothers and their newborns.

CSIS-Bob Schieffer School of Journalism Dialogue:

Fighting Terrorism in a Democratic Society

• Moderated by: Bob Schieffer, CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent
  Face the Nation Anchor
• Panel:
  Jamie Gorelick,
  Former Deputy Attorney General of the United States
  
  Lt. General William Odom (Ret.),
  Former Director, National Security Agency
  
  David Sanger,
  Chief Washington Correspondent, The New York Times
  
  Nina Totenberg
  Legal Affairs Correspondent, National Public Radio

Gen. William Eldridge Odom said some of his final words before passing, continuing to say his piece for peace.

"The president has let (the Iraq war) proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued. He lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its influence, money and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies."

• Softball with NY Times and LA Times. I become the proverbial "ringer" for the LA Times and share great stories with the likes of Stanford Alum National Security Correspondent in the Washington Bureau of the New York Times, Doug Jehl. Sweet times. Ahhh, summer.
  

Weeks 6 & 7 -

• Week long InterAction Forum: http://www.interaction.org/forum/
• it opens my eyes to the world of consortiums, working groups and the many many many divisions of Humanitarian work across the board. Who knew 160 NGOs could combine efforts to ensure that the best practices occur and everyone's on the same page. (other pieces of this blog will go into many of the resources available from the conference itself--not to mention the inspiration it sparked in many other areas).
  
• Also, I get my first taste of lobbying. Who's office? Starting with Barack Obama's office we meet his staff, along with the staff of Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) and Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-WI) to talk about the Global Poverty Act by thanking those that supported it and convincing those that needed some nudging into the right direction (ahem...Voinovich).
  

Week 8 -

• http://www.globalhealth.org/conference/view_top.php3?id=844>Global Health Council Conference -
  
• Imagine getting your mind blown for an entire week and meeting a conference full of heroes that will never get the recognition they deserve because they do it community by community, human by human. They tell their stories of how they've been able to revolutionize health care from the small scale to global proportions.

Week 9 -

• Classes start to wrap up. Finals/final papers roll around. Gross.
  
• Transition into SUMMER!!