La Follette Notes
Spring 2010 / www.lafollette.wisc.edu
News for Alumni & Friends of The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
Students benefit
from generosity
of alumni, friends
N
early 2.5 years ago, many of you
accepted a challenge from your
alma mater to help us continue to attract
the top students who apply to our public
affairs pro­gram. As our admissions committee meets in the spring to weigh our
o­ffers of support to students, we find
we have more resources thanks to the
gen­erosity of our financial supporters.
Addison Smith is one of our current
students who has benefited from your gifts.
Addison is a first-year student in the international public affairs program. He plans
to earn a dual degree in law and ultimately
run for a seat in the Wisconsin Legislature.
“I want to do the best I can for the people
of Wisconsin in crafting legislation and
policy that make our country a better
place to live,” he says.
“Knowing how to maximize policy effectiveness is, of course, what we learn at
La Follette,” he adds.
“As a legislator I will
need to know how
to use hard facts and
logical analysis, rather
than rhetoric and
emotion, to determine the true effects
of a policy proposal
and to craft better
policy to respond to
From the Director
the needs of society.”
Carolyn Heinrich
In these challenging financial times, with widening state and
federal fiscal gaps, your ongoing financial
support will continue to make it possible
for us to help the best and brightest to pursue their public service goals. Thank you!
As this issue of La Follette Notes attests,
many alumni and friends also contribute
their time as part of their commitment to
public service, an attribute they share with
See From the Director on page 7
Sustainable friendship
2 alumni collaborate to aid Tanzania school
W
hat started as a trip to celebrate a
25th wedding anniversary by visiting an old friend in Tanzania has developed into a new partnership for alumni
Kurt Thurmaier and Leo Kazeri.
Thurmaier and his wife, Jeanine, visited
Kazeri in Musoma, a district in northern
Tanzania near Lake Victoria. Kazeri is a
Catholic priest who serves as development director for his diocese, director of
a secular economic development organization and business manager for Nyegina
Secondary School, a boarding school near
Musoma with 500 students.
Both men hold 1983 master’s degrees in
public policy and administration from precursors of the La Follette School of Public
Affairs, Thurmaier from the Center for the
Study of Public Policy and Administration,
Kazeri from the Center for Development.
Twenty-five years after they graduated,
seeing firsthand what Kazeri is accomplishing and the great need that remains in the
region was a life-changing experience, says
See Friendship on page 7
As part of the con­
struction of a dormitory for a school
in Tanzania, Kurt
Thurmaier, second
from left, is poised
to receive a brick
from classmate
Leo Kazeri,
third from right.
Mentoring builds bridges for alumni, students
A
lumni and friends are sharing ideas
with students about jobs, connections
between classroom and policy arena, and
insights into the workaday world of public affairs through the La Follette School’s
mentoring program.
“I remember how much I leaned on
a number of faculty, staff and alumni as
I contemplated my own ‘life after La Follette,’” says mentor Alexis MacDonald,
a 2008 grad and health policy analyst with
the Government Accountability Office
in Washington, D.C. “I’m happy that I
can give back by serving as a mentor
for a current student.”
Joanna Marks has appreciated learning
about MacDonald’s day-to-day work routine. “I’m able to think of real world applications for things I’m learning in the classroom — and look ahead to professional
Mentors needed for fall
The La Follette School plans to pair mentors
with students enrolling this fall. Any alumni
and friends interested in connecting with
students should contact Mary Russell by
e-mailing careerdev@lafollette.wisc.edu or
calling (608) 263-2409.
Feedback from current mentors is also
welcome.
work,” says Marks, a second-year student.
Career development coordinator Mary
Russell matched about 40 students with
alumni and friends. Some pairs have developed long-distance relationships via e-mail
and telephone while others have met in
Madison, Russell says.
See Mentors on page 4
2 / La Follette Notes
Casper named deputy
revenue secretary
1999 alum Tim Casper
is the new deputy secretary
of the Wisconsin Department
of Revenue.
Most recently, Casper served
as the executive assistant of
the Wisconsin Department
of Administration where he
advised Governor Jim Doyle
and Administration Secretary
Michael Morgan on policy
and administrative matters,
including the development
of legislative initiatives. Additionally, he worked with state
agencies to implement provisions of the biennial budget
and advance the state’s
building
program.
Casper
also
served as
the liaison
between
DOA and
the Legislature.
Tim Casper
Before his appointment
to DOA, Casper worked in
Doyle’s office from 2003 to
2009. He served as the governor’s senior policy director,
working on policy initiatives
focusing on the executive
budget, economic development, education issues and
health-care expansion.
Casper has held positions
with the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family
Services, the Legislature and
the University of Wisconsin­
Madison.
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Spring 2010
Alumni, friends share management tips with students
A
lumni and friends are sharing their insights
with students on the tools and skills needed
to administer people and other resources. Faculty
teaching public management this spring organized
two classroom panel discussions, one featuring
recent grads, the other senior managers.
“Management is as much about craft as it is
about hard skills, so learning about firsthand experience from reflective practitioners is invaluable,”
says associate director Don Moynihan, who teaches one of the two public management sections.
He and professor Susan Yackee organized the
panels in response to feedback from students
who expressed a strong preference to hear from
public and non-profit managers about their
triumphs and failures.
The first panel in early March featured alumni from 2006-08. They talked about their backgrounds, their current jobs, their contributions
at work, leadership traits they admired, and, in
some cases, the difference between public and
private work experiences.
Speakers touched on skills they learned at
La Follette, including concise writing. “Frequently,
I have limited time to present and a maximum
of a page or two to analyze the core issues,” says
Nick Bubb, a budget and policy analyst with the
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.
“La Follette taught me how to focus on the important aspects of a public policy issue and ignore the
extraneous information.”
The strong analytical skills students gain coupled with the capacity to understand and present
different arguments systematically and concisely
also prove essential. “Working as an auditor requires me to learn a lot about unfamiliar programs
and policies in a short period of time,” says Joe
Fontaine, who works for the Wisconsin Legislative
Audit Bureau, “and my classes in policy analysis
and public management gave me the conceptual
tools I need to be effective.”
The other alumni were Brad Campbell, a program manager with the Wisconsin Depart­ment
of Workforce Development; Nina Carlson, a
policy advisor in the Wisconsin governor’s office;
and Jeff Sartin, director of the Wisconsin Justice
Information Sharing Program.
The public management course is structured
around three main components: structure, culture
and craft, notes Yackee, who teaches the other
section. “Our guests put a human face on these
concepts and shared specific examples of management skills they use and situations they encounter.”
“One has to have a certain degree of social
intelligence,” Bubb says. “You have to know how
to present the same information to audiences that
vary in experience and age. As a young professional, you have to use the skills taught at La Follette to
ground your analysis without irritating more experienced or knowledgeable staff.”
The second panel in late April comprised senior
managers: 1985 alum Mark O’Connell, executive
director of the Wisconsin Counties Association;
Deedra Atkinson, senior vice president of community impact at United Way of Dane County in
Madison; JoAnna Richard, deputy secretary of the
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development; and Karen Timberlake, secretary of the
Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
“For the first discussion, we wanted the students to learn from a group they could easily
identify with,” Moynihan says. “The students will
themselves be in similar positions in just a couple
of years. For the second group, the panelists can
talk about management at a very senior level —
where the manager is supervising hundreds or
thousands of employees, dealing with senior political officials and stakeholders, and partnering with
other organizations. The students could be in the
same position 20 years down the line.
“The goal is that the students come to appreciate how the craft of management evolves as their
careers evolve, but how some of the basic analytical skills they learn now will stand them in good
stead.” w
Network via the Web
You’re invited to join the La Follette Alumni Group on LinkedIn, a professional networking web site.
Joining allows you to find and contact more than 275 other La Follette members. You can
wreach other members of the La Follette community — current students and alumni
waccelerate careers and business through referrals from La Follette Alumni Group members
wknow more than a name — view rich professional profiles of fellow La Follette Alumni Group members
Here’s the link to join: www.linkedin.com/e/gis/39199/57C421450A06; or go to www.linkedin.com, sign in
and search groups for La Follette.
Information
Career development coordinator Mary L. Russell w 608-263-2409 w careerdev@lafollette.wisc.edu
Spring 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu
La Follette Notes / 3
News from alumni
and friends
1970s
Sanford (Sam) Kinzer, 1971, is a practicing
lawyer, rancher, and chaser of the good life in
small town rural America — Ellensburg, Washing­
ton — as well as the late-blooming father of two
girls. After work in U.S. Senate, he moved to the
Seattle area to practice law.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle appointed
Edward F. Potter, 1974, to serve as a
member of the Real Estate Appraisers Board,
for a term expiring May 1, 2012. The Senate
confirmed his appointment on January 19, 2010.
Ronald Luskin, 1979, has been serving
since August 2008 on the City of Madison’s
Urban Design Commission. He has been
elected to the Downtown Madison Inc. board
of directors, and he serves on the La Follette
School’s Advisory Board.
Charlie Carlson, 1976, continues to serve
clients in Wisconsin clients after selling the firm
enetrix to Gallup. He is helping Gallup’s federal
government division in Washington, D.C., to
create a business entity.
1980s
Jeff Appelquist, 1986, is
the founder and president
of Blue Knight Battlefield
Seminars LLC, which
provides individual leader­
ship and team development
training for managers at
the Gettysburg and Little
Bighorn battlefields. He just
published the book, Sacred
Ground: Leadership Lessons From Gettysburg and
the Little Bighorn.
Jeff Appelquist
Jeff Martinka, 1983, was named in January
the executive director of Sweet Water (aka
Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust Inc.).
Martinka is the first director of this innovative
partnership of local governments, nonprofits,
business and academia working to improve the
water resources of the 1,100-square-mile greater
Milwaukee watersheds. Fueled by a $1.9 million
Joyce Foundation grant and based at University
of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Great Lakes Water
Institute, Sweet Water provides a national model
in watershed-based, multi-jurisdictional environ­
mental planning.
2007 grads marry
Photo copyright Hillary Harvey Photography
Rachel Moskowitz and Julius Svoboda, who met at La Follette, married in June in Marbletown,
New York, and a few 2007 La Follette School alumni and a Wisconsin state representative helped them
celebrate. From left are Representative Mark Pocan, and classmates Christie Enders, Amanda
Hawkins, Rachel and Julius Svoboda, Callie (Gray) Langton and Kate (Clark) Amoroso.
Amoroso and Enders work with Rachel on the Government Accountability Office’s health-care team. Lang­
ton is working on a special committee degree in public policy as a doctoral student in the School of Social
Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They all earned master of public affairs degrees. On the
international degree side, Julius is a trade specialist with the Office of Energy and Environmental Industries
within the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, while Hawkins works with the
U.S. Agency for International Development through the firm QED.
Jaafar Abu Bakar, 1980, was a government
servant for 20 years. He held various positions in
Malaysian government service, including general
manager of the Kelantan State Development
Corporation and deputy secretary of the General
Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.
In 1991 he joined the private sector in property
development, manufacturing and trading. He was
managing director of Damansara Realty Berhad,
executive chairman of Cold Storage Berhad and
president of Uniphoenix Corporation Berhad. He
now has his own real estate company in Kuala
Lumpur. He has four children and five grand­
children. His eldest son works with a bank. The
second is a doctor in the United Kingdom. The
third is a businessman. His daughter is in London
doing her accounting degree.
1990s
Dawn (Currier) Torgerson, 1999, became
finance director for the Minnesota Judicial Branch
in December 2009. As deputy finance director,
she had been serving as acting finance director
since the spring of 2009. She and her husband,
Matt, reside in Bloomington, Minnesota.
As Wisconsin’s first violence against women
resource prosecutor with the state Department
of Justice, Jill J. Karofsky helps prosecutors
with domestic violence, sexual assault, and
stalking cases. An assistant attorney general,
she prepares and maintains resources for prose­
cutors. She also consults and advises on cases,
sometimes assists with
cases, and organizes
and provides training for
prosecutors. As a former
assistant district attorney
and deputy district
attorney, Karofsky
handled misdemeanor
and felony cases and
took a special interest in
prosecuting crimes com­
Jill Karofsky
mitted against women
and children. She graduated in 1992 with a dual
degree in law and public affairs. Prior to this new
position, she was an attorney with the National
Conference of Bar Examiners.
More Alumni-Friends News on page 4
Share your story and photo: alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu
4 / La Follette Notes
News from alumni
and friends
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Mentors continued from page 1
Spring 2010
Debra (Stone) Morse, 1996, passed the
examination to become a National Committee for
Quality Assurance (NCQA)-Certified Healthcare
Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS)
compliance auditor in October 2009. One of the
64 certified auditors in the United States, she
works with Madison-based MetaStar Inc., one
of 10 organizations NCQA licenses to conduct
HEDIS compliance audits. More than 90 percent
of America’s health plans use HEDIS to measure
performance on important dimensions of care and
service. Morse reports: “In short, a good way to
describe what I do is this: You know when you pass
a billboard that says, ‘ABC HMO vaccinates 89%
of all children?’ I’m the one that says those types
of numbers are correct.”
“This program is a great opportunity
to stay connected to La Follette and help
guide a student who is just starting their
career,” says 2003 alum Katie Croake, a
program manager with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
in Washington, D.C.
Croake and second-year student Farha
Tahir first e-mailed and subsequently have
met a couple of times. They are collaborating on an NDI project to provide leadership training for young women from the
Middle East in Madison in June.
When they were first getting acquainted,
Tahir asked about Croake’s academic and
professional background, how she went
about her job search process and about
the specific work she does. “I also sought
advice on specific questions I have about
2000s
Alumni share expertise on modern slavery
1990s continued from page 3
John Vander Meer, 2006, is the research
assistant for Wisconsin State Representative
Kim Hixson of Whitewater. Hixson is chair of the
Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities
and Vander Meer serves as his committee clerk.
Lisa Ellinger, 2003, briefed Wisconsin policy­
makers in October on the use of health-care data
to improve efficiency and quality of health care.
Ellinger is deputy administrator for the Division
of Insurance Services of the Wisconsin Depart­
ment of Employee Trust Funds.
Catherine Hall, 2009, began work in Janu­
ary as the grants officer for the criminal justice
system in Douglas County (Omaha), Nebraska.
She identifies, researches, cultivates and solicits
grant opportunities, and she writes grant propos­
als in collaboration with various criminal justice
entities and other local stakeholders. “The job
involves a lot of communication and program
planning, among other things,” she says. “There
are occasionally some days in which I still feel a
bit overwhelmed by the new job, but I really love
it and am excited about the opportunity.” After
graduating, she worked as a resource developer
with the Nebraska Department of Health and
Human Services.
After four years as executive assistant to the
dean of the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard
University, 2002 grad Jim Burnham is crossing
the country to join the San Francisco office of the
Pacific Forest Trust as assistant to its president.
The trust is a nonprofit organization that works
to sustain private forests in the United States.
T
wo alumni who are experts in human
trafficking assisted with a La Follette
School symposium on modern-day slavery.
Karina Silver, a member of the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance Human
Trafficking Committee, and Marianna
Smirnova, human trafficking policy specialist at Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual
Assault, spoke at the April 30 event.
Smirnova, a 2008 grad, talked about the
situation in Wisconsin and efforts around
the state to address human trafficking, inclu­ding the Statewide Human Trafficking
Protocol the OJA Human Trafficking Committee is putting together. In addition to
my experience, networking and the current
economic climate,” Tahir says.
Each student-mentor pair determines
how they want their relationship to work,
Russell says, but she envisions the student
and mentor checking in with each other at
least every couple of months. “Both parties should be clear with each other about
what they want and expect,” she says, adding that either person should contact her
about problems, as well as send updates
with how well the match is working.
Ideally, the relationships will flourish
beyond the two years the students are enrolled at La Follette, Russell says. “We hope
these alumni and friends can provide additional advice as the more recent graduates
advance in their careers.” w
coordina­ting that committee for two years,
Smirnova is a member of Slave Free Madison. She researches and trains on state and
national human trafficking policy issues
and legislation.
Silver described a statewide survey on
trafficking that the committee conducted 2007. Under a contract with OJA, she
wrote the final 2008 report, Hidden in Plain
Sight: A Baseline Survey of Human Trafficking in Wisconsin. The 2006 alum worked for
OJA as an intern, then a project assistant, then as a human trafficking specialist before becoming an analyst with the
state budget office in 2007. Silver also is a
member of Slave Free
Madison.
2008 alum April
Nozomi Goodwin
helped to staff the
committee when she
interned with OJA.
She also serves on the
trafficking committee.
“Human trafficking in all forms exists
in Wisconsin in urban
and rural areas,” Silver
says. “The numbers
in the report are likely
the tip of the iceberg
because trafficking is a
Alumni Marianna Smirnova, left, and Karina Silver helped to plan
hidden
crime.” w
a La Follette School symposium on human trafficking in late April. They
discussed the extent of slavery in Wisconsin.
Spring 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu
La Follette Notes / 5
Human resources professionals share interviewing skills
T
he house that the La
Follette School calls
home was overflowing,
especially for a Monday
night. Well-dressed students waited patiently in
the hallways while alumni
and friends of the school
settled in for the evening.
They gathered for a
series of mock interviews conducted as
part of the one-credit
professional development course required
of first-year La Follette
students. Career development coordinator Mary
Russell arranged for 11
professionals to conduct
practice interviews with
43 students.
“Participating in mock interviews is
an important way job seekers can prepare
themselves,” Russell says. “People can
never get too much practice telling about
themselves, outlining their strengths and
illustrating how well they work under
pressure.”
Each student spent 30 minutes with a
professional in one of 11 faculty or staff
offices on three floors of the La Follette
building in November. Each professional
interviewed four students, asking standard interview questions and giving the
student the chance to tell her or his story.
Student Andrew Evenson says he appreciated the chance to talk with 1976
alum Charlie Carlson, a strategic consultant with Gallup Consulting. Unlike other
mock interviews with scripted questions,
“I was able to have a conversation with a
professional who was actually interested
in my experiences and career interests,”
Evenson says. “He had advice that was
not cookie cutter.”
Jeff Sartin says he advised people to
take their time answering questions. “As an
interviewer, I would much rather prefer an
interviewee to take their time in answering
the questions and construct a thoughtful
response,” says Sartin, a 2006 master of international public affairs grad who is director of the Wisconsin Justice Information
Sharing program at the state of Wisconsin’s Office of Justice Assistance.
2000 alum Wes Sparkman, left, is one of several
alumni and friends with
human resources back­
grounds who conducted
mock interviews with La
Follette School students
this year.
La Follette School photo/Andy Manis
The students’ professionalism and
determination were impressive, interviewers reported. “Their wide-ranging and
varied backgrounds in public policy have
helped them focus on specific careers or
positions,” says 1991 alum Pam Henning,
human resources director for the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust
Funds. She recruited four of the interviewers (two of them La Follette alumni)
through the state human resources management council of state agency HR
directors and other colleagues.
“The students are definitely good job
candidates because of the well-rounded
advanced education they receive at La
Follette,” Henning says. “It was exciting
to talk with students eager to learn and
find a job to establish a career. They all
have such great outlooks on life.”
The diversity of student interests
and experiences resonated with Carlson
and Sartin. “Every one of the students I
spoke with had a deep passion for at least
one very interesting issue or initiative that
they intend to work on once they have
completed their master’s degree,” Sartin
says.
“I enjoyed the intelligence and enthusiasm of the four students,” Carlson
adds. “I was impressed by the diversity
of their life experiences and commitment
to social policy and helping make the
world a better place.” w
Participating alumni
Charlie Carlson, 1976, strategic consultant,
Gallup Consulting
Peggy LeMahieu, 1985, lead consultant,
Quality Care and Innovation Depart­
ment, University of Wisconsin Medical
Foundation
Lisa Ellinger, 2003, deputy administrator, Divi­
sion of Insurance Services, Wisconsin
Department of Employee Trust Funds
John Montgomery, 1977, deputy administra­
tor, Division of Administrative Services,
Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner
of Insurance
Pam Henning, 1991, human resources
director, Wisconsin Department of
Employee Trust Funds
Wesley Sparkman, 2000, contract compli­
ance officer, Dane County, Wisconsin
Jeff Sartin, 2006, director, Wisconsin Justice
Information Sharing Program, state
Office of Justice Assistance
Participating friends
Kathy Lemkuhl Pedersen, executive human
resources specialist, Office of State
Employment Relations
Randy Sarver, human resources director,
Wisconsin Department of Transportation
Kate Wade, program evaluation director,
Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau
Mickey Beil, legislative lobbyist, Dane County
6 / La Follette Notes
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Spring 2010
News from faculty
Two professors and a 2007 alum have received
a $194,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation to examine the effects of
Section 8 housing subsidy receipt on the economic
self-sufficiency of low-income families and the
educational opportunities of their children. Robert
Haveman, Barbara (Bobbi) Wolfe, alum and
graduate assistant Deven Carlson and Institute
for Research on Poverty researcher Thomas Kaplan are studying the effects of housing voucher
receipt on employment and earnings, family com­
position, neighborhood quality and the use of other
government programs, as part of the foundation’s
How Housing Matters to Families and Communities
competitive grant program.
In an important and timely study of medical gov­
ernance, professor David Weimer explores a
regulatory approach that delegates decisions about
the allocation of scarce medical resources to private
nonprofit organizations. In his new book, Medical Governance: Values, Expertise, and Inter­ests
in Organ Transplantation, Weimer assesses the
performance of the Organ Procurement and Trans­
plantation Network, a private, nonprofit rule­­­maker
that makes decisions about how to allo­­cate scarce
transplant organs. He argues the network provides
a framework for implementing evidence-based
medicine, especially in facilitating the integration
of statistical evidence with the tacit knowledge of
practitioners to develop rules that not only allocate
valuable resources but promote effective treatment.
The new book Changing Poverty, Changing
Policies co-edited by professor Maria Cancian
assesses why the War on Poverty was not won
and analyzes the most promising strategies to
reduce poverty in the 21st century economy. Can­
cian, co-editor Sheldon Danziger and leading
poverty researchers review a wide range of public
policy reforms to increase the employment and
earnings of low-income individuals, help parents
better balance work and family obligations, and
raise educational attainment and skills of the next
generation. The book includes contributions from
faculty members Robert Haveman and Geoffrey L. Wallace.
A new book co-authored by professor Timothy
Smeeding explores the role of the welfare state
in the overall wealth and well-being of nations. In
particular, it looks at the American welfare state
in comparison with other developed nations in
Europe and elsewhere. Smeeding and co-authors
Irwin Garfinkel and Lee Rainwater deny the
common belief that the welfare state undermines
productivity and economic growth, that the United
States has an unusually small welfare state, and
that it is and always has been a welfare state
laggard. If one looks beyond cash transfers,
Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard
or a Leader? says, the United States now lags in
education and other key areas.
Bobbi Wolfe and Maria Cancian have
received honors from the William T. Grant
Foundation to advance the well-being of families
and children. Wolfe will use a $355,742 threeyear grant to investigate how one child’s health
problems affect healthy siblings’ development,
education and employment outcomes. Cancian
has been named a distinguished fellow and will
receive a $190,966 award to fund a collabora­
tion with the Wisconsin Department of Children
and Families. She will spend the summer and
fall of 2010 working with department policymak­
ers on a range of activities and participate in
quality service reviews and other county-level
activities aimed at better understanding child
welfare policy and practice.
Professor Dennis Dresang received a Champion
Award from the Women’s Philanthropy Council at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dresang was
research director for a policy initiative of Wiscon­
sin’s lieutenant governor
to improve the status of
women. For his research
and public service on pay
equity, he received distin­
guished service awards
from the Women’s Political
Caucus and the Wisconsin
Equal Rights Council. Dre­
sang helped to establish
the Women’s Studies Re­
search Center to work with Dennis Dresang
governmental and private
agencies to inform efforts to improve the status of
women, locally, nationally, and internationally.
The benefits of improved air quality resulting from
climate change mitigation policies are likely to out­
weigh the near-term costs of implementing those
policies, according to a new study co-authored
by professor Gregory Nemet. Coming on the
heels of the international climate talks in Copen­
hagen and a proposal by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to tighten smog standards, new
research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
suggests that climate change policies should be
assessed on the basis of potential benefits as well
as initial costs. Nemet and co-authors Tracey
Holloway and Paul Meier report that the value
of “co-benefits” — especially improved public
health due to better air quality — rarely factors into
assessments of climate change policy. “The debate
is really about how expensive this is going to be,
and it excludes the social benefit,” Nemet says.
“That hasn’t really been part of the equation.”
Wisconsin Women in Government
grad facilitates travel to Uganda, Tanzania
Anne Medeiros, a 2003 graduate of the Wisconsin
Women in Government Seminar, has taken the leadership
skills she learned with La Follette and her project man­
agement experience with the Wisconsin Department of
Children and Families to pursue her travel business, Ujuzi
African Travel. Tour packages may include wildlife, cultural
and service activities. “My desire is for travelers to experi­
ence eastern African’s magnificent wildlife and resilient,
warm people,” she says. Custom private and group tour
packages are available to Uganda and Tanzania and may
include gorilla and chimpanzee treks, boat trips on the
Nile, game drives and nature walks, and cultural activities.
Medeiros’ home-based business gives her ample time
to spend with her 5-month-old daughter, Nieve.
Spring 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Friendship continued from page 7
Thurmaier, director of the Division of Public
Administration at Northern Illinois University.
Kazeri shared his daily life with the Thurmaiers as he ministered to his parish, networked with
community leaders and advanced plans for the
school. “He told us, ‘You will sleep where I sleep,
eat where I eat and go where I go,’” Thurmaier
says, recalling the invitation to celebrate their
anniversary in the village of Nyegina. “Leo
goes nonstop from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m.”
The experience was so powerful that the
Thurmaiers and friends started a nonprofit
organization, Tanzania Development Support,
to raise money to help the 2,880 people of
Nyegina emerge from poverty. Supporting the
school is the first goal, Thurmaier says.
“There is so much need in so many ways in one
place,” he adds. “At the same time, the generosity
of the average person there is just overwhelming.
So you have this contrast between abundant need
and abundant generosity. It’s a paradox that makes
you say to yourself, ‘The world is different than I
thought it was.’”
Kazeri and Thurmaier met in a statistics class.
They spent many nights processing computer punch
cards to conduct their statistical analysis. “We found
ourselves helping each other,” Kazeri says. “He
learned I was a Catholic priest, and his girlfriend,
Jeanine, whom he later married, was Catholic, although Kurt is not, and he was very much interested in theological issues. That did pull us together.
He also recognized I was a foreign student struggling to put my head afloat in a different culture. So,
while we assisted each other, we came to be attached
to each other, and we never parted ever since.”
Kazeri helped to officiate at Kurt and Jeanine’s
wedding in Madison after the two men graduated
from their respective centers. Kazeri also earned a
master’s degree in 1984 in planning before heading
back home to Tanzania to become development
director of the Catholic church’s Musoma diocese.
They kept in touch and saw each other once
when they both were in Amsterdam in the 1990s.
While on a three-month sabbatical, Kazeri visited
the Thurmaiers in DeKalb, Illinois, in 2007 when
they were pondering how best to honor their upcoming 25th wedding anniversary, and Kazeri issued his invitation to celebrate in his parish.
“Our friendship took a different turn after that
2008 visit with the creation of Tanzania Development Support and our partnership,” Kazeri says.
The Thurmaiers returned to Tanzania in the
summer of 2009 with nine NIU students and a
dozen volunteers. They spent two weeks helping
to construct a girls dormitory at Nyegina School.
“Together, with community volunteers and students at the school, we poured concrete floors and
passed about 12,000 bricks along work lines to begin building the dormitory walls,” Thurmaier says.
“It was a fantastic, unforgettable experience.”
The secondary school is comparable to a U.S.
school with grades 7 to 10. Most of its 500 students sleep in overcrowded dormitories. “They
need more classes, laboratories,” Kazeri says. “They
are hungry to have computer laboratories so that
they are part of the modern technological world.”
To that end, the community’s strategic plan is to
expand the school to six years to prepare students
for university or teacher training. “Tanzania has a
huge shortage of teachers, and education is essential for economic development,” Thurmaier says.
“The key for making it a high school is to have
strong science and English. Tanzania Development
Support is focused on enabling the school to reach
its objectives by raising the money they need.”
“Leo and I learned early on at UW that integrated development is essential,” Thurmaier says.
“Leo actually does it and has been doing it for 15
years. It is exciting to see him in action and to be
able to contribute. Integrated development must
be sustainable — we emphasize personal connections that will sustain relationships between Nyegina, DeKalb, Madison and elsewhere long after
Leo and I are gone.” w
From the Director continued from page 1
Addison and his classmates.
We are very proud of our alumni accomplishments, in planning and financing the construction
of schools in Tanzania, engaging in research and advocacy on modern-day slavery issues, imparting free
legal advice and support to immigrants, providing
leadership to our state agencies, and in their many
other roles in serving the public. While finances will
remain tight for some time to come, we are growing richer every day in the remarkable successes and
valuable contributions of our alumni and friends to
the La Follette School and society. w
Support
the next generation
of public affairs practitioners
go to www.lafollette.wisc.edu/giving
or call 608-263-7657
For information on helping
students with career development
e-mail careerdev@lafollette.wisc.edu
or call 608-263-2409
La Follette Notes / 7
Students taking polar
plunge exceed goal
The six La Follette School
students who took a polar
plunge in February exceeded
their fund-raising goal, bring­
ing in $1,622.50 for Special
Olympics. The six were Nate
Inglis Steinfeld, Holden
Weisman, Rebecca McAtee,
Emily Plagman, Lindsay
Pascal and Paige Muegenburg.
“The plunge was GREAT!!”
reports first-timer McAtee.
“We had quite a few fans
who came out and cheered
us on.”
w
Poverty institute
named U.S. center
The U.S. Economic Research
Service has chosen the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s
Institute for Research on Pov­
er­ty as a center on nutrition
programs.
IRP’s RIDGE Center for
National Food and Nutrition
Assistance Research will be
a national hub for research
related to programs such as
the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (food
stamps), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program
for Women, Infants and Children, the National School
Lunch Program and the
School Breakfast Program.
From 1999-2009, the institute
was one of five institutions
sponsoring food assistance
research for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Eco­
nomic Research Service.
The program is now consoli­
dated into two centers. The
other focuses on targeted
studies and is housed at
Mississippi State University.
8 / La Follette Notes
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Watchou helps immigrants settle into American life
J
ean-Rene Watchou has come full circle.
Four years after graduating from La Fol lette with a master of international public
affairs degree, he is back in Madison helping other immigrants adjust to life in the
United States and navigate the legal system.
As director of international outreach for
Christ Presbyterian Church, Watchou organized the Community Immigration Law
Center to provide free legal advice to immigrants at twice-monthly walk-in clinics.
Watchou says the clinic grew out of a
need to provide information and legal advice to immigrants so they won’t fall prey
to unethical people who might try to take
advantage of their immigration status.
Sometimes, for-hire immigration services
will promise outcomes that aren’t possible
under immigration law, legal experts say.
“When you’re in that situation, sometimes
you’re really willing to pay whatever it takes
to have your situation fixed,” Watchou says.
He came to the United States from
Cameroon nine years ago. He spent three
years in New York and Maryland where
he has relatives. After graduating from the
La Follette School in 2006, he interned
with the Africa team of World Vision in
Washington, D.C., then worked with refugees for a couple of area agencies.
Helping people make social connections
is a large part of Watchou’s job with Christ
Presbyterian Church to promote mutual
understanding and cross-cultural exchange
among Americans and internationals from
more than 50 other countries living, working and studying in Madison. “Our programs welcome and smooth the integration
of international students who are often uprooted from their families,” Watchou says.
A permanent U.S. resident, Watchou
expects to become a citizen in the next two
years. His experience with the stress of the
immigration process motivated him to get
the immigration law center going. “You
have the sense that your fate depends on
an individual ... someone who can decide
whether you can stay here or you have to
leave,” Watchou says. “When your situation
is not cleared up yet, you’re still in limbo,
and then you don’t know if you’re going to
stay, if you’re going to go back.” w
Spring 2010
Grad’s paper backgrounds
study of Wisconsin taxes
B
ackground by a 1987 La Follette alum
informed a professor’s analysis on two
Wisconsin property tax credits. An information paper by Legislative Fiscal Bureau
analyst Al Runde provided valuable background on the school levy and first dollar
credits, says professor Andrew Reschovsky.
In addition to property tax credits, Run­
de specializes in the state’s bonding and
building program, local option taxes and
transportation, including local aids and the
motor fuel tax. Fiscal Bureau Information
Paper #21 is titled “State Property Tax Cre­
dits; (School Levy, First Dollar, and Lottery
and Gaming Credits).”
Reschovsky’s study concludes the
school levy and the first dollar credits are
not only expensive — nearly $900 million
per year out of a $13 billion general fund
budget — but highly inefficient mechanisms for delivering property tax relief
to those Wisconsin homeowners and
renters for whom the property tax creates
the greatest economic hardships. w
Update your job and contact info
e-mail alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu, call 608-263-7657 or fill out the online form at www.lafollette.wisc.edu/alumnifriends/intouch.php
Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs
University of Wisconsin–Madison
1225 Observatory Drive
Madison WI 53706
La Follette Notes
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