Roger Rowin (MA ’74) passed away June 15. He served on the Middleton City Council for three terms and worked at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. According to his obituary, he “enjoyed working on initiatives to make government more effective.” He and his wife, Mary, traveled to 64 countries.
Rob Cramer (MA ’92) was named Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning & Management by UW–Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank. He previously served as vice president for administration for the University of Wisconsin System. Details are online.
Tamarine Cornelius (MA ‘99) spoke about the pros and cons of the expanded Child Tax Credit on Wisconsin Public Television’s Here & Now on July 16. Cornelius is a research analyst for Kids Forward in Madison.
Lamont Smith (MPA ’07) joined The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin as Milwaukee Program Manager, a new position. He previously worked as a senior analyst with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, where he conducted policy research and contributed to local planning efforts to increase the impact of community-based programs and advocacy efforts that support neighborhoods and families, and strengthen water sustainability and access to water industry careers.
Andrew Kell (MPA ’10) joined RENEW Wisconsin as a policy analyst earlier this year. He previously worked at the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin for 10 years, where he concentrated on renewable energy policy, wholesale electricity markets, and retail rate design. Details are online.
Rachel (Moskowitz) Svoboda (MPA ‘07) was the analyst in charge of the report Firearm Injuries: Health Care Service Needs and Costs published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Moira Lenox (MPA ‘17) assisted Svoboda on the report, which was requested by U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the head of the House Oversight Committee, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. An article in The New York Times on July 14 said,“the report is unique as it is one of the first federal reports on gun violence since 1996, when the so-called Dickey Amendment effectively shuttered all federal attempts to fund or conduct research on guns and gun violence.”
Sara Eskrich (MPA, MPH ’15) was quoted in the Politico story New York’s ‘head-swirling’ mistake puts harsh spotlight on ranked-choice voting. Eskrich is executive director of Democracy Found, an organization pushing to incorporate Final Five Voting to Wisconsin elections. Democracy Found was co-founded by Wisconsin business leaders Katherine Gehl, a former member of the La Follette School’s Board of Visitors, and Austin Ramirez in 2018.
Aaron Dumas (MPA, JD ’15) received the Charles Dunn Wisconsin Lawyer Author Award with Christa Westerberg for their article “Social Media, the First Amendment, and Government Actors,” in the January 2020 issue of Wisconsin Lawyer magazine. The award was named in honor of Wisconsin’s first Supreme Court chief justice. Details are online.
Drew Curtis (MPA ’16) was promoted to senior researcher at DVP-PRAXIS LTD, higher education consulting firm specializing in mixed-method formative and summative evaluation services to inform program.
Atiya Siddiqi (MIPA ’18) was promoted to senior analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Chicago. At the La Follette School, Siddiqi conducted research on solar energy as part of Professor Greg Nemet’s Andrew Carnegie Fellowship award.
Michael Sauer (BA ’21) received the Academic Programs Award for Civil Discourse in Public Policy from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Sauer, who was an intern for AEI in summer 2020, is a cadet in Air Force ROTC, and he hopes to become a commissioned Intelligence Officer. His bachelor’s degree is in political science and economics.