After years of working as an outside observer with peripheral influence, Matt van Buren decided to involve himself more deeply in the policymaking process. The former journalist and political fund-raiser is in his second semester at the La Follette School, exploring public management and nonprofit leadership in addition to the school's core courses in microeconomics and statistics.

A video and slides of public affairs professor Barbara Wolfe giving the Robert J. Lampman Memorial Lecture is available on the Institute for Research on Poverty's web site. She presented "Poverty and Poor Health: Can Health Care Reform Break the Link?" on June 21, 2011.

Washington Post features writer Manuel Roig-Franzia will be on campus October 3-7 as the fall public affairs writer in residence. He will eat dinner with a small group of La Follette School students.

Jean-Rene Watchou has come full circle. Nearly four years after graduating from La Follette 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.

Even as Scott Williams shifts his career from journalism to energy analysis, he finds his communications skills coming in handy as he researches and organizes information for the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Wisconsin–Madison Energy Institute.

Alum Saul Wolf connects quality, low-cost money transfer firms to credit unions, financial  cooperatives and other micro-finance entities as remittances manager at the World Council of Credit Unions.

Participants in the state's premier women's leadership seminar this year will get a special one-on-one speed mentoring workshop.

Director Susan Yackee is the public affairs speaker at the Madison Civics Club meeting on Saturday, April 11, at Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, 1 John Nolen Drive.

Making the best match for volunteers and the tasks they do is alum Kim Zamastil's secret ingredient for keeping thousands of people engaged in community service at St. Patrick Center, Missouri's largest provider of services to homeless people.