The theme of the panel is "The Effectiveness of Public Policy Analysis," a theme that is hoped to be of considerable interest to everyone in the GSPP community. Our three honorees have each considered this question quite deeply, and in different ways and policy areas from one another. More information will be forthcoming as we get closer to the event, but the three honorees are:

Suzanne Donovan, Executive Director of the Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP) Institute, PhD in Public Policy (UC Berkeley '87). Suzanne has been on the faculty of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and served as Associate Director of the National Academy of Sciences. She is an expert on the relationship between research and practice in the field of education, and has a recent article in Science on that subject ("Generating Improvement Through Research and Development in Education Systems" V340, 19 April 2013).

John Hird, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, and Senior Associate Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, PhD in Public Policy (UC Berkeley '88). John was a founder of the Center for Public Policy & Administration at U. Mass Amherst and served as its director from 1998-2006. His interest is in the creation and use of policy analysis in American governance, and he has authored numerous articles and several books on this subject including Power, Knowledge and Politics: Policy Analysis in the States (Georgetown University Press, 2005). He has also written extensively on environmental public policy issues.

Eric Patashnik, Professor of Public Policy and Politics, University of Virginia, PhD in Political Science (UC Berkeley '96). Eric served as the Associate Dean of the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy from 2009-2012, and before joining the University of Virginia he served on the faculties of Yale University and UCLA. He has a book forthcoming from Princeton University Press on the battle over evidence-based medicine, and in 2008 published a book (also from Princeton) examining the implementation of major domestic-policy reforms entitled Reforms at Risk: What Happens After Major Policy Changes Are Enacted. He is currently studying the use of policy analysis in the U.S. Congress.