Schar School Featured Stories

Meet Lori Wade, the 1999 ODKM graduate who is now in charge of learning and development strategy at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Eighty-one energetic Patriots traveled to Richmond on March 5 for Mason Lobbies, where George Mason University President Gregory Washington joined House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, BA Economics ’93, and Senator Saddam Salim, BS Public Administration ’12, MPA ’15, in welcoming students to the General Assembly for a whirlwind day of advocacy.

A new minor, the only one of its kind in the Washington, D.C., region, teaches the arts of lobbying and advocacy. Read about the program and how a collaboration between a mentor and a student developed it.

The Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University is proud to partner with the Peace Corps as a Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program institution, expanding opportunities for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) to pursue graduate education while continuing their commitment to service in communities across the United States.

TraCCC becomes CONTRA: The first center to examine transnational crime and corruption adds criminal networks to its mandate and changes its name.

At a recent professional event, a speaker suggested that many organization development (OD) graduate programs excel at teaching theory but fall short in equipping students with the practical skills necessary to become effective OD practitioners. According to this critique, such programs produce graduates who can cite theory and write research papers, but struggle with the pragmatic aspects of OD engagements like contracting, client management and project management.

The 2026 Peter N. Stearns Provost Scholar-Athlete Awards have been announced. Meet the four Schar School students who are not only elite athletes but elite scholars.

A new Schar School study looks at what happens to the economies of countries when they stop copying technology and create their own. See what the researchers discovered and how working on the project enriched one PhD student’s academic experience.

Honors College student Marisa Parikh embodies the drive, curiosity, and global mindset that define George Mason University students. She serves as president of Be the Change, a student-led organization dedicated to advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on campus. Under her leadership, the group focuses on raising awareness and inspiring action around the goals that most directly affect George Mason students. 

Researchers led by a team from the Schar School analyzed decades’ worth of data to draw a map of the world’s biggest buyers and sellers of illicit kidneys. See what nations perpetrate this international crime.