Government-to-University Launch Event

To launch the next phase of the Government-to-University Initiative (G2U), the Volcker Alliance hosted a launch event on March 20, 2019 in Washington, D.C. The event offered an opportunity to learn more about the G2U initiative and the promising solutions developing nationally to:

• Enable collective, thoughtful prioritization of the governance problems most in need of new solutions;
• Inspire and prepare students to succeed in the public workforce;
• Help students successfully navigate public sector hiring;
• Bring together the best minds in academia—across disciplines and experience—to address intractable management problems and make government systems run better;
• Reduce reliance on one-off research engagements that can be expensive and non-transferable across agencies and instead develop trusted, lasting partnerships between organizations;
• Save money and time in the pursuit of data-driven, smart governance; and
• Most importantly, offer better service to citizens.

The launch event in Washington, D.C. brought together over 200 leading academics, government practitioners, and media from around the nation to discuss how universities and federal, state, and local governments can build sustainable connections to catalyze change.

At the event, the Volcker Alliance announced the launch of the first two G2U Regional Councils, which will be located in the Kansas City, Missouri and Austin, Texas regions.

“I am excited to announce that we will be launching two pilot G2U Regional Councils this spring in partnership with the Mid-America Regional Council in Kansas City and the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs,” said Thomas W. Ross, president of the Volcker Alliance. “These councils will serve as regional ‘marketplaces’ to connect government research and hiring needs with local university capacity. We aim to expand this network nationally and may establish more regional councils as early as this fall,” said Mr. Ross.

Keynote Speaker: Anne-Marie Slaughter
President and CEO of New America and author of The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Networked World

Guest Speaker: Margaret Weichert
Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

Additional speakers:

Dustin Brown
Deputy Assistant Director, U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Angela Evans
Dean, The University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs

Peter Jhon
Senior Analyst, Office of Analytics, Technology, and Planning, Allegheny County Department of Human Services

Sara Mogulescu
Executive Vice President, The Volcker Alliance

Thomas W. Ross
President, The Volcker Alliance

Scott Sellers
City Manager, City of Kyle, TX

Jackie Speedy
Associate Dean of the School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College

Jaime Velasquez
Associate Director for Employee Relations, University of Illinois-Chicago Career Services   

David Warm
Executive Director, Mid-America Regional Council