Date October 23, 2024

Watson Policy Mentor Program expands in its second year

By Pete Bilderback

As the Watson Institute's Policy Mentor Program enters its second year, the program has expanded with a new focus on undergraduate International and Public Affairs (IAPA) concentrators in addition to Master of Public Affairs (MPA) students.

After a successful launch last year, the Watson Institute's Policy Mentor Program enters its second year with four highly accomplished international and public affairs practitioners serving as mentors to Watson Master of Public Affairs (MPA) students and undergraduate International and Public Affairs (IAPA) concentrators. It has also expanded to include, for the first time, a Military Fellow Policy Mentor.

Ambassador Suzi LeVine, a 1993 Brown alumna, and Mike Zamore, the national director of policy and government affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union and a 1993 Brown graduate, plan to offer a wide variety of mentoring opportunities for MPA and IAPA students, including career-focused events and student office hours during the 2024 - 2025 academic year.

Other mentors include 1984 Brown graduate León Rodriguez, former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, who, along with Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, will focus on mentoring IAPA students. Ashbrook, who earned her A.B. in international relations and French civilization from Brown in 1999, is currently executive vice president of Bertelsmann Stiftung and was the director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations. Former Watson Senior Fellow and U.S. Congressman Jim Langevin will serve as a Military Fellow policy mentor.

Faculty Director of the Master of Public Affairs Program, David Blanding, explained, "The Policy Mentor Program is an opportunity to connect today's changemakers with tomorrow's visionaries." He added, “We're so fortunate that leaders like Cathryn, Jim, Leon, Mike and Suzi are willing to impart wisdom from their years in the field of international and public affairs, and we're especially fortunate to count some of them among our alumni. But, honestly, if we're really lucky with this program, our policy mentors are looking at future versions of themselves among our existing IAPA and MPA students.”

LeVine, who has served as the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the commissioner of Washington State's Employment Security Department, and the acting assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, was a policy mentor to MPA students last year. This year, she said, she looks forward to continuing to build relationships with MPA students and undergraduate IAPA concentrators as well.

"Mentorship can take many forms," said LeVine. "In some cases, it's more formal, and in other cases, it's just serving as an occasional sounding board." She noted that one of the things she finds attractive about the Policy Mentor Program "is that it's a hybrid of the two — where I'm available, and they can tap into my expertise, my contacts, my LinkedIn lists and I can really work to give them a pogo stick to make an impact and learn from my mistakes and successes," she said.

LeVine said she was happy with her initial stint as a Watson policy mentor. "I think it went very well last year," she said. "I did a couple of lectures and then a lot of mentoring, both virtual and in person, and built great relationships with students. I was able to work with them on their projects and advise them on their future plans." LeVine noted that she is still in touch with many of the students she mentored last year.

“ Mentorship can take many forms. In some cases, it's more formal, and in other cases, it's just serving as an occasional sounding board. ”

-Ambassador Suzi LeVine Watson Policy Mentor

Zamore, who graduated from Brown as a dual history and Russian studies concentrator, is new to the program this year and said he has been impressed by Watson's growing research profile. "As I've gotten professionally involved in the policy space, both the Taubman Center and the Watson Institute names pop up in a variety of settings," he said. “And having the opportunity to come back to Brown was super invigorating because of the quality of the students and faculty and the level of passionate engagement in thinking creatively about how to solve the world's big problems.”

In addition to his work at the ACLU, Zamore is co-author with Senator Jeff Merkley of "Filibustered!: How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America," which was published in January of this year. Zamore spent 14 years as the Oregon Senator's chief of staff. He also served as policy director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and worked in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Zamore said he plans to visit Brown in October for mentoring meetings and a lunch with students. His visit will be eight days before the election. "There will be lots of conversations about politics and scenarios that we've been planning for extensively at the ACLU about what might come next," he said, "and I'm sure that will be a topic of discussion while I'm on campus." Zamore added, "We're also going to do a Policy in Action project with some MPA students at the ACLU working with one of our teams on criminal justice reform issues in the spring semester."

“ ...having the opportunity to come back to Brown was super invigorating because of the quality of the students and faculty and the level of passionate engagement in thinking creatively about how to solve the world's big problems. ”

Mike Zamore Watson Policy Mentor

This year, LeVine has additional plans, including a series of events she calls "Leadership Unplugged." The series will feature guest speakers in conversation with LeVine with all technology in the room turned off to facilitate more frank and open discussions. The series commences on November 19 and will feature Ambassador Victoria Nuland, a 1983 Brown graduate who studied Russian literature, political science, and history while at the University. The pair will discuss American diplomacy in the 21st Century.

Zamore indicated he has a broader goal in mentoring future international and public policy leaders. "I would love to be able to create a spark that working towards policy change is a valuable, worthwhile way to try to make a mark on the world," he said. “My experience at Brown helped prime me for thinking more deeply and creatively about how we go about building the society that we want and understanding that the sweep of history is long and erratic and that you're in a raging river that has currents that you can't fully control, but you can still steer, and you can still paddle.”

Zamore noted that in his recent visits to Brown, he has been impressed by the sense of hope and optimism he sees among students. "In this time of hyper-partisanship, there's a lot of cynicism about politics and democracy, especially among younger people according to polls," he said. “And I think it's so important that people of goodwill be in this fight and not get beaten down and not cede the field to the forces that are trying to limit opportunity and access and freedoms and hoard those things for themselves.”

"Committing yourself to a cause that is about other people and the world around us, I think, is vitally important," he said. “And there's so many different ways you can serve your broader community. You could be a social worker, a teacher, a public defender, or a doctor. There's a million ways to contribute.”

LeVine made a similar observation, "What I've loved about both doing the senior fellowship and mentoring is that I've built relationships over multiple years with the students." She said that she is seeing Brown students making a positive impact in a variety of fields after graduating. "There's some who are going into software development and some business, some economics, some political science, some international relations," she said. "Others that are getting involved in the campaigns this year. It really is very diverse. Some are going to medical school, and some are going to graduate school. It's a whole array."

Zamore said if he could offer one piece of advice to Brown students today, "it would be to focus on learning and being exposed to interesting and creative people and to be a problem solver." "There's lots of people who enter any space and are good at following directions and doing what they're told," he said. "The people who stand out are the ones who identify problems and offer solutions."

It is that kind of creative thinking and problem-solving ability that Watson seeks to foster with the Watson Policy Mentor Program.