Students benefit from generosity of alumni, friendsNearly 2.5 years ago, many of you

accepted a challenge from your alma mater to help us continue to attract the top students who apply to our public affairs pro gram. As our admissions com-mittee meets in the spring to weigh our o ffers of support to students, we find we have more resources thanks to the gen erosity of our financial supporters.

Addison Smith is one of our current students who has benefited from your gifts. Addison is a first-year student in the inter-national public affairs program. He plans to earn a dual degree in law and ultimately run for a seat in the Wisconsin Legislature. “I want to do the best I can for the people of Wisconsin in crafting legislation and policy that make our country a better place to live,” he says.

“Knowing how to maximize policy ef-fectiveness is, of course, what we learn at

La Follette,” he adds. “As a legislator I will need to know how to use hard facts and logical analysis, rather than rhetoric and emotion, to deter-mine the true effects of a policy proposal and to craft better policy to respond to the needs of society.”

In these challeng-ing financial times, with widening state and federal fiscal gaps, your ongoing financial support will continue to make it possible for us to help the best and brightest to pur-sue their public service goals. Thank you!

As this issue of La Follette Notes attests, many alumni and friends also contribute their time as part of their commitment to public service, an attribute they share with

Spring 2010 / www.lafollette.wisc.edu

La Follette NotesNews for Alumni & Friends of The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

What started as a trip to celebrate a 25th wedding anniversary by visit-

ing an old friend in Tanzania has devel-oped into a new partnership for alumni Kurt Thurmaier and Leo Kazeri.

Thurmaier and his wife, Jeanine, visited Kazeri in Musoma, a district in northern Tanzania near Lake Victoria. Kazeri is a Catholic priest who serves as develop-ment director for his diocese, director of a secular economic development organi-zation and business manager for Nyegina Secondary School, a boarding school near

From the Director Carolyn Heinrich

Sustainable friendship

2 alumni collaborate to aid Tanzania schoolMusoma with 500 students.

Both men hold 1983 master’s degrees in public policy and administration from pre-cursors of the La Follette School of Public Affairs, Thurmaier from the Center for the Study of Public Policy and Administration, Kazeri from the Center for Development.

Twenty-five years after they graduated, seeing firsthand what Kazeri is accomplish-ing and the great need that remains in the region was a life-changing experience, says

As part of the con­struction of a dor­ mitory for a school in Tanzania, Kurt Thurmaier, second from left, is poised to receive a brick from classmate Leo Kazeri, third from right.

Mentoring builds bridges for alumni, studentsAlumni and friends are sharing ideas

with students about jobs, connections between classroom and policy arena, and insights into the workaday world of pub-lic affairs through the La Follette School’s mentoring program.

“I remember how much I leaned on a number of faculty, staff and alumni as I contemplated my own ‘life after La Fol-lette,’” says mentor Alexis MacDonald, a 2008 grad and health policy analyst with the Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C. “I’m happy that I can give back by serving as a mentor for a current student.”

Joanna Marks has appreciated learning about MacDonald’s day-to-day work rou-tine. “I’m able to think of real world appli-cations for things I’m learning in the class-room — and look ahead to professional

work,” says Marks, a second-year student.Career development coordinator Mary

Russell matched about 40 students with alumni and friends. Some pairs have devel-oped long-distance relationships via e-mail and telephone while others have met in Madison, Russell says.

See Mentors on page 4

Mentors needed for fallThe La Follette School plans to pair mentors with students enrolling this fall. Any alumni and friends interested in connecting with students should contact Mary Russell by e­mailing careerdev@lafollette.wisc.edu or calling (608) 263­2409.

Feedback from current mentors is also welcome.

See Friendship on page 7

See From the Director on page 7

2 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Spring 2010

Alumni and friends are sharing their insights with students on the tools and skills needed

to administer people and other resources. Faculty teaching public management this spring organized two classroom panel discussions, one featuring recent grads, the other senior managers.

“Management is as much about craft as it is about hard skills, so learning about firsthand expe-rience from reflective practitioners is invaluable,” says associate director Don Moynihan, who teach-es one of the two public management sections. He and professor Susan Yackee organized the panels in response to feedback from students who expressed a strong preference to hear from public and non-profit managers about their triumphs and failures.

The first panel in early March featured alum-ni from 2006-08. They talked about their back-grounds, their current jobs, their contributions at work, leadership traits they admired, and, in some cases, the difference between public and private work experiences.

Speakers touched on skills they learned at La Follette, including concise writing. “Frequently, I have limited time to present and a maximum of a page or two to analyze the core issues,” says Nick Bubb, a budget and policy analyst with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. “La Follette taught me how to focus on the impor-tant aspects of a public policy issue and ignore the extraneous information.”

The strong analytical skills students gain cou-pled with the capacity to understand and present different arguments systematically and concisely also prove essential. “Working as an auditor re-quires me to learn a lot about unfamiliar programs and policies in a short period of time,” says Joe Fontaine, who works for the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, “and my classes in policy analysis and public management gave me the conceptual tools I need to be effective.”

The other alumni were Brad Campbell, a pro-gram manager with the Wisconsin Depart ment

of Workforce Development; Nina Carlson, a policy advisor in the Wisconsin governor’s office; and Jeff Sartin, director of the Wisconsin Justice Information Sharing Program.

The public management course is structured around three main components: structure, culture and craft, notes Yackee, who teaches the other section. “Our guests put a human face on these concepts and shared specific examples of manage-ment skills they use and situations they encounter.”

“One has to have a certain degree of social intelligence,” Bubb says. “You have to know how to present the same information to audiences that vary in experience and age. As a young profession-al, you have to use the skills taught at La Follette to ground your analysis without irritating more expe-rienced or knowledgeable staff.”

The second panel in late April comprised senior managers: 1985 alum Mark O’Connell, executive director of the Wisconsin Counties Association; Deedra Atkinson, senior vice president of com-munity impact at United Way of Dane County in Madison; JoAnna Richard, deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Develop-ment; and Karen Timberlake, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

“For the first discussion, we wanted the stu-dents to learn from a group they could easily identify with,” Moynihan says. “The students will themselves be in similar positions in just a couple of years. For the second group, the panelists can talk about management at a very senior level — where the manager is supervising hundreds or thousands of employees, dealing with senior politi-cal officials and stakeholders, and partnering with other organizations. The students could be in the same position 20 years down the line.

“The goal is that the students come to appreci-ate how the craft of management evolves as their careers evolve, but how some of the basic analyti-cal skills they learn now will stand them in good stead.” w

Alumni, friends share management tips with studentsCasper named deputy revenue secretary1999 alum Tim Casper is the new deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

Most recently, Casper served as the executive assistant of the Wisconsin Department of Administration where he advised Governor Jim Doyle and Administration Secretary Michael Morgan on policy and administrative matters, including the development of legislative initiatives. Addi-tionally, he worked with state agencies to implement provi-sions of the biennial budget and advance the state’s building program. Casper also served as the liaison between DOA and the Legis-lature.

Before his appointment to DOA, Casper worked in Doyle’s office from 2003 to 2009. He served as the gov-ernor’s senior policy director, working on policy initiatives focusing on the executive budget, economic develop-ment, education issues and health-care expansion.

Casper has held positions with the Wisconsin Depart-ment of Health and Family Services, the Legislature and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tim Casper

Network via the WebYou’re invited to join the La Follette Alumni Group on LinkedIn, a professional networking web site. Joining allows you to find and contact more than 275 other La Follette members. You canw reach other members of the La Follette community — current students and alumniw accelerate careers and business through referrals from La Follette Alumni Group members w know more than a name — view rich professional profiles of fellow La Follette Alumni Group members

Here’s the link to join: www.linkedin.com/e/gis/39199/57C421450A06; or go to www.linkedin.com, sign in and search groups for La Follette.

InformationCareer development coordinator Mary L. Russell w 608-263-2409 w careerdev@lafollette.wisc.edu

Spring 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 3

News from alumni and friends1970sSanford (Sam) Kinzer, 1971, is a practicing lawyer, rancher, and chaser of the good life in small town rural America — Ellensburg, Washing­ton — as well as the late­blooming father of two girls. After work in U.S. Senate, he moved to the Seattle area to practice law.

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle appointed Edward F. Potter, 1974, to serve as a member of the Real Estate Appraisers Board, for a term expiring May 1, 2012. The Senate confirmed his appointment on January 19, 2010.

Ronald Luskin, 1979, has been serving since August 2008 on the City of Madison’s Urban Design Commission. He has been elected to the Downtown Madison Inc. board of directors, and he serves on the La Follette School’s Advisory Board.

Charlie Carlson, 1976, continues to serve clients in Wisconsin clients after selling the firm enetrix to Gallup. He is helping Gallup’s federal government division in Washington, D.C., to create a business entity.

1980sJeff Appelquist, 1986, is the founder and president of Blue Knight Battlefield Seminars LLC, which provides individual leader­ship and team development training for managers at the Gettysburg and Little Bighorn battlefields. He just published the book, Sacred Ground: Leadership Les-sons From Gettysburg and the Little Bighorn.

Jeff Martinka, 1983, was named in January the executive director of Sweet Water (aka Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust Inc.). Martinka is the first director of this innovative partnership of local governments, nonprofits, business and academia working to improve the water resources of the 1,100­square­mile greater Milwaukee watersheds. Fueled by a $1.9 million Joyce Foundation grant and based at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Great Lakes Water Institute, Sweet Water provides a national model in watershed­based, multi­jurisdictional environ­mental planning.

Photo copyright Hillary Harvey Photography

2007 grads marryRachel Moskowitz and Julius Svoboda, who met at La Follette, married in June in Marbletown, New York, and a few 2007 La Follette School alumni and a Wisconsin state representative helped them celebrate. From left are Representative Mark Pocan, and classmates Christie Enders, Amanda Hawkins, Rachel and Julius Svoboda, Callie (Gray) Langton and Kate (Clark) Amoroso. Amoroso and Enders work with Rachel on the Government Accountability Office’s health­care team. Lang­ton is working on a special committee degree in public policy as a doctoral student in the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They all earned master of public affairs degrees. On the international degree side, Julius is a trade specialist with the Office of Energy and Environmental Industries within the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, while Hawkins works with the U.S. Agency for International Development through the firm QED.

Jaafar Abu Bakar, 1980, was a government servant for 20 years. He held various positions in Malaysian government service, including general manager of the Kelantan State Development Corporation and deputy secretary of the General Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. In 1991 he joined the private sector in property development, manufacturing and trading. He was managing director of Damansara Realty Berhad, executive chairman of Cold Storage Berhad and president of Uniphoenix Corporation Berhad. He now has his own real estate company in Kuala Lumpur. He has four children and five grand­children. His eldest son works with a bank. The second is a doctor in the United Kingdom. The third is a businessman. His daughter is in London doing her accounting degree.

1990sDawn (Currier) Torgerson, 1999, became finance director for the Minnesota Judicial Branch in December 2009. As deputy finance director, she had been serving as acting finance director since the spring of 2009. She and her husband, Matt, reside in Bloomington, Minnesota.

As Wisconsin’s first violence against women resource prosecutor with the state Department of Justice, Jill J. Karofsky helps prosecutors with domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking cases. An assistant attorney general, she prepares and maintains resources for prose­cutors. She also consults and advises on cases, sometimes assists with cases, and organizes and provides training for prosecutors. As a former assistant district attorney and deputy district attorney, Karofsky handled misdemeanor and felony cases and took a special interest in prosecuting crimes com­mitted against women and children. She graduated in 1992 with a dual degree in law and public affairs. Prior to this new position, she was an attorney with the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

More Alumni-Friends News on page 4

Jeff Appelquist

Jill Karofsky

Share your story and photo: alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu

4 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Spring 2010

Two alumni who are experts in human trafficking assisted with a La Follette

School symposium on modern-day slavery.Karina Silver, a member of the Wiscon-

sin Office of Justice Assistance Human Trafficking Committee, and Marianna Smirnova, human trafficking policy special-ist at Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, spoke at the April 30 event.

Smirnova, a 2008 grad, talked about the situation in Wisconsin and efforts around the state to address human trafficking, in- clu ding the Statewide Human Trafficking Protocol the OJA Human Trafficking Com-mittee is putting together. In addition to

coordina ting that committee for two years, Smirnova is a member of Slave Free Madi-son. She researches and trains on state and national human trafficking policy issues and legislation.

Silver described a statewide survey on trafficking that the committee conduct-ed 2007. Under a contract with OJA, she wrote the final 2008 report, Hidden in Plain Sight: A Baseline Survey of Human Traffick-ing in Wisconsin. The 2006 alum worked for OJA as an intern, then a project assis-tant, then as a human trafficking special-ist before becoming an analyst with the state budget office in 2007. Silver also is a

member of Slave Free Madison.

2008 alum April Nozomi Goodwin helped to staff the committee when she interned with OJA. She also serves on the trafficking committee.

“Human traffick-ing in all forms exists in Wisconsin in urban and rural areas,” Silver says. “The numbers in the report are likely the tip of the iceberg because trafficking is a hidden crime.” w

Debra (Stone) Morse, 1996, passed the examination to become a National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)­Certified Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) compliance auditor in October 2009. One of the 64 certified auditors in the United States, she works with Madison­based MetaStar Inc., one of 10 organizations NCQA licenses to conduct HEDIS compliance audits. More than 90 percent of America’s health plans use HEDIS to measure performance on important dimensions of care and service. Morse reports: “In short, a good way to describe what I do is this: You know when you pass a billboard that says, ‘ABC HMO vaccinates 89% of all children?’ I’m the one that says those types of numbers are correct.”

2000sJohn Vander Meer, 2006, is the research assistant for Wisconsin State Representative Kim Hixson of Whitewater. Hixson is chair of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities and Vander Meer serves as his committee clerk.

Lisa Ellinger, 2003, briefed Wisconsin policy­makers in October on the use of health­care data to improve efficiency and quality of health care. Ellinger is deputy administrator for the Division of Insurance Services of the Wisconsin Depart­ment of Employee Trust Funds.

Catherine Hall, 2009, began work in Janu­ary as the grants officer for the criminal justice system in Douglas County (Omaha), Nebraska. She identifies, researches, cultivates and solicits grant opportunities, and she writes grant propos­als in collaboration with various criminal justice entities and other local stakeholders. “The job involves a lot of communication and program planning, among other things,” she says. “There are occasionally some days in which I still feel a bit overwhelmed by the new job, but I really love it and am excited about the opportunity.” After graduating, she worked as a resource developer with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

After four years as executive assistant to the dean of the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, 2002 grad Jim Burnham is crossing the country to join the San Francisco office of the Pacific Forest Trust as assistant to its president. The trust is a nonprofit organization that works to sustain private forests in the United States.

News from alumni and friends1990s continued from page 3

“This program is a great opportunity to stay connected to La Follette and help guide a student who is just starting their career,” says 2003 alum Katie Croake, a program manager with the National Dem-ocratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Croake and second-year student Farha Tahir first e-mailed and subsequently have met a couple of times. They are collaborat-ing on an NDI project to provide leader-ship training for young women from the Middle East in Madison in June.

When they were first getting acquainted, Tahir asked about Croake’s academic and professional background, how she went about her job search process and about the specific work she does. “I also sought advice on specific questions I have about

Alumni share expertise on modern slavery

my experience, networking and the current economic climate,” Tahir says.

Each student-mentor pair determines how they want their relationship to work, Russell says, but she envisions the student and mentor checking in with each other at least every couple of months. “Both par-ties should be clear with each other about what they want and expect,” she says, add-ing that either person should contact her about problems, as well as send updates with how well the match is working.

Ideally, the relationships will flourish beyond the two years the students are en-rolled at La Follette, Russell says. “We hope these alumni and friends can provide addi-tional advice as the more recent graduates advance in their careers.” w

Mentors continued from page 1

Alumni Marianna Smirnova, left, and Karina Silver helped to plan a La Follette School symposium on human trafficking in late April. They discussed the extent of slavery in Wisconsin.

Spring 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 5

The house that the La Follette School calls

home was overflowing, especially for a Monday night. Well-dressed stu-dents waited patiently in the hallways while alumni and friends of the school settled in for the evening.

They gathered for a series of mock inter-views conducted as part of the one-credit professional develop-ment course required of first-year La Follette students. Career develop-ment coordinator Mary Russell arranged for 11 professionals to conduct practice interviews with 43 students.

“Participating in mock interviews is an important way job seekers can prepare themselves,” Russell says. “People can never get too much practice telling about themselves, outlining their strengths and illustrating how well they work under pressure.”

Each student spent 30 minutes with a professional in one of 11 faculty or staff offices on three floors of the La Follette building in November. Each professional interviewed four students, asking stan-dard interview questions and giving the student the chance to tell her or his story.

Student Andrew Evenson says he ap-preciated the chance to talk with 1976 alum Charlie Carlson, a strategic consul-tant with Gallup Consulting. Unlike other mock interviews with scripted questions, “I was able to have a conversation with a professional who was actually interested in my experiences and career interests,” Evenson says. “He had advice that was not cookie cutter.”

Jeff Sartin says he advised people to take their time answering questions. “As an interviewer, I would much rather prefer an interviewee to take their time in answering the questions and construct a thoughtful response,” says Sartin, a 2006 master of in-ternational public affairs grad who is direc-tor of the Wisconsin Justice Information Sharing program at the state of Wiscon-sin’s Office of Justice Assistance.

2000 alum Wes Spark-man, left, is one of several alumni and friends with human resources back­grounds who conducted mock interviews with La Follette School students this year.

La Follette School photo/Andy Manis

Human resources professionals share interviewing skills

Participating alumniCharlie Carlson, 1976, strategic consultant,

Gallup ConsultingPeggy LeMahieu, 1985, lead consultant,

Quality Care and Innovation Depart­ment, University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation

Lisa Ellinger, 2003, deputy administrator, Divi­sion of Insurance Services, Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds

John Montgomery, 1977, deputy administra­tor, Division of Administrative Services, Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance

Pam Henning, 1991, human resources director, Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds

Wesley Sparkman, 2000, contract compli­ance officer, Dane County, Wisconsin

Jeff Sartin, 2006, director, Wisconsin Justice Information Sharing Program, state Office of Justice Assistance

Participating friendsKathy Lemkuhl Pedersen, executive human

resources specialist, Office of State Employment Relations

Randy Sarver, human resources director, Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Kate Wade, program evaluation director, Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau

Mickey Beil, legislative lobbyist, Dane County

The students’ professionalism and determination were impressive, interview-ers reported. “Their wide-ranging and varied backgrounds in public policy have helped them focus on specific careers or positions,” says 1991 alum Pam Henning, human resources director for the Wis-consin Department of Employee Trust Funds. She recruited four of the inter-viewers (two of them La Follette alumni) through the state human resources man-agement council of state agency HR directors and other colleagues.

“The students are definitely good job candidates because of the well-rounded advanced education they receive at La Follette,” Henning says. “It was exciting to talk with students eager to learn and find a job to establish a career. They all have such great outlooks on life.”

The diversity of student interests and experiences resonated with Carlson and Sartin. “Every one of the students I spoke with had a deep passion for at least one very interesting issue or initiative that they intend to work on once they have completed their master’s degree,” Sartin says.

“I enjoyed the intelligence and en-thusiasm of the four students,” Carlson adds. “I was impressed by the diversity of their life experiences and commitment to social policy and helping make the world a better place.” w

6 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Spring 2010

Two professors and a 2007 alum have received a $194,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to examine the effects of Section 8 housing subsidy receipt on the economic self­sufficiency of low­income families and the educational opportunities of their children. Robert Haveman, Barbara (Bobbi) Wolfe, alum and graduate assistant Deven Carlson and Institute for Research on Poverty researcher Thomas Ka-plan are studying the effects of housing voucher receipt on employment and earnings, family com­position, neighborhood quality and the use of other government programs, as part of the foundation’s How Housing Matters to Families and Communities competitive grant program.

In an important and timely study of medical gov­ernance, professor David Weimer explores a regulatory approach that delegates decisions about the allocation of scarce medical resources to private nonprofit organizations. In his new book, Medi-cal Governance: Values, Expertise, and Inter ests in Organ Transplantation, Weimer assesses the performance of the Organ Procurement and Trans­plantation Network, a private, nonprofit rule maker that makes decisions about how to allo cate scarce transplant organs. He argues the network provides a framework for implementing evidence­based medicine, especially in facilitating the integration of statistical evidence with the tacit knowledge of practitioners to develop rules that not only allocate valuable resources but promote effective treatment.

The new book Changing Poverty, Changing Policies co­edited by professor Maria Cancian assesses why the War on Poverty was not won and analyzes the most promising strategies to reduce poverty in the 21st century economy. Can­cian, co­editor Sheldon Danziger and leading poverty researchers review a wide range of public

policy reforms to increase the employment and earnings of low­income individuals, help parents better balance work and family obligations, and raise educational attainment and skills of the next generation. The book includes contributions from faculty members Robert Haveman and Geof-frey L. Wallace.

A new book co­authored by professor Timothy Smeeding explores the role of the welfare state in the overall wealth and well­being of nations. In particular, it looks at the American welfare state in comparison with other developed nations in Europe and elsewhere. Smeeding and co­authors Irwin Garfinkel and Lee Rainwater deny the common belief that the welfare state undermines productivity and economic growth, that the United States has an unusually small welfare state, and that it is and always has been a welfare state laggard. If one looks beyond cash transfers, Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or a Leader? says, the United States now lags in education and other key areas.

Bobbi Wolfe and Maria Cancian have received honors from the William T. Grant Foundation to advance the well­being of families and children. Wolfe will use a $355,742 three­year grant to investigate how one child’s health problems affect healthy siblings’ development, education and employment outcomes. Cancian has been named a distinguished fellow and will receive a $190,966 award to fund a collabora­tion with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. She will spend the summer and fall of 2010 working with department policymak­ers on a range of activities and participate in quality service reviews and other county­level activities aimed at better understanding child welfare policy and practice.

Professor Dennis Dresang received a Champion Award from the Women’s Philanthropy Council at the University of Wisconsin­Madison. Dresang was research director for a policy initiative of Wiscon­sin’s lieutenant governor to improve the status of women. For his research and public service on pay equity, he received distin­guished service awards from the Women’s Political Caucus and the Wisconsin Equal Rights Council. Dre­sang helped to establish the Women’s Studies Re­search Center to work with governmental and private agencies to inform efforts to improve the status of women, locally, nationally, and internationally.

The benefits of improved air quality resulting from climate change mitigation policies are likely to out­weigh the near­term costs of implementing those policies, according to a new study co­authored by professor Gregory Nemet. Coming on the heels of the international climate talks in Copen­hagen and a proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to tighten smog standards, new research from the University of Wisconsin­Madison suggests that climate change policies should be assessed on the basis of potential benefits as well as initial costs. Nemet and co­authors Tracey Holloway and Paul Meier report that the value of “co­benefits” — especially improved public health due to better air quality — rarely factors into assessments of climate change policy. “The debate is really about how expensive this is going to be, and it excludes the social benefit,” Nemet says. “That hasn’t really been part of the equation.”

News from faculty

Wisconsin Women in Government grad facilitates travel to Uganda, TanzaniaAnne Medeiros, a 2003 graduate of the Wisconsin Women in Government Seminar, has taken the leadership skills she learned with La Follette and her project man­agement experience with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to pursue her travel business, Ujuzi African Travel. Tour packages may include wildlife, cultural and service activities. “My desire is for travelers to experi­ence eastern African’s magnificent wildlife and resilient, warm people,” she says. Custom private and group tour packages are available to Uganda and Tanzania and may include gorilla and chimpanzee treks, boat trips on the Nile, game drives and nature walks, and cultural activities. Medeiros’ home­based business gives her ample time to spend with her 5­month­old daughter, Nieve.

Dennis Dresang

Spring 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 7

Students taking polar plunge exceed goalThe six La Follette School students who took a polar plunge in February exceeded their fund­raising goal, bring­ing in $1,622.50 for Special Olympics. The six were Nate Inglis Steinfeld, Holden Weisman, Rebecca McAtee, Emily Plagman, Lindsay Pascal and Paige Muegen-burg.

“The plunge was GREAT!!” reports first­timer McAtee. “We had quite a few fans who came out and cheered us on.”

wPoverty institute named U.S. centerThe U.S. Economic Research Service has chosen the Univer­ sity of Wisconsin­Madison’s Institute for Research on Pov­er ty as a center on nutrition programs.

IRP’s RIDGE Center for National Food and Nutrition Assistance Research will be a national hub for research related to programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), Special Supple­ mental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Chil­dren, the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.

From 1999­2009, the institute was one of five institutions sponsoring food assistance research for the U.S. Depart­ ment of Agriculture’s Eco­nomic Research Service. The program is now consoli­dated into two centers. The other focuses on targeted studies and is housed at Mississippi State University.

Thurmaier, director of the Division of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University.

Kazeri shared his daily life with the Thurmai-ers as he ministered to his parish, networked with community leaders and advanced plans for the school. “He told us, ‘You will sleep where I sleep, eat where I eat and go where I go,’” Thurmaier says, recalling the invitation to celebrate their anniversary in the village of Nyegina. “Leo goes nonstop from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m.”

The experience was so powerful that the Thurmaiers and friends started a nonprofit organization, Tanzania Development Support, to raise money to help the 2,880 people of Nyegina emerge from poverty. Supporting the school is the first goal, Thurmaier says.

“There is so much need in so many ways in one place,” he adds. “At the same time, the generosity of the average person there is just overwhelming. So you have this contrast between abundant need and abundant generosity. It’s a paradox that makes you say to yourself, ‘The world is different than I thought it was.’”

Kazeri and Thurmaier met in a statistics class. They spent many nights processing computer punch cards to conduct their statistical analysis. “We found ourselves helping each other,” Kazeri says. “He learned I was a Catholic priest, and his girlfriend, Jeanine, whom he later married, was Catholic, al-though Kurt is not, and he was very much inter-ested in theological issues. That did pull us together. He also recognized I was a foreign student strug-gling to put my head afloat in a different culture. So, while we assisted each other, we came to be attached to each other, and we never parted ever since.”

Kazeri helped to officiate at Kurt and Jeanine’s wedding in Madison after the two men graduated from their respective centers. Kazeri also earned a master’s degree in 1984 in planning before heading back home to Tanzania to become development director of the Catholic church’s Musoma diocese.

They kept in touch and saw each other once

when they both were in Amsterdam in the 1990s. While on a three-month sabbatical, Kazeri visited the Thurmaiers in DeKalb, Illinois, in 2007 when they were pondering how best to honor their up-coming 25th wedding anniversary, and Kazeri is-sued his invitation to celebrate in his parish.

“Our friendship took a different turn after that 2008 visit with the creation of Tanzania Develop-ment Support and our partnership,” Kazeri says.

The Thurmaiers returned to Tanzania in the summer of 2009 with nine NIU students and a dozen volunteers. They spent two weeks helping to construct a girls dormitory at Nyegina School. “Together, with community volunteers and stu-dents at the school, we poured concrete floors and passed about 12,000 bricks along work lines to be-gin building the dormitory walls,” Thurmaier says. “It was a fantastic, unforgettable experience.”

The secondary school is comparable to a U.S. school with grades 7 to 10. Most of its 500 stu-dents sleep in overcrowded dormitories. “They need more classes, laboratories,” Kazeri says. “They are hungry to have computer laboratories so that they are part of the modern technological world.”

To that end, the community’s strategic plan is to expand the school to six years to prepare students for university or teacher training. “Tanzania has a huge shortage of teachers, and education is essen-tial for economic development,” Thurmaier says. “The key for making it a high school is to have strong science and English. Tanzania Development Support is focused on enabling the school to reach its objectives by raising the money they need.”

“Leo and I learned early on at UW that integra-ted development is essential,” Thurmaier says. “Leo actually does it and has been doing it for 15 years. It is exciting to see him in action and to be able to contribute. Integrated development must be sustainable — we emphasize personal connec-tions that will sustain relationships between Nye-gina, DeKalb, Madison and elsewhere long after Leo and I are gone.” w

Friendship continued from page 7

From the Director continued from page 1Addison and his classmates.

We are very proud of our alumni accomplish-ments, in planning and financing the construction of schools in Tanzania, engaging in research and ad-vocacy on modern-day slavery issues, imparting free legal advice and support to immigrants, providing leadership to our state agencies, and in their many other roles in serving the public. While finances will remain tight for some time to come, we are grow-ing richer every day in the remarkable successes and valuable contributions of our alumni and friends to the La Follette School and society. w

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La Follette NotesRobert M. La Follette School of Public AffairsUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison1225 Observatory DriveMadison WI 53706

Non­Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PaidMadison WI

Permit No. 658

8 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Spring 2010

Jean-Rene Watchou has come full circle.Four years after graduating from La Fol-

lette with a master of international public affairs degree, he is back in Madison help-ing other immigrants adjust to life in the United States and navigate the legal system.

As director of international outreach for Christ Presbyterian Church, Watchou or-ganized the Community Immigration Law Center to provide free legal advice to immi-grants at twice-monthly walk-in clinics.

Watchou says the clinic grew out of a need to provide information and legal ad-vice to immigrants so they won’t fall prey to unethical people who might try to take advantage of their immigration status. Sometimes, for-hire immigration services will promise outcomes that aren’t possible under immigration law, legal experts say. “When you’re in that situation, sometimes you’re really willing to pay whatever it takes to have your situation fixed,” Watchou says.

He came to the United States from Cameroon nine years ago. He spent three years in New York and Maryland where he has relatives. After graduating from the

La Follette School in 2006, he interned with the Africa team of World Vision in Washington, D.C., then worked with refu-gees for a couple of area agencies.

Helping people make social connections is a large part of Watchou’s job with Christ Presbyterian Church to promote mutual understanding and cross-cultural exchange among Americans and internationals from more than 50 other countries living, work-ing and studying in Madison. “Our pro-grams welcome and smooth the integration of international students who are often up-rooted from their families,” Watchou says.

A permanent U.S. resident, Watchou expects to become a citizen in the next two years. His experience with the stress of the immigration process motivated him to get the immigration law center going. “You have the sense that your fate depends on an individual ... someone who can decide whether you can stay here or you have to leave,” Watchou says. “When your situation is not cleared up yet, you’re still in limbo, and then you don’t know if you’re going to stay, if you’re going to go back.” w

Watchou helps immigrants settle into American life Grad’s paper backgrounds study of Wisconsin taxes

Background by a 1987 La Follette alum informed a professor’s analysis on two

Wisconsin property tax credits. An infor-mation paper by Legislative Fiscal Bureau analyst Al Runde provided valuable back-ground on the school levy and first dollar credits, says professor Andrew Reschovsky.

In addition to property tax credits, Run-de specializes in the state’s bonding and building program, local option taxes and transportation, including local aids and the motor fuel tax. Fiscal Bureau Information Paper #21 is titled “State Property Tax Cre-dits; (School Levy, First Dollar, and Lottery and Gaming Credits).”

Reschovsky’s study concludes the school levy and the first dollar credits are not only expensive — nearly $900 million per year out of a $13 billion general fund budget — but highly inefficient mecha-nisms for delivering property tax relief to those Wisconsin homeowners and renters for whom the property tax creates the greatest economic hardships. w

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