Where public affairs education, research and service meet:
The Trachtenberg Experience
The Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration
according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 rankings of public affairs schools
of 2018 graduates were employed in their field within six months of graduation
of top journals in public affairs include our faculty as editors or authors.
of our student-run journal, Policy Perspectives (we’ve got a blog and the GW Wonkcast podcast, too)
Public Service Recognition Week
For over 72 years, the Arthur S. Flemming Commission has recognized extraordinary federal employees in the areas of leadership and management, applied science and engineering, biomedical and social science, and legal achievement and is pleased to announce the latest awardees. On the occasion of this year’s Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW), the Awards Commission wishes to honor past and present Flemming award winners – including the award namesake who set the ultimate standard for public service in his decades-long and much-admired career (from Commission Chair to Cabinet Secretary) under presidents from Roosevelt to Reagan and in being a recipient of two Presidential Medals of Freedom. Arthur S. Flemming’s public service inspired the launch of this prestigious recognition of talented, impactful, and often unsung, mid-career public servants.
Recognized by the President of the United States, agency heads, and the private sector, Flemming awardees have had a profound and lasting influence on and for the good of society. Notable Flemming awardees recognized by the Commission early in their public sector careers include the following:
- Neil Armstrong, Astronaut and first man to walk on the moon
- John Chancellor, Journalist and former Director of the Voice of America
- Gene Dodaro, 8th Comptroller General of the United States
- Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Member of Coronavirus Task Force
- Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence
- Mary Elizabeth Hanford (now Elizabeth Dole), former U.S. Senator and Secretary of Labor and Transportation
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former U.S. Senator and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
- William Phillips, Physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Nobel laureate in Physics
- Paul Volcker, Jr., former Chairman of the Federal Reserve
This year’s Flemming Awardees have continued the tradition of excellence in public service from the development of novel diagnostic tools for pathogen detection, to the expansion and proliferation of public accountability capacity worldwide, to the development of novel treatments for cancer. For more information on this year’s and past Flemming award winners, please click here.
Our Programs
Explore the three masters degrees, one PhD, and multiple graduate certificates to determine which Trachtenberg School degree is right for you. All programs are academically rigorous and dedicated to preparing graduates for opportunities across academia as well as the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
Our People
“At least twice a day, I use things I learned in Trachtenberg School classes about evaluation, statistics and nonprofit management to improve the programming at my current job."
Mariah Brothe Gantz
Master of Public Administration, 2017
Faculty in the Trachtenberg School are researchers, teachers, mentors and advocates. Faculty conduct in-depth research on a variety of issues and bring their findings into the classroom to ensure their courses are as up-to-date as possible.
Alumni of the Trachtenberg School believe that informed and engaged citizens bring positive change to all sectors of society and make a difference in jobs including governments at the local, state or federal levels, nonprofits, consulting firms, international organizations, academia, research and think tanks.
Attend classes part-time or full-time. Be in the heart of Washington, D.C. and apply your knowledge to opportunities with world-changing organizations a few minutes away from your classroom. Connect with like-minded students, faculty and alumni also committed to doing good and doing it well.
Our Work
At the Trachtenberg School, we integrate theory and practice. Faculty and students conduct detailed and respected research on a variety of public policy and administrative topics.
Climate justice. Healthcare reform. Gender equality. These topics (and many others) are the research focus of Trachtenberg School faculty and students. Research conducted at the Trachtenberg School is timely, technical and theoretically sound. Students publish in Policy Perspectives, our student-run policy journal and faculty are subject-matter experts featured in leading academic journals and quoted in the media.
To ensure students can take the theoretical and apply it to the world, students in the Trachtenberg School take a Capstone Seminar as their final core course. Teams of students provide substantive pro bono research and evaluation services to a real client. Apply what you've learned in class to analyze a significant policy issue for your client and then present your findings to the school and your client.
