Policy 360

This episode takes a look behind the curtain to see what actually happens during elections and just how your vote counts and is counted. Judith Kelley is joined by Damon Circosta, the Chair of the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Since graduating from Sanford in 2015, Emily Feng has travelled all over China as a foreign correspondent covering topics ranging from human rights, to technology, to the environment. As foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, Feng uncovered key information surrounding the Chinese oppression of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, China. Her coverage of the human rights abuses in Xinjiang won several human rights press and journalism awards.

Feng now works as NPR's Beijing correspondent and joins Dean Judith Kelly to discuss her path from Sanford graduate to award winning journalist, share stories from her work, and provide a unique insight on key issues she has reported on such as the Uighurs in Xinjiang, the protests in Hong Kong, and the coronavirus pandemic.

North Carolina has been at the center of discussions around race-based voter suppression, most recently focused on stringent voter ID requirements. With election day only two months away, there is growing concern among many in this pivotal swing state about whether their voice will be heard.

James Leloudis, professor of history at UNC Chapel Hill, and Robert Korstad, professor of public policy at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy, join Dean Judith Kelley to discuss the implications of voter suppression on the upcoming election and the complicated legacy of voting rights in the state.

Thomas J. Tierney is an expert in smart philanthropy and co-founder of the Bridgespan Group which provides management consulting to nonprofits and philanthropists. He is the co-author of Give Smart: Philanthropy That Gets Results, which is intended for philanthropists and nonprofits with the resources to do big things to make big changes in the world.

Our guest host is Alex S. Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and former director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. This is part of a two-part series is produced in partnership with the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Billy Shore is a founder of the organization Share Our Strength, the umbrella organization of No Kid Hungry. Over the past 35 years, the organization has made huge strides in ending childhood hunger in the United States. How have they done it? Listen:

This episode is hosted by Alex S. Jones - Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and former director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. It is part of a two-part series is produced in partnership with the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Since the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Durham county back in March, the Durham city and county governments have had the tall task to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus while also responding to the struggles of local residents.

Sanford alumni Ryan Smith and Mariel Beasley and current MPP candidate Mary Grace Stoneking join Dean Judith Kelley to talk about the local response to the pandemic. All three of our guests worked on the Durham Recovery & Renewal Task Force in order to consult the mayor and the county commissioner on local policy decisions that affected the lives of all Durham residents.

Ryan Smith is an Innovation Project Manager for the City of Durham. Ryan was tapped to head the Recovery and Renewal Task Force. He graduated with his Master of Public Policy from the Sanford School of Public Policy in 2014.

Mariel Beasley is Principal at the Center for Advanced Hindsight and the Co-Director at the Duke CommonCents Lab. She joined Ryan to work on the "Back on the Bull" campaign which worked to normalize the act of wearing face masks in Durham. Mariel also graduated from Sanford with her Master of Public Policy in 2013.

Mary Grace Stoneking is a second year Master of Public Policy candidate at Sanford. She interned with the Durham City Manager's office and helped Ryan manage the student researchers working on the task force.

Read more about the Recovery and Renewal Task Force.

In late March President Trump said he considers himself a wartime president. The fight against COVID-19 has since intensified; the number of cases in the US doubled in that time. How does Trump compare to wartime leaders of the past?

Bruce Jentleson is the William Preston Few Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy. He has held positions as foreign policy advisors to politicians including Al Gore and Bill Clinton.

His book is The Peacemakers, Leadership Lessons from 20th Century Statesmanship.

Discussions about providing direct cash payments to Americans have filled Congressional chambers in recent weeks. But discussions are one thing. Getting these payments to million Americans, including those without access to a bank or a stable address, is another.

Here to discuss the many challenges of developing a strategy to provide payments to those who need it most is Lisa Gennetian, a professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy and an affiliate in the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy.

Many in the US were blindsided by the COVID-19 pandemic's severity. Not Gavin Yamey. In early 2018 he wrote the op-ed, The Odds of a Devastating Pandemic Just Went Up.

Yamey is a professor at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy and director of The Center for Policy Impact in Global Health, based at the Duke Global Health Institute.

Former Ambassador Frederick Barton has conflict management experience in over 40 crisis zones -- Haiti, Iraq, Nigeria, Turkey and more.

He served as first Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and previously as U.S. Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York. He founded USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives among other roles. His book is called Peace Works: America's Unifying Role in a Turbulent World.