Brookings Mountain West, a collaboration between UNLV and the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC-based public policy think tank, is pleased to announce its roster of visiting scholars for the 2017-2018 academic year.

Visiting scholars from Brookings engage with UNLV students and faculty in the classroom and in research projects, offer public lectures, and provide public policy expertise to local community, business, and political leaders,

“Visiting scholars from the Brookings Institution are a diverse group, including individuals who may bring valuable experience in the federal government, practical experience from the private sector, and academic perspectives from both think tanks and top-ranked universities," said Rob Lang, executive director of Brookings Mountain West.

Each year a new group of Brookings scholars schedule visits to the UNLV campus. And Brookings Mountain West hosts a lecture series with several of the visiting scholars.  

UNLV director of Brookings Mountain West, Bill Brown said, “Our roster of visiting scholars includes experts who will address such timely issues as economic and social mobility in our region, U.S. climate and energy policy, the future of the Paris agreement, the future of U.S. relations in the Asia-Pacific region, accountability in K-12 education, the politics of Republican Party governors, the role of social movements, the geography of poverty in Southern Nevada, the challenges facing young adults entering the labor market, and many others.”

Among the sixteen scholars who will visit UNLV this academic year are:

Ron Haskins is a senior fellow and the Cabot Family Chair in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he co-directs the Center on Children and Families. Haskins spent 14 years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee and was subsequently appointed to be the senior advisor to President George W. Bush for welfare policy. He and his colleague Isabel Sawhill recently won the Moynihan Prize by the American Academy of Political and Social Science for being champions of the public good and advocates for public policy based on social science research. Haskins was recently appointed by House Speaker Paul Ryan to co-chair the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission.

John Hudak is deputy director of the Center for Effective Public Management and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings. His research examines questions of presidential power in the contexts of administration, personnel, and public policy. Additionally, he focuses on campaigns and elections, legislative-executive interaction, and state and federal marijuana policy. Hudak's 2016 book, Marijuana: A Short History, offers a unique, up-to-date profile of how cannabis emerged from the shadows of counterculture and illegality to become a serious, even mainstream, public policy issue and source of legal revenue for both businesses and governments.

Jonathan D. Pollack is the Interim SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies and a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. Prior to joining Brookings in 2010, Pollack was professor of Asian and Pacific Studies and chairman of the Strategic Research Department at the U.S. Naval War College. He previously worked at the Rand Corporation, where he served in various senior research and management positions, including chairman of the political science department, corporate research manager for international policy, and senior advisor for international policy. 

Vanda Felbab-Brown is a senior fellow in the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She is also the director of the Brookings project “Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives and UNGASS 2016” and co-director of another Brookings project, “Reconstituting Local Orders.” She is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies.

Adele Morris is a senior fellow and policy director for Climate and Energy Economics at the Brookings Institution. Her expertise and interests include the economics of policies related to climate change, energy, natural resources, and public finance. She joined Brookings in July 2008 from the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress, where she spent a year as a Senior Economist covering energy and climate issues. Before the JEC, Adele served nine years with the U.S. Treasury Department as its chief natural resource economist, working on climate, energy, agriculture, and radio spectrum issues.

Visit these websites for more information on Brookings Mountain West, the visiting scholars, or institute's Public Policy Minor.