A Leader in New and Innovative Curriculum

Karl Rethemeyer, who was recently named dean of Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, and Associate Professor Erika Martin talk to a student outside the college on the Downtown Campus. (Photo by Mark McCarty)

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 26, 2018) — R. Karl Rethemeyer has been named dean of the University at Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, effective April 20, 2018.

Rethemeyer, who is also a professor of Public Administration & Policy, has served as interim dean of the college since 2015.

“Karl has provided terrific leadership as an interim dean at Rockefeller College, and it is our great pleasure now to see him accept this permanent appointment,” said Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs James R. Stellar. “I look forward to working together with him in this new capacity to seeing Rockefeller College rise up to its full potential in the city, state, nation and beyond.”

Rethemeyer, who received his doctorate from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, his master’s from the London School of Economics and his bachelor’s from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, has been on the faculty at Rockefeller College since 2002.

R. Karl Rethemeyer (Photo by Paul Miller)

“As interim dean, I was particularly proud of the work the faculty and staff did across the College to develop and deploy new and innovative curricular options,” Rethemeyer said. “In just three years the College has completely revamped both the political science and public policy majors, created a revised MA in Political Science, and launched a new Master of International Affairs degree.”

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy has consistently been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation's premier schools of public affairs. The College offers undergraduate- and graduate-level study in public administration, public policy, international affairs and political science.

Rethemeyer said Rockefeller College is working to align its activities with the University’s new five-year Strategic Plan, unveiled by President Havidán Rodríguez on April 3.

“Over the summer I will be visiting four universities in China to develop dual degree programs as part of our effort to internationalize, and this fall we’ll be holding our first “Public Policy and International Affairs weekend” to help attract underrepresented minorities into the public service and professional graduate education,” Rethemeyer said. “Throughout next year the Department of Public Administration and Policy will be building out new online offerings to serve students around the country who are interested in our top-25 MPA program but may not be able to relocate to Albany for two years.”

Rethemeyer’s own research focuses on social networks, their impact on social, political and policy processes, and the methods used to study such networks. His expertise is in terrorism, terrorist organizations and networks, and counter-insurgency/stabilization operations; and on the structure and operation of collaborative and policy networks in the public sector.

Rethemeyer is co-director of the Project on Violent Conflict, a research center focused on these topics. His Department of Homeland Security-funded work examines the determinants of terrorists’ network connections and how network structure affects the selection of targets and techniques, the lethality of terrorist organizations, and their propensity to choose or eschew lethal violence.

For more news, subscribe to UAlbany's RSS headline feeds