News

With commencement just days away, the LBJ School of Public Affairs is celebrating the Class of 2026 and all they have accomplished over the past two years. Aria Stiefelmaier (MGPS ‘26) has been selected by her classmates as this year’s student commencement speaker and will represent the class on May 9.

As graduation approaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Danielle Thompson (EMPL ’26) looks back on a year that strengthened her leadership skills and deepened her commitment to public service.

The LBJ School of Public Affairs will honor Yoojin Cha (Ph.D. ’26) on May 9 as he is hooded during commencement, joining four other doctoral candidates in celebration of the completion of their Ph.D. degrees in Public Affairs.

Dean DeShazo reflects on his time leading the LBJ School of Public Affairs, highlighting key achievements in academic growth, fundraising, and national reputation, and shares his appointment as dean of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

Next month, as the LBJ School’s Class of 2026 gathers for commencement, Serin Mubarak (MGPS-DC ‘25) will return to the Forty Acres to walk the stage with her classmates.

Adriel Bustillos (MPAff ’26) will graduate next month from the LBJ School of Public Affairs with a Master of Public Affairs, carrying forward a commitment to public service that first took shape in fourth grade.

After completing the LBJ School of Public Affair’s accelerated D.C. program with the LBJ Washington Center, Sofia Odom (MPAff-DC ‘25) jumped straight into her current role as a staff assistant for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where she had previously been a fellow. Still based in Washington, she’s working alongside a team she describes as incredibly smart and passionate, contributing to meaningful policy work.

A team of students from the LBJ School of Public Affairs traveled to Washington, D.C., on February 23, 2026, to present their research on the global rare earth element industry to officials at the U.S. Department of State and other policy stakeholders.

Carlos J. Contreras, an alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, will return to his alma mater on May 9 to deliver the LBJ School’s 2026 commencement address.

A new policy brief from the Center on Municipal Capital Markets (CMCM) at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin finds that state-level school district debt relief can lead to significant increases in school facility investment and long-term improvements in student outcomes.

Emily Vo, a second-year Global Policy Studies student at the LBJ School, is spending her final semester in Washington, D.C., through the LBJ Washington Center’s Foreign Policy Semester. As she prepares to graduate this May, Vo is connecting classroom theory with real-world experience on Capitol Hill. 

As the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games unfold across northern Italy, LBJ School alumna Rebecca “Becky” McKnight (MPAff ’08) is at the center of operations, ensuring Team USA can compete safely and securely. Serving as deputy U.S. Olympic security coordinator with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, she has spent nearly two years in Italy preparing for this global event, coordinating with Italian law enforcement, the Games’ organizing committee, and U.S. interagency partners. 

Tristan Stitt (MGPS ‘27), a first-year Master of Global Policy Studies student at the LBJ School, is co-chairing the 30th annual Barbara Jordan National Forum, bringing a passion for economic justice and human rights.

The LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin will be an early voting location from February 17th through February 28th, and will serve as an official voting location on Primary Election Day, March 3rd, 2026.

On February 4, 2026, The University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Ukraine Facility Platform convened an expert policy dialogue in Brussels focused on strengthening Ukraine’ delivery architecture for the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The meeting was facilitated by LBJ School Professor Sachin D. Shah using a highly interactive format designed to move from strategy to execution.

Lisa Napper (MPAff '27), first-year Master of Public Affairs student at the LBJ School focusing on child and economic policy, is co-chairing the 30th Barbara Jordan National Forum (BJNF), one of the school’s signature events celebrating leadership, civic engagement, and Barbara Jordan’s enduring legacy.

The LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin will host the inaugural Metropolitan Leadership Initiative, a two-day executive seminar designed to equip Texas city and civic leaders with the strategic tools needed to navigate rapid metropolitan growth. The in-person program will take place April 8–9, 2026, at the Thompson Center on the UT Austin campus.

A second-year Master of Public Affairs student and co-chair of the 30th Barbara Jordan National Forum (BJNF) at the LBJ School, Miles Baker is helping lead one of our most enduring traditions. 

The LBJ Women’s Campaign School and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin are proud to announce Hope Osborn as the next Executive Director of the LBJ Women’s Campaign School. Osborn brings extensive experience in public policy, government affairs, and nonprofit leadership, along with a longstanding commitment to advancing women in political leadership.

On December 1, 2025, partners from Ukraine, Poland, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs convened for the seminar “Ukrainian Village on the Way to the European Union: From Data to Policy Recommendations,” an intensive dialogue focused on the strategic challenges facing Ukraine’s rural communities amid full-scale war and the country’s path toward European Union accession. The seminar moved deliberately from evidence to action—grounding discussion in current conditions in rural Ukraine and translating analysis into policy-relevant recommendations for recovery and long-term resilience.

The University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs and its Governor’s Center for Management Development is now registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of Continuing Professional Education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors.

On December 6, the LBJ School celebrated the graduation of the LBJ Washington Center’s 10th cohort. Among them was Victor To (MPAff-DC ’25), who graduated alongside 16 fellow cohort members after completing two semesters in Austin followed by two immersive semesters in Washington, DC. As a newly minted LBJ School alumnus, Victor’s journey reflects the purpose-driven experience at the heart of the DC Concentration. 

A new research study led by Erin Lentz finds that the world’s leading system for classifying acute food insecurity systematically underestimates the true scale of global hunger. The research and analysis concludes that one in five people experiencing acute hunger may be going uncounted.

For his work to understand why climate change leads to negative security consequences in some places and not others, Joshua W. Busby, professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, will receive the 2026 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Busby presented these ideas in his book, “States and Nature: The Effects of Climate Change on Security.”

The LBJ School of Public Affairs is proud to announce that Mia Paone (MPAff-DC ’25) has been selected by her D.C. cohort peers as the 2025 LBJ Washington Center student commencement speaker, sending off the group at their graduation ceremony on December 6, 2025.