The School of Public Policy celebrated the legacy of College Park Professor Catherine Kelleher, a founding faculty member of the School, at a celebration at the National Academy of Sciences on May 5.
The event, co-hosted by CISSM and Women in International Security (WIIS), also celebrated the recent launch of the Kelleher Fellowship for International Security Studies. CISSM Director Nancy Gallagher announced that Lindsay Rand, a graduating SPP master’s student, who is entering the school’s doctoral program, was selected as the first recipient of the Kelleher Fellowship.
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In honoring Kelleher, Gallagher recognized her role in founding CISSM and WIIS, in being a trailblazer for women in government service in international security, as well as the personal opportunities she afforded Gallagher when she first joined the school. School of Public Policy Professor Steve Fetter, who also serves as the university’s associate provost and dean of the Graduate School, recognized the role that Kelleher played in putting the School “on the map” as a premier destination for international security scholars and students. Chantal de Jonge Ourdat, the current president of WIIS, and Laura Holgate, a past president of WIIS and a current Vice President at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, both recognized the inspiration that generations of women have drawn from Kelleher’s example and generosity. SPP alumna Jessica Gottesman, who was Kelleher's research assistant while on campus, performed a Bach violin excerpt to start off the program.
At the end of the program, Gallagher introduced the inaugural fellowship winner. Rand (at right of Kelleher) also has a master’s in nuclear health physics from Georgetown University. During her two years in the School of Public Policy master’s program, Rand has been a graduate assistant at CISSM, where she has worked on research relating to nuclear energy development in East Asia, and completed her master’s capstone project on the nuclear waste storage policies of emerging nuclear energy countries. Rand is preparing to study the effects of emerging technology on nuclear weapons policies in the School’s doctoral program, starting in the fall of 2019.
The Catherine M. Kelleher Fellowship for International Security Studies supports exceptional graduate students pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Combined with a research assistantship, the fellowship provides full funding for a year of study. The award is open to any student studying international security policy broadly defined, but gives special consideration to students interested in cooperative approaches to reducing nuclear risks and addressing other security challenges in U.S.-European relations, an approach that Kelleher championed as a scholar, government official, and a policy practitioner.
