The Maxwell School is pleased to announce that three of its current students and four recent alumni have been selected as finalists for the highly competitive 2024 Presidential Management Fellowship Program.

Administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the fellows program is a flagship leadership development opportunity for advanced-degree candidates who, if selected, receive two-year appointments within federal agencies. The program attracts and selects the best candidates possible, particularly those with the greatest potential to become government leaders.

The seven Maxwell community members are among 825 finalists selected from a pool of 7,193 applications. The finalists represent 102 unique academic degree programs and 264 academic institutions worldwide. Approximately 14 percent are veterans.

Student finalists are Andrew Gasparini and Ryan Lamson, who are both enrolled in the dual master of public administration and master of arts in international relations (M.P.A./M.A. (IR)) program, and John Nipper ’23 B.A. (IR), who is pursuing an M.P.A. Gasparini was additionally selected as a Robertson Foundation for Government Fellow for 2022-2024.

Alumni finalists are Michelle Duke ’24 M.A. (IR); Roseanne Gerin ’21 E.M.I.R.; Shannon Isaacs ’23 E.M.P.A.; and Sefa Secen ’22 Ph.D. (PSc).

Kelli Young, director of the John L. and Stephanie G. Palmer Career Center at the Maxwell School, said this year’s selection process was especially competitive. “It is gratifying to see so many of our students and alumni among the finalists this year,” she says. “Maxwell has a long history with the Presidential Management Fellowship, which prepares our students and alumni to move into management-level positions in the federal government, where they can further develop the leadership skills they learned here at the Maxwell School to contribute to the public good.”

Program alumni include Sean O’Keefe ’78 M.P.A., University Professor and Phanstiel Chair in Leadership. A four-time presidential appointee, he was selected to the first class of presidential management interns after the program was started by former Maxwell Dean Alan K. “Scotty” Campbell, who was the first director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

By Jessica Youngman