Summary
The Meet the Changemakers Day at GMU in 2023 was changed to a Meet Your Candidates Night. Information on Meet Your Candidates night can be found here.
This post is a model and a template for how future Meet the Changemakers in person events could be organized. The specific information is no longer relevant. Meet the Changemakers day was planned to occur on Tuesday October 24, 2023 between 12pm and 8pm at the Johnson Center Dewberry Hall on the Fairfax Campus (Google map). All the following information was assembled in collaboration with these research centers and their leaders.
The planning information is below:
If you are unable to attend in person, you can watch our livestream of the town halls and presentations (and chat with fellow viewers). See flyer below for schedule of events and participants.
Meet the Changemakers activities will include:
- Presentations by Mason research faculty – Approximately 4-6 minutes about their research center and a research-based policy goal followed by a short Q&A session with the audience.
- Town Halls with 2023 General Assembly candidates – 25 minute discussions with candidates for Virginia Senate and House of Delegates and their policy proposals that address grand challenges being discussed at Meet the Changemakers day.
- 50 minute Town Halls – Similar to research center presentations as described above followed by federal, state, and local policymakers discussing their views on policy and what legislation they are proposing to address their policies followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
- Opportunities to learn about Mason research centers and discuss their policy goals based on their research at Roundtables in Dewberry South. Other stakeholders in the policy discussions will also have tables in the lobby in addition to Mason students displaying their research posters.
For more information, contact uscurators@onair.cc
OnAir Post: Meet the Changemakers – Research
About
Democracy onAir is the lead coordinator for Meet the Changemakers Day. Democracy onAir is a nonpartisan, nonprofit that brings together, via online knowledge networks, information, experts, organizations, and the public to better address grand challenges like strengthening global democracies. One of Democracy onAir’s first networks is the US Government Network of 50 state hubs strengthening US democracy through facilitating greater civic engagement and civil discussion.
CHSS Research (College of Humanities and Social Sciences), Schar Research (School of Policy and Government), and Schar Undergraduate programs have been most helpful is assisting with Democracy onAir. The Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact (ORIEI) has also providing assistance. GMU-TV will be livestreaming and recording the events of the Day.
Event Schedule
Below you will find information on the Meet the Changemakers Day schedule. To learn more about the centers and presenters, scroll down or select the specific center from the Table of Contents at the right (only in large screen post view).
| 10:45 | Andre Marshall | Office of Research Innovation & Economic Impact |
| 11:00 | Sushil Jajodia | Center for Secure Information Systems |
| 11:15 | Eric Vollmecke | Rapid Prototyping Research Center |
| 11:30 | Missy Cummings | Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center |
| 11:45 | Lance Sherry | Center for Air Transportation Systems Research |
| 12:00 | Patrick Vora | Quantum Science and Engineering Center |
| 12:15 | Maria M Dakake | AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies |
| 12:30 | Lincoln Mullen | Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media |
| 12:45 | Amy Best | Center for Social Science Research |
| 1:00 | Jesse Kirkpatrick | Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy |
| 1:15 | Christy Esposito-Smythers | Center for Evidence-Based Behavioral Health |
| 1:30 | Daniel Houser | Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science |
| 1:45 | David Rehr | Center for Business Civic Engagement |
| 2:00 | Bonnie B Stabile | Gender and Policy Center |
| 2:15 | Richard Kauzlarich | Center for Energy Science and Policy |
| 2:30 | Terry L Clower | Center for Regional Analysis |
| 2:45 | Ellen Beth Laipson | Center for Security Policy Studies |
| 3:00 | Faye S Taxman | Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence |
| 3:15 | Alan J. Abramson | Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise |
| 3:30 | Naoru Koizumi | Center for Biomedical Science and Policy |
| 3:45 | Jonathan L. Gifford | Center for Transportation Public-Private Partnership Policy |
| Town Halls | ||
| 4:00 | Del. David Bulova | House of Delegate Candidate – District 11 |
| Almira Mohammed | House of Delegate Candidate – District 11 | |
| 4:30 | Sen. Dave Marsden | State Senate Candidate – District 35 |
| Mark Vafiades | State Senate Candidate – District 35 | |
| 5:00 | John Kotcher | Center for Climate Change Communication |
| 6:00 | Jim Witte | Institute for Immigration Research |
| 7:00 | Amarda Shehu | Institute for Digital InnovAtion |
Flyer & Easel Poster
Dewberry Floor Plan
Benefits for Research Centers
Participation in Research Day (at the Fairfax campus) offers many potential benefits and opportunities for GMU Research Centers. Similar benefits for representatives with a special focus on new ways to outreach and communicate with constituents.
- Gain increased visibility and interaction with several audiences – especially your and other university faculty, students, staff, and alumni
- Connect with and influence federal, state, and local policy makers
- Recruit new students, faculty, and affiliates
- Attract new funding – from individuals, foundations, grants, corporate sponsors
- Create promotional videos from the livestreamand multiple cameras in Dewberry recording video interviews and the roundtable discussions
- Establish ongoing communication with audiences – via onAir posts, aircasts, and onAir post forums.
Research Town Halls
Research town hall schedule:
5:00-6:00 Climate Change: “Decarbonizing as a Policy Goal
John Kotcher & Dan Reed, Center for Climate Change Communication (4C)
6:00-7:00 Immigration: “Examining the contributions of America’s immigrants”
James Witte, Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)
7:00-8:00 Artificial Intelligence: “Regulating AI & AGI in the US & Globally”
Amarda Shehu, Institute for Digital Innovation (IDIA)
Center for Climate Change Communication
Source: Website
As a result of human activity – primarily the burning of fossil fuels – the earth’s climate is becoming dangerously disrupted and destabilized. Our mission is to develop and apply social science insights to help society make informed decisions that will stabilize the earth’s life-sustaining climate, and prevent further harm from climate change. To achieve this goal, our center engages in three broad activities: we conduct unbiased communication research; we help government agencies, civic organizations, professional associations, and companies apply social science research to improve their public engagement initiatives; and we train students and professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to improve public engagement with climate change.
A CHSS chartered research center onAir post
Director:
Edward Maibach – a Mason distinguished University Professor – is a communication scientist who is expert in the uses of strategic communication and social marketing to address climate change and related public health challenges. His research – funded by NSF, NASA and private foundations – focuses on public understanding of climate change and clean energy; the psychology underlying public engagement; and cultivating TV weathercasters, health professionals, and climate scientists as effective climate educators.
John Kotcher, Chief Scientist will be presenting and Dan Reed will be leading the Q&A session.
Institute for Immigration Research
Source: Website
The Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) is a multidisciplinary research institute at George Mason University. The IIR’s mission is to produce valid, reliable, and objective multidisciplinary research on immigrants and immigration to the United States and to disseminate this information through peer-reviewed academic journals, as well as in print and digital formats that make this research easily accessible to policy-makers, the media, the business community, and the general public.
A CHSS chartered research center onAir post
Director:
James Witte is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Director of the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR). Witte’s ongoing research includes the analysis of Twitter data on immigration and the Digital Archive Project in partnership with the American Sociological Association. Dr. Witte will be giving the town hall presentation and leading the Q&A afterwards.
Institute for Digital Innovation
Source: Website
The Institute of Digital InnovAtion (IDIA) is George Mason University’s commitment to inclusively shaping the future of our digital society, promoting well-being, security, and prosperity.
IDIA is a sector leader that provides transdisciplinary research, innovation, and next-generation workforce development strategy across the university for scaled, sustainable growth in digital innovation, leverages synergies, strengthening the innovation ecosystem and growing capacities for transdisciplinary research, scholarship, and innovation, supports placemaking, instigating and building research and innovation communities around places and activating and supporting a culture of transdisciplinary research and shared research infrastructure, and amplifies the visibility and awareness of George Mason University as a globally recognized leader for its world-class research, innovation, and economic impact activities, as well as its next-generation students and scholars.
Associate Vice President of Research
Amarda Shehu is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science in the School of Computing in the College of Engineering and Computing at George Mason University.
She is also the Inaugural Founding Co-Director of George Mason University’s Transdisciplinary Center for Advancing Human-Machine Partnerships (CAHMP). Shehu served as an NSF Program Director in the Information and Intelligent Systems Division of the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering during 2019-2022. Dr. Shehu will be giving the town hall presentation and leading the Q&A afterwards.
Centers & Institutes
Below you will find information on the participating research centers and institutes not including the town halls:
- Giving presentations about their research center and a research-based policy goal followed by a short Q&A session with the audience and
- Having roundtables engaging questions from the Mason community and the public with handouts and other materials
- Dr. Michele Schwietz , CHSS Research Director and Dr. Naoru Koizumi, Schar Research Director, have contributed significantly to assisting with the scheduling and coordination of their participating research centers.
Below is an example of one of the research centers that agreed to participate.
Rapid Prototyping Research Center (RPRC)
Proven Track Record in National Security
RPRC’s Research Drives Advancements that Enable Competitive Edge.
Mason’s Rapid Prototyping Research Center was established to further advance research and innovation development that requires accelerated processes combined with specialized expertise to meet national security and defense objectives. RPRC, working in conjunction with our other research affiliates and technology partners has created a proven and repeatable technology development program, uniting engineers, students, mentors, and technology vendors to deliver rapid and resilient solutions.
Eric Vollmecke is the Director of RPRC.
Policy Makers
See the Meet Your Candidates post for some of the local policy makers who were also planning to participate in the Meet The Changemakers Day.
