Turning 10, from Roots Planted in 1969

Published Date September 11, 2025
News Type Public Address

Sen. John Glenn makes remarks at the ribbon cutting celebration for the John Glenn College of Public Affairs in 2015.

By Joan Slattery Wall

In the 56 years of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs’ history, a date 10 years ago stands out as a harbinger of momentum. 

On Jan. 29, 2015, the Ohio State University Board of Trustees approved the change from the John Glenn School of Public Affairs to official college status, a sweeping change aimed at amplifying the former school’s mission to inspire citizenship and develop leadership.

Caroline Wagner and Dean Trevor Brown celebrate the change from the John Glenn School of Public Affairs to official college status in 2015.

“Since we’ve become a college, we’ve grown to serve as a bridge for public administration education and service across the university, the state of Ohio and to our nation’s capital,” said Trevor Brown, who has served as dean since the college’s creation. “Our college status also has positioned Ohio State as a leader among its peers in public affairs education, research and outreach.”  

The year before becoming a college, the Glenn School was ranked 29th among the almost 300 schools of public affairs, administration, management and policy by U.S. News and World Report and has since advanced its prestige. In 2025, it placed 16th in the nation and 9th among public universities. 

“There was space for a lean, hungry Glenn College to move up, to be a place where policymakers in the state of Ohio, and ultimately in Washington and other capitals across the country and world, would come and say, ‘Help us do a better job; help us make government better, deliver high quality services to citizens and address major policy changes,’” Brown said. “We’ve become a college of global significance.”

Branching Across Disciplines for Policy Solutions

“Making the Glenn School a college has solidified a hub on campus for integrating education, research and outreach about public sector issues,” Brown said. “No one unit on campus can house all these efforts relevant to external decision-makers in the public sector, but the Glenn College now spans the university to function as a powerful integrator and connector.” 

Then-U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown speaks at the college’s ribbon cutting, acknowledging (from left) then-U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, John and Annie Glenn, then-Ohio State President Michael V. Drake, and Dean Trevor Brown.

In 2016, Professor John Horack became the inaugural holder of the Neil Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy, a joint appointment between the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering. Integrating aerospace engineering and policy expertise, Horack has led the initiative to grow Ohio State’s profile and contributions as a globally recognized hub for spaceflight research and innovation. This summer, that vision made further progress when Voyager Technologies selected a development and construction team for the first 10 acres of the Voyager Institute for Space, Technology and Advancement (VISTA) science park, to be located on Ohio State’s Aerospace and Air Transportation Campus at The Ohio State University Airport.   

Horack also continues to lead the efforts at Ohio State to build Starlab, one of the next-generation space stations that will be supported by VISTA. Starlab is a global joint venture, led by Voyager Technologies, with partners that include Airbus, Mitsubishi Corp., MDA Canada, Palantir, Northrop Grumman, Hilton and Ohio State. Starlab is designed to ensure continued human presence in low-Earth orbit and a seamless transition of microgravity science and research following the retirement of the International Space Station.

Ohio State’s leading partnership roles — in VISTA on the ground and Starlab in space — help secure a future for spaceflight research and innovation in Ohio, creating social, economic, educational and quality-of-life outcomes. 

John Horack
Neil Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy

Jeffrey Bielicki, an associate professor in both the Glenn College and the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, leads a research project called Facilitating Local Electrified Energy and Transportation Services for All (FLEETS for All), working to alleviate inequities as communities move to renewable energy sources. The interdisciplinary team, which intends to help policymakers assess the effectiveness of current efforts to bring more resilient services and products to communities, includes Ohio State experts in air quality, transportation, energy, sociology, public health and other areas.

When the Future Calls, Buckeyes Answer

Thanks to alumni and friends, from 2017 to 2025, during Time and Change: The Ohio State Campaign — the largest philanthropic effort in Ohio State’s history — the Glenn College surpassed its $20 million goal, with nearly 11,000 charitable gifts. Among other successes, the campaign increased scholarships by 70%. 

In addition, he is the director of Ohio State EmPOWERment, a National Science Foundation research traineeship program and graduate interdisciplinary specialization in which the Glenn College is among seven collaborating at Ohio State. The university-wide program offers PhD students from any college the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary training in energy-system modeling, data science, energy policy, business, legal, social-behavioral issues and energy technologies to address the challenges facing a sustainable energy future. The multiple disciplines give students exposure to perspectives that they would not have within their respective colleges. The Glenn College’s Battelle Center for Science, Engineering and Public Policy provides its Student Community of Practice and Engagement (SCOPE), with a focus on student experiences and development that bridge academic learning with real-world application, which Bielicki says is perhaps the most popular portion of the EmPOWERment program. 

“The Glenn College has been pretty well represented, and I would say the EmPOWERment program wouldn’t have been successful if it weren’t for the Glenn College’s participation,” Bielicki said, adding that analyses of the EmPOWERment program have shown that it significantly enhances graduate students’ innovation capacities. 

Becoming a college has led to more faculty interdisciplinary work both within the college and with other units at Ohio State, Bielicki said.

I like the larger concept of bringing in many different fields, because I see it as the opportunity to do something more interesting and more impactful.

Associate Professor Jeffrey Bielicki
Glenn College and College of Engineering

“The real world operates within the grayness between the black and white of disciplines,” Bielicki said.

Deepening Roots in Land-Grant Service

Professor Jill Clark, who joined the then-Glenn School faculty in 2012, said gaining college status has elevated the importance of public service and opened more doors for faculty members to collaborate not only within Ohio State but also with public service leaders.  

Clark’s college, government and community collaborations on food systems governance resulted in the creation of the Franklin County Local Food Council and an ensuing local food action plan, improvements in local and healthy food access, and zoning changes to allow urban agriculture in central Ohio. 

“Becoming a college meant that we had visibility in a different way, so that, for people around the university looking for partners, we were not buried somewhere,” she said, adding that it has helped increase the understanding of the field. “‘Public affairs’ is a very strange term. We’re not lobbyists, but that’s what people think public affairs is.”

Becoming a college also meant people find out what public affairs is and then ask us to be involved in more collaborations. 

Professor Jill Clark
John Glenn College of Public Affairs

Shifting the Paradigm 

Glenn College faculty and Columbus police have developed an evidence-based approach to safeguard constitutional rights and build trust between officers and the community. The result: Success with peaceful demonstrations and inquiries from police departments across the U.S. who want to implement the model. 

Following police response to the civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd, and a subsequent federal court injunction against the department’s use of nonlethal force, the Glenn College helped the Columbus Division of Police develop its Public Order and Public Safety model, a science- and evidence-based approach toward crowd management practices and policies.  

Professors Russell Hassan, the Ambassador Milton A. and Roslyn Z. Wolf Chair in Public and International Affairs, and Clifford Stott, a crowd behavior expert from the Keele Policing Academic Collaboration at Keele University in England who was a Glenn College visiting faculty member, worked with the division to implement changes in crowd management and community policing that have improved relations and maintained peaceful events and demonstrations. In addition, Robin Engel, a criminal justice and criminology expert who is a senior research scientist at the Glenn College, is leading national efforts to improve police supervision.

Seeding Leadership for Public Service Professionals

Over the past 10 years, the Glenn College has also expanded its offerings for professional development in the public sector.

Beyond Ideology: Glenn College Fosters Bipartisan Cooperation 

Read the lessons a cohort from the Public Leadership Academy learned to build bridges with colleagues across the aisle. 

In 2018, the college initiated the Public Leadership Academy for Elected Officials, a one-week residential training for bipartisan groups of state and local elected officials to build trust across the aisle and return to political life with a better understanding of their colleagues and a renewed commitment to public service. More than 130 participants, rising stars nominated by the state’s political leadership, have included township trustees, city council members, mayors, county commissioners and other county officeholders, state legislators and school board members. 

The college also now offers professional development certificates that include graduate degree credits.

For example, the Leadership Certificate for Public and Nonprofit Professionals, a 12-week, six-credit program introduced in 2017, has engaged 24 cohorts to date. 

Recipients of the 2024 Glenn College Military to Civilian Leadership Certificate, which offers graduate degree credits, celebrate their accomplishment at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum.

And the college’s collaboration pathways within and beyond Ohio State have recently fostered new veteran and military families programming. 

In 2024 the college joined a national effort with the Volcker Alliance and We the Veterans and Military Families to connect veterans and military families with public service education and career paths. 

In addition to a Military to Civilian Leadership Certificate — a collaboration with the National Veterans Memorial and Museum and launched with support from the Columbus Downtown Development Corp. — the college offers additional support, resources and programming for military-affiliated graduate students in its Service to Service programming. 

Nurturing Educational Offerings for a Changing Field

While the college has granted degrees throughout its 56-year history, its degree and certificate offerings for students across campus and outside of the university have quickly proliferated since 2015, resulting in a more than 30% increase in graduates.  

“By leveraging partnerships with other departments and colleges around the university, the Glenn College has continued to create new, innovative academic programs that respond to growing demand for public affairs education for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for professionals in public service fields,” said Rob Greenbaum, associate dean for curriculum. 

In addition to its established doctoral program and master’s degrees in public administration and in public policy and management, the college now offers a pathway to complete the MPA in Washington, D.C., to help students gain professional experience in the nation’s capital. In addition, students can take advantage of the new online Master of Public Administration and Leadership, and the MPA is now available fully online.  

Students can now earn graduate certificates in criminal justice administration, public management, nonprofit management, and federal policy and management. Next spring, in collaboration with the Colleges of Law and Engineering, will bring a new offering of a certificate in cybersecurity law, policy and management.  

“In 2015 we also created a Global Option transcript designation for undergraduate students to document their international experience,” Greenbaum said. “We were also partners in the Master of Engineering Management degree created in 2019 as well as a new Master of Systems Engineering degree that was approved this summer.” 

The college added a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy Analysis, and undergraduate students can now combine that or the Bachelor of Arts in Public Management, Leadership and Policy with a Master of Public Administration for completion in five years or less. 

Raising the Bar

Learn more about the new undergraduate Minor in Law and Public Policy.

With the latest additions including local government, public management, science and engineering in the public interest, and education policy, 10 undergraduate minors are now offered through the Glenn College. This year, the college collaborated with the Moritz College of Law to create a law and public policy minor. 

“Our students go on to have impactful public sector careers, returning benefits not only to the university but also to local, state, national and even international public and nonprofit organizations,” Greenbaum said, “affirming the university’s land-grant mission and our college vision to inspire citizenship and develop leadership.” 

Read more from the latest edition of Public Address, the Glenn College magazine.