Dartmouth Scholar Studies Public Policy, Finds Mentorship

Posse Scholar Ian Reed has spent years devoted to local, state and national politics. A veteran of the U.S. Airforce and now a sophomore at Dartmouth, he continues to seek out career development opportunities in government and policymaking to compliment his major in government and minor in public policy and Russian area studies.

Before becoming a Posse Veterans Program Scholar, Ian volunteered for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, eventually becoming its delegate for the State of Virginia. Prior to that, he worked with the Democratic County Committee in Prince William, Virginia, to help pass a county-wide school sexual orientation and gender nondiscrimination policy.

Now on campus, Ian has become a familiar face at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences. He completed Rockefeller’s Management and Leadership Development Program, graduating with distinction, and was subsequently recruited by the Center for a coveted research position.

“The Rockefeller Center’s hands-on training has been one of the most rewarding parts of my academic experience at Dartmouth,” Ian says.

"I developed skills necessary to be an effective leader and problem solver.”

He has since researched nonprofit organizations and government boards in the Upper Valley region and curated an exhibit for Dartmouth’s Rauner Special Collections Library on the school’s 1970s coeducation movement. Ian also wrote an article on Republican Senator George Higgins Moses, a Class of 1890 Dartmouth alumnus, that was published in the Center’s Public Service Legacy Project.

“My work has given me a unique opportunity to develop skills necessary to be an effective leader and problem solver,” he says.

At the Rockefeller Center, Ian has found new mentors in the professors who study and highlight public service. His aspirations have also been noticed by other faculty, including Dartmouth Institute for Writing and Rhetoric Senior Lecturer Svetlana Grushina, Ph.D.

“I hope to have the opportunity and privilege to vote for Ian one day soon,” says Professor Grushina.