2012 Alumnus Selected as White House Fellow

Congratulations to Kermit Jones MPA ’12, recently selected as a White House Fellow for 2012-13. He will spend the year working with senior staff at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Jones is a medical doctor -- with diverse experience as both a Navy surgeon and a primary-care physician in rural India -- and also a lawyer who earned MD and JD degrees from Duke University five years before coming to Columbia.

At SIPA, Jones concentrated in health policy, with a regional specialization in South Asia, and was during the 2011-12 academic year a member of SIPA's International Fellows Program. Among other things, he was founder and president of the Columbia University chapter of YOUR DIL, an organization that works to enhance literacy in Pakistan, a case writer in the 2012 public policy case competition, and an editorial assistant at the Journal of International Affairs.

A more extensive biography was included in the official announcement of this year's fellows.

"I want to convey how happy and thankful I am for the help and support I received from the SIPA community during the entire six-month application process," Jones said. "From my classmates, the deans in student affairs, and career services interviewers to people like Mayor [David] Dinkins and Ambassador [Stephen] Sestanovich who wrote letters of recommendation, I felt like the entire SIPA community was rooting for me, and that was a good wind to have at my back."

As described by the White House, the Fellows program is “one of America's most prestigious programs for leadership and public service…. [offering] exceptional young men and women first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government.” The paid fellowships place participants in full-time positions under senior staff, cabinet secretaries, and other high government officials.