An Anniversary of Impact and Ambitions

This academic year, Sanford celebrated 50 Years of Public Policy at Duke! It was a momentous anniversary, and a chance for the school to focus on our impact, our work today, and our outrageous ambitions for the future.

Throughout this year, we have reflected deeply about our history and our institution builders including our founder Terry Sanford, founding director Joel Fleishman, many past leaders, faculty and staff and longtime friends. These leaders literally carved out a new discipline of public policy at Duke that has provided academic and professional training to almost 10,000 students – now alumni working and making a difference around the world.

Sanford has always been a community of excellence and continues to be so. This year, we highlighted our vibrant community with our Faces@50 profile series, celebrating Sanford alumni doing vital work in this moment. Throughout this year, our community came together to commemorate the 50^th through a wide array of lectures, conferences and celebrations.

The centrality of public policy to so many areas of our world – from technology to climate and more – is why we get up in the morning, why we teach, do research and engage with our communities. Policy solutions are needed now more than ever. We are building toward an ever better and brighter future, through our excellent academic programs, our faculty, our action-minded students and our strong community. We could not do this work without the engagement and support of our Board of Visitors, alumni and friends. We have outrageous ambitions for the future of Sanford, and we invite all to join us to improve lives through public policy research and education.

Thank you for celebrating 50 years of public policy with us. Onward to the next 50 years!