Acknowledgements

The Kendall Center for Teaching and Learning at Gustavus provided financial support for this project.  Two grants allowed me to provide small stipends to alumni contributors and gave me a stipend over two summers of research and writing.  The Kendall Center also provided a well-timed writing retreat.

Two current Gustavus students read the first five draft chapters of the book, created the glossary, tracked down supporting materials, and edited footnotes.  Thank you, Nisora Usmonova and Zoe Jesh, for taking the time to help me with this project.  Lissie Artley provided similar help with chapter 6.  Thank you Lissie!

I am especially grateful to my former students who enthusiastically took the time to reflect on their careers in public policy and write about their experience as writers.  Reading their contributions was my favorite part of working on this book. I am enormously proud of these students (and the many others whose reflections are not included here), who work every day to make our world a better place.  Thanks, especially to Henry Adebisi, Jessye Flannery, Eric Fowler (Halvorson), Karin Lund, Mikka McCracken, Kaleb Rumicho, Marcus Schmit, Samantha Vang, and Matthew Vierzba.

Students in my spring 2023 U.S. Public Policy Class were the first full class to read the first five chapters of the book and, while I was equally excited and nervous about sharing it with them, I was deeply appreciative of their feedback and encouragement.  Students in my spring 2024 U.S. Public Policy Class were the first readers of the policy chapters on Health Care and Environmental policy and they provided me with lots of valuable feedback.

Finally, I want to thank the generations of Gustavus public policy students (nearly 300 between 2006 and 2022) who helped me refine my approach to teaching U.S. public policy and who made this one of my very favorite classes to teach.