Excellence elevated: Green School earns membership into elite network of schools of international and public affairs

The Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs has been named a full member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA), making it the only university in Florida and the youngest in the United States to achieve the prestigious designation.

Only 40 institutions worldwide hold membership in the association, which brings together the leading graduate schools of international affairs worldwide to improve global affairs education and advance international understanding. FIU now stands alongside Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Stockholm School of Economics.

“Recent global events show how important international dialogue is,” says Steven J. Green, a former ambassador and the benefactor who invested in the school that bears now his name. ”FIU and the Green School are preparing our students to be the global leaders and change makers of tomorrow who inspire and guide us in building a more peaceful and prosperous world.”

FIU’s quick rise to membership speaks to an intentionality that predates the formal creation of the Green School as a freestanding college in 2008.

“What’s really special about this election is the fact that we are a very young school,” says Shlomi Dinar,
an associate dean who guided FIU’s membership application through the rigorous process. He attributes the success to the work of expert faculty, many of whom are active within the 17 centers, institutes and programs housed within the school.

“These are faculty who are not only known in their fields," Dinar says, "but also faculty who have gotten high honors societies and at the same time have engaged in very robust research.”

Funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Justice has increased over the years. Scholarly studies in top journals have drawn attention to the school for its policy-oriented work. And notably, several former government officials have joined the faculty in recent years, among them a president of Costa Rica, a UN ambassador and a U.S. assistant secretary of state.

Students benefit by learning from cutting-edge researchers and former leaders with experience in dealing with real-world problems. Many graduates go on to secure high-level positions within government, nonprofits and the private sector.

Ana Rosa Quintana ’11, MS ’13 earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Green School and currently serves as a professional staff member for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. She appreciates both the classroom instruction she received while on campus and the ongoing support of some of her most valued professors, among them Eduardo Gamarra, an expert on Latin America and the Caribbean who conducts research and teaches in the areas of security, democratization and elections.

“He had his own views and that’s great, but he never tried to force you to adopt them,” Quintana says of Gamarra, with whom she took both undergraduate and graduate courses and has since interacted with professionally during her career. “We have had a relationship for easily over a decade,” she adds, “and he’s somebody whose opinions and research I still rely on to this day.”