
Senior Lecturer Pierre Atlas’ work bridges O’Neill’s two worlds. He teaches in the school’s Public Affairs program as well as in its Criminal Justice program. His courses focus on everything from terrorism and gun culture to community structure and urban policy.
“Most people think of public policy as working in government at some level, but public policy is so much broader than being a government official,” he explains.
Atlas points to the nonprofit and private sectors. He says the two play major roles in shaping policy because they’re the advocates and interest groups that help form policy for everyone.
“Government can’t do it alone,” he stresses. “Some of the most effective public policy involves cross-sector collaboration between the public, private, and third—or nonprofit and civil society—sectors. Some of the big problems facing society—what are known as ‘wicked problems’—often require input and even joint decision-making and implementation from all three sectors. I teach a graduate seminar in our MPA program on collaborative governance, which deals exactly with this.”
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