Topics and Background Guides

Economic Topic Expert

Mary McCarthy is a professor of Political Science at Drake University. She teaches numerous regional courses on the politics and international relations of Japan, China, and East Asia, as well as topical courses in world and comparative politics. She received her B.A. in East Asian studies and her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. Dr. McCarthy specializes in Japan's domestic and foreign policies. Her current research examines the historical legacies of the Asia-Pacific War on Japan-U.S., Japan-China, and Japan-Korea relations. She is also a Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Scholar. At Drake University, she also advises students on post-graduate opportunities in Asia, including teaching English in Japan through the prestigious Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET). 

Political Topic Expert

Todd Jacobus was appointed by Governor Reynolds to serve as the Commandant of the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs in 2022. Jacobus also serves on the Board of Directors of the Iowa Sister States, where he is the Kosovo Committee Chair. He retired from the U.S. Army & Iowa Army National Guard in 2017 after serving as a full-time officer for over 33 years. In 1991, he was deployed to Germany in support of Operation Desert Storm. Then in 2005, he was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. From 2015 to 2016, he served in Kosovo supporting Operation Joint Endeavor. Colonel Jacobus graduated from Hoover High School in Des Moines, earned a B.A. in English and Secondary Education Teaching Certificate from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in Public Administration from Drake University, and completed the International Security Studies Fellowship Program at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy. In 2010, he graduated from the U.S. Army War College and was promoted to Colonel in 2012. His awards include the Legion of Merit (2nd Award), Bronze Star Medal, Combat Action Badge, a Bronze and Silver Order of the Fleury Medal, and numerous state awards.

Scientific Topic Expert

David Courard-Hauri serves as the Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program at Drake University. He studied chemistry and government at Georgetown University for his undergraduate degree. He received a Masters of Public Affairs from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Stanford, where he worked to investigate and model dynamic systems with complex feedbacks. His post-doc at UNC Chapel Hill involved refining reaction chemistry in the air pollution model CAMx, which was most recently used by the EPA in their major new rulemaking on greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants. In his twenty-five years at Drake, Dr. Courard-Hauri has led seminars on economic development and environmental sustainability in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Ecuador, and has spent the last two J-term sessions leading service-learning seminars in the Galapagos Islands. An avid gardener and arborist, he worked with students to create the Sprout garden, where Drake students work with urban youth to grow a variety of fruits and vegetables and work through a curriculum that stimulates interest in science and environmental areas. 

Social Topic Expert

Dr. Karen Kedrowski is the Director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1992, and her B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1986. She is the author of Media Entrepreneurs and the Media Enterprise in the U.S. Congress (1996); coauthor of Cancer Activism (2007), Breastfeeding Rights in the United States (2008) and Walking the Gendered Tightrope: Theresa May and Nancy Pelosi as Legislative Leaders (2023). Kedrowski is also the author or coauthor of numerous journal articles, book chapters, and book reviews. Previously, Kedrowski spent 24 years at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she held numerous positions, including chair of the Political Science department and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. In 2010, she was the visiting Fulbright Chair in Health, Indigenous Peoples, Media, and Education at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Kedrowski has received numerous awards and honors, including Winthrop University's highest award, Distinguished Professor, in 2011. 

Technological Topic Expert

David Skidmore received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and taught at Hamilton College and the University of Notre Dame before arriving at Drake University in 1989. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. Skidmore served as Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. He is past Director of the Drake Curriculum and First Year Seminar programs. His research and teaching interests lie in the areas of international political economy, American foreign policy and international relations theory. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and a co-authored textbook titled International Political Economy: The Struggle for Power and Wealth in a Globalizing World (Routledge, 2017). He has published numerous articles in various academic journals, including Political Science Quarterly, Foreign Policy Analysis, International Studies Perspectives, the Chinese Journal of International Politics and Asian Politics and Policy. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. He is currently completing two books: one titled China, the West, and Competitive Convergence in the Global Development Finance Regime, and the other titled Research Handbook on American Foreign and Security Policy. Along with journalist Kyle Munson, Skidmore co-hosted the podcast: US-China: Searching for Common Ground.