Mahoney to Lead SPIA

Dr. Richard Mahoney has been named director of the School of Public and International Affairs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

For the past four years, Mahoney has held the Elizabeth Evans Baker Professorship of Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa. During that time he also served as director of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, one of the oldest and most renowned programs of its kind in the country.

Mahoney served a term as the secretary of state in Arizona in the 1990s and later became executive director of the Nuestra Familia Foundation in Arizona, which started social entrepreneurship projects in two Latin American countries. He ran for the United States Senate in 1994 and for Arizona governor in 2002. Mahoney is considered one of the leading historians in the United States on the Kennedy family and was the John F. Kennedy Scholar at the University of Massachusetts. He also writes and consults on international security and is currently completing a book on regime change to be published by Oxford University Press. He taught international business management for 20 years at the Thunderbird School of Global Management and is credited with helping move it to the No. 1 ranked international business school in the world (replacing Harvard Business School) during the 1990s, according to Forbes and U.S.News and World Report.

Mahoney holds doctorates in law and international relations and lectures in three languages: Spanish, French and English. He has launched more than 30 interdisciplinary programs, degrees, and executive business education modules, both in the United States and overseas. He has written four books and dozens of articles, served as chief speechwriter in two U.S. presidential campaigns, designed and executed several national communication campaigns, directed several documentaries and written and edited more than a dozen full-length film scripts. His fund-raising experience encompasses public, academic, corporate and foundation areas.

Mahoney earned his J.D. from Arizona State University, his master’s degree and Ph.D. in international relations from the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, a C.E.P. in economics from the Institut d’etudes politiques de Paris, and his bachelor’s degree with honors in history from Princeton.

“Dick Mahoney brings wide-ranging experience and a unique perspective to our School of Public and International Affairs,” says Jeff Braden, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “His background in politics, his interdisciplinary orientation, and his global perspective will strengthen and enhance SPIA’s foundation. We are delighted to have him join us.”

Mahoney takes over for Richard Kearney, who led the school in its first six years. “Rick has been an outstanding director,” says Braden. “We are grateful for his service to the school, the college, and the university.”