The Department of Political Science Distinguished Alumni Award
The Department of Political Science has many distinguished alumni, both among its undergraduate majors and its graduate students. In 2000, the Department decided to honor one of them each year by asking them to return to campus to speak to top students at our annual student recognition reception and by bestowing upon them the Distinguished Alumni Award. So far, there have been eleven award winners: Carter Phillips, Richard Medley, Michael Watson, Jim Cotting, Richard Sisson, John Kasich, Colleen McMahon, Jan Allen, Michael Lanese, Stephanie Powers, and Rob Edmund.
Carter Phillips, Distinguished Alumnus 2011
Carter Phillips (B.A. 1973) is the Managing Partner of the Washington DC law office of Sidley Austin LLP. In June 2011, The Ohio State University awarded Mr. Phillips the Honorary Degree, Doctor of Public Service. Mr. Phillips served as a law clerk to both Judge Robert Sprecher on the U.S. Court of Appeals and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger on the U.S. Supreme Court and as Assistant Solicitor General before joining Sidley Austin, where he has maintained an active appellate practice. A prominent member of the Supreme Court Bar, he has been named by The National Law Journal as one of America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers. His 71 arguments before the Supreme Court are the most of any lawyer currently in private practice. The Ohio State Alumni Association presented him its Professional Achievement Award in 2007 in recognition of his distinguished career in and outstanding contributions to the legal profession. He and his wife Sue Henry have endowed a professorship in the Department of Political Science.
Richard Medley, Distinguished Alumnus 2010
Richard Medley is a 1975 B.A. from the Department. He went on from OSU to Yale University, where he received a PhD degree in 1979. Dr. Medley has served as the chief economist for the U.S. House of Representatives Banking Committee. He was a partner, Managing Director, and Chief Political Advisor at Soros Fund Management. In 1997, he founded Medley Global Advisors, which became the leading policy intelligence advisor to the world’s largest investment banks and asset manager. After selling MGA to private equity investors in 2005, he became Chairman of Medley Capital, which has a growing family of separately managed funds.
Michael Watson, Distinguished Alumnus 2009
Michael Watson is a federal judge in the Southern District of Ohio. After serving in the Air Force from 1975 to 1978, he enrolled at Ohio State, and he received his BA in Political Science in 1983. He obtained his law degree from Capital University Law School in 1987. He served as Chief Counsel to Governor George Voinovich, a judge to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, and a judge to the Tenth District Ohio Court of Appeal before being appointed to the federal bench in 2004.
Rob Edmund, Distinguished
Alumnus 2008
Rob Edmund is a 1995 B.A. from the Department. He went on from
OSU to Harvard Law School and subsequently returned to Columbus,
where he became a partner at the law firm of Porter Wright
specializing in labor and employment law. In January 2008, he
moved on to become director of Policy and External Relations for
the Ohio Business Roundtable, a non-partisan organization of 80
chief executive officers of Ohio's largest business enterprises.
He works with them to advance the Roundtable's public policy
agenda in such areas as education and healthcare. He also
teaches as an adjunct professor of employment law at Capital
University Law School. He is also very active in the community,
serving on the Board for United Way of Central Ohio, a former
president of Columbus Early Learning Centers and past chair of
the Columbus Bar Association's Labor and Employment Committee.
He was the founding president of the OSU College of Social and
Behavioral Sciences Alumni Society. Among several other honors,
he has received the William Oxley Thompson Award for early
career distinction from the Ohio State University Alumni
Association.
Stephanie Peters, Distinguished Alumna 2007
Stephanie Powers is a 1986 graduate from Ohio State. After being
president of the senior class council at OSU and receiving the
Black Student Leadership Award here, she went on to receive her
law degree from Georgetown University. She supervised the U.S.
Office of Personnel Management's responsibility under the Voting
Rights Act and she was a minority counsel for the House
Judiciary Committee at the time of the impeachment hearings of
President Bill Clinton. She is now a counsel in the law office
of Patton Boggs in Washington, D.C where she provides legal
advice and legislative counsel on international trade,
intellectual property, and immigration issues. She also devotes
significant time to pro bono efforts related to refugees, human
rights, and global development.
Michael Lanese, Distinguished
Alumnus 2006
Michael Lanese graduated from
Ohio State in 1986 with his BA in Political Science and English.
He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a captain of the football
team. Mike was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he
received a BA in 1988 in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He
served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy. He is the
Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of Clear Saleing, an
innovative company that helps online advertisers optimize, based
on profitability, their ad-spend allocation among search engines
and other advertising options. As CEO, Mike is responsible for
building the company’s strategic vision, designing and launching
the online service, creating the sales and marketing plan and
raising investment funds. Prior to Clear Saleing, he served in
several management roles covering technology and finance at
Linmar Systems, National City Bank and Nomura Securities
International.
Jan Allen, Distinguished Alumna 2005
Jan Allen holds a bachelor's
degree in political science, a master's degree in social work,
and a juris doctor from the College of Law, all from The Ohio
State University. She has had careers as a lawyer, social
worker, and public relations professional. She is a veteran of
government and politics, having served as a top aide to former
Gov. Richard Celeste and having been an informal adviser on
numerous political campaigns. She has been very active at The
Ohio State University, working with several campus
organizations. She currently coaches leaders and emerging
leaders as Director of the Field Center and as a Professional
Certified Coach.
Colleen McMahon, Distinguished
Alumna 2004
Colleen McMahon is a federal
district court judge in New York. She graduated from Ohio State
in 1973 with her BA in Political Science. She went on to Harvard
Law School and then, degree in hand, off to private practice in
New York City until 1995. She then served as Acting Justice of
the New York County Supreme Court (Criminal Term). She was chair
of The Jury Project, a task force that issued a much praised
report on comprehensive jury reform in New York State, as well
as chair of the Committee on Women in the Profession and the
Committee on State Courts of Superior Jurisdiction of the
Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She was Director
of the Committee for Modern Courts and remains active in the
jury reform movement. In 1979-80 she served as special assistant
to Donald McHenry with the U.S. Mission to the U.N. She was
appointed to the federal bench in 1998.
John Kasich, Distinguished Alumnus 2003
John Kasich graduated from Ohio
State in 1974 with his BA in Political Science. Four years
later, at age 26, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, and four
years later in 1982, at the age of 30, he won election to the
United States House of Representatives. He spent 18 years in the
House of Representatives in Washington. As Chair of the powerful
House Budget Committee, he was a prime architect of the budget
agreement that turned almost 15 year's worth of federal budget
deficits into the budget surplus that we inherited at the
beginning of the 21st century. Since leaving the Congress in
2000, Representative Kasich simultaneously has pursued multiple
careers. He is a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, with his
investment banking responsibilities for health care, power and
utilities, technology, and financial institutions. As a
television host and contributor for Fox News, he can be seen on
his Saturday show "From the Heartland" and as a substitute host
on "The O'Reilly Factor." As Chairman of the New Century
Project, he is leading a national grassroots effort dedicated to
electing leaders who believe in the power of the individual.
Professor Richard Sisson. Distinguished Alumnus 2002
Richard Sisson served as Board of
Trustees Chair in Comparative Politics from September 1998 until
his retirement this year. He graduated in 1958 with a B.A. in
International Studies, and in 1960 with an M.A. in Political
Science from Ohio State. He then earned his Ph.D. in 1967 from
the University of California at Berkeley, after which he held a
variety of academic and administrative positions at the United
States Military Academy, the University of California at Los
Angeles, and Ohio State. He was OSU's Provost from 1993 until
1998 and Interim President from 1997 through 1998.
James C. Cotting, Distinguished Alumnus 2001
James Cotting graduated with
honors from OSU in 1955, with a major in Political Science and a
commission in the U.S. Navy. His focus as an undergraduate
student was on international relations and foreign trade, which
he almost immediately put into practice on active duty in the
Navy. After completing his Navy active duty tours, Cotting
started a business career that included positions with U.S.
Steel, Ford, General Foods, and International Paper. He joined
International Harvester in 1979 as Senior Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer, becoming Executive Vice President and
Vice Chairman and then Chairman and CEO in 1987 - by which time
the company had been renamed Navistar to symbolize its move out
of agricultural equipment. Under his leadership, Navistar
flourished for the next eight years. He is currently a Director
of USG Corporation, a Governor of the Chicago Stock Exchange,
and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago. He also has
advised a number of U.S. Presidents over the years.
Carter Phillips, Distinguished Alumnus 2000
Carter Phillips graduated summa
cum laude from Ohio State in 1973 with his BA in Political
Science, then went on to earn his JD (magna cum laude) from
Northwestern University in 1977. Currently he is the Managing
Partner of the Washington DC office of Sidley Austin Brown and
Wood. Mr. Phillips served as a law clerk to both Judge Robert
Sprecher on the U.S. Court of Appeals and Chief Justice Warren
E. Burger on the U.S. Supreme Court and as Assistant Solicitor
General before joining Sidley and Austin, where he has
maintained an active appellate practice. A prominent member of
the Supreme Court Bar, he has been named by The National Law
Journal as one of America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers. Mr.
Phillips has argued 37 cases before the Supreme Court, 30 after
leaving the Solicitor General's office. Among the recent cases
he has argued before the Supreme Court are ones involving the
constitutionality of Maine's prescription drug program and the
legality of incentive payments to physicians in managed care
organizations. He also authored the influential amicus brief for
the United States Military in the University of Michigan
affirmative action case. Mr. Phillips is a member of the
American Law Institute, the American Academy of Appellate
Lawyers, and he is a Fellow in the American College of Trial
Lawyers and Chairman of the Federal Circuit Advisory Committee.
