Presidential Management Fellows
Eleven students from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Mangement and one student from the Tepper School of Business have been named finalists in the Presidential Management Fellows Program. They are Kristina Alagar, Aakash Bhatt, Catherine Bloniarz, Eleanor Cambridge, Jim Cipriani, Sibyl Dore, Jennifer Eskra, Doug McGill, Layney Morrison, Brad Siemens, Nell Todd and Kate Wunderlich.
The prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship Program is a nation-wide competition for mid-management positions within the federal government, established to attract outstanding master's and doctoral level students to leadership roles in federal service. The Fellows complete a two-year appointment working in the federal government. Upon completion of the appointment, fellows are eligible for conversion to career or career-conditional status and are eligible for promotion.
Since the inception of the original Presidential Management Intern Program in 1977, over 3,500 alumni continue to serve in all cabinet departments and in more than 50 Federal agencies. Many are high ranking officials who are changing policies and directing programs to meet the needs of our times. The excellent reputation of these outstanding fellows has led many federal agencies to make the Presidential Management Fellows Program a cornerstone of their succession planning.
Each year this highly competitive program has a 35% national rate of applications who make it to the semi-finalist stage; 50% of the semi-finalists are named finalists. The application process begins in early September, involves nomination by the School, successful completion of a scored, web-based application, and successfully passing a battery of exams at one of 20 federal assessment centers. Fellows are informed of their finalist status in mid-March, and, if they wish to enter the program, have until December 31 of the same year to finalize a federal job offer.