Each semester, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) invites visiting professors and lecturers to the School, who share their real-world expertise in the classroom. These scholars and practitioners focus on some of today’s most pressing national and global policy challenges — from national security and human rights to technology, health care, and the economy.

This semester, we extend a warm welcome to:

Sahar Aziz is a visiting professor whose scholarship examines the intersection of national security, race, religion, and civil rights with a focus on the adverse impact of national security laws and policies on racial, religious, and ethnic minorities. She joins Princeton from Rutgers University where she is professor of law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar. Aziz previously served as a senior policy advisor for the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where she worked on law and policy at the intersection of national security and civil liberties. She is the author of the book “The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom” and the founding director of the Center for Security, Race, and Rights, which is based at Rutgers. This semester, Aziz is teaching an undergraduate course: “National Securities and Civil Liberties.”

Margot Brandenburg MPA ’06 is a lecturer and has spent two decades working at the intersection of philanthropy, capital markets, and social and environmental justice. She joins SPIA from the Ford Foundation, where she is a senior program officer focused on building and strengthening the infrastructure of the impact investment market. She’s held positions at MyStrongHome, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance, among others. She began her career in international microfinance and has worked with several community development finance institutions in the U.S. This semester, Brandenburg is co-teaching a half-term graduate seminar with Andrew Kassoy: “Toward Stakeholder Capitalism.”

Robert Herman MPA ’85 is a lecturer with more than 30 years of experience in democracy, human rights, and governance in the nongovernmental organization community, private sector, and U.S. government. He also has more than 25 years of strategic program leadership and senior management experience in the design and development of the diagnosis-related group sector. He served in the Clinton administration, first at USAID where he focused on political transitions in central/Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and later on the U.S. Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff, working as an advisor to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on democracy and human rights globally. This semester, Herman is teaching a half-term graduate seminar: “New Authoritarianism and the Challenge to Democracy.”

Andrew Kassoy is a lecturer and a leading voice for economic systems change, moving from shareholder primacy to stakeholder capitalism to ensure an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system for all. He is a co-founder of B Lab, the nonprofit organization that built the B Corp movement over the past 16 years. Prior to B Lab, he spent 16 years as a private equity investor. He is a frequent speaker and writer about stakeholder capitalism, the B Corp movement, responsible business, impact investing, and the role of government and public policy in the capital markets. This semester, Kassoy is co-teaching a half-term graduate seminar with Brandenburg: “Toward Stakeholder Capitalism.”

Susan Marquis MPA ’87, Ph.D. ’94 is the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor and lecturer. She joins SPIA from the Pardee RAND Graduate School, where she led the transformation of the nation’s largest and oldest public policy Ph.D. program and graduate school, establishing a new model for public policy graduate education that is designed for a radically changing world. Before entering the nonprofit private sector, she served at the highest levels of the U.S. Navy and in senior leadership positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Program Analysis and Evaluation Directorate for 15 years, including as acting deputy chief of naval operations. She is the author of “Unconventional Warfare: Rebuilding U.S. Special Operations Forces” and “I Am Not a Tractor! How Florida Farmworkers Took on the Fast Food Giants and Won.” This semester, Marquis is teaching an undergraduate Policy Task Force: “Defining and Claiming Workers’ Human Rights: Worker-driven Social Responsibility.”

Thomas O’Connell is a lecturer and has expertise on universal health coverage across multiple regions. He has held numerous positions at the World Health Organization and UNICEF, and his research provides both a quantitative and qualitative assessment of financial and other barriers to equitable access to services. He is a developer and leader of workshops, courses, and training seminars for national ministries, development partners, donors, and universities. He has a proven track record in bringing together senior-level policymakers and partners to align efforts for primary health care and universal health coverage. This semester, O’Connell is teaching an undergraduate Policy Task Force: “Better Health Policies for All: Strengthening Equity and Diversity.”