Lady Shri Ram College for Women Archives

Dr. Stephen Farnsworth is professor of political science and international affairs and the director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington. He is the author or co-author of nine books and dozens of research articles on the presidency, the mass media, public opinion, and journalism. His most recent books include: Late-Night in Washington: Political Humor and the American Presidency; Producing News in a Time of Disinformation: Information Evaluation Strategies for Journalists and News Consumers; Presidential Communication and Character: White House News Management from Clinton and Cable to Twitter and Trump; and The Global President: International Media and the U.S. Government.

Dr. Farnsworth, who holds a PhD in government from Georgetown University, has also served as a Poland–U.S. Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw, as a Canada–U.S. Fulbright Research Chair in Public Policy at McGill University in Montreal, and as a Malaysia–U.S. Fulbright Specialist at Methodist College in Kuala Lumpur. He has received several teaching awards, including the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Dr. Radha Jagannathan is professor of statistics at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, where she teaches statistics, advanced econometrics, and program evaluation. She received her PhD from Princeton University and is an internationally recognized scholar whose research focuses on human capital development, school-to-work transitions, youth labor market dynamics, poverty, child welfare, and educational equity. A recipient of Fulbright Specialist awards to Germany, Hungary, and Finland, she is also the recipient of the Rutgers Global Impact Award, as well as numerous honors for excellence in teaching and research.

Her scholarship has appeared in leading economics, education, and public policy journals, including the Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Economics of Education Review, Cambridge Journal of Education, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Economic Analysis and Policy, Oxford Economic Papers, Social Science Quarterly, and Evaluation and Program Planning. She has also authored four books published by Oxford University Press and Bristol University Press.

Dr. Jagannathan was one of the principal architects of Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency (CUPESSE), an EU-funded 11-country study on youth unemployment conducted between 2014 and 2018. She also cofounded and directed the Nurture thru Nature (NtN) program, a public–private partnership among Rutgers University, Johnson & Johnson Worldwide, New Brunswick Public Schools, and the New Brunswick Education Foundation that delivered STEM educational programs to disadvantaged students from 2009 to 2022.

Dr. Jagannathan is the founding director of the Center for PASCAL Americas at Rutgers, which is part of a global alliance that advances learning for sustainable and inclusive development through partnerships among universities, governments, NGOs, and civic organizations. She currently leads an international consortium of researchers across Europe and North America on a Horizon Europe proposal focused on nature-inspired early childhood interventions aimed at narrowing educational inequities.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Jagannathan is piloting a nature-based STEM program for fifth grade students in Delhi to address persistent gaps in science and math learning, and gender disparities in STEM participation. In partnership with the faculty at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, the project is adapting and replicating the NtN model. It aligns with India’s National Education Policy 2020 and is also aimed at building host capacity and creating a scalable model for broader impact.