Jacqueline Hicks Grazette
Curriculum Director

Jacqueline Hicks Grazette is a faculty member and part of the Strategic Planning Team for the St. Albans School of Public Service. In this capacity, she is helping design the curriculum and plan for the operational management of the School, in addition to being part of the initial teaching faculty.

A specialist in public policy, non-profit management and the private sector, Ms. Grazette is a graduate of Harvard University, with a B.A. in English and American Literature, and a Masters in Business Administration. She was a Council for Opportunity in Graduate Management Education Fellow, and a Harvard-Radcliffe Scholar. She just completed a residence as a Visiting Scholar at George Mason University. Her work there has helped inform policy development related to the "African Americans in the 21st Century" project, with a particular focus on successful African Americans in the technology economy, and public/private partnerships for education within the inner city.

Prior to her appointment at George Mason, Ms. Grazette served on faculty at the University of Maryland at College Park as Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise (CPPPE) at the School of Public Affairs. There she focused on developing models of interaction for governmental, non-profit and private sector groups around issues related to public policy. She produced a national curriculum building conference on "Public Policy and Private Enterprise: New Directions for Public Service Education," which attracted the deans of the nation’s top public policy schools as well as some of America’s leading non-profit, government and private sector executives to talk about the challenges and educational needs of preparing new leadership in public policy. She also delivered a research presentation to the Board of Directors of Maryland's School of Public Affairs outlining content, programmatic outreach and suggested research directions for CPPPE.

Ms. Grazette's other experience in education includes working with George Washington University, as part of a team of advisors to the President, Board of Trustees, and the Vice-President of Academic Affairs in their efforts to create a new College of Professional Studies. Her work there to date has resulted in groundbreaking studies on the changing landscape of higher education, and the need for more innovative content related to professional education. She has prototyped new degrees, certificates, distance learning programs and other major initiatives to launch the new College.

Ms. Grazette also served as an executive at the Smithsonian Institution. She was the first African American woman appointed as an Assistant Director of a Smithsonian Museum: the National Air and Space Museum, the largest and most visited museum in the world. She managed the 120-plus employees and volunteers of its Educational Services Department. In that capacity, she was responsible for using museum resources and curatorial scholarship to improve science and history education nationally as well as within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. She created productions and programs in partnership with metropolitan area school systems for K-12, the Public Broadcasting Corporation, major corporations, and distance learning programs via the Internet. She launched the first Web site for the Education Department with funding from the Mars Family Foundation, and created an international teacher resource center for using museum products and information for science education teaching.

For her success in management at the Smithsonian, Ms. Grazette was tapped by then Secretary Robert McCormick Adams to head the institution’s strategic planning process. She lead the directors of museums, research and operating agencies in a planning process which resulted in a Smithsonian policy statement to Congress with recommendations for the Institution’s role in public education. For her work in museums, Ms. Grazette was named "National Museum Educator of the Year" by the National University and Continuing Education Association, and was named as the Smithsonian representative to the Carnegie Institute's Academy for Science Education (CASE).

In Prince George’s County, Ms. Grazette created and found private funding for Camp PGC, a summer museum camp for foster care children. She also produced "Smithsonian Evenings at Prince George’s Community College," bringing the wealth of the museum’s resources to an underserved population. She continues to conduct research and participate in efforts to improve the quality of life in Prince George’s County. She serves as a Board Member and legislative liaison for the Patuxent River Civic Association, a group dedicated to the preservation of the Patuxent River watershed and its rural communities in this part of Maryland. She is a featured op-ed columnist for the Capital Gazette newspapers, offering commentary on county, municipal and state development issues.

Ms. Grazette has taught for numerous organizations in the area of public policy and non-profit management, including the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the Smithsonian Institution, the University and Continuing Education Association (UCEA), the American Association of Museums, the National Direct Marketing Association, the Cultural Alliance of Washington and the Federal Women’s Program. Ms. Grazette has been profiled by Working Woman magazine and has appeared as a consultant on numerous television programs, including the Today Show and CNN. She is a member of the Harvard Business School National Women Alumni Association, the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association, the Harvard Alumni Association of Washington, D.C., the American Association of University Women, and the American Association of Museums.