The Call to Serve - 2024 Phi Beta Kappa Key into Public Service Panel
On Thursday, June 20, 2024, the Phi Beta Kappa Society hosted the Key into Public Service Call to Serve event on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The event was designed for current students, interns, and young professionals looking to pursue careers in public service.
The Call to Serve event included a panel discussion featuring inspirational public service leaders who reflected on their own paths from campus to service careers.
This event was made possible through the generosity of the Gray Foundation.
Featured Panelists:
Dr. John O'Shea (ΦΒΚ, St. Lawrence University) is the Scientific Director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIAMS' areas of focus include basic and clinical research related to immunology, autoimmunity, rheumatology, dermatology, muscle biology, and orthopedics. Dr. O'Shea also serves as a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Molecular Immunology and Inflammation branch, studying cytokine signaling transduction. Dr. O'Shea has authored more than 350 publications, received numerous awards including U.S. Public Health Physician of the Year and election to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences and Medicine, and co-founded the NIH-Oxford Scholars program.
Sharion Scott (ΦΒΚ, Rice University) is a Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Section, where she files cases to fight unlawful discrimination in the workplace. She joined the Civil Rights Division in 2021 through the Attorney General's Honors Attorney Program. Prior to joining the DOJ, Ms. Scott clerked on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and worked as a Skadden Fellow at the Advancement Project National Office supporting local community organizations on issues like voting rights and criminal legal system reform. In law school, she served as the President of the Public Service Advisory Board and volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate. Ms. Scott also taught second grade as a Teach for America corps member after undergrad.
Mona Yacoubian (ΦΒΚ, Duke University) is vice president of the Middle East and North Africa center at the United States Institute of Peace. At USIP, Ms. Yacoubian previously served as a senior advisor on conflict analysis and prevention with a focus on Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, and as the executive director of the Congressional-appointed Syria Study Group. Prior to joining USIP, Ms. Yacoubian served as deputy assistant administrator in the Middle East Bureau at USAID, as special advisor at the Stimson Center, and as the North Africa analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the U.S. Department of State. Ms. Yacoubian was a Fulbright scholar in Syria, has held an international affairs fellowship with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and is currently a CFR member.
Moderator:
Stephanie Lai (ΦΒΚ, Columbia University) is a National Politics Reporter with Bloomberg News where she is covering the 2024 election. Previously, she covered Congress for the New York Times as part of the 2022 fellowship class. She was also a White House Correspondents' Association scholarship recipient, a ProPublica Emerging Reporter fellow, and an intern at the Wall Street Journal. Lai also interned on metro desks for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer. As an undergraduate, she served as the News and Investigations editor for the Columbia Daily Spectator.