Clinical psychologist, war Veteran, consultant, and senior analyst at the White House are just a few titles that Hamilton’s new visiting Government Professor Dr. William Mea holds. Currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, Mea comes to campus weekly to teach Government 432: Program Evaluation for Social Change. He then flies back home to D.C., where he is also a consultant.
Raised in the south side of Chicago in what he describes as “modest middle-class,” he went on to get a degree in clinical psychology and minors in political science and philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. He then earned a Master’s Degree in clinical psychology from Xavier University and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Auburn University.
“The field research taught in graduate psychology…translates directly into the courses I teach. If you are going to do good research and plan good programs, you need to know how to apply the right approaches.” A professor Mea had in graduate school influenced him greatly to become a clinician instead of going into the business world postgrad. The professor told Mea that being a clinician enables one to understand individuals. If you understand individuals you can build a successful organization of any capacity. For Mea, the combination of helping people and the scientific connections to psychology led him to public policy. Mea jokingly remarked that to some extent the social science research required for government problems is like being a psychologist for the government.
A week in the life for Mea consists of waking up, daily, at 6:00a.m. On Sundays, Mea flies up from D.C. to Syracuse, spending Sunday night at the Arbour Inn. On Monday’s, Mea teaches his class and then flies home. He describes his course at Hamilton as “taking an analytical approach of getting the best outcomes for what is desired concerning government programs and weighing the cost and benefits for the public.” Too often, government programs are run with the intention of continuing what already exists, but Mea claims that they must be more thoughtful, necessitating the study of public policy. Though public policy can be approached from various angles, Mea believes his class is for those who want to be very practical about the tools and techniques that will make government effective. However, public policy is much more than the application of government theory, it is about understanding business management, organizational theory, economics and even engineering.
According to Mea, one of the pinnacle differences between Hamilton and Georgetown’s campus is that Georgetown is a city school, which leads them to be more curt in their manners, while Hamilton students tend to be more friendly and more approachable. Mea remarked that right away he loved how helpful everyone on campus is: “when I call people, they answer. If I send a student a question, they respond. If I ask someone in the administration a question, they get back to me right away. Quite honestly, in D.C, we are missing that.”
From the teaching perspective, Mea noted that there is much more of a focus on teaching the students, and though professors are also publishing works, the priority is the students — which Mea thinks education should emphasize. Further, due to the smaller size of Hamilton and the open curriculum, there seems to be much more integration across departments.
Regarding Hamilton students, Mea thinks there is more intellectual curiosity and that students here are less career-driven than Georgetown. “Students at Hamilton are self-selecting; they have consciously chosen a smaller school that focuses on smallness and closeness: not a diploma mill.” Of course, students want jobs, but being so job-oriented may prevent students from finding their true passions in life. “I am for people having a sense of where they are going for their careers, and I will always give students a great letter of recommendation, but being so focused on a job is losing who you are.” Finding your “who I am” as Mea calls it, is of course no easy feat, a fitting expression given Hamilton’s motto of “know thyself.” To find your career path Mea urges students to ask themselves “how can I best serve humanity?” and “where do I fit in and make the best impact that works with my talents?”
In Mea’s experience, much of his job history has been circumstantial based on his interests. “I never imagined I would go to Iraq again after the first Gulf War, but low and behold, I was twenty days from retirement in the navy reserves and I got called up again. While there I was a commander of a combat stress team, supporting marines in western Iraq in Fallujah.” As expected, war is horrifying and anxiety-provoking. “Americans always want to make things better, and I can tell you from first-hand experience we pay in many ways.” During this time, Mea also worked in the Office of Management and Budget, overseeing the Navy operations for ten years and taught economics at the National University of Defense.
So what was the pull to Hamilton? “The pull is and always will be teaching, I just love teaching and here the students are focused on learning…when considering the job, Professor David Rivera told me that there is an emphasis on effective writing and the faculty is caring. Well, I’ve found that to be the case and much more…Monday morning class is always the highlight of my week.”
