The Humphrey School of Public Affairs is pleased to announce five new faculty members who will join the School in the 2025-26 academic year.
“Their scholarship, teaching, and professional experience reflect the School’s commitment to public service and the priorities outlined in our Constellations of M(pact),” said Dean Nisha Botchwey of the new additions. “From climate resilience and racial justice to community-engaged urban planning and global policy, their work will enrich our teaching, research, and community connections in Minnesota and beyond.”
Rashad Williams returns to the Humphrey School this fall as an assistant professor in the Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) area. He earned his PhD at the School in 2022. Since then, he has been at the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor of Race & Social Justice in Public Policy.
Williams’s work explores how ideas of racial equity and justice are translated into urban policy and planning—especially through the lens of the Black reparations movement. He coined the term “reparative planning” to describe how cities can pursue redress at the local level. His research has been recognized with the Urban Affairs Association’s Emerging Scholar Award. Williams earned his master’s degree from Binghamton University, and his bachelor's degree from the State University of New York Cortland.
Hilary Malson is joining the MURP program and the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) as an assistant professor in the fall. Malson is a community-engaged, interdisciplinary scholar researching urban planning and urban histories through a Black studies and Black feminist lens. Her current work examines grassroots planning and community organizing in urban peripheries.
Malson is completing her PhD in urban planning at UCLA, where she teaches, studies, and conducts research across programs in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She has previously held fellowships with the Ford Foundation, Monument Lab, and the Smithsonian Institution, and has published in outlets including Planning Theory & Practice and The Handbook on Planning and Power. She earned her master's degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and her bachelor's degree at Haverford College.
Rachel Young will become an assistant professor in the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP) area in January 2026. She’s currently a Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University’s Global Policy Lab.
Young’s research uses quantitative methods and big data to explore the social impacts of climate change and natural hazards. In 2022, Young served at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, advising on issues related to FEMA's flood mitigation and insurance programs. She began her research career as a policy analyst for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy in Washington, DC. Young earned her PhD from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, a Master of Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from Lewis & Clark College.
Laura Bishop is a new senior fellow in Sustainable ESG (environmental, social, and governance). She has a background in ESG as the former chief sustainability officer for Best Buy and commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Currently she leads a consulting practice, Purpose Strategies, to help organizations with their ESG journey. Bishop has been an adjunct instructor at the Humphrey School for several years and co-teaches a course on ESG leadership.
Bishop earned her Master of Public Administration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and her bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Arshad Mohammed is a new senior fellow in the global policy area. He recently retired after a 35-year career as a reporter for Reuters, with assignments spanning New York, Paris, Algiers, and Washington.
He covered the White House and the State Department, and served as a diplomatic correspondent, traveling extensively with former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and Secretaries of State Powell, Rice, Clinton, and Kerry. He was in the Florida classroom on Sept. 11, 2001, when George W. Bush learned of the second plane to hit the World Trade Center.
A Washington D.C. native, Mohammed earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“I’m thrilled to welcome each of these new faculty members to the Humphrey School,” said Botchwey. “Each of them brings fresh perspectives, deep curiosity, and a clear commitment to public service. We’re looking forward to the ideas they’ll spark, the connections they’ll build, and the many ways they’ll contribute to our community.”
