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Daniel Serruya, MPH student, combines his nutrition, community health, and health policy experience during his MPH practicum.

Christian Betancourt, PhD Health Services Research '22 and the College of Public Health's 2026 Distinguished Alumni, discusses how the mentorship and hands-on research at George Mason continue to influence his work at Uniformed Services University and the Defense Health Agency.

At the beginning of 2026, Mike Derrios, MBA ’06, returned home to the Costello College of Business at ��ɫ��Ƶ as the executive director of the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting.

When Q Miceli saw that the Costello College of Business at ��ɫ��Ƶ was offering the Executive Mentoring Program as part of the Costello MBA, she was all in. “I had just hit a point in my career where I started supervising more people and really wanted to get some perspective,” she says.

When Avery Cotham, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’26, enrolled at ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, she was ready for a new challenge. For 15 years, Cotham worked as a vocalist and choral director in Colorado before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted her to rethink her career and search for a new way to serve her community.

A few days after completing his last season of college basketball at ��ɫ��Ƶ, Gabe Norwood, BA Communication ’07, began a hoop odyssey that would take him to nearly 30 countries and make him a national basketball hero in a country thousands of miles from Virginia. 

When Hannah Dabney, BA Environmental and Sustainability Studies ’23, arrived at ��ɫ��Ƶ, has just returned from Samoa where she served as a Peace Corps Ridge to Reef Resilience Promoter Volunteer, helping communities balance environmental protection with local development needs. The path between those two points wasn't linear, and Dabney couldn’t be happier about that.

“I think it's the real American dream to have something of your own, build something of your own,” says Bailey Mahoney, MBA ‘26. He grew up witnessing firsthand not only what could be built but also the freedom it created, as his father, who owned an electrical contracting business, always made time to be present for the important moments in his life. Without even realizing it, Mahoney found his first business mentor in his father.

“Being in class with our participants reminds me of the pure joy of dance,” said School of Dance senior Emma Simons of her time interning with Dance for PD®, a movement-based class for people with Parkinson’s disease.

As debates over digital propaganda, misinformation, and media manipulation intensify, audiences are increasingly unsure what’s fact and what’s fiction across news outlets and social media feeds. At ��ɫ��Ƶ, Sergei Samoilenko, associate professor in the Department of Communication, is working to better understand how digital disruption and manipulation practices shape public perception.