The Institute of Politics and Public Service announced its spring 2016 class of fellows yesterday — IPPS’ second class of fellows — consisting of five prominent figures from the realms of politics, government and the media.

The new fellows include former Mayor of Jacksonville, Fla., Alvin Brown, former President of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla (GRD ’89), former Deputy White House Political Director and Special Assistant to the President Patrick Dillon (COL ’99), Senior Politics Editor for The Daily Beast Jackie Kucinich and former Deputy Campaign Manager for Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign for president Katie Packer.

The fellows will begin a semester-long term at Georgetown in which they will participate in on-campus discussions, hold office hours for students and lead weekly discussions on relevant political topics and domestic and international events.

The IPPS Fellows Program, an initiative launched by the McCourt School of Public Policy, began with its first class of fellows in August 2015. Executive Director of IPPS Mo Elleithee (SFS ’94) said the fellows program is an important way in which IPPS improves political discourse on campus and engages with the Georgetown community.

“The fellows program is really the cornerstone of GU Politics. Each semester we bring five practitioners who live in the trenches of politics and public service to do two things: 1) pull back the curtain of politics and help students understand how our political system really works, and 2) engage students to find ways to make it work better,” Elleithee wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“We had an amazing first class of fellows, and we’re particularly psyched about this one.”

Elleithee said that the diversity of each fellow’s background will allow for greater impact on the Georgetown community.

“This mix of professionals, which includes a foreign head of state, a big city mayor, a top political journalist, a White House official who has also helped run a state and a top Republican campaign operative is going to allow students to really dive into politics from a bunch of different angles,” Elleithee wrote. “We can’t wait for them to get here.”

Chief of Staff to the Office of the President Joe Ferrara said that the new class of fellows will continue to contribute to IPPS’ overall goal of finding solutions to make American politics more efficient.

“We congratulate the McCourt School on a terrific new class of fellows at the Institute of Politics and Public Service. This innovative program connects students with leaders in politics, government and media to engage together to make American politics work better,” Ferrara wrote in an email to The Hoya.

IPPS fellows will engage with the Georgetown community directly through discourse and collaboration with undergraduate and graduate students. Students may apply to join “student strategy teams” that will be formed by IPPS for each individual fellow in order to contribute to research and campus outreach. Students on the strategy teams will also participate in a “political hackathon” in the spring to come up with groundbreaking political ideas.

An in-depth profile of each IPPS fellow will appear in a future issue of The Hoya.