by Bill Sulon

July 2, 2010

Dickinson College honored John Bailey, class of 1995, with the outstanding young alumni award during alumni weekend ceremonies recently at the college.

In a career that already spans the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Commerce, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the White House, Bailey has worked on immigration, health care, homeland security, education and economic policy. But there’s one challenge that brings him back to work each morning.

“I think I’m really drawn to complexity,” said Bailey, of Alexandria, Va. “I enjoy trying to figure out solutions to complex challenges. That’s just really energizing and something I enjoy.”

As special assistant for domestic policy to President George W. Bush, Bailey faced one of his most complex challenges when the student-loan credit market tightened to the point of near paralysis in 2008. As several lenders began to make it clear that they would not offer student loans for the 2008-09 academic year, Bailey worked with senior administration officials to launch four emergency programs to restore confidence in the market.

“It was really one of the canaries in the coal mine for the broader credit market,” said Bailey, who worked as deputy director of policy at the commerce department and served as a national initiatives senior policy officer at the Gates Foundation before joining the Bush administration. “In the end, there was no disruption in terms of students receiving their loans for that year.”

Now, as a director at Dutko Worldwide, a nonpartisan government-relations organization, Bailey has his hand in several fields, including information technology, education, telecommunications and health care.

“It’s an interesting place to work, because it gives me the chance to work on a number of issues,” said the former policy-management-studies major, who credits his Dickinson education with preparing him for the job.

“Dickinson helped me in a lot of ways,” he said. “The courses gave me the background in political theory to jump into these areas. But I think the other thing Dickinson gave me is that it helped me better understand the complexity of these issues. That’s something that would always come up in policy-studies classes. The issues were never simple. They had to be looked at from different perspectives and different angles, and I think that’s helped prepare me immensely.”

In addition to bringing him personal satisfaction, Bailey’s work has earned him the Outstanding Achievement Award for Excellence in Public Service from the Consortium for School Networking. He has also been named one of 25 young leaders by the American Council on Germany and was dubbed one of the 30 most influential leaders in the education-technology industry by eSchoolNews.

This award is one of three Distinguished Alumni awards presented each year at Dickinson College’s annual alumni weekend. The awards recognize outstanding alumni of Dickinson. Selected entirely by fellow alumni, recipients must demonstrate exemplary service to the college, accomplishment in their professional and civic lives and strength of character. Members of the Leadership Committee of the Alumni Council determine the recipients from among those nominations that are received.