26/02/2009 | Choosing a Graduate Program, Choosing a Grad School

View from the Top: The West Coast View on Public Policy

By: Tim Rogers

The experience of studying abroad, whether at Pepperdine in the USA or another institution in a different country, is an important aspect of contemporary higher education.

The experience of studying abroad, whether at Pepperdine in the USA or another institution in a different country, is an important aspect of contemporary higher education. Building international relationships, whether they are personal or professional, can contribute an enormous amount to international understanding and collaboration. As Dean Wilburn sees it, this is amongst the most important parts of the Pepperdine mission: “The opportunity for tomorrow’s leaders to know more intimately the culture and leaders of other countries is crucial. International relations can benefit greatly simply from building friendships among nations that can later be called on in situations requiring understanding and trust.”

Dean Wilburn sees the opportunity to continue to study and gain from the experience, particularly in an international context, as one of the central parts of his own career. After gaining his PhD in economic history from UCLA, Wilburn has enjoyed a varied career path, including time spent as a corporate director to companies throughout Europe and the USA, an advisory role to the then President of the USA, Ronald Reagan and Dean of the business school at Pepperdine. By his own admission, he has enjoyed his journey: “My own career has been a pilgrimage through several different careers and several completely different experiences. One of the most rewarding things about my journey has been the opportunity to finish college at age 20, then return to change direction with a graduate degree at age 30, and change again at age 40, and yet again at age 50, which is when I enrolled in my most recent degree program.”

As the Dean of one of the most successful Schools of Public Policy in the USA, Dean Wilburn is most certainly ambitious yet he remains a very humble and generous man. His own distinguished career offers an example to us all and even at the age of 75 he remains excited about what lies ahead: “Almost all areas of concern are global by nature. Things that happen in Belfast or Baghdad affect, in some way, life in Iowa or California. Just as the entire world is now the factory floor in manufacturing, I think the classroom will increasingly be experienced as the entire world. The exciting thing about life in the 21st Century is that we have the opportunity to be repotted when our roots need more space to grow with a new career.”