To honor the legacy of Professor Laila El Baradei ’83, ’88, who passed away in April, the Department of Public Policy and Administration (PPAD) at AUC has developed the Laila El Baradei Thesis Award to recognize an outstanding graduate thesis within the department. At the time of her passing, El Baradei held the positions of professor and chair of PPAD at AUC.

“Dr. Laila El Baradei left behind a lasting impact on her students and colleagues, as well as lasting influence on the local and international public policy sphere. For her, teaching was a calling, not a profession, and publishing was an unwavering commitment to ethical governance and public service” said Noha El-Mikawy ’82, dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

The award will embody El Baradei’s dedication to academic excellence, public service and student mentorship, shaped by generations of public administrators and policy professionals in Egypt and beyond. “The annual award reflects the department’s commitment to fostering high-quality, policy and public administration-related research in honor of El Baradei’s enduring contributions to public service and academia as well as her lasting impact on PPAD and its students,” said PPAD Interim Chair and Associate Dean Shahjahan Bhuiyan.

“Dr. Laila El Baradei left behind a lasting impact on her students and colleagues, as well as lasting influence on the local and international public policy sphere."

The inaugural award will be announced in September 2025 at the PPAD student-alumni networking event, and all subsequent awards will be granted on April 18 each year to keep El Baradei’s memory alive on the anniversary of her passing.

The winning thesis will be chosen from among the Master of Public Administration/Master of Public Policy theses defended and accepted in the previous calendar year (January to December) by a selection committee of at least three full-time PPAD faculty members, appointed by the department chair. The best thesis will be selected based on academic rigor and originality, relevance and contribution to public policy and administration literature, methodological strength and policy relevance and impact.

El Baradei had been an active and valued member of the AUC community for over 30 years, first as a student and later on as faculty. She earned her PhD in public administration from Cairo University in 1988 and was a faculty member there for over 14 years prior to joining AUC in 2006. During her years at AUC, El Baradei served as the first associate dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, later as the acting dean, and then as associate dean for research and graduate studies.

"For her, teaching was a calling not a profession and publishing was an unwavering commitment to ethical governance and public service."

Throughout her career, she had been recognized repeatedly for her teaching excellence and service to the University, earning an Excellence in Academic Service Award from AUC in 2022. She also received numerous awards from local and global organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the American Society for Public Administration, and the Arab Administrative Development Organization. She continues to be awarded posthumously for her work, recently receiving the Pierre DeCelles Award for Best Paper.

El Baradei and her husband, engineer Ibrahim Shoukry, are survived by their three children, Farah Shoukry ’12, ’16, ’25, Mohamed Shoukry ’12, and Nawara Shoukry ’15.

Alumni and faculty from the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications (JRMC) have received international recognition for their work this summer.

At the International Communication Association (ICA) annual conference held in Denver, Colorado, Laila Abbas (MA ’24) received the Top Dissertation Award for her master’s thesis, titled, “Emotionally Stimulated Activism on TikTok: The Impact of Exposure to Audiovisual Moral Violations on Collective Action in the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ Movement.”

Her thesis supervisor Professor Shahira Fahmy said, “Laila’s accomplishment is a testament to the outstanding quality of work produced at AUC, as she competed against top PhD dissertations from around the globe and emerged victorious. This showcases our students’ potential to excel well beyond the ordinary.” 

Abbas recently joined a communications PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“This accomplishment is a testament to the outstanding quality of work produced at AUC... This showcases our students’ potential to excel well beyond the ordinary.” 

Menna Elhosary (MA ’24) was also awarded for her work at the ICA, receiving the Top Student Paper Award in the Visual Communication Division — with an acceptance rate of only 31% — for her paper, “Pixels of Prejudices: Decoding Embedded Biases in AI-generated News Imagery and their Implications for Visual Journalism — Toward an Algorithmic Mediated Visual Framing.” Elhosary is currently pursuing a PhD at City St George’s, University of London.

Professor of Practice Kim Fox was also among those recognized this summer, receiving global attention across cultural platforms for an audio piece she co-produced, featuring vocals from Hana Afifi ’14, called Birdland Refracted. The piece was shortlisted for the Audio Flux Circuit 05 competition and was chosen as one of only four Circuit Selects, premiering as part of the Sound Scene Festival at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. 

Ahead of that debut, Birdland Refracted aired on LRT Radijas, the main public radio network in Lithuania, introducing the work to a European audience. The piece also drew attention from the media industry, earning a mention in Nieman Lab, and it was featured in the Happy Hour/Happy Ears 05 Finalist Listening Party.

In the thick of the summer and with a new academic year on the horizon, AUC is excited to discover how its creative faculty, alumni and students will continue to excel in their fields.