Nathan Claes

Adjunct Faculty

njcgpt@rit.edu

Nathan Claes

Adjunct Faculty

Bio

Nathan Claes currently serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Public Policy. Apart from teaching, Dr. Claes is a full-time employee of the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Within VA, he serves as the Evaluation and Data Management Lead for the National Military Sexual Trauma Support Team and as a Health Science Specialist at the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Dr. Claes received his Ph.D. in Communication from the State University of New York University at Buffalo. His doctoral work focused in the areas of game theory, cognitive mapping, and computer-mediated communication. He holds a M.S. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Psychology and Communication from Roberts Wesleyan College.

His academic interests are in the areas of innovative program assessment, policy and research evaluation methods, and barriers to the effective communication of complex information.

Courses:

Evaluation and Research Design; Ethics, Values, and Public Policy; Readings in Public Policy; Introduction to Public Policy

Currently Teaching

PUBL-201

Ethics, Values & Public Policy

3 Credits

This course focuses on the connections and interplay between personal and social values, ethics, and public policy. It explores how values and norms influence public policies and how the resulting expressions of values through public policies impact the implementation and effectiveness of policy choices. It also delves into how different countries make widely different policy choices based on their citizens’ values and social norms. The course also considers how new developments in science and technology influence the interplay between values, ethics, and policy across multiple issues. In addition, this course explores how to formulate values-based explanations of certain public policy preferences. Topics range across the policy issue spectrum.