Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy will be named the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy in honor of former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. At the recommendation of Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera, the Georgia Board of Regents approved the naming at its April 16 meeting.

“The Carter family is a true gem of Georgia, demonstrating what can be accomplished through a focus on public service, resilience, and a desire to improve the human condition,” said Cassidy Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton Professor and School Chair in the School of Public Policy. “We are grateful to have the opportunity to honor the Carters for their work since the founding of the Carter Center in 1982, focused on preventing and resolving conflicts, enhancing freedom and democracy, and improving health.”

“I am grateful to the Carter family, the Carter Center, and the Georgia Tech alumni and donors who supported this naming,” said Cabrera. “The Carter School will contribute to preserving the memory of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s extraordinary life of public service and will inspire and develop new generations of public leaders committed to Progress and Service.” 

Jimmy Carter, who attended Georgia Tech as a student in 1942, received the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Service and Progress at Georgia Tech in 2002 and the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage at Georgia Tech in 2017. The School of Public Policy is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, named for former Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. Allen who was known for his transformative urban leadership and socially and ethically conscious action.

“It’s a pleasure always to be associated with the Ivan Allen family in any way. We’ve been close to the family for a long time,” said Jimmy Carter at the award event in 2017. “In every respect, my heart is with Georgia Tech.”

“Mayor Allen was a beacon of light for Jimmy and for me and so many others actually in our whole country, standing up for what was good and what was right,” said Rosalynn Carter at the 2017 award event.

The School of Public Policy partnered with the Carter Center on the two-year naming process, and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were engaged and personally supportive.

“My family and I are honored by Georgia Tech’s naming of the School of Public Policy after my grandparents," said Jason Carter, grandson of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. "Georgia Tech was extremely important to my grandfather, and I am so glad that this institution chose to celebrate my grandparents' decades-long partnership of service.” 

"Georgia Tech always held a special place in President and Mrs. Carter's hearts. In fact, Mrs. Carter kept a Georgia Tech blanket draped across a chair in her office at The Carter Center — a sweet reminder of her very favorite Tech student — and it still sits there today," said Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander. "Georgia Tech played a formative role in their lives and it helped shaped their policy perspectives from the Governor's mansion to the White House and beyond. It is only appropriate that the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy will now bear their names."

The School of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts educates leaders who can ethically address societal problems through policy processes and generates knowledge that contributes to sustainability, creates a more equitable society, and serves to enhance innovation at the intersection of science and technology.