Syracuse suffers no dearth of well-meaning nonprofits and citizens’ groups. The challenge is figuring out who they all are and which are having an impact.

If Syracuse is especially blessed in any one sector, it is health care. And yet, the challenge to provide for all is never met and some people go without.

It takes a dynamic mix of government policy and nonprofit gusto make sure that adequate housing is available to all.

As in all cities, issues of race tend to get magnified in Syracuse, where populations and politics are concentrated. One secret to political equality is identifying leaders who not only speak for their constituencies but are given the means of change.

At a time when revenues are shrinking and taxpayers are screaming for lower taxes and maintained services, the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County are searching for new efficiencies through consolidation.

The attempt to bring housing and business back into Syracuse is staffed by a new generation of city administrators and developers who, together, think this time around they have the answer.

A think tank’s interest in domestic terrorism drove two MPA research projects, each showing how, on American soil, Islamist extremism is only part of the picture.

In a major NSF study, Maxwell geographers help rural Guyanese assess the true worth of the land on which they depend.

Maxwell’s new research center was founded by Syracuse University alumnus, ad man, and later-life fitness enthusiast Sid Lerner, who views good health as a product of good policy, enhanced with good PR.

At a time when citizens are perhaps more aware of economic issues than ever, Syracuse University is establishing an endowed faculty chair at Maxwell to nurture an interdisciplinary understanding of economic forces in public affairs. The chair honors former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.

After four years of bringing young, English-speaking professionals from the Middle East and North Africa to the U.S. through the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship program, the State Department decided to expand the highly successful LDF program by offering a similar program based in one of its target countries. The Maxwell School was asked to develop this new program, in Arabic, to serve emerging leaders who may not be fluent in English or may not be able to travel to the United States. The natural location for the Arabic LDF program was the American University of Beirut (AUB), already a Maxwell partner in student exchanges

The study of gerontology at Syracuse — including research done in Maxwell’s Center for Policy Research — has gotten a boost with a new Aging Studies Institute and a named professorship. Already prominent, SU’s gerontological programs are poised for growth and greater recognition.

The Maxwell School has attracted a new national fellowship program that promotes careers in the federal government.

When the Near East Foundation searched for a collegiate home, they found eager partners in Syracuse University — and, especially, in Maxwell and the Middle Eastern Studies Program.

Before there was an “NGO sector,” young people who wanted to go overseas and change lives joined the Peace Corps. They still do. Among hundreds of alumni who served in the Corps, we reached out to these seven to see how the experience nourished their public-service psyche and connected to their Maxwell education.

The Donald P. and Margaret Gregg Professorship and the new Korean Peninsula Affairs Center will make Maxwell a locus for study of this complicated little corner of the world.