The new issue of the Virginia Policy Review features something you might not expect to find in a student-led public policy journal: opinions from two nationally prominent leaders.

Alongside essays by University of Virginia students on public policy topics from anti-obesity taxes to financial market regulation is an interview with Jon Huntsman, former Utah governor, U.S. Ambassador to China and a one-time Republican presidential candidate. Huntsman shares his thoughts on U.S. trade policy toward China, reviving the U.S. manufacturing sector and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, among other hot-button issues.

In addition to the Huntsman interview, conducted by Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy graduate student Tony Lucadamo, former District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee contributes an op-ed about education reform.

The Fall/Winter 2013 issue also features original research by Tara Clark, a graduate student in the Batten School, examining the effectiveness of federal “Empowerment Zones” that are intended to revitalize economically challenged cities like Detroit, whose skyline appears on the issue’s cover.

Featuring national figures like Huntsman and Rhee helps draws attention to the student work alongside it, said editor-in-chief Addie Bryant, who, like the rest of the magazine staff and a majority of the contributors, is a student in the master’s of public policy program at the Batten School.

“Our mission is to focus on student-driven work,” she said. “Having policymakers alongside it can enhance our readership, so people are more likely to read our students’ ideas, getting their ideas out there and hopefully changing the policy debate.”

The full issue is available at www.virginiapolicyreview.com.