AB/MPA student featured in Time Magazine article

The February 11, 2008 issue of Time Magazine featured a cover story called "Why Young Voters Care Again". Our own AB/MPA student, Nick Solari (left), appeared in the article, representing the University of Georgia.

Nick is in his second semester of the AB / MPA program, and is interested in pursuing a specialization in non-profits. He is currently completing his undergrad major in Political Science, and a minor in Spanish. He is executive director of the Young Democrats of UGA & Athens-Clarke County.

The Atlanta correspondent from Time Magazine had a round table discussion about the upcoming election with members of the Young Democrats, as well as the College Republicans, and featured both in the cover story.

The AB/MPA program allows undergraduate honors students to simultaneously complete a master of public administration degree while completing their undergraduate degree.

Doctoral Grad Receives Best Article Award

Sung Min Park, a recent doctoral graduate of the department, will receive the Best Article Award from the Review of Public Personnel Administration (ROPPA).  The article,  “Antecedents, Mediators, and Consequences of Affective, Normative, and Continuance Commitment: Empirical Tests of Commitment Effects in Federal Agencies,” has been selected for the award for the best article in ROPPA for 2007.  Dr. Park, who received his Ph.D. in 2007, worked on the article while completing his doctoral work.  The findings reported in the article were part of the findings for his doctoral dissertation.  He will receive the award at a ceremony at the 2008 Annual Conference of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) in Dallas, Texas.  As part of the recognition that accompanies the award, he and his coauthor on the article will present the article in a special panel session at the 2009 ASPA conference, with a roundtable panel to discuss the article.  Dr. Park is now Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  Public Administration & Policy professor Hal Rainey co-authored the article. 

Right: Dr. Hal Rainey and Dr. Sung Min Park

Two MPA Students receive Jerry R. Griffin MPA Scholarship

Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) announced the availability of the Jerry R. Griffin Master of Public Administration Scholarship for the 2007-2008 academic year at the association’s fall board retreat in September. Under the program, ACCG has bestowed two scholarship awards to University of Georgia MPA candidates Bernice Butler and Andrew (Drew) Curtright. The announcement was also made at the fall board retreat of the ACCG Board of Managers.

The scholarship, named in honor of ACCG Executive Director Jerry R. Griffin in recognition of his long and influential career with the association, pays $1,000 to an outstanding MPA student who is committed to a career in government management.

Left: Drew Curtright and Bernice Butler appeared on the December 2007 issue of Georgia County Government Magazine

Survey on the Future of Government Service Launched

The largest academic survey of federal executives ever conducted has been launched through a collaborative effort conducted by Dr. Anthony Bertelli of the Department of Public Administration and Policy, Dr. David Nixon of the University of Hawaii, and Dr. David Lewis of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. The "Survey on the Future of the Government Service" will examine and analyze the backgrounds, political views, and experiences of 7,500 executives across the U.S. government. It is accessible online at www.princeton.edu/~sfgs.

By conducting the study the researchers aim to more effectively identify the career paths of federal executives and what they do in their current jobs, examining such questions as: How did executives obtain their current positions? What education and work experience did they have prior to assuming their current posts? What motivated them to pursue government work?

The survey addresses the political views of federal executives, such as party affiliation and how they identify themselves ideologically (i.e. liberal or conservative). The study seeks to determine how much contact federal executives have with various political actors, including Congressional committees, interest groups, the White House, and political appointees. The survey includes questions about the responsiveness of these executives to political direction.

Researchers will also examine executives' perceptions about how well the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART)—an instrument created to measure program performance—is working.

The survey includes questions about the future of public service, particularly government service. Should young people enter public service? If so, what type of education should they get? Should the U.S. create a national public service academy?

The results from the survey will contribute to ongoing scholarly research on America's public service and inform the work of the Task Force on the Changing Nature of Government Service at the Woodrow Wilson School, which is investigating the current state of government service in order to make recommendations about how best to train the next generation of public servants. The Task Force is chaired by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.

Alumni Reception Held in Washington, DC

On a rainy night this fall in Washington, DC, approximately 80 alumni of UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) gathered for the annual alumni reception in the nation's capital. The October 24th event, held at the law office of Alston & Bird and hosted by SPIA Board of Visitors member Joe Whitley, attracted undergraduate and graduate SPIA alumni from Washington and the nearby states of Maryland and Virginia, as well as some members of Congress.

Standing, left to right: Doug Matties, Julie Thomas, Rebecca Wilkinson, current MPA student Mary Ellen Wiggins,
Professor Deborah Carroll, Adam Kincaid, Aldo Davila, and Stacey Hinton
Front row, left to right: Suzanne Heimbach, MPA Recruiter and Career Services Coordinator/MPA Alumna Lisa Sperling,
SPIA Director of Public Relations/MPA Alumna Joy Holloway, and MPA Advisory Council/MPA Alumna Letha Strothers.

Professor Whorton Wins Public Service Award

Public Administration and Policy Professor Joe Whorton, senior fellow at the Fanning Institute and an expert on local government, was presented with an award for excellence in public service and featured in the September issue of Georgia Trend magazine.

"Judges selecting the recipients for this year’s Excellence in Public Service Awards, presented by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government in partnership with Georgia Trend, were looking for unsung heroes who make sure the quality of life remains high in communities across the state.

'The basic idea is to recognize those who excel at all aspects of public service and to help promote public service as a career path,' says Steve Wrigley, director of the Carl Vinson Institute. 'Public servants often face the challenges of high expectations and limited resources, which means they have to do a lot more with less than their counterparts in the private sector.

Historically in this country, public service was a high calling. We’ve gotten away from that a little bit, and that is unfortunate because so much about the quality of life in a community is contingent upon the quality of those who are in its public agencies.'"

Read the entire article

Doctoral Student Jungin Kim Wins Collins Award

Jungin Kim received the 2007 Collins Award for Outstanding Paper by a PhD student at this year's annual conference of the Southeastern Conference for Public Administration (SECoPA) convened in Nashville. Ms. Kim's paper is "Mediating the Effects of Mentoring on the Relationship between Job Motivation and Job Satisfaction." A native of Korea, Jungin Kim holds a bachelor's degree from Dankook University, along with masters degrees from both Seoul National University and the University of Southern California.

MPA Student Receives Pi Alpha Alpha Award


MPA student Yujin Choi has been selected to receive the Best MPA Student Manuscript Award presented annually by Pi Alpha Alpha, the national honor society for students in programs in public affairs and administration.  Ms. Choi will receive the award at the annual meeting of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration in Seattle, Washington October 12.  Ms. Choi graduated from the MPA program on May 12, 2007.

PhD Graduates Placed in Tenure-track Positions

Eight PhD program graduates or PhD candidates accepted offers of tenure-track positions thus far in 2007, the largest number of such placements for any university PhD program in the field. Georgia doctoral alumni are beginning their faculty careers this year at DePaul University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Rutgers University, and the Universities of Arizona, Illinois-Chicago, Kansas, Minnesota, and Texas at Dallas.

MPA Hank Clay among UGA's "Amazing Students"

Hank Clay, a first-year student in the Master of Public Administration program, has been selected as one of the University of Georgia's Amazing Students.

See his profile here: www.uga.edu/amazing/clay.html

Wenger Selected for Membership in National Academy

Professor Jeffrey Wenger has recently been selected for membership in the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). Prospective members are nominated by current members, reviewed by a membership committee and invited to join NASI by the Academy's Board of Directors. Academy members are recognized experts in Social Security, Medicare, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, and related social assistance and private employee benefits. Those selected for membership have distinguished themselves by improving the quality of research, administration, or policymaking in these areas. Professor Wenger's research and policy work focuses on policy design, labor supply and employment effects of pensions, health insurance and unemployment insurance.

MPA Student Invited to Speak at Chancellor's Inauguration
MPA student Bernice Butler spoke on September 13, 2006 on behalf of all students during ceremonies for the inauguration of Mr. Erroll B. Davis, Jr., the first African-American Chancellor of The University System of Georgia. Ms. Butler will spoke on her experiences as an undergraduate and graduate student in the University System.

Visit to the Russian Academy of Public Administration


Professors Gene Brewer and Ed Kellough visited the Russian Academy of Public Administration (RAPA) recently to present lectures on public sector performance management and public personnel administration. RAPA is a large research, training, degree-granting academy organized under the office of the President of the Russian Federation.

The Department of Public Administration and Policy entered into an agreement with RAPA in the fall of 2005 to provide assistance in research, training, and the development of a graduate-level curriculum in public administration. Professor Kellough has now made three visits to the academy.

Research Presented at Hong Kong Conference

Professors Gene Brewer, Larry O'Toole, and Hal Rainey presented research papers at an international conference on Public Management and the Determinants of Performance convened in December at the University of Hong Kong. The meeting, which involved scholars from seven countries, was jointly sponsored by that University and also the Public Management Research Association (PMRA), an international organization of researchers in the field. O'Toole is currently President of the PMRA. Papers presented at the conference will be published in a journal symposium and also a book.

Washington-area Alumni Reception Convened in December

Graduates of the University of Georgia's MPA program who are employed in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area gathered on December 12 for a reception and reunion near Capitol Hill. Dean Lauth and Associate Dean Legge attended along with faculty and staff. The event was sponsored by the School of Public and International Affairs.

Alumnus, Faculty Member, and PhD Student Win Kaufman Award

The 2006 Herbert Kaufman Award, given to the Public Administration Section paper judged to be the best presented at the last annual conference of the American Political Science Association (APSA), has been won by a paper co-authored by Sergio Fernandez, Craig Smith, and Jeffrey Wenger.  They are, respectively, a PhD alumnus of the department who is now on the faculty at Indiana University, a current PhD student here, and a Georgia faculty member.  The award-winning paper is "Employment Privatization and Managerial Choice: Does Contracting Out Reduce Public Sector Employment?"  The Kaufman Award is presented at this September's APSA meetings in Philadelphia.

Best Doctoral Dissertation Award Won by David Pitts

David W. Pitts, 2005 Ph.D. alumnus of the department, has won the 2006 Leonard White Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of public administration from the American Political Science Association.  David's study is "Diversity, Representation and Performance: Evidence about Ethnicity in Public Organizations."  He will receive his award during the Association's Awards Ceremony on Thursday, August 31, at the 2006 APSA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. David is now assistant professor at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

Doctoral Student Awarded NFBPA Scholarship

Doctoral Student Madinah Hamidullah has been awarded the National Forum for Black Public Administrators' Willie T. Loud - CH2M Hill Scholarship. The $5000 scholarship is given to African-American graduate students pursuing careers in public administration, urban affairs, or related fields. The Willie T. Loud - CH2M Hill Scholarship is designed to assist the next generation of African Americans for careers in public service. Madinah will receive the award at the NFBPA Conference in Dallas, Texas, on April 11, 2006. Her research interests include public management and organizational behavior.

Alumnus Endows Fund for Underrepresented MPA Students

Alumnus Roddrick S. Williams (MPA, 1996) has generously endowed a fund in support of underrepresented minority students in the University of Georgia 's MPA Program.  The purpose of the new Morris E. & Frances G. Williams Minority Student Assistance Fund, named in honor of Mr. Williams's parents, is to provide support for underrepresented students enrolled in the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree program in the Department of Public Administration and Policy.  Support can include stipends for graduate assistants, travel support to present papers at conferences or professional meetings, and campus visitations or other recruitment efforts targeted towards outstanding underrepresented students who are viable admission candidates for the MPA program.  Mr. Williams is one of three Williams brothers who graduated with an MPA from Georgia.

Alumna Honored for Combating Discrimination

Gail M. Cowie, doctoral graduate in public administration, is being honored by the Atlanta Pride committee for longtime contributions in combating discrimination in Athens and Northeast Georgia .  She has been active with Athens-area advocacy organizations since the early 1980s, working on women's health issues, violence against women, and more recently, lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgendered rights.  Her professional interests include development and implementation of environmental policy, particularly in multi-organizational or multi-sector arenas.  She has served as member of the public service faculty at the University of Georgia since 1988, working with the community development program.  Specific responsibilities have included applied research and technical assistance with state and local environmental policy development and natural resource management.  Gail is currently on leave to work with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division by helping establish long-term policy and planning processes in a new Office of Policy, Planning and Budget for the state.  She will also be a member of the 2005-2006 class of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership.

Doctoral Student Sung Min Park Wins Best Conference Paper

Sung Min Park will be awarded the Sage Publications Best Doctoral Conference Paper from the Public and Nonprofit Division at the annual conference of the Academy of Management in Honolulu, Hawaii in August.  Sung Min's paper is entitled, "The Leadership and Motivations Effects in Public Agencies:  The Empirical Research of Federal Employees' Perceptions, Values, and Attitudes."  Sung Min Park is a second-year doctoral student who is originally from Seoul, South Korea.  His research focuses on public organizational behavior and public personnel management.

Wenger Selected as Lilly Teaching Fellow

Professor Jeffrey Wenger has just been selected as a Lilly Teaching Fellow for the 2005-2006 academic year.  The Lilly Teaching Fellows Program at the University of Georgia is a faculty career development program that provides opportunities for tenure-track faculty members in their first, second, or third year at the University to enhance their professional development as teaching scholars.  Each Lilly Fellow selects a more senior faculty member to serve as a mentor for the year.  The Lilly Fellows meet regularly during the academic year for presentations, seminars, and off-campus retreats.  Professor Wenger intends to use this opportunity to develop further his instructional contributions to our curriculum in public policy.

MPA Students Brock and Cormier Win Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award

Second-year MPA students Valerie Brock, of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Justin Cormier, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts have been awarded the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award by the University of Georgia.  Both Valerie and Justin have served as teaching assistants for Political Science 1101 Introduction to American Government, an undergraduate course, since Fall semester 2003.  The University-wide award, which was created in 1986, recognizes excellence in teaching and reflects superior teaching skills demonstrated over at least two semesters.  Nominees must be endorsed by the applicable Department Head.  Valerie and Justin will be formally recognized at the UGA Honors Day Awards ceremony on April 27.

MPA Students Brock, Jackson , and Wrathall Named Presidential Management Fellows

Current MPA students Valerie Brock, Scott Jackson, and David Wrathall have been awarded the Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) and will be attending the PMF Job Fair in late March in Washington, DC.  The PMF is the new name for the highly regarded Presidential Management Internship for admittance into employment in the federal government.  Since 1977, the PMF program has served as a fast-track to federal employment.  Valerie, who is from Knoxville, Tennessee, graduated from Converse College, a small women's liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with a dual degree in Politics and Music. Her field of interest is policy analysis.  Scott was raised in Alexander City, Alabama, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.  His field of interest is program and policy analysis.  David, who grew up in Santa Cruz, California, graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in International Studies.  His field of interest is international development.  

Annual Banquet of Georgia Students for Public Administration on April 2nd

The Georgia Students for Public Administration (GSPA) will be holding their annual spring banquet on Saturday evening, April 2, 2005.  This year's keynote speaker is the prominent scholar of public policy, Professor David L. Weimer of the Robert M. Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  In addition to recognizing graduating students, the banquet will also serve to honor the MPA and PhD Students of the Year and the Professor of the Year, and to introduce the GSPA Officers for the 2005-2006 academic year.

Professor Rainey Receives the SPIA Award for Excellence in Teaching

Professor Hal G. Rainey has been selected as the 2005 recipient of the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Professor Rainey will receive a cash prize and a plaque to be presented at the Graduate Students for Public Administration Banquet on Saturday, April 2, 2005.  He also will be recognized at the SPIA Undergraduate Recognition Banquet on April 19, the UGA Faculty Recognition Banquet on April 21, and Honors Day on April 27.  Rainey, an internationally known scholar of public management, teaches graduate courses in leadership as well as organizational theory and behavior.  He also serves as major professor for several Ph.D. candidates.  During the past year one of the Ph.D. dissertations he directed received three national awards.

Ph.D. Candidate Zhirong Zhao Wins Collins Award

Congratulations to Zhirong (Jerry) Zhao, a Ph.D. candidate in the department, who will receive the Collins Award for Outstanding Paper by a Ph.D. Student on October 4th at the annual Southeastern Conference for Public Administration (SECoPA) meeting.  Jerry is from Shanghai, China, and his research interests are in public finance and budgeting. 

Publication Assesses Department's Graduate Students as Best-Published in U.S.

An article in the January 2005 issue Journal of Public Affairs Education reports that the Department's graduate students published more articles in a key set of research journals than did students at any other university during the decade 1993-2002. Georgia students produced more than twice as many articles as did students in the second-most-productive university program. The research team reporting these results measured productivity by analyzing publications in the 13 journals affiliated with the American Society for Public Administration. Four faculty members in the Department were among the 22 most productive researchers overall in the US, according to the same study; no other university faculty included more than two individuals on this list. The Georgia faculty were also listed as the most productive group overall. Lead author of the forthcoming study is Professor Douglas Watson of the University of Texas at Dallas.

MPA Student Receives GCCMA Award

University of Georgia MPA student Jessica Dempsey-Tullar of Flowery Branch, Georgia has been awarded the Harold F. Holtz, Jr., MPA Scholarship for Part-Time MPA Study from the Georgia City/County Management Association (GCCMA).  Jessica works full-time as a Senior Planner for the City of Gainesville and attends the MPA program at the Gwinnett campus.  This award carries a stipend of up to $1,550 to aid students who are pursuing a career in local government.  The Association has been a long-time supporter of outstanding professional education for public service at the local level, and the Georgia MPA program has consistently attracted many students with serious interests in local management.

Professor Rainey Wins Distinguished Alumnus Award from School of Public Policy and Management of Ohio State University

Professor Hal G. Rainey has been selected as this year's distinguished alumnus by the School of Public Policy and Management at the Ohio State University.  Rainey, Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at Georgia, received his Ph.D. from Ohio State.  He is an internationally known expert in public management, organizational behavior, and public-private sector comparisons.  He will receive the award later this year at a banquet sponsored by the School at Ohio State.

Doctoral Student Amber Sinclair Co-Authors Article on Health Effects of Air Pollution

First-year doctoral student Amber Sinclair co-authored an article in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association entitled "Associations and Lags between Air Pollution and Acute Respiratory Visits in an Ambulatory Care Setting:  25-Month Results from the Aerosol Research and Inhalation Epidemiological Study."  Amber conducted this study with Dennis Tolsma.  Both authors belong to the Kaiser Permanente Research Department in Atlanta, Georgia.  Amber's research interests include public health and health care policy. 

O'Toole Honored with 2005 Dwight Waldo Award

Professor Laurence J. O'Toole, Jr. has been selected to receive the 2005 Dwight Waldo Award from the American Society for Public Administration. The Award will be presented at the Society's annual conference this April in Milwaukee. The Dwight Waldo Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the professional literature of public administration over an extended career. Waldo himself was one of the leading figures in the field during the twentieth century, in a career spent at the University of California- Berkeley and the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Waldo had also been O'Toole's major professor. O'Toole's contributions include work on administrative theory, intergovernmental and interorganizational policy implementation, public management and performance, and environmental policy and management.

MPA Students' "Make Change with Change" Project Raises $3000 to Provide Clean Water and Immunizations in Sudan

Professor Vicky Wilkins's Public Administration and Democracy class raised $3000 for CARE International.  The students' original goal was to raise $1700 to build a well in the Darfur region of Sudan.  However, thanks to the generosity of University students, faculty, and staff, and to the hard work of the Public Administration and Democracy class, the class exceeded their goal by $1300!  The extra contributions will go toward immunizing over 32,000 children in the Darfur.

PhD Student Wins Collins Award

Sung Min Park, Ph.D. candidate in the department, receives this year's Collins Award from the Southeastern Conference on Public Administration (SECOPA).  The Collins Award is presented annually for the best paper submitted to the Conference by a doctoral student.  Park's award-winning contribution is "A Review of the Personnel Management Reform Effects: An Empirical Analysis of Georgia State Employee Attitudes From a Principal-Agent Theoretical Perspective."  The award is presented at the SECOPA meetings, convened this year in Athens, Georgia.

MPA Alum wins Research Award

Heather Getha-Taylor, a 2002 MPA alumna of this department, received the Paul A. Volcker Junior Scholar Research Grant Award at the 2006 American Political Science Association meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 1. Heather is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Public Administration at Syracuse University¹s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.  She is a research affiliate in the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. Heather¹s proposal, “Specifying and Testing a Model of Collaborative Capacity: Identifying Competencies and Incentive Structures in the Department of Homeland Security,” was selected among applications from doctoral students and assistant professors in the U.S. and abroad.  The selection committee included Professors Lael Kaiser, Lloyd Nigro, and Camilla Stivers. This annual award is funded by the Volcker Endowment and the Centennial Center (Public Administration Section, American Political Science Association). Heather graduated from the MPA program, where she was Co-President of
Pi Alpha Alpha (the public administration honor society), and received a university award for outstanding performance as a graduate teaching assistant.

Alumna Nominated for William H. Newman Award

In August, at the Academy of Management's annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, the Public and Nonprofit Management Division's nominee for the William H. Newman Award was Beth Gazley (MPA 2001, PhD 2004).  The Newman Award is given to the conference's best paper based on a dissertation. Professor Gazley's paper was entitled "Beyond the Contract:  Informal Partnerships as 'Dark Matter' in Privatization Research."  Dr. Gazley is currently an assistant professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University - Bloomington.

Faculty Member and Doctoral Alumnus Win Research Award

A recent graduate of the department's doctoral program and a departmental faculty member have jointly won an award for the best article in a major journal.  Young Han Chun, now on the faculty of Yonsei University in Korea, and Hal Rainey, Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia, have won the Beryl Radin Award from the Public Management Research Association for Best Article in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART) published during 2005.  Their study, "Goal Ambiguity in U.S. Federal Agencies," appeared in the January issue.  A recent analysis assigned to JPART the highest "citation impact factor" of any journal in public administration.  The impact factor is based on how often the articles in the particular journal are cited by scholarly articles in other journals.  By this measure, JPART is the #1 journal in public administration in scholarly impact and status.

Pi Alpha Alpha Nominees Inducted

On Friday, May 12, 2006, 17 MPA and doctoral students were inducted into the Pi Alpha Alpha Public Administration Honor Society in a ceremony attended by students and family. Faculty and staff were also in attendance.  The Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society is coordinated by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

Recent PhD Graduate Awarded Packer Policy Fellowship

Valerie Hepburn, a 2006 PhD graduate, has been awarded one of two Packer Policy Fellowships for 2006-2007. Packer Fellowships are awarded by the Commonwealth Fund and the Australian government to mid-career U.S. health policy researchers and practitioners who are committed to improving health care policy and practice. Dr. Hepburn is currently an associate director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University. She has spent more than 20 years in leadership positions with state and local public and mental health systems. Her current research focuses on resource and management issues in public health care. Dr. Hepburn will be in Australia from July through December 2006, where she will analyze comparative health workforce planning and policy issues specifically related to education, financing, and regulation.

Four MPA Students Named Presidential Management Fellows  

Current MPA students Emily Byrne, Laura D'Arcy, Noah Eden, and Blake Pritchett have been awarded the prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) and will be attending the PMF Job Fair in early April in Washington, DC .  The PMF is the new name for the highly regarded Presidential Management Internship program.  Since 1977, the PMF program has served as a fast-track for admittance into employment in the federal government.   Emily, who hails from Allentown , Pennsylvania, graduated from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, with a dual degree in Political Science and English. Her field of interest in the MPA program is Public Policy.  Laura, who is from Stow, Ohio, graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a dual degree in Public Administration and Economics.  Her field of interest in the MPA program is Public Policy.  Noah, who is from Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from UGA with a degree in Speech Communication.  His field of interest in the MPA program is Public Management/Organizational Theory.  Blake, who is from Dixons Mills, Alabama, graduated from the University of Alabama, Birmingham with a degree in Political Science.  His field of interest in the MPA program is Public Policy.

Whitford Awarded IBM Grant

Andrew Whitford, associate professor, has been awarded a research grant from the IBM Foundation for the Business of Government.  Whitford's project, which focused on management at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is titled "Strategic Transformation: Lessons from the "New CDC.'"  He is analyzing how CDC's strategic transformation harnessed the input and support of stakeholders and partners worldwide.  The CDC shifted its structure from a traditional hierarchy, long marked by organizational “silos,” to a new matrix structure to enhance organizational flexibility and information sharing.  Whitford is examining the mechanisms through which leaders at the CDC brought about the agency's strategic transformation, and their consequences for top leadership, line staff, and the broader public health community.  This research effort will assist in the development of lessons for other agencies facing rapid change in their public missions and organizational environments.  Professor Whitford joined the department in 2004.  He served previously on the faculties of Rice University and the University of Kansas.

Grant from the USDA Forest Service

Professor Jeffrey L. Brudney has received a grant from the U.S. Forest Service to study volunteer management capacity in federal natural resource agencies. Fully 25-30% of all volunteers (and all hours volunteered) assist government. In FY2004 the Forest Service reported that 78,288 volunteers contributed over 4.2 million accumulated hours of work, with approximately 69% in recreation-related services. The grant will support a survey of Forest Service employees whose jobs include responsibility for volunteer involvement, and analysis of the survey data to evaluate the current and future capacity of these agencies to manage volunteers and to address the challenges and opportunities that these programs encounter. The project will provide decision-relevant data and analysis concerning volunteer management policies, practices, and organizational culture in the federal land management agencies. Brudney is an internationally known scholar of volunteer management, and the project will also support a departmental graduate student in the research activities.

Two MPA Students Receive GCCMA Scholarship Award

University of Georgia MPA students Kathryn Murph of St. Simons Island, Georgia and Jessica Roth of Grayson, Georgia were awarded the Harold F. Holtz, Jr., MPA Scholarship for Full-and Part-Time MPA Study, respectively, from the Georgia City/County Management Association (GCCMA).  Kathryn is currently interning at the Fanning Institute.  Jessica is the Director of Planning and Development for the City of Snellville and attends the MPA program at the Gwinnett campus. This award carries a stipend of up to $1,500 to aid students who are pursuing a career in local government.  The Association has been a long-time supporter of outstanding professional education for public service at the local level, and the Georgia MPA program has consistently attracted many students with serious interests in local management.

Ph.D. Graduate Honored with Third Research Award

For the second year in a row, one of the Department's Ph.D. graduates has garnered three awards for a dissertation completed here. Sergio Fernandez's winning dissertation, entitled "Explaining Contracting Effectiveness: An Empirical Analysis of Contracting for Services Among Local Governments" has been awarded the 2005 NASPAA Dissertation Award, the Leonard D. White Award of the American Political Science Association for best dissertation in public administration, and the 2005 best dissertation award from the Public and Nonprofit Section of the Academy of Management. Fernandez's most recent honor, the 2005 NASPAA Dissertation Award, will be presented at NASPAA's annual conference to be held this October in Washington, DC. Dr. Fernandez is now on the faculty of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. As was also the case last year, with 2004's award-winning dissertation research of alumnus Young Han Chun, this year's study was completed under the supervision of Professor Hal G. Rainey as major professor.

Director of the Georgia 's OPB Gives Presentation on Public Budgeting and Finance

Ms. Shelley Nickel, director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) for Georgia, gave a presentation, entitled “Public Budgeting and Finance” to Dr. Yilin Hou's Public Financial Administration class on August 30, 2005 . The mission of the OPB is “to improve state government operations and services by leading and assisting in the evaluation, development, and implementation of budgets, plans, programs, and policies.” Prior to her most recent experience as OPB director and head of the Georgia Student Finance Commission, Ms. Nickel held several policy analyst positions in the OPB, both in education and economic development. Ms. Nickel holds a master's degree in public administration from Penn State University .