In the News: Archives

Winter/Spring 2009

Marilu Goodyear, Chair of the Public Administration department, and Shannon Portillo, a 2008 KU PhD graduate, recently published an Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR) occasional paper with the results of a study designed to understand and document the attributes and responsibilities of the relatively new role of information security officer in higher education.

Greg Clay, Special Assistant to the City Manager of East Point, Georgia and KU MPA grad, was awarded the 2009 Steven D. Ford Memorial Award for the Young Public Administrator of the Year at the FORUM 2009 annual conference held by the National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA). Greg, a native of the Atlanta area, received the award at the NFBPA national conference held in Oakland, California. Read the full article here.

Jeff Woodward, spring 2009 KU MPA graduate, has made a 300-mile round-trip commute since 2004 to take classes at KU’s Public Management Center in Topeka. Read the full article about Jeff, featured on the University's website.

Alisa Moldovanova, a KU MPA student supported by the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program, was featured in an article in the Muskie Messenger about her work with the city council members of Prairie Village and Sister City Dolyna, Ukraine. You can read the full article here.

Dan Mueller, academic advisor to undergraduates in public administration at the Edwards Campus, was selected as KU employee of the month February 2009 for his outstanding work and commitment to helping students. "From the standpoint of a faculty adviser, he is a wonderful colleague to work with. He brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the task of helping us recruit new students and serves as the 'eyes and ears' for us, which ultimately helps us provide them with a better education," said Kelly LeRoux, assistant professor of public administration. Read the full story here.

Paul W. Brandenburger, a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, has been selected to be a judge for the 2009 Pollie Awards in Washington DC. The "Pollies," hosted annually by the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC), are widely regarded to be the most prestigious awards in the political consulting and public affairs industry. The AAPC honors the previous year's best political advertising, including work produced for television, radio, newspaper, Internet, direct mail, telephone, fund raising and student-produced campaign.

Professor John Nalbandian was awarded the Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence by the "surprise patrol" while teaching class August 25th. The Kemper Fellowships recognize outstanding teachers and advisors at KU. An article about the award and the recipients is available here.

Nickie Lee, a Kansas University graduate student in the master’s of public administration program, picked Basehor for her nearly year-long internship and was featured in an article in the Basehor Sentinel newspaper.

2008

• Two KU Public Administration graduates were in the national spotlight when President Bush delivered his final State of the Union speech. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (MPA 1977) was selected to give the Democratic response, and Greenburg, Kansas City Manager Steve Hewitt, a 2007 graduate of the Certified Public Management program, sat next to First Lady Laura Bush in recognition of his efforts to rebuild an environmentally friendly Greensburg after last spring's tornado.
• In February, the Department will again host the National Forum of Black Public Administrators' Executive Leadership Institute (ELI). The 2008 event will bring 16 participants from seven states to Lawrence for a three day program. ELI was established to sharpen the skills and capabilities of an elite core of managers and administrators who have already demonstrated superior achievement as assistant city managers, department heads, bureau chiefs, and the like. It is one of the few training institutes in the U.S. that mixes academic-based theory and practitioner-based experience.

2007

• The Wall Street Journal cited Dr. Michael Moody's research in a November 5, 2007 article, "Court May Rule on States' Bonds."
• Associate Professor Chuck Epp was among the fall 2007 recipients of the prestigious Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. Read more.
• Doctoral student Shannon Portillo was awarded a 2007-08 Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation for her project "The Face of the State: The Role of Social Status and Official Position in the Mobilization of Authority."
• Assistant Professor Kelly LeRoux has been nominated by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) for the best paper award from the 2007 national conference held in Atlanta in November for her paper, "Examining the Civic Intermediary Role of Urban Nonprofits: Findings from a National Survey."
• The Department welcomes Jared Llorens to the Public Administration faculty. Jared completed his PhD in 2007 in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Georgia with a focus on human resource management. While completing his degree, he was named that department's 2005-06 PhD Student of the Year.
• David Matkin, the Department's first PhD graduate, has accepted a tenure-track position at the Reuben O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University. David's dissertation examined the management of state corporate income tax incentives, and was completed under Dr. George Frederickson.
• Assistant Professor Sanjay Pandey has been named to the Board of Editors of the International Public Management Journal , a publication of the International Public Management Network.
• Steven Maynard-Moody, Professor and Director of the Institute for Policy and Social Research, has been elected to the National Academy of Public Administration. His election makes KU's Department of Public Administration the first in the country to have all full professors in the department as members of the prestigious academy. Read full story.
• The Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART) the scholarly journal of the Public Management Research Association which has its secretariat in KU's Public Administration Department, was selected as the #2 scholarly journal in the field of public administration for 2006. This ranking is determined by ISI Thompson Scientific (ISI) through their Social Science Citation Index. The Index ranks academic journals' "citation impact factor," a measure of the number of annual citations in all ISI-indexed journals in public administration and policy that cite articles in a particular journal, adjusted by the number of articles published in that journal. Professor George Frederickson is JPART's editor-in-chief.