Winter 2012

MPA student Brian Handshy has been selected as a 2012 Presidential Management Fellow! The highly competitive program offers Fellows a path into leadership roles in the federal government along with professional development support to support the setting and reaching of career goals. Brian's background include service in a variety of roles in the U.S. Navy, and since August 2011 he has been part of the Kansas Governor's Executive Fellowship Program. Congratulations, Brian!

Professor Barbara Romzek will be traveling to Hong Kong in March to give a series of guest lectures on collaborative public management to graduate students in the University of Hong Kong MPA programme’s capstone course.

On February 9-11, the School will welcome a dozen visitors to campus from the Executive Leadership Institute (ELI) sponsored by the National Forum for Black Public Administrators (www.nfbpa.org). The Institute is conducted by NFBPA in cooperation with several universities where the participants spend 3-5 days, one university per month. KU has been part of ELI for the past six years.

If you live and work in the Topeka or Kansas City area and would like to learn more about our master of public administration (MPA), there are two upcoming opportunities to do so. On Saturday, January 21 the KU Edwards Campus is Overland Park will host an information session that starts at 9am. Visit the Edwards Campus website for details. Then on Thursday, February 23 our Public Management Center will host an MPA info session in Topeka from 12-1pm. Click here for more information.

Are you new to a supervisory role or feeling like your supervisory skills need some fine-tuning? Our 3-day class, The Heart of True Leadership: Supervisory Training for the Public Workforce, can support your efforts or those of new supervisors on your team. The class will be offered February 7-9 in Topeka and April 3-5 in Overland Park. Follow this link to learn more.

This spring the School of Public Affairs and Administration will co-host the Transforming Local Government (TLG) Conference, put on by the Alliance for Innovation. It will take place in Kansas City, Missouri on April 18-20. Additionally, there will be a free, one-day pre-conference on April 17, focusing on public-private collaboration and co-sponsored by the School and CH2M Hill. The TLG conference will serve as the Kansas and Missouri city/county management conferences for 2012. We hope to see you there!

Fall 2011
Professor John Nalbandian and Noel Rasor, Assistant Director of the Public Management Center, spent November 13-15 in Bentonville, Arkansas with cohort 3 of America's Leaders of Change (ALOC). ALOC is a program of the National Urban Fellows, with KU serving as the academic partner. ALOC is an executive leadership program that brings together about 50 accomplished participants from underrepresented groups to engage in personal and professional development, develop enriched knowledge of public service leadership and enhance capacity for life-long coaching and networking. John presented on "Values, Politics and Administration" as part of this first group meeting, and other KU faculty will present to the group in 2012. The meeting took place in Bentonville because Wal-Mart serves as the leading sponsor, so the trip also included a fascinating tour of the Wal-Mart headquarters and a trip to the stunning Crystal Bridges Museum.

Our November 2011 newsletter is hot off the (virtual) press! Check it out to find out about upcoming SPAA events, to learn about a partnership with the city of Olathe, KS, to get to know some of our faculty better, and much more. Let us know what you think of the new look and if there are features you'd like to see in the next issue.

 

You're Invited! Please join us for a panel discussion, "Taking the Road Less Traveled: Alternative Career Paths for MPA Grads.”
Monday, November 14, 4:30 to 5:30pm, Overland Park: KU Edwards Campus, 127th and Quivira, 155 Regnier Hall

Hear from and connect with some KU MPA alums who have pursued careers outside of government. They will discuss their careers paths and how the MPA has served them throughout their careers. Panelists include: Regan Carrizales (KU MPA 2006) Associate Director of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City; Abby Coffin (KU MPA 2009), Director of Student Academic Services, KU School of Engineering; Patty Gentrup (KU MPA 1990) Senior Consultant at Shockey Consulting Services; David Greenamyre (KU MPA 1973), President of Besel’s; and Jeff White (KU MPA 1995), Managing Director of Columbia Capital Management Kansas City.

Please RSVP to Lesley Owens, laowens@ku.edu, if you plan to attend.

You're Invited! Please join us for a presentation, "Contracting for Services: Insights from the Other Side"
Thursday, November 17, 4:30 to 5:30pm, Topeka: KU Public Management Center, 715 SW 10th Street

Alan Ridgeway, CH2M-Hill Director of Technical Estimating, will join us to address key considerations in contracting for public services including risk management, cost-estimating techniques, trust and partnership. Alan will be visiting Dr. Alfred Ho’s MPA class on Performance Management,
and alumni and welcome and encouraged to attend. Please RSVP to Beverly Pleiss, brpleiss@ku.edu, if you plan to attend.

The Kansas Certified Public Manager (CPM) program is now enrolling for 2012! CPM participants develop and strengthen their management skills through our competency-based curriculum. The program can fill a training gap for staff with significant technical expertise who seek to further their knowledge of current management practices. Participants meet in the classroom two days per month for one year, starting in January. In 2012 we'll be offering the program in Topeka, the Kansas City area, and in Hays. Interested staff should register soon to ensure first choice of location. Visit www.kupmc.org for more information.

Save the dates! This spring the School of Public Affairs and Administration will co-host the Transforming Local Government (TLG) Conference, put on by the Alliance for Innovation. It will take place in Kansas City, Missouri on April 18-20. Additionally, there will be a free, one-day pre-conference on April 17, focusing on public-private collaboration and co-sponsored by the School and CH2M Hill. The TLG conference will serve as the Kansas and Missouri city/county management conferences for 2012.

Current Faculty Publications: Dr. Holly Goerdel has an article in the October 2011 issue of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. She and co-author Edmund Stacyk explore "The Benefits of Bureaucracy: Public Managers' Perceptions of Political Support, Goal Ambiguity, and Organizational Effectiveness." The article abstract and information about access can be found here.Ed Stacyk completed his PhD in public administration at KU in 2010 and is now on the faculty of the American University in Washington, DC.

Summer 2011

We are excited to announce that we have established a partnership with CH2M Hill, one of the nation’s leading providers of governmental services, to focus on three areas of mutual interest: educating emerging local government leaders in new strategies for service delivery; developing leaders and collaborative capacity in local government organizations; and conducting research on excellence in public-private collaboration. Click here to read more about this partnership.

Holly T. Goerdel, associate professor of public administration, has been named assistant managing editor of the Journal of Homeland Security & Emergency Management. The journal is published by Berkeley University Press and provides information and insights on homeland security and emergency management by featuring contributions from authors with essential knowledge and experience in a broad array of professions, including emergency management, engineering; political science/public administration/policy analysis, decision science, and health and medicine. Congratulations, Holly!

Voting for the 2011 KUCIMAT Board is now open and the ballot can be found at http://kuclas.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_2ldpF9soQBXxEtS. Voting will remain open until Friday, September 16, 2011.

We are thrilled to announce that Rosemary O’Leary will be joining our faculty in the 2013 Spring semester as the Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professor of Public Administration! In 2007, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences honored O’Leary with its Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award. She holds bachelor’s, law and master’s in public administration degrees from KU, as well as a doctorate from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

We're now enrolling for our next Emerging Leaders Academy! This professional development program, offered through the Public Management Center, is targeted to promising, non-managerial staff to help them prepare for positions of greater responsibility. The next class will be held in Lawrence starting in early September, with participants meeting twice per month through January. ELA is a succession planning initiative designed to complement and support your in-house programs to make sure you have skilled people in the pipeline to carry on your organization's work as baby boomers retire. The work we do in the public sector is too important not to plan for tomorrow's leadership. Learn more about ELA at www.kupmc.org/programs/ela.

Upcoming MPA information session in Topeka: we've scheduled an info session for Tuesday, August 30th from noon to 1pm to provide an overview of the MPA degree, admission requirements, and answer any questions folks have to help them decide whether to apply. Visit the KUPMC website for details and to RSVP.

Interested in a public service career but not sure what path to take? Members of the 2011 MPA graduating class have created a series of videos to help you learn about city management. They interviewed practicing city managers while attending the ICMA conference last fall and asked them to reflect on their experiences in the profession. The series of videos they created is available on a new "What is city management?" page in the Career Resources area of our site. Thanks to Matt Monedero, Justin Pregont, and Paul Lampe for their efforts!

The KU Public Management Center, our professional development arm, is hiring an Advancement Coordinator. This person will be based in Topeka and will be responsible for marketing and visibility of professional development offerings and coordination of sponsored events such as conferences, webinars and workshops. Please direct anyone you know who'd be a good fit to the job posting at https://jobs.ku.edu/applicants​/Central?quickFind=97074. Application deadline is July 18.

Another summer means we've welcomed another group of City & County Leadership intern-option students to campus while the second year intern-option group has scattered across the region and country for their full-time internships. We'll have information up on the website soon about the incoming class, but meanwhile click here to see where the second-years have landed for their positions.

Welcome to the new University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration! As of July 1, the department has become a School within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. This change was a recommendation of our external review in 2008 and, after much careful planning and with the support of the Provost and Kansas Board of Regents, we are now a School. Overall the change won't have too many effects on day-to-day operations, but will greatly enhance our ability to remain competitive as a top program in public affairs. Read more about this change at http://www.news.ku.edu/2011/july/1/schoolofpublicaffairsandadmin.shtml.

The Department was well-represented by both faculty and doctoral students at the June 2-4 Public Management Research Association conference held at the Maxwell School in Syracuse.

• Student Erin Borry presented her paper, "Ethical Climate in the Public Sector: Its Influence on Red Tape and Rule Bending."
• Student Cullen C. Merritt presented a poster at the Doctoral Poster Session on his work entitled "Predicting Executive Turnover in Public Organizations."
• Dr. Leisha Dehart-Davis presented her paper, "Rule Formalization and Rule Effectiveness: Further Explorations into the Construct Validity of Red Tape."
• Dr. Heather Getha-Taylor presenter on her current work with Ricardo S. Morse, University of North Carolina, "Leadership Development for Local Government Executives: Balancing Existing Commitments and Emerging Needs."
• Dr. Holly Goerdel presented her paper, "Democratic Rollback and Contracting for War: Managing the Intent of Accountability with Technical versus Adaptive Solutions."
• Dr. Barbara Romzek presented on her current work Kelly LeRoux, University of Illinois-Chicago and Joycelyn Johnson, American University, "Informal Accountability Dynamics within Service Delivery Networks: A Theory and a Test."
• Dr. Chris Silvia presented on his current work with Michael McGuire and Robert Agranoff of Indiana University, "Putting the "Public" Back into Collaborative Public Management."

 

Spring 2011
The KU Department of Public Administration has joined the Alliance for Innovation, an international network of progressive governments and partners committed to transforming local government by accelerating the development and dissemination of innovative practices. The Department is the first university affiliate of the alliance. The organization is a partnership of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), the Arizona State University School of Public Affairs, and the former Innovation Groups. Click here to read more.

1996 MPA alumnus Bob Lowry, who serves as the Director of Public Works and Transportation in Arlington, Texas, recently endowed a scholarship for MPA students. Bob notes, “My KU experience opened doors for me that I never dreamed about. And the friends I made will be there for the rest of my life. I have been blessed by many educational and employment opportunities throughout my life and I hope that in some small way, our gift may open some doors for others like the MPA program did for me.” We thank you, Bob, for your support. To join Bob in supporting the Department with your gift, visit http://www.kupa.ku.edu/donate/index.shtml.

Congratulations to doctoral student Randy Davis who has successfully defended his dissertation, "Collective Bargaining in Municipal Government: How Unionization Impacts Employee's Attitudes, Behaviors, and Values," with honors. After graduating this spring Randy will be heading to Oxford, Ohio for an assistant professor position with Miami University of Ohio. Hooray, Randy!

John Nalbandian honored: In recognition of John Nalbandian’s lifelong contributions to local government management education, The Senior Executive Institute at the University of Virgina—a preeminent executive development program targeted to local government managers—is offering 2-3 partial scholarships (15% of tuition; present value $750) to its nationally recognized annual two week session the last two weeks of July in Charlottesville, and 2-3partial scholarships (15% of tuition; present value $450) to its one week LEAD program which is offered four times a year.  These scholarships, to be offered annually, are targeted to KU alumni and graduates of the Executive Leadership Institute sponsored by the National Forum for Black Public Administrators.  John and Carol Nalbandian have been instrumental in hosting ELI at KU for nearly a decade. SEI is targeted at city managers and experienced assistants and LEAD is aimed at assistants and department heads.  If interested, contact Molly Harlow, SEI coordinator, mjh3a@virginia.edu or Carmie Rodriguez, LEAD coordinator, carmie@virginia.edu.

Current Faculty Research: When disaster strikes, collaboration is key. As we have watched the news from Japan these last few weeks, our hearts have gone out to those affected. We are also are clearly reminded of our professional obligations to do our part in preparing for such events in our backyards. A recent article published by Public Administration faculty member Chris Silvia is directly relevant to this need. Since such disasters cross jurisdictional boundaries, collaboration is key. Click here to read more about Chris's research via our blog.

The current on-campus MPA intern students have created a video on the reasons why KU was their choice. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tDNvYsJO3Y. They are also blogging about their year on campus. Click here to visit the blog and read about their travels, their learning and their advice for the class of 2013.

This year's KCCM conference features a special pre-conference event, "Inspiring Women: Celebrating Women's Contributions to Public Administration," on April 20th from 1:00-4:00pm with a reception to follow. Keynote speakers include Camilla Stivers, the top researcher on gender issues in public administration, and Patricia Martel, City Manager of Daly City, CA and ICMA board member. Click here to learn more about the pre-conference program.

The 63rd Annual Kansas City & County Management Conference is coming up on April 21-22. This year's theme is "Storied Past, Challenging Future," and the program will feature sessions on KPERS and on city management as a family profession, with several parent/children pairs reflecting on their experiences working in the field. Click here to go to the conference website for the complete program and registration information.

Good reading: Faculty member Holly Goerdel and PhD graduate Edward Stacyk (now on the faculty at American University) investigate the benefits of bureaucracy in a 2010 article published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. They argue that hierarchy helps insulate staff from issues related to waning political support and increasing goal ambiguity, helping to maintain organizational effectiveness and performance. Click here to visit the journal's website.

Doctoral student Randy Davis has a forthcoming article in The American Review of Public Administration. Titled "Blue-Collar Public Servants: How Union Membership Influences Public Service Motivation," the article is currently available for preview at http://arp.sagepub.com/content/early/recent. Scroll down to the December listings to find Randy's article.

On behalf of the Department, John and Carol Nalbandian hosted a 2.5 day Executive Leadership Institute for the National Forum for Black Public Administrators. Faculty member Heather Getha-Taylor was also involved as was Department Chair Marilu Goodyear.

 

Winter 2011

The Public Management Center has launched "CPM with Distinction" for graduates of the Certified Public Manager program to encourage and support continuing professional education among CPM alumni. Learn more about the new opportunity at http://www.kupmc.org/~kupmc/programs/cpm/distinction.shtml.

Check out the latest edition of the Department's newsletter by visiting http://www.kupa.ku.edu/alumni/news/. This issue includes a great overview of current areas of faculty research and some thoughts from Chair Marilu Goodyear about the ways the Department works to bridge the worlds of the university, the discipline, and the profession.

Congratulations to Professor Chuck Epp, whose most recent book, Making Rights Real: Activists, Bureaucrats, and the Creation of the Legalistic State, has been named an outstanding academic title for 2010 by Choice, the premier source for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education.

Ben Bryant, a second year KU MPA student working for the cites of Tualatin and Wilsonville Oregon, was recently featured in an article about his work to help chart the future of the Basalt Creek Planning Area on OregonLive.com. Read the full article here.

Fall 2010

Congratulations to Professor George Frederickson, who is the 2010 recipient of the George Graham Award for Exceptional Service to the National Academy of Public Administration!  George Graham was the National Academy's first president and this award "recognizes those Fellows who have made a sustained and extraordinary contribution toward the Academy becoming a stronger and more respected organization."  

Congratulations to our Administrative Director (and MPA Advisor Extraordinaire) Ray Hummert who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the KUCIMATs (MPA alumni) at the Department's banquet at the ICMA annual meeting in October. As the award announcement highlighted, his years as a city administrator, together with his role helping students transition from undergraduate to graduate student to KUICMAT, has distinguished Ray's career. He works tirelessly and is profoundly dedicated to continuing the tradition of the program. Yay, Ray!

The Department's professional development arm, the KU Public Management Center, has been selected as the university partner for the National Urban Fellows, a leadership development organization founded to counter the under-representation of people of color and women in leadership positions in the public and nonprofit sectors. Faculty members Charles Jones and John Nalbandian will work with the Fellows throughout the 2010-2011 academic year.

Summer 2010

Congratulations to Tony Reams, Public Administration PhD Student, who has received the Myron D. Calkins Scholarship from the Kansas City Metro Chapter of the American Public Works Association!

The KU MPA Program got a mention in the July 25 New York Times Education section in a brief "what's an MPA" piece that also highlighted the programs at Syracuse, NYU and Harvard. And it's worth noting that KU PA chair Marilu Goodyear was the only person quoted!

John Martinez, a KU Public Administration graduate, was featured in the Summer 2010 edition of the KU Edwards Campus' Higher Ed newsletter. Martinez now works at Children’s International, a KC based non-profit. Click here to read the full article.

Dr. Alfred Tat-Kei Ho, who is joining the KU Department of Public Administration this fall, was honored by the City of Indianapolis for his contributions to Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis School of Public & Environmental Affairs and to the Mayor’s Office. June 17th, 2010 was declared Dr. Alfred Ho Day in the City of Indianapolis by Mayor Gregory Ballard. Click here to see the proclamation.

Professors Marilu Goodyear and Holly Goerdel, with KU PhD graduate Shannon Portillo and current KU PhD student Linda Williams, recently published Cybersecurity Management in the States: The Emerging Role of Chief Information Security Officers a report from the IBM Center for the Business of Government. You can access the report online here, or download a PDF of the report here.

Cycling enthusiasts Matt Allen, John Nalbandian and Ray Hummert decided 2010 was the year to enter Bike Across Kansas, an eight-day 475 miles journey from the Kansas/Colorado border to the Kansas/Missouri boarder. A journey like this needed a jersey to commemorate the moment.   So Matt Allen with the assistance of Inkt in Garden City designed a jersey.  A collection of KUCIMATS and Certified Public Managers from the KU Public Management Center were also entrants or veterans of the event, so the idea of the KU Public Administration jersey was born! Click here for more information about the jersey and the order form.

Spring 2010

Still more congratulations, this time to Associate Professor Leisha Dehart-Davis, who is this year's recipient of the John C. Wright mentoring award from the KU Office of Graduate Studies. The nomination was made by the doctoral students in the Department of Public Administration.

Congratulations to Raymond Lee, III who was awarded the University of Kansas Black Faculty and Staff Council Student Achievement Award! Ray is the class president of the 2011 intern-option MPA students and was honored at the organization's 17th Annual Banquet on Friday, April 16.

Professor John Nalbandian received the 2010 Charles H. Levine Award for research, teaching, and service. The award is given jointly by the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration at the national ASPA conference in San Jose, California in April.

Diana Koslowsky was selected as the University Support Staff Employee of the Month for March. Diana oversees the smooth functioning of most of the day-to-day activities in the Public Administration Department office and helps keep the rest of us on track and sane, not a small task! Read more.

The KU Public Management Center (PMC) has launched a blog! Housed in the Department of Public Administration, the PMC offers professional development training to prepare leaders, develop professionalism in the public workforce, and link KU resources to the challenges of public management throughout the state of Kansas. The blog is a new way for the PMC to work toward its mission by offering resources to support the work of public sector professionals. Updated at least three times a week, the blog features links to helpful management and leadership resources across the web, lists training and professional development opportunities, and will be a new way to highlight the research of KU Public Administration faculty and the achievements of program graduates. Click here to visit the PMC's website and the blog.

Time is running out: register now for the KU City & County Management Conference and join us in Lawrence on April 22 & 23 for "Governance, Collaboration, and Leadership: Working Together in a New Decade." Click here for schedule and registration information.

Winter 2010

Alfred Tat-Kei Ho has been appointed Associate Professor of Public Administration and will join the faculty in fall 2010.   His current research focuses primarily on performance budgeting and management, citizen engagement in performance measurement, and e-government practices.  He has advised numerous local governments in the U.S. and in China on performance management reforms, and has been a special advisor to the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office on the City’s performance management initiatives since 2009.  Dr. Ho has published in numerous professional outlets, including Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and Public Budgeting and Finance.  He received his Master of Public Administration and Ph.D. from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), Indiana University, Bloomington. 

Jacob Fowles has been appointed Assistant Professor of Public Administration and will join the faculty in fall 2010. Fowles is completing his doctoral degree at the James W. Martin School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Kentucky. His current research projects largely revolve around education finance, including his dissertation which looks at state management of public higher education as well as a project funded by the Spencer Foundation that is evaluating the impact of Kentucky's K-12 education finance reform on teacher quality in the rural areas of the state. More broadly, Jacob's research explores the interrelationship between finance, politics, and public policy. Jacob has held graduate fellowships with the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO).

The 62nd Annual Kansas City County Management Conference, "Governance, Collaboration and Leadership", will be held April 22-23 in Lawrence. Among the featured speakers will be David Warm, Executive Director of the Mid-America Regional Council. Click here for registration information.

Redmond Jones II, KU MPA grad and Affirmative Action Director for the City of Davenport, Iowa, was awarded the 2010 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Achievement Award for outstanding leadership and vision from the Iowa Commission on the Status of African Americans. The award recognizes his work with the Davenport Disparity Study which reviewed city contracts to assess the percentage that were awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses. Read the story in the Quad City Times.

Associate Professor Leisha Dehart-Davis's work on "Green Tape Theory" was highlighted in Governing Magazine's January 2010 monthly newsletter.

Heather Getha-Taylor has been appointed Assistant Professor of Public Administration and will join the faculty in fall 2010.  Prior to coming to KU, she was an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina.  Her research and teaching efforts have centered on public and nonprofit management, with special emphasis on human resource management, organizational behavior, collaborative governance, and executive leadership.  She has a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University in 2007 with concentrations in Human Resource Management and Organization Theory.  

Chris Silvia has been appointed Assistant Professor of Public Administration and will join the faculty in fall 2010.  He is completing his doctoral degree in Public Affairs at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs  at Indiana University. His academic work examines the managerial and leadership behaviors exhibited by leaders in collaborative networks.  In addition to focusing on leadership and managerial behavior, his broader research agenda includes work in the areas of networks and collaboration and volunteer management.  Prior to working on his doctorate, Silvia was a Hospital Administrator and worked in risk management.

Fall 2009

Leisha DeHart-Davis, Associate Professor of Public Administration recently received the Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in fall 2009. DeHart-Davis’ caring attitude toward students and high standards of performance demonstrate her teaching excellence. She instructs public administration classes to all levels of students, from undergraduate to doctoral, and has an enthusiasm that inspires. To read the full article, or to watch a video of the award being presented, click here.

Megan Dodge and Philip Rodriguez, two recent KU MPA graduates, are featured in an article about their work with the City of San Antonio.

Lori Hirons, KU MPA graduate 1996, was featured in the KU Edwards Campus Higher Education Summer 09 newsletter in an article about her career and transition from Roeland Park to New York City. Click here for the full story.

 

 

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