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The MPA Online Newsletter |
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Faculty Publications Political
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From the Director The MPA program welcomed 14 new students this fall into the MPA Program. Fifteen people graduated last fall, spring and summer. This fiscal year is a challenging one for the University as it is for the U. S. as a whole due to our economic downturn. We continue to work with several nonprofit agencies and public sector organizations to place students in internship settings. We also welcome a new faculty member to the MPA program this fall. Professor Wen Wang. He received his Ph. D. in public administration from Syracuse University. Professor Wang’s research interests focus on public
budgeting and financial management, capital budgeting and finance, and
education policy and finance. He is interested in examining the design of
state aid programs and its impact on capital investment, capital budgeting
and financing practices in state and local governments, and fiscal
disparities among local jurisdictions. His research work has appeared in
Public Budgeting and Finance and other places. The Program also bade farewell to Professor Ann Bowman last summer. Professor Bowman took a position with Texas A&M University. The National Association
of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) held its annual
meeting in Charleston this fall on October 16 – 18. NASPAA is the
accrediting body for all MPA programs, and the USC MPA Program served as
a co-sponsor partly in recognition of its now 30 year old Joint MPA
Program with the College of Charleston. Meeting in the Francis Marion
Hotel, the convention attracted over 300 participants from the 125-plus
member institutions. The theme of the conference was “NASPAA Meets the
Future,” a topic that was analyzed in more than thirty workshops, panel
discussions, and paper presentations. The Plenary Session Luncheon was
sponsored by Texas A&M University; the plenary speaker was Strobe
Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution. Virtually all of our
MPA faculty attended the Conference and participated in different
activities. A special thanks is extended to Professor Heather
Getha-Taylor, who served as USC’s primary representative in organizing
the event. Charlie Tyer, Director Faculty Publications and Activities T he public administration faculty continues to be highly productive in their research, publication and service efforts. Below is a listing of published and forthcoming books and articles by some of the faculty within the past year as well as other activities and recognition. Steven W. Hays retires at the end of this semester. Professor Hays arrived at USC in January, 1979. After receiving his PhD from the University of Florida in 1975, his first academic appointment was at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where he was promoted to Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Public Administration in 1977. Upon his arrival at USC, he became MPA Director (a role that he performed intermittently during his career in the Department). He also served two stints as Vice Chairman of the Department, initially during the chairmanship of Chuck Kegley (1981 through 1986), and then more recently under Dan Sabia. Hays' research and teaching interests center on various facets of Public Administration, especially Human Resource Management (HRM) and Judicial Administration. He is the author of three books on the latter subject (one of which was co-authored with Professor Blease Graham), and several additional books on HRM and Public Management. During the course of his career he published approximately 125 journal articles, book chapters, and related documents. He served in a variety of consulting roles, including as a USAID technical assistant in Bulgaria, a project manager for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a research associate for the Partnership for Public Service, and as an organizational development consultant to a number of state and local agencies. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of seven academic journals, and was a co-founder (along with Professor Charlie Tyer) and co-editor of the Review of Public Personnel Administration, which is now the most highly regarded journal in its subfield. The majority of his recent research has focused on civil service reform and its effects on public employees and the effectiveness of government organizations. Throughout his career, Professor Hays has been an active participant in the American Society for Public Administration, especially within the Section on Personnel and Labor Relations (SPLAR). Those organizations recognized his work on several occasions, including naming one of his books the “Best Book in HRM” (2001), identifying one of his journal articles as the “Best HRM Article of 2007,” and acknowledging his research contributions with a special award “for advancing knowledge in the field of HRM” in 2008. Within the University, he was named a Louise Frye Scudder Chair of Liberal Arts in 2002, an award given annually to faculty whose career excels in all three areas of evaluation – teaching, research, and service. In 2004, he was named the Charles L. Jacobson Professor of Public Affairs. Hays lives in Chapin with his wife, Annie. Two of his children, Angela and Alison, graduated from USC’s Honors College. Angela subsequently received a medical degree from Tulane University, and is now an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at MUSC. Alison went on to obtain a Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) at Duke University, and now practices in Columbia. His son, Sean, is an honor graduate of the College of Charleston and is employed by Traveler’s Insurance in Columbia. Heather Getha-Taylor, “Policy Parallels: Applying Lessons from CSRA Chief Architect Alan K. Campbell to Contemporary Personnel Reform Efforts,”Review of Public Personnel Administration (2008: 28(3)). Also: “Learning Indicators and Collaborative Capacity: Applying Action Learning Principles to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” Public Administration Quarterly (2008: 32(3)). Heather Getha-Taylor has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the journal Review of Public Personnel Administration. Heather was also nominated to participate in the Minnowbrook III conference at the Syracuse University Minnowbrook Conference Center in the Adirondacks. In the spirit of Dwight Waldo’s first Minnowbrook conference forty years ago, it was a gathering designed to critique the current state of public management and examine the future of the field. Heather was one of 56 “new scholars” selected to participate in the conference, held September 3-5. Mark Tompkins and former Department colleague Ann Bowman (now at the Bush School, Texas A&M University) have been awarded a grant in the amount of $69,400 to pursue research on “Building Resilient Communities: The Role for State Government” from the START Consortium for the Department of Homeland Security. Neal Woods, “The Policy Consequences of Political Corruption: Evidence from State Environmental Programs,” Social Science Quarterly (March 2008). Recent Graduates and Awards Congratulations to the following MPA graduates who graduated from the program in 2007-2008. Fall graduates included: Grace Stewart, Jacquelyn Gayle and Jocelyn Caldwell. Spring and summer graduates were: Alyson Goff, Amy Lindler, Ana Oliver, Chris Hulbert, Ed Black, Kevin Fellner, Lindsey Meyers, Matt Cromer, Megan Mess, Scott Martin, Seth Duncan and Shaun Greenwood. Inducted last year into the PA honorary society, Pi Alpha Alpha were: Ed Black, Matt Cromer, Seth Duncan, Alyson Goff, Shaun Greenwood, Chris Hulbert, Amy Lindler, Megan Mess and Lindsey Meyers.
Pictured above are some of the 2007-2008 graduates. From left to right beginning on the bottom are Megan Mess, Alyson Goff, Lindsey Meyers, Kevin Fellner, Shaun Greenwood, Lindsay Moon, Chris Hulbert and Ed Black.
Yeva Avakyan. A 2001 graduate of the MPA Program, Yeva writes: I have worked with World Vision, an international relief and development organization, since I graduated from USC. I first started in Beirut, Lebanon as a Program Officer involved in program design and proposal writing for vulnerable population groups. I later moved to the World Vision office in Yerevan, Armenia where I lead the program quality team and established a monitoring and evaluation system for the national program. Since 2006 I have worked with the World Vision US office in Washington, DC as Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist. Over the past few years I have been involved in program evaluations and capacity building on monitoring & evaluation in the US, Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe. Jon Baggett (2004) Jon resigned from the SC Department of Commerce this past year and took a position as Director of Economic Development for Dorchester County, SC. There he'll be working with another USC MPA alumnus, Ashley Jacobs, who is Assistant County Administrator. Donnie Barnes (1989). Formerly Donnie Turbeville, Donnie left the Columbia Metro Airport in 1991 and moved to the upstate where she worked for a Division of Robert Bosch responsible for its trade programs including the foreign-trade zone (FTZ) as she had done while at the Airport. And then fate stepped in. In 1992 BMW announced that it was coming to South Carolina. In 1993 the US Department of Commerce and US Customs referred BMW to her as the person who could handle its foreign-trade zone operations and trade issues. She joined BMW Manufacturing in 1993 to operate its FTZ. Over the years her responsibilities have increased as BMW has grown. She is now the Customs Compliance Manager responsible for all of its imports, its exports and the many Customs programs it is involved in, including free-trade agreements, drawback, supply chain security, etc., etc. She has daily contact with US Customs, the Department of Commerce, FDA, FCC, Department of Transportation, National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, and more on both local and national levels. She also interacts with Customs in Canada, Mexico and Germany. She says the USC MPA has been a tremendous help to her in dealing with various government agencies. Robbie Bennett (2005). Robbie moved to Greenwood, SC in the last year to take a position with the Greenwood Partnership Alliance as the Director of Research and Development. This position allows him to stay in economic development and offers, he says, a lot of growth potential. He will be providing the research systems and data for projects as well as recruiting companies to Greenwood County. Prior to his move he was a research analyst with the SC Department of Commerce. Brian Gaines (2006) Brian took a job with the SC Budget and Control Board as a human resources manager in May 2007 and works with recruiting, among other duties. Leah Davis (2007) Leah graduated with a joint JD/MPA and is now working with the Town of Lexington, SC as zoning administrator. Howard Duvall (1990) Howard retired in October 2008 from the SC Municipal Association where he had served as Executive Director since 1992. He worked with the Association for 21 years. Prior to that he had served as mayor of Cheraw, SC and on the staff of Governor Dick Riley and as a Commissioner of the SC Tax Commission, now the Department of Revenue. The Municipal Association's Board of Directors presented Duvall the Allison B. Farlow award at their last annual meeting to honor his service to the public sector. Elliott Epps (1999) Since graduating, Elliott worked two years on race relations issues for the statewide nonprofit, the Palmetto Project in Charleston. There he traveled around the State working to connect and provide resources for individuals and groups of youth and adults working to improve race relations in South Carolina. During that time he married the woman he was dating while in the MPA program, Amy Rawl. He attended law school at USC and graduated in 2004. After practicing law in Charleston and Aiken for almost three years, he returned to his passion for nonprofit work and is currently executive director of City Year Columbia. He and Amy have two boys- John Elliott 6 and Thomas 3 and are expecting their third in June. Lindsey Williams Henderson (2007) Lindsey received a joint MSW/MPA degree is now working in Charleston with the head start program through the Berkeley and Dorchester counties Economic Development Corporation. Ben Johnson (2007) Ben is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) Leadership Management Director for the East Bay, Sacramento and Northern Nevada area. In that role, he is responsible for grassroots political mobilization, leadership development of current AIPAC members and acts as a community resource on issues affecting the US-Israel relationship. Mike LeFever (1976) In January of 2008 Mike assumed the position of President and CEO of the Association of SC Independent Colleges and Universities. Prior to that he was with MG&C Consulting Services. Previously he served on the staff of Governor Hodges, as Executive Director of the SC Workers' Compensation Commission, and worked on the staff of the SC Department of Juvenile Justice. Lindsey Meyers (2008) Lindsey resigned from the SC Department of Commerce, where she worked while in the MPA Program, and moved to Greenville, SC. She now works with McCallum Sweeney Consulting, a site selection firm located in Greenville. Grace Stewart (2007) Grace took a job in early 2008 as the Nurse-Family Partnership Coordinator at the Office of First Steps. The Duke Endowment has partnered with First Steps to launch this new evidence-based initiative and her job is to help assist thirteen grantees in the application process and then oversee the implementation of two pilot sites by this summer. Ashley Tenney (2005) Ashley has taken a new job - she is now the Business Development Coordinator for the Corporate Department at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP in Atlanta. McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP is an international law firm of attorneys and public policy advisors. The firm provides business solutions in the areas of environmental regulation, international law, public policy and regulatory affairs, corporate law, government contracts, intellectual property and technology, complex litigation, real estate, energy and finance. Ed Waller (2006) Ed has been working the SC Legislative Audit Council since August 2007 as an auditor. More to come with the next issue!!! Attention Alumni!!! We need to hear from you. Let us know about events in your life, career, etc. and we'll include that in our online newsletter to share with your colleagues around the state, country and world. Photos are welcome.
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU’VE BEEN UP TO One of the most challenging aspects of the MPA Program is maintaining contact with the hundreds of individuals who are among our alumni and friends. To help us in this regard, and to provide past classmates with updates on your lives, we would greatly appreciate it if you would take a few seconds to provide personal and/or professional feedback. And, with the advantages of on-line technology, it couldn’t easier to give us a quick snapshot of what you’ve been up to recently. Please take a moment to write us at the following email address: Any news concerning job changes, career accomplishments, families, and geographical relocations will help us to enlarge our next account of ALUMNI ACTIVITIES and to share in your achievements. Please be sure to include an email address and/or street address in your communications, and tell us what year you graduated. And, photos are encouraged!! THANKS!!
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