The University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Faculty Research Social inequality & justice

Badgett Witnesses Signing of LGBT Employment Executive Order

CPPA Director M.V. Lee Badgett (economics) was at the White House today as President Barack Obama signed an executive order protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers. In the fact sheet released to accompany the signing, the White House cited some of Badgett’s research on why workplace equality is good for business.

The White House press release noted a 2013 analysis conducted by Badgett and three of her colleagues at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy that examined 36 research studies exploring how sexual orientation and gender identity workplace policies affect companies’ bottom lines. In short, the analysis concludes, “LGBT-supportive policies and workplace climates are linked to greater job commitment, improved workplace relationships, increased job satisfaction, and improved health outcomes among LGBT employees.”

In a lively East Room signing ceremony, Obama stepped back from the tragic world events of the last few days to celebrate gains that the LGBT community has realized over the last several years. He acknowledged the activists and advocates fighting for equal rights for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation. Thanks to all of their hard work, Obama said, “Our government will become just a little bit fairer.”

The executive order Obama signed prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant because of sexual orientation or gender identity. In addition, the order bars discrimination against federal employees based on gender identity. President Bill Clinton added sexual orientation to the list of classes protected for federal employees in 1998.

Badgett is an internationally recognized authority on LGBT economic issues. In the last several months, she has presented her research on the economic impact of sexual-identity discrimination at the World Bank and at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. She was also an expert witness during California’s 2010 Proposition 8 trial, which eventually overturned the voter-backed law banning same-sex marriage in the state. Badgett’s most recent book, When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage, addresses the core issues in marriage debates in European countries and the U.S.

“This executive order brings the LGBT community one step closer to equality,” Badgett said. “This is a great day, and I was honored to be able to witness this piece of history.”

(Photo courtesy of Lee Badgett.)

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Faculty Research

Harper Presents Research at Agro-Food Conference in France

Associate Professor Krista Harper (anthropology and public policy) presented her latest research at an international conference last month in Marseille, France, titled “Value and Values in Agro-Food Processes.”

Harper and her co-researcher, Ana Isabel Afonso, from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, spoke about urban gardening mobilizations and policies in Lisbon, Portugal.

The conference was co-organized by the Centre Norbert Elias at Marseille’s École des hautes études en sciences sociales and by anthropologists from the University of Barcelona who are international partners in the Culture and Heritage in European Societies and Spaces project, funded with an international research and training grant from the National Science Foundation.

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Alumni news

Alumnus Barber Running for State Legislature

Christine Barber (MPA ’03) has launched a campaign to become state representative of the 34th Middlesex district, a region that includes parts of Somerville and Medford, Mass.

Barber currently works as a senior policy analyst at Community Catalyst, a national nonprofit health care advocacy organization. Before joining Community Catalyst seven years ago, Barber served as a research analyst for the Massachusetts State Legislature’s Committee on Health Care Financing. One of her responsibilities in that role was to draft legislation, including the state’s landmark 2006 health care law.

The seat in the 34th Middlesex district has been vacant since former Rep. Carl Sciortino resigned earlier this year to become executive director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

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Faculty Research

New World Economic Forum Report Features Section Written by Fountain

Distinguished Professor Jane Fountain (political science and public policy) wrote part of a World Economic Forum report released earlier this month examining ways that governments can use technology to build trust and deliver more efficient public services.

The report, titled Future of Government Smart Toolbox, provides an analysis of how technology can and is affecting both the demands placed on government to deliver more with less and government’s ability to meet expectations.

This document focuses on eight key areas for improving government performance:

  • anti-corruption;
  • political representation;
  • bureaucracy;
  • delivery of services;
  • trust;
  • leadership;
  • security; and
  • innovation.

Fountain wrote the section on political representation, which is one of the core issues for technology and governance globally.

Fountain has been a member of the Future of Government Global Agenda Council, the body that produced this new toolbox, since its inception seven years ago. She is past-chair of the Council and led the writing of its first major report, The Future of Government: Lessons Learned from around the World, which led to the initial sessions at Davos for government and nongovernmental leaders on this topic.

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Faculty Research

Schweik Among UMass Innovators Celebrating National Day of Making

The University of Massachusetts Amherst joined with 152 other colleges and universities across the country this week to support efforts to promote the kind of innovation and ingenuity for which Associate Professor Charles Schweik (environmental conservation and public policy) has come to be known.

Together, the June 18 national Day of Making and White House Maker Faire were intended to highlight the creative work of small-scale inventors and manufacturers across the country and acknowledge the important contributions they make to our society.

This spring Schweik has been instrumental in launching Amherst’s newest makerspace, a community workshop open to the public that has high-tech tools like a 3-D printer. UMass faculty Steven Brewer, director of the Computer Resource Center, and Paula Rees, the College of Engineering’s director of diversity programs, have also played important roles in establishing this town-gown collaboration, which is based at Amherst Media.

A $15,000 Public Service Endowment Grant from the university has made Makers @ Amherst Media possible. By working with the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District, the makerspace’s first project will be to create and implement a new environmental science afterschool program this fall. The program will focus on developing open-source do-it-yourself electronics hardware that middle school youth can use in science classes and projects.

According to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, public access to technologies such as 3-D printers, laser cutters, open-source, low-cost microcontrollers, easy-to-use design software, and desktop machine tools, is democratizing the act of making and enabling citizens to build just about anything.

Earlier this month, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy sent a letter to President Obama thanking him for recognizing the contributions of makers around the country. In addition to highlighting the new Amherst Media effort, Subbaswamy noted other examples of “making” at the university, including the College of Engineering’s M5Makerspace and the Altra Industrial Motion Innovation Shop.

In April, the M5Makerspace hosted HackUMass, a 24-hour hackathon, during which almost 100 undergraduates from across the Northeast created devices such as automated parking meter payment systems and portable health monitoring systems. In the Innovation Shop, engineering and nursing students have built a body-powered mechanical arm for a Northampton boy with limited mobility. The prosthetic allows the bow to perform independent tasks such as adjusting his glasses, wiping his mouth with a napkin and feeding himself.

“The spirit of this movement comes from a combination of technology and community that is truly reflected on our campus,” Subbaswamy wrote to Obama. “We at UMass Amherst are excited about our ongoing contributions to the Maker Movement, which are based on our strong tradition of engaged scholarship.”

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Student news

Connecting Poverty and Climate Change, and Mitigating Both

For Maria Fernandez (MPPA/MBA ’15), the connection between poverty and climate change is clear. And this summer Fernandez is working to mitigate both.

Fernandez is a fellow with the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps, a national program that places trained graduate students in companies, municipalities and universities to identify potential energy savings for the host organizations.

She is working at the Roanoke Electric Cooperative, in rural north-central North Carolina. It is one of about 900 rural, nonprofit electric co-ops throughout the United States, and distributes energy directly to commercial and residential customers.

Fernandez will spend the summer identifying energy efficiency projects for key commercial accounts at the Roanoke co-op. She will propose strategies to reduce demand for electricity during peak periods of the day and research ways that the Roanoke co-op could make use of the U.S. Department of Energy’s demand response program.

Diminishing the amount of fossil fuels released into the atmosphere is a big motivating factor for Fernandez. And while some argue that reducing energy output would hurt the economy, Fernandez disagrees. By the end of her first day on the job in North Carolina, she already saw specific ways that improving energy efficiency in this high-poverty region could potentially have a positive impact on the local economy.

“In a region where a few dollars returned to members can feel like Christmas, there is great urgency to find ways to reduce wasted kilowatt hours and to prepare an accurate and compelling business case to get customers to say YES to energy efficiency,” Fernandez wrote in a recent Environmental Defense Fund blog post. “Money saved can be reinvested in more retrofits, in improving the local economy, in education…the list goes on, creating a virtuous cycle that can improve the quality of living and reduce carbon emissions.”

Fernandez has seen the connection between poverty and environmental degradation before. During her time at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as part of her business degree studies, Fernandez traveled throughout Southeast Asia. Experiencing the region’s environmental and development challenges first hand “reinforced my commitment to work towards a more fair global economy that is less dependent on fossil fuels,” Fernandez said.

After completing her summer fellowship, Fernandez will return to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and finish her master’s degree in public policy and administration, before embarking on a career to clean up the globe through economic justice.

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Faculty Honors & Awards Science, technology & society

Fountain Appointed to Advisory Committee on e-Government in Asia

Distinguished Professor Jane Fountain (political science and public policy) has been appointed to a three-year term as a member of the Experts Advisory Committee of the E-Government Research Center of the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA).

Founded in 1960, EROPA is an organization of states, groups and individuals in Asia and the Pacific designed to promote regional cooperation in improving knowledge, systems and practices of government administration in order to help accelerate economic and social development. Fountain is the only non-Chinese member of the approximately 10-member Experts Advisory Committee.

Earlier this month, Fountain served as the keynote speaker at the first international conference organized jointly by EROPA and the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, eGovernment Research Center.

Photo: Fountain poses before her invited lecture at Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management, China’s top public policy school.

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Alumni news Student news

First Barnard Family Fund Awards Support Two Summer Internships

Christoph Demers (MPPA ’15) and Garine Roubinian (MPPA ’15) are the first CPPA students to receive support from the newly established Barnard Family Fund.

Demers is working this summer as an intern at the National Priorities Project, an organization in Northampton, Mass., dedicated to making the federal budget more transparent through research and communications, so people can prioritize and influence how their tax dollars are spent.

Roubinian is spending her summer interning with the Springfield-based Wellspring Collaborative, a creative economic development project directed by CPPA lecturer Fred Rose that draws on the purchasing power of the area’s largest employers to provide a market for new, worker-owned companies.

The Barnard Family Fund was created earlier this year through a generous gift from Richard Barnard (BS ’76, MPA ’86) and supports students who are working to advance progressive causes.

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Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research

Fountain Delivers Keynote at Asian E-Governance Seminar

Distinguished Professor Jane Fountain (political science and public policy) gave a keynote address yesterday at the International Seminar on E-Government and Modern Governance in Asia. The seminar, hosted by the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration, brought together researchers and practitioners of e-governance from around the globe. The two-day session based in Beijing aimed to accelerate the smart and intentional development of e-government throughout Asian countries.

Fountain is a world-renowned expert on using technology to improve government services and accountability: She founded the National Center for Digital Government and has served as chair and vice chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government.

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Care policy Events Grants Social inequality & justice

Holyoke Youth Present Video Narratives about Sexual Disparities and Parenting

Young parents from Holyoke will publicly present digital stories next week that were produced as part of “Hear Our Stories: Diasporic Youth for Sexual Rights and Justice,” a collaborative project between the University of Massachusetts Amherst and several grassroots advocacy organizations.

The first-person video narratives feature parents who have been involved in the Care Center, a Holyoke-based alternative education program for pregnant and parenting teens who have dropped out of high school. They will present their short videos on Wednesday, May 7 from noon to 2:00 p.m. at the Visitor’s Center at Holyoke Heritage State Park. In addition to screening digital stories, this event will include a project overview, participatory activities for the audience and a panel from the storytellers.

Holyoke has the highest rate of births in Massachusetts to young women ages 15 to 19. Although there are many young parents in the community, they seldom have an opportunity to share their experiences with the public. The Hear Our Stories project is funded by the Ford Foundation and uses personal stories to educate the public about how young parenting women experience and negotiate sexual disparities. With training and production help from the Center for Digital Storytelling, the participating parents combined audio recordings, still and moving images, and music or other sounds to communicate an experience in the form of a video story.

This project is a collaboration of the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Department of Anthropology and the Center for Public Policy and Administration; the Care Center; the Center for Digital Storytelling; the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy; the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy at UMass Boston.