The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Category: Alumni news

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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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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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Alumni news Events Springfield Initiative

CPPA Alumni Offer Tips for Careers in Social Change

CPPA alumni Maura Geary (’07) and Joseph Wyman (’06).

Four CPPA alumni who work on educational issues in Springfield, Mass., offered current students tips on how to build successful careers working for social change.

Nancy DeProsse (‘06), a union representative with the Massachusetts Teachers Association; Maura Geary (‘07), director of literacy initiatives with the Hampden County Regional Employment Board; Molly Goren-Watts (‘07), a principal planner at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission; and Joseph Wyman (‘06), the data fellow at the Springfield Public Schools, spoke last week during a panel titled “Perspectives on Educational Change: CPPA Alumni Experiences in Springfield.”

They all agreed that it pays to use strategically the experiences students have in graduate school, especially an internship. During her internship at the Springfield-based Davis Foundation, for example, Geary accompanied the executive director to every meeting she could.

“I learned who was who and how everyone worked together,” Geary said. As a result, when she graduated a year later, she already had strong contacts in the area where she knew she wanted to work.

But strategic thinking shouldn’t end once you’ve accepted a job. All of the alumni speakers said it is critical to look at the challenges or problems you’re facing and figure out not only what you would like to change, but what is possible to change. And change will only come about, they agreed, through communication and collaboration.

“If you don’t have a relationship, nothing else matters,” said Wyman, adding that being trustworthy is also key.

The process of social change is slow, they said. But if you are committed to the cause and make an effort to develop strong personal relationships with others who are also working on the same issues, change can and will come. Keeping your own outlook positive doesn’t hurt, either. Likewise, Wyman said, when you’re collaborating with others, “Make it easy for them to say yes.”

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Alumni news Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Governance Science, technology & society

CPPA Team Recognized in Collaborative Governance Competition

Lucia Miller (MPPA ’12) and Associate Professor Charles Schweik (environmental conservation and public policy) have received an honorable mention in an international competition of case studies and simulations that focus on collaboration in public management.

The student-teacher duo studied the use in Massachusetts state government of open standards, a topic that has long been of interest to Schweik. They began working together while Miller was in Schweik’s Information Technology class and continued the project after she graduated last spring. Schweik and Miller then submitted their report, titled “The Adoption of Technology Open Standards Policy by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” to the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

“As a very non-traditional graduate student, I was looking to the MPPA program to backfill my 25-plus years of experience in the nonprofit world,” said Miller, who is the development director in the University of Massachusetts’ College of Humanities and Fine Arts. “When Charlie mentioned his interest in researching and writing a case on the Commonwealth’s open standards policy, I jumped on the opportunity to work with him. I knew that not only would I learn a lot, but also would be teaming up with one of the most innovative IT educators and scholars. It was an honor and a great project.”

The winning peer-reviewed studies in the PARCC competition are made available on the program’s website as a free, online resource for educators around the globe whose teaching focuses on collaborative public management, networks, governance, and/or problem solving.

Schweik has been recognized repeatedly for his cutting-edge approaches to both studying and teaching about open-source technology. Last fall he was named one of 2012’s top 50 innovators in education by the Center for Digital Education. Earlier this month he received an award honoring the legacy of Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom for his innovative efforts over the last 15 years to study Internet-based collective action, particularly related to open-source software.

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Alumni news Environmental policy Events

Environmental Policy Guru Knobloch to Meet with CPPA Students

On Monday, March 11, CPPA faculty and students have the opportunity to meet UMass alumnus Kevin Knobloch (’78), president of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) since 2003. This reception is a rare opportunity to talk and network with one of the leaders of the environmental movement. The informal reception will include light refreshments and will take place in Gordon Hall 302 at 2:30 p.m.

This veteran leader in the environmental policy community holds more than 30 years of experience in U.S. government and media advocacy. He has led several UCS delegations to the United Nations International Climate negotiations and currently oversees all UCS programs and operations. After starting his career as a newspaper reporter in Massachusetts, Knobloch worked on Capitol Hill as a press secretary, legislative assistant and then legislative director. He then became director of conservation programs for the Appalachian Mountain Club in Boston and co-founded the Arlington (MA) Land Trust.

Knobloch earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from UMass Amherst. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, with a focus on natural resource economics and environmental management.

On Tuesday, March 12, Knobloch will present a public lecture hosted by the Alumni Association titled “Needed: Skillful Capitalists to Lead us to a Low-Carbon Future.” Goodell Hall, 4 p.m.

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Alumni news Faculty Research Science, technology & society

Sept. 6 Event to Celebrate Publication of Book by Schweik and English

Please help us celebrate the publication of Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software Commons, by Charles Schweik, associate professor of environmental conservation and public policy, and Robert English (MPPA ’08). The Center for Public Policy and Administration will host a book launch party for Schweik and English on Thursday, Sept. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Gordon Hall Atrium.

Internet Success is the result of the first large-scale empirical study examining the social, technical and institutional aspects of open source software. Schweik and English look at the factors that lead to some open source projects successfully producing usable software and sustaining ongoing product development, while other open source projects are abandoned. The book has received praise from the open source software community, including in this review.

This book launch is part of the CPPA student orientation week and will introduce new students to one aspect of intellectual life at CPPA. Faculty and students from other departments are also welcome.

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Alumni news Faculty Research Grants

CPPA Hosts Five College Faculty Development Workshop

Last week the Center for Public Policy and Administration hosted a three-day workshop kicking off a Five College project that will develop strategies for bridging liberal arts and professional education for students who want to pursue careers in social change.

Brenda Bushouse, UMass associate professor of political science and public policy, co-directed the workshop with Molly Mead, director of the Center for Community Engagement and contributing faculty in American Studies at Amherst College. The two-year project is supported by a grant to Five Colleges, Inc., from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Ten faculty members, including representatives from all five campuses and two of the three professional schools involved in the project, participated in the workshop. Participants discussed the commonalities and differences in liberal arts and professional education, and how their individual campuses or programs currently prepare students to make a difference in the world. A panel of student and alumni social change leaders spoke to workshop participants about what in their educational experiences had helped them to become effective advocates for change.

Participants concluded their work by identifying important issues involved in effectively bridging professional and liberal arts education on the five campuses and possible collaborative activities in the coming academic year, including faculty and student development workshops around teaching and learning for social change. These activities will be broadly available to members of the Five College community.

Faculty participants in the workshop included Riché Barnes (Afro-American studies, Smith College), Carleen Basler (American studies and sociology, Amherst College), Myrna Breitbart (geography and urban studies, Hampshire College), Megan Briggs-Lyster (social entrepreneurship, Hampshire College), Brent Durbin (government, Smith College), Elizabeth Markovits (politics, Mount Holyoke College), David Mednicoff (public policy, UMass Amherst), Thomas Moliterno (management, UMass Amherst), Becky Wai-Ling Packard (psychology and education, Mount Holyoke College), and Eleanor Townsley (sociology, Mount Holyoke College).

Student panelists included Jake Hawkesworth (Hampshire College ’12, UMass Amherst ’13), Vanessa Megaw (Mount Holyoke College ’04, UMass Amherst ’13), Marcie Muehlke (Brown University ’06, UMass Amherst ’12), and Destry Sibley (Amherst College ’09).

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Alumni news Faculty Research Policy Viewpoints

Carpenter, Tomaskovic-Devey ’10 Publish Report on Transnational Advocacy Networks

CPPA faculty associate Charli Carpenter (political science), CPPA alumna Anna Tomaskovic-Devey ’10, and Kyle Brownlie (PhD candidate, political science) are co-authors of a report about why transnational advocacy networks take up particular issues and not others.

The report, Agenda-Setting in Transnational Networks: Findings from Consultations with Human Security Practitioners, is based on research supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation and conducted partly during Tomaskovic-Devey’s tenure as a graduate assistant for the project.

The research used focus groups with practitioners at 39 human security organizations, along with computer-assisted analysis provided by the UMass Qualitative Data Analysis Program (QDAP) coding lab, to determine four general factors influencing the likelihood that a particular issue will receive attention:  1) the nature of the issue, 2) the attributes of the actors involved, 3) the broader political context, and 4) the structural relationships within advocacy networks.

According to the authors, the findings in the report have important implications for all “issue entrepreneurs” working for social change, including those outside of the human rights arena.

Carpenter teaches a CPPA course on global agenda-setting, which analyzes politics in the human security area and is built around the model Carpenter developed through her NSF-funded study on transnational networks.  As part of the course, CPPA students have presented findings from their research projects to relevant practitioners at nonprofits in Washington, D.C.

The full report is available here, and additional information is available at the project’s website.

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Alumni news Events

CPPA Alumni April Gathering in Boston

The CPPA community met at the Hampshire Club in Boston on April 13, 2011, for an informal gathering and to toast MPA alum Larry Kocot’s UMass 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award. It was a great event that brought together alumni, faculty, staff, and students for great conversation, food and drink.

Here are some photos from the event:

Thanks to all who came and contributed to a wonderful and nostalgic evening!

Categories
Alumni news

Alumnus Kocot Receives 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award

Kocot

MPA alumnus Larry Kocot, ’82, ’86, is a recipient of this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor bestowed by the UMass Amherst Alumni Association on alumni, faculty and friends. Kocot, Deputy Director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, will be honored at a private awards ceremony held at the Massachusetts State House in Boston on April 13, 2011.

Later that day, a reception at Beacon Hill’s Hampshire House will also be held in Kocot’s honor. Kocot was nominated for the award by Professor of Economics and CPPA Director M.V. Lee Badgett. The nomination was supported by Professor Emeritus of Political Science George T. Sulzner, who served as Kocot’s undergraduate advisor and recruited him into the Masters in Public Administration program. Additional information about Kocot and his long career of public service is available here.

Of the other five distinctions, the Distinguished Alumni Award specifically honors alumni with national and/or international distinction who have translated their UMass Amherst experience into distinguished achievement in the public, business or professional realms, and have shown service to UMass Amherst in the financial, volunteer, or advocacy sectors.