The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Category: CPPA & university administration

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CPPA & university administration

CPPA Seeks Two Full-Time Lecturers

The Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) is hiring two full-time lecturers to start in September 2014. In addition to research and/or professional experience and a doctorate in public policy, public affairs or a related discipline, successful candidates will also have experience teaching in at least one of the following areas: public management, nonprofit management, program evaluation, public organizations, conflict resolution, personnel management, and/or public finance and budgeting.

CPPA is the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching, and engagement at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Our faculty teach and conduct rigorous research to realize social change and solve problems for the common good. Our graduate students are mid-career professionals, recent college graduates and everyone in between. They come from around the globe to study public policy and management in small classes in an area famous for its political activity and social activism.

In 2011, CPPA was the recipient of the first-ever Social Equity Award from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. The award was created to honor a public administration, affairs or policy program with a comprehensive approach to integrating social equity into its academic and practical work.

Read the full job posting here. Review of applications begins March 17.

 

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CPPA & university administration Student news

Barnard Family Fund to Support Scholarships and Internships for CPPA Students

The Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) is pleased to announce a generous donation from Richard Barnard (BS ’76, MPA ’86) for support of students pursuing master’s degrees in public policy. This donation will help fund scholarships and summer internships over the next two years and lead to the establishment of the Barnard Family Fund, a permanent endowment that will eventually provide annual support for students pursuing careers in public policy.

“We are very grateful for this donation,” notes CPPA Acting Director Kathryn McDermott. “Mr. Barnard is an advocate for social justice, a cause shared by so many of our students at CPPA. This donation will allow a greater number of them to pursue that passion.”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UMass, Barnard returned for graduate school, earning a master’s degree in public administration. He is the co-founder and president of the Baroco Corporation, which is dedicated to providing innovative opportunities to help people with disabilities participate in and contribute to their communities. Barnard has a deep and abiding love of UMass: “I told my kids they could go to any school they wanted as long as it was UMass,” he says. This donation couples his commitment to the university with his dedication to champion liberal and progressive causes.

CPPA is the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at UMass Amherst. In 2011, it received the first ever Social Equity Award from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) for its commitment by faculty and students to the highest standards in social equity research, teaching and service.

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CPPA & university administration

McDermott to Begin Yearlong Term as Acting Director

Associate Professor Kathryn McDermott (education and public policy) has been named acting director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration for the 2013-2014 academic year, while Director M.V. Lee Badgett is on leave.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to lead CPPA while Lee is on leave,” McDermott said. “I’m looking forward to working with the faculty and staff to keep all of our initiatives moving forward.”

McDermott takes the reins as CPPA celebrates its 15th anniversary. She has been a member of the center’s faculty since she arrived at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1999, with a joint appointment to CPPA and what was then the School of Education.

As one of the longest-serving members of the CPPA faculty, McDermott has helped shaped the center’s mission, including its focus on social change. Her research explores the formation and implementation of state-level education policy and the effects that those policies have on educational equity. Her most recent book, High Stakes Reform: The Politics of Educational Accountability, places growing demands for educational accountability within the general context of performance measurement policy and examines the policy interventions of states in local school districts.

Badgett’s leave comes as part of the Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship, an elite honor from the university that recognizes outstanding scholarly work. She will spend the year exploring the economic impact that social and legal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people has on developing countries around the world, as well as on employers in the United States.

CPPA is the hub for interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at UMass Amherst.

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CPPA & university administration Events

UMass Community to Honor Rep. John Olver During Nov. 19 Symposium

The University of Massachusetts Amherst will host the campus community and area organizations, elected officials and residents as it honors retiring Rep. John Olver during a symposium on Monday, Nov. 19. For a full schedule of the day’s events, click here.

Through panel discussions, lunchtime tributes and a reception, this symposium will highlight the many contributions that Olver has made to the western Massachusetts region during his 21 years in Congress. In particular, the event will focus on the areas of transit-oriented economic development, environmental conservation and sustainability, renewable energy, human rights and the Knowledge Corridor, the swath of the Connecticut River Valley that runs roughly from Amherst, Mass., to Hartford, Conn. The symposium will also recognize Olver’s donation of his papers to the W.E.B. Dubois Library at UMass Amherst.

CPPA Director M.V. Lee Badgett will speak about Olver’s strong record at home and abroad when it comes to fighting for social justice and defending human rights. Earlier this year, for example, Olver was arrested with actor George Clooney while protesting in front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C. Olver, Clooney and other entertainers and elected officials were speaking out against the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

CPPA faculty members Jane Fountain (political science), Michael Ash (economics) and Charles Schweik (environmental conservation) will moderate the panels and introduce those participating.

Registration for the symposium is required and space is limited. To reserve your space, please contact the Office of External Relations and University Events at (413) 577-1101 or events@admin.umass.edu by Tuesday, November 13, 2012.

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CPPA & university administration Student news

Five College Students Invited to Apply for New Accelerated Master of Public Policy Program

The Center for Public for Public Policy and Administration is now accepting applications for its new accelerated Master of Public Policy program. Current Five College seniors are invited to apply for the MPP class of 2013; current juniors may apply for the MPP class of 2014. All admitted senior applicants will be expected to enroll in a new graduate-level seminar, “Public Policy and Law a Decade after 9/11/01: The U.S., Europe and the Middle East,” taught in spring 2012.

The accelerated Master of Public Policy (MPP) for Five College students is an interdisciplinary professional degree that draws on such fields as political science, economics, anthropology, sociology and statistics. Students will learn the policymaking process; identify policy problems and assess potential solutions; and develop appropriate research methods, including quantitative tools. Graduates will be well-positioned for careers in government agencies, advocacy and nongovernmental organizations, as well as other organizations that work on issues such as social justice, the environment, family policy, communications policy, science and technology policy.

This 36-credit program integrates theoretical learning with opportunities for practical applications, giving students a “master’s in relevance.” It is the only accelerated master’s program of its kind in the region and gives students the ability to earn a graduate degree just one year after completing their undergraduate studies. As such, this program is a less expensive option than earning undergraduate and graduate degrees separately.

For more information, including admission requirements, visit www.masspolicy.org/acad_mpp.html or email Satu Zoller, CPPA’s associate director, szoller@pubpol.umass.edu.

The deadline for current Five College seniors to apply for the MPP class of 2013 is January 13, 2012.

The deadline for current Five College juniors to apply for the MPP class of 2014 is March 1, 2012.

Categories
CPPA & university administration Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Social inequality & justice

CPPA Program Wins National Social Equity Award

The Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) has been recognized as top in country when it comes to social equity research, teaching and service.

The distinction comes from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. Its Social Equity Award, new this year, was created to honor a public affairs, public administration and/or public policy program with a comprehensive approach to integrating social equity into its academic and practical work.

“We are very honored to be the first program to receive this award from our professional association,” says CPPA Director M.V. Lee Badgett. “CPPA’s students, staff and faculty build a social justice component into everything we do: our courses, our research and our public engagement. We’re not here only to study public policy; we want our work to make a difference in people’s lives.”

The Center’s research spans many disciplines. Much of that scholarship examines existing social inequities, such as environmental harms, employment discrimination, health disparities, gender inequalities, marriage access inequalities, and the digital divide. But CPPA’s faculty members go beyond studying these fields; they proactively seek possible policy remedies for these inequities.

For example, political science and public policy professor Jane Fountain chaired the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government for the World Economic Forum in 2010 and 2011. She has worked with leaders from nongovernmental organizations around the world on such social equity issues as government openness and citizen engagement, as well as social enterprise models for economic development across the globe.

Badgett is widely recognized as an authority on civil rights protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. She was the first economist to publish an article identifying the gay wage gap. In 2009 Badgett’s award-winning book When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage was published, and the following year she testified as an expert witness in the federal Proposition 8 trial related to same-sex marriage in California.

Scholarship from CPPA faculty and staff also includes: examining educational equity, by Kathryn A. McDermott and Brenda Bushouse; analyzing the economics of environmental issues and class-based health disparities, by Michael Ash, Krista Harper and Sylvia Brandt; studying the role of technology in public life across the globe, by Martha Fuentes-Bautista and Charles Schweik; and looking at various forms of economic and political inequality throughout the world, by Joya Misra, Nancy Folbre and David Mednicoff.

In addition to the faculty’s research, the Center works to advance social justice goals on the UMass Amherst campus and throughout the region. Through its Springfield Initiative, CPPA lecturer Fred Rose is working with community leaders to establish an economic development process that would create worker cooperatives, offering inner-city residents well-paying entry-level jobs.

Students are also actively engaged in CPPA’s social equity endeavors. For example, they collaborate with faculty and staff on the Center’s Diversity and Social Justice Committee, which works to ensure that CPPA events and operations engage the wider community in social justice issues. The committee has helped with efforts such as recruiting a diverse student body and incorporating social justice themes in the curriculum.

Since its founding in 1998, CPPA has placed a strong focus on issues of social justice and diversity. “Our mission includes promoting social change and solving problems for the common good,” Badgett says.

The award lends prestige not only to CPPA, but also to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS), which houses the Center. “I am so proud that CPPA has won this award. Congratulations to Lee for her fine leadership,” says SBS Dean Robert S. Feldman.

CPPA is the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at UMass Amherst. Its faculty and alumni are effective policy leaders, from the local to the global levels, in addressing topics such as family and care policy, environmental issues, emerging technologies, social inequalities and governance.

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Alumni news CPPA & university administration Events Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Student news

2010 CPPA Newsletter Available Online

The 2009- 2010 academic year was a busy time for the Center for Public Policy and Administration.  We welcomed new students, new faculty, new research and projects, and, of course, got settled in our new office space in Gordon Hall.  More information about all these new activities as well as other highlights from our faculty, students, and alumni from the past year are available in our annual newsletter, now available online.

Below, we reproduce the newsletter’s letter from the director as an introduction to the jam-packed annual report.  To go directly to the newsletter, click here [PDF]

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Dear friends,

With my garden and local agricultural farm share overflowing with healthy food, I can’t resist gardening metaphors this time of year. Each year CPPA plants a new crop of students and research projects, sowing seeds of knowledge.

We see our students blossom over their first year. They grow during their summer internships—this year they completed internships all over the world, from the Philippines to Guatemala to New Orleans, and just up I-91 in Greenfield, MA—and produce exciting projects in their second year. We look forward to seeing these experiences ripen into capstone projects this spring.

In May, we sent another crop of new professionals out into the policy world to join our alumni. We’ll miss their engaging questions in class, their tireless energy, and their entrepreneurial spirit—this was the class that created and nurtured the Policy and Administration Graduate Council to provide a voice for CPPA students. Our incoming class carries on the tradition of geographical diversity, with students from China, Ukraine, Bolivia, and Japan, and from the US, from Mississippi to Massachusetts.
As always, our faculty are busy tending their own policy research gardens. Joya Misra and Susan Newton created an exciting grants workshop for UMass faculty. We also have a new crop of books, grants, and honors. Our faculty and their research have influenced environmental, science, economic, and social policy, with their research showing up in national and international advisory panels, prestigious research centers, and courtrooms. This fall we’re delighted to welcome Dr. Steven Boutcher to the CPPA faculty. He’ll teach a course on social movements and public policy next spring.

Some big news from this past academic year is already producing exciting new programs. A distinguished review panel complimented us on the quality of our program and the interdisciplinary connections we’ve created across campus. They inspired us to create an accelerated program that would allow talented undergraduates in the Five Colleges to get a BA and MPP in five years. We’re also working on online certificate programs.
As an amateur gardener, I am most excited when an improbable plant emerges. At CPPA, we are delighted to move into a wonderful building, Gordon Hall. Please stop by the next time you’re on campus to see what our center has grown into: a beautiful and lively place for students, faculty, and staff to grow and produce new ideas and research that will lead to action!

With your help, we are also planting seeds for long-run growth. The generosity of alumni, staff, and faculty has kept our scholarship fund growing over the past year. I encourage you to support the next generation of policy professionals by giving to this fund!

Yours,
Lee Badgett

Categories
CPPA & university administration Faculty Research

Fountain receives Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research

Jane Fountain, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, is one of eight nationally acclaimed faculty members at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who will be presented the annual Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity at the Sixth Annual Faculty Convocation on Friday, October 1, 2010.

Professor Fountain is the founder and Director of the National Center for Digital Government which was established with support from the National Science Foundation to develop research and infrastructure for the emerging field information technology and governance. During the past decade, the National Center has sponsored research workshops, seminars, doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships and visiting faculty from throughout the world in addition to its active research programs.

She also directs the Science, Technology and Society (STS) Initiative, a campus-wide effort based at the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts. The STS Initiative is designed to build social science, policy, and cross-disciplinary research on a range of social, political, and economic challenges posed by science and technology. Fountain is the Principal Investigator of the Ethics in Science and Engineering Online Resource Beta Site project and of the International Dimensions of Ethics in Science and Engineering project (IDEESE).  She is a co-principal investigator of the Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education (CAITE) and a Senior Researcher at the Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing, a major nanoscience research center.  Fountain developed and directed the Women in the Information Age Project, which was established with a generous gift from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, to conduct research on the participation of women in computing and information-technology related fields and, with its partner institutions, to increase the number of women experts in information and communication technologies.  She is an adjunct professor in the Department of Computer Science at UMass Amherst.

Fountain is the author of Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change (Brookings Institution Press, 2001), which was awarded an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice and has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Her articles have been published in scholarly journals including Governance, Technology in Society, Science and Public Policy, the National Civic Review, and the Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Professor Fountain is currently a member of the World Economic Forum Global Advisory Council on the Future of Government. She served on the American Bar Association blue ribbon Commission on the Future of e-Rulemaking and has served on several advisory bodies for organizations including the Social Science Research Council, the Internet Policy Institute, and the National Science Foundation. She has delivered invited lectures and keynote addresses and has worked with governments and research institutions including the World Bank, the European Commission, Knowledge Management Asia Pacific, Japan, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Chile, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The complete list of faculty receiving awards at the Convocation includes:

Jeffrey M. Davis, Department of Chemical Engineering
Jane E. Fountain, Department of Political Science; Center for Public
Policy and Administration
Lixin Gao, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Alice C. Harris, Department of Linguistics
Sigrid Miller Pollin, Department of Art, Architecture, and Art History
Leon J. Osterweil, Department of Computer Science
Vincent M. Rotello, Department of Chemistry
Lynnette Leidy Sievert, Department of Anthropology

More: http://www.umass.edu/loop/weeklybulletin/articles/109445.php

Categories
CPPA & university administration

CPPA and Public Health Launch Dual Degree MPPA/MPH Program

The Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) and the School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS) announce a new program that will enable students to earn the Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) and the Master of Public Health (MPH) within three years of full-time study.  The Faculty Senate’s Academic Standards and Curriculum Committee (ASCC) of the Graduate Council approved the dual degree option at its May 6, 2010, meeting.

The new degree option requires that students complete 72 total credits, 42 in the Health Policy and Management Program (Department of Public Health, SPHHS) and 30 through CPPA.  With prior approval, a required internship and practicum in each program may be completed simultaneously.

Applicants must meet admission requirements and be accepted by both CPPA and the Health Policy and Management Program to qualify for the dual degree option.  Students currently enrolled in either program may also apply to the other program during their first year to matriculate as a MPPA/MPH candidate.

“We’re delighted to partner with the School of Public Health on this new dual degree program,” according to Satu Zoller, Associate Director of CPPA and a member of the committee that developed the program.  “Graduates of this program will be well-prepared for professional roles involving health policy development, administration, and evaluation, and for careers that span the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.”

According to Dan Gerber, associate dean of academic affairs at SPHHS, “This new program is a great opportunity for everyone involved.  It enhances our school, our university, and our students, and provides them with the training and education to confront the complex challenges facing public health professionals today.”

Applications to the MPPA/MPH program will be accepted beginning with the 2010-2011 academic year. Continue to check CPPA’s website for updated information about the program.

Categories
CPPA & university administration Events

End of the Year Activities

It is hard to believe that the semester is almost over and graduation is upon us! This year’s graduating class is poised for excellence, and CPPA wants to be sure to send them on their way in style. We hope you will take time to say goodbye to our graduates and celebrate their accomplishments at some of the events listed below:

May 12: CPPA Capstone Conference
Join CPPA as we learn about the research and client projects undertaken by our graduating students. This year’s capstone conference will take place May 12 from 9AM to 12:30 PM in Thompson 620 and 1:30 PM to 5PM in the Campus Center, room 905-909.  Check the bulletin boards on the 4th floor for final lists of presentation times.

May 13: CPPA Graduation Celebration
The Class of 2010 graduate reception will be held upstairs at The Blue Heron in Sunderland on Thursday, May 13th from 4-6 PM.  Join CPPA in our celebration of this year’s outstanding class. Reservations are required, so email Kathy today (kcolon at pubpol dot umass dot edu).

May 14: Commencement
Graduate Commencement will begin at 10AM. (Graduates should plan to check in at the Mullins Center much earlier). Visit the UMass Commencement website for details.

Best of luck to our graduates!