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Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

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Event Recap | Public Matters 2021

On May 13th, the Evans School community convened for Public Matters 2021. We heard from six amazing and dynamic storytellers as they shared their own reflections on this year’s theme, “Transforming Public Service.” Attendees were invited to listen and learn, and called upon to engage and commit to a new vision for anti-racist public service by sharing their gifts with the Evans School – whether they be time, experience, or financial gifts – as we build a community of reciprocity.

The inaugural Public Matters was a true celebration of the knowledge of our wider community. Watch the recording, learn more about our storytellers and their work, explore the takeaways, and join us as together we envision inclusively built societies powered by brave leadership, rigorous action, and collective wisdom.

Watch the Full Recording:

Watch the Recording

Explore the Takeaways

Our Collective Wisdom

During the event, Evans School staff distilled the themes, patterns, and chat comments that emerged into a resource document for you to review and reflect upon.

Explore the Graphic Harvest

Our Collective Commitment

We asked those in attendance to share, “What is a takeaway, action step, or commitment you are leaving this event with today?”

See what they had to say

Our Public Matters Storytellers:

Priya D. Saxena, MPA

Priya D. Saxena, MPA (They/Them)

Founder + President of Equitable Future
Continue reading “Event Recap | Public Matters 2021”

Event Recap | Dean’s Forum on Race & Public Policy: Leading and Managing Anti-Racist Organizations

At the heart of the Evans School’s mission is a call to host community conversations that support and inspire public leaders, and our Dean’s Forum events have focused on the intersection of race and public policy. The series continued with a live conversation between Dr. Susan Gooden, Dean of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Dr. Jodi Sandfort, Dean of the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington, as they discussed ways to advance anti-racist public administration and management.

 

Review Resources

Susan T. Gooden, Ph.D., is dean and professor of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is an internationally recognized expert on social equity. Gooden is an elected fellow of the congressionally chartered National Academy of Public Administration and is past president of the American Society for Public Administration.

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She is the Vice-President of the Network of Associated Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). Her books include Global Equity in Administration (2020); Why Research Methods Matter (2018, Melvin and Leigh); Race and Social Equity: A Nervous Area of Government (2014, Routledge); and Cultural Competency for Public Administrators (2012, Routledge). Her research has been funded by several organizations including the Russell Sage Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, MDRC, and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Gooden has received several honors including the 2021 Charles H. Levine Award for Excellence in Public Administration presented jointly by ASPA and NASPAA, the Herbert Simon Best Book Award presented by the American Political Science Association and the Jewel Prestage Pioneer Award from the Conference of Minority Public Administrators. She received a Fulbright Specialist Award to Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Gooden was appointed to the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation, the accrediting arm of the Network of Associated Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration. She has previously served as an elected member to the national policy council of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. She was appointed to the Virginia Community College System board and served as board chair. She currently serves on the board of the Virginia Retirement System. A native of Martinsville & Henry County, Virginia, Gooden earned an A.S. in Natural Science from Patrick Henry Community College, a B.A. in English from Virginia Tech, and an M.A. in Political Science from Virginia Tech. She received her doctorate from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

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Dr. Jodi Sandfort joined the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance as dean in January 2021. Formerly a professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, her work focuses on improving the implementation of social policy, particularly those policies designed to support low-income children and their families.

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She is the founder and academic director of the Hubert Project, a global community focused on improving professional education and effectiveness through development and sharing of multimedia learning materials, such as e-cases, e-studies, and video briefs. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration, a distinguished honor recognizing her innovative leadership in the field.

For six years she directed the human services program at the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, where she managed a portfolio of $20 million in annual giving. Sandfort has served as a Family Self-Sufficiency Scholar funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation. In 2015, she was the co-chair of the Public Management Research Association conference, hosting scholars from around the world in Minneapolis. She has also worked as a senior strategy consultant with the Bush Foundation and special assistant to the President of the University of Minnesota.

Sandfort is the author of books, many academic articles, book chapters, and reports for policymakers and practitioners about social welfare system design, organizational effectiveness, early childhood education, welfare reform, nonprofit management, and research methodology. She is currently on the editorial boards of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, American Review of Public Administration, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and the Journal of Public Affairs Education.

She has worked as a consultant with national and statewide foundations, think tanks, and other nonprofit human service organizations. She has provided leadership coaching, executive development, and organizational development services to nonprofit, philanthropic, and public organizations. She has accepted academic appointments solely in professional schools because they are promising sites for scholar-practitioner dialogue.

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Evans School Embarks on Bold Journey With New Vision for Public Service

This is a critical time for our nation. The inequitable impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting economic disparities, and the pervasive violence experienced by Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color shed new light on the disfunction of our public institutions and the increasing erosion of trust in our public institutions. The fundamental strengthening of our democratic system will depend on our ability to address racial bias, reinvigorate a shared belief in the sacred work of public service, and rebuild lasting faith in our public institutions.

Driven by our values, we are building a necessary engine of change.

Evans School Ranks Among Best in the Nation

U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Best Graduate Schools places the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance among the best schools in the nation and the world. The Evans School ranked fourth among public affairs graduate programs overall, and second among public institutions.

Six of our specializations were also ranked in the top ten: Environmental Policy, Nonprofit Management, Social Policy, Public Finance & Budgeting, Public Policy Analysis, and Public Management and Leadership.

Evans School Dean Jodi Sandford noted: “I am pleased by Evans’ continued top-five ranking because of the ways it positions us to engage deeply with public policy and implementation issues moving forward, sharing our learning with peers throughout the country and the world. We should all take great pride in our School’s work to inspire public service and democratize public policy.”

These rankings are released annually and are based on reputation and respect among peer institutions. These rankings are representative our leadership and expertise in these areas as an institution. View the full rankings.

The Evans School Welcomes New Faculty Members in Fall 2021

The Evans School is proud to welcome two new faculty members to the Evans School community for the 2021-22 academic year. Dr. Sebawit G. Bishu and Isabelle M. Cohen are both highly accomplished scholars and educators who will significantly enhance the Evans School’s offerings and add great vibrancy to the Evans School community.

New faculty member Sebawit Bishu.Sebawit G. Bishu, Ph.D. 

Sebawit G. Bishu is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver, School of Public Affairs. She also holds a non-resident fellow appointment at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP).

Bishu’s research centers around making government effective and equitable through conscious and ethical public management practice. Her work aims at understanding and improving the circumstances under which government provides equitable opportunity to all its workforce and equitable service outcome to citizens. Bishu is passionate about improving women’s and racial minority group’s participation in decision-making roles in government in Africa and the United States.

 

New faculty member Isabelle CohenIsabelle M. Cohen 

Isabelle Cohen’s research focuses on understanding technological and organizational innovations in developing countries. She partners with governmental and non-governmental organizations to rigorously evaluate new programs, policies and procedures, using tools such as randomized evaluations, administrative data analysis, geocoding and machine learning techniques. Much of her current research is focused in Uganda, although she has worked and done research in many other countries, including India, Peru and Greece.

Cohen will receive her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2021. She received her Master’s in Public Policy from the College of William & Mary in 2012, and her B.A. in International Relations from the same university in 2011.

Many thanks to the dedicated work of the Search Committee Chairs and all who served on the search committees for their careful reviews, engaged participation, and generous welcome toward the candidates.

Professor Ann Bostrom joins National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee to review space radiation risks. 

The committee will review and assess NASA’s space radiation risk management process as it relates to long-term cancer risks due to radiation exposure during crewed space missions. Based on the committee’s review and assessment of NASA’s proposed strategies, the committee will make recommendations to NASA for assessing and managing the processes for addressing space radiation risk for astronauts.

Evans School researchers document approaches and challenges in ensuring access to small business grant and loan programs during COVID-19

This summer, Evans School Associate Professor Crystal Hall, and recent alumni Puja Kumar (MPA ’20) and Sehej Singh (MPA’20) will work with the U.S. Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) and Small Business Administration (SBA).  In this work, they will work with a set of local governments around the country to understand how they are incorporating considerations of equity into the design and implementation of their COVID-19 grant and loan programs for small businesses. 

New research by Prof. Ann Bostrom on the NHERI Natural Hazards Reconnaissance Facility (RAPID) published in Frontiers in Built Environment

Prof. Ann Bostrom has worked with Joe Wartman, Jeff Berman and the other co-authors on these teams to help develop the RAPID facility for disaster reconnaissance research from the time NSF awarded the funding for the RAPID in 2016, up to the point at which it began operations in 2018.

In Needs, Challenges, and Strategic Approaches for Natural Hazards and Disaster Reconnaissance the authors describe the vision for disaster reconnaissance research that guided the development of the facility. As the abstract notes in its conclusion, “Continued progress in natural hazard reconnaissance requires adaptation of new, strategic approaches that acquire and integrate data over a range of temporal, spatial, and social scales across disciplines.”

Another paper, Natural Hazards Reconnaissance with the NHERI RAPID Facility describes how the RAPID Facility is transforming reconnaissance methods following natural disasters in collaboration with the NSF-funded CONVERGE Center, by supporting and advancing the integration of data across disciplines, not only through advanced instrumentation and data handling, but also through considerations of data formats, ethics, and questions about appropriate standardization of disaster reconnaissance data.

Owen Harris and Leah Wood named 2020-2021 UW Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellows

Prestigious and competitive, FLAS fellows are selected by the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies’ six National Resource Centers. The fellowship will provide Owen (FLAS in Turkish, Middle East Center) and Leah (FLAS in Khmer, Southeast Asia Center) with the opportunity to pursue training in modern languages and in area or international studies. Congratulations!