Chaz Plungis, a student in the Department's MPA program, has been selected to serve on the Board of the Connecticut chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (CT-ASPA).

MPA and M.A. Economics dual-degree student Manisha Srivastava participated in the Poverty and Prosperity Seminar hosted by the Institute for Humane Studies. The week-long seminar was held in Atlanta in July at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

DPP Professor Bill Simonsen has been selected to receive the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration's (NASPAA) Leslie A. Whittington Excellence in Teaching Award for 2008. The award will be presented at the NASPAA Annual Conference in Charleston, S.C.

The purpose of the award is to recognize faculty members at NASPAA institutions who make outstanding contributions to education for the public service through excellence in teaching.

Barbara Rua, a University of Connecticut, Master of Public Administration (MPA) recent graduate, is the recipient of the 2008 National Pi Alpha Alpha Masters Student Manuscript Award. She was given this award for her MPA capstone research project, which she completed this past spring.

For the second straight year, UConn DPP students traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild parts of the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The trip, which lasted from May 12th to May 20th, was sponsored and planned by the G.A.P.P.S. student organization.

Department of Public Policy students, faculty, and alumni gathered on August 29th at New Britain stadium to watch the New Britain Rock Cats take on the Binghamton Mets. The event was co-sponsored by the MPA Alumni Council and Pi Alpha Alpha MPA National Honor Society. The event was DPP’s first social of the year and was a huge success.

The University Of Connecticut Department Of Public Policy is excited to announce the arrival of new faculty member, Deneen Hatmaker. Deneen brings a wide variety of academic and professional experience to the Department. This fall, Deneen will be teaching Human Resource Management (PP 5365), part of the MPA core curriculum. Next spring, she will be teaching both Theory of Public Organizations (PP5361) and Organizations and Management (PP 5362).

This year’s winner for the best practicum project was the Sheff Movement Survey Study conducted by Alexis Browne, Lauren Friedman, and Sean Harrington. Under the supervision of Ken Dautrich, students conducted all phases of a working project, from project design and working with clients, to data analysis and presentation.

DPP Professor Mark Robbins spent time over the past year as a Visiting Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). The PPIC is an independent nonpartisan “think tank” that conducts independent scholarly research on public policy topics of importance for California. Professor Robbins worked in the public finance area conducting a study into the implications of California and other state government’s borrowing programs.

MPA student Barbara Rua was awarded the 2008 Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Daniel B. Goldberg Scholarship. The Goldberg Scholarship recognizes outstanding performance of graduate students preparing for a career in state and local finance. The award carries a $10,000 prize. Barbara will receive her award at the annual GFOA conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in June, 2008.

Shane Van Hoesen, a 2008 MPA Graduate, was recently selected as a finalist for the Presidential Management Fellows Program and subsequently offered a position with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, DC. Shane will be working as a Program Analyst within the DEA’s Office of Resource Management beginning in August.

Join us for the Department of Public Policy Spring 2008 Speaker Series. Topics range from local economic strategy to voter demand for school choice.
Our first segment in the series will feature Joan McDonald Commissioner, CT Department of Economic & Community Development.
Joan McDonald will be presenting Local Economic Development Strategies.
All meetings will be held from 12:30pm-2:00pm on the fourth floor of the Library Building at the UCONN Greater Hartford Campus.

The Department of Public Policy kicked off the Spring 2008 semester with a visit from Joan McDonald, Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). Commissioner McDonald shared her strategic plan for the future of Connecticut’s economy.

The MPA program and the Economics Department are teaming up to offer a dual MPA and M.A. in Economics that can be completed in two calendar years of full time study. The dual degree is of particular interest to students with an undergraduate background in economics, strong mathematical abilities, and a desire to work in the public policy arena with government; “think tanks;” or policy/program evaluation organizations.

Noelle Denny-Brown, a University of Connecticut, Master of Public Administration (MPA) recent graduate, is the recipient of the 2006 National Pi Alpha Alpha Best Paper Award. She was given this award for her MPA capstone research project, which she completed this past spring.

Amy Donahue and Bill Simonsen presented their homeland security research as the initial installment of the 2007-08 Department of Public Policy speaker series. Specifically, Donahue Simonsen, and Robbins research focused on the participants trust in government, perception of risk, identification of citizen preparedness levels, support for proposed technologies and willingness to pay for those technologies. The data were derived from a series of focus groups and citizen surveys. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Stephen Lipscomb presented his recent research on fiscal initiatives for special education at the Department of Public Policy’s Speaker Series. Dr. Lipscomb and his partner Dr. Elizabeth Dhuey’s research provides evidence that recent reduction in special education enrollment rates for both non-severe and severe disability cohorts are at least partially related to fiscal initiatives associated with special education finance reforms.

Professor Sean Concoran presented his research on voter demand for school choice at the Department of Public Policy’s speaker series. Professor Concoran’s research uses school choice ballot initiatives or referenda in Washington State to understand voter support for charter schools.

The Department of Public Policy welcomed a panel of state and local economic development officials to discuss using tax subsidies to encourage local development. Panelist included: Mark McGovern, Director of Development Service for the City of Hartford, Ron Van Winkle, Director of Community Services for the Town of West Hartford, John Rappa, Office of Legislative Research, and Stan McMillen, Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development.