March Message

Hello. I am Paul Danczyk, President of the American Society for Public Administration. March is an exciting month for advancing excellence in public service!

While we have some webinar programming in the works, keep a look out in your emails for upcoming sessions. We are in full conference mode and I would like to share with you a few highlights.

Registration is still open and we have passed that 1,000 mark of paid attendees—that’s great! We want to see you there as well so be sure to register. Our sessions are geared toward both practitioners and academics, and highlight the best research and practice across a variety of specialties. With over 230 sessions, there is something for everyone.

I know, I know, you may be pulled in a variety of directions as some of the sessions overlap. That’s a great sign of your many interests! We are doing our best to minimize major conflicts and appreciate your understanding.

You know that Naim Kapucu, University of Central Florida, and Lindsey McDougle, Rutgers, are the conference co-chairs—they did the heavy lifting on identifying the panels and presenters.

At each of our conferences, we recognize exemplars across the field as honorary co-chairs. This year, we wanted to be reflective of our membership, practitioners and academics, and local to federal. We selected one representative from each district. I am pleased to announce these public service leaders accepted the call:

From District 1: Robert Behn, senior lecturer and faculty chair of the Harvard Kennedy School’s executive program: Driving Government Performance: Leadership Strategies that Produce Results;  

District 2: Brigadier General and Congressman Joe Heck, chair of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service;

District 3: Norton Bonaparte, City Manager of Sanford, Florida

District 4: Laura Bloomberg, dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and

District 5: Sachi Hamai, Chief Executive Officer, The County of Los Angeles

We are honored to have them part of the conference. Each of them will have the opportunity to say a few words, mostly during plenary sessions, which are really quite stellar. In order of appearance:

Secretary Leon Panetta presents the Gallas Lecture on Friday afternoon,

Mariko Silver, Former Department of Homeland Security official and currently the CEO of the Henry Luce Foundation, delivers the Richardson Lecture on Saturday morning,

Terryl Ross, assistant dean for diversity, equity and inclusion for the University of Washington, is recognized at the Gloria Hobson Nordin Social Equity Luncheon on Sunday,

Jason DeParle, New York Times reporter and author, leads a talk during the Global Public Administration Plenary, Sunday afternoon,

Kathryn Hensley, National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association Secretary, is honored during the Section of Women in Public Administration’s National Awards Breakfast, Monday morning,

Donald Moynihan, Georgetown University professor, will give the Donald C. Stone Lecture, Monday morning, and

On the last day, Noel Hacegaba, Port of Long Beach Deputy Executive Director, will give the Closing Plenary, Tuesday morning.

What a great line-up! This all happens April 3rd through 7th in Anaheim.

For Chapter/Section Shout-outs: Congratulations to the South Florida Chapter on their fourteenth Annual Best Practices Conference on “Public Service and the Pursuit of Social Equity” and to the Conference of Minority Public Administrators annual conference for their very successful events.

While this my last video as president, I am excited for Kendra Stewart as she begins her term next month. Kendra is a public service rockstar and true pracademic! She leads the Riley Center for Livable Communities at the College of Charleston with research interests on state and local government, food policy, women and politics, and nonprofit management. Please be sure to welcome her to this new role.

For updates and opportunities, check out our website at www.aspanet.org.

Have a great month and I look forward to seeing you in Anaheim!