ASPA Slate of Nominees Announced

ASPA is pleased to announce the following individuals have been approved by the Nominating Committee to have their names on this year's election ballot:

District 1

• Michael Ahn
• Dennis T. Martino
• Usha Narasimhan

• Marlon I. Brown

• Ronald Sanders

• Merlene-Patrice Bourdeau-Quispe
• Weston Burrer

• Drew Brassfield
• Rex L. Facer, II
• Juliet Lee

• Jennifer Martinez-Medina
• Mary A. Smith

• Pan Suk Kim

• John Bartle
• Miriam Singer

ASPA Searches for Next PAR Editor in Chief; Proposals Due October 31

ASPA has issued a Request for Proposals for the next Editor in Chief of Public Administration Review (PAR), its flagship professional journal. The new editor’s term will begin January 1, 2024, preceded by a six-month transition period. All proposals are due by this Monday, October 31, 2022 at 5 p.m. EDT. If you are considering submitting a proposal, you are down to your final days to finalize your package.

Through the outstanding efforts of its editorial team, led by Editor in Chief Jeremy Hall of the University of Central Florida, PAR has achieved significant success in terms of its readership, impact and contributions to the study and practice of the field. It has earned the top ranking in Thomson Reuters' Journal Citation Reports five-year metrics, ranks No. 2 in its two-year metrics for 2021 (behind Policy and Society) and stands atop Google Scholar's Public Policy and Administration ranking for 2018-2021. It also has seen substantial increases in its downloads and other access metrics.

The Editor in Chief is one of ASPA's most visible public figures and ASPA is looking to the next editor to sustain and build on the record of accomplishment made in the past several years.

Please visit our website to review the Request for Proposals, search and selection timeline and other details about the process. You also may download a PDF of the RFP here. Those who missed our webinar discussing what is involved in managing PAR on a daily basis can find a recording of it on our website, as well.

Remember: Proposals are due no later than this Monday, October 31 to ASPA Chief of Communications, Marketing and Membership Karen Garrett. Contact her at 202-585-4313 with questions.

E-Learning at Your Fingertips

ASPA staff work tirelessly to keep your skills up to date and the information flowing all year long through our e-learning program. Visit our website to see more details about upcoming KeepingCurrent, BookTalk and Students and New Professionals series programming.


BookTalk: COVID-19, the LGBTQIA+ Community and Public Policy
October 27 | 1 p.m. EDT

Presenter:
Wallace Swan, Contributing Faculty Member, Walden University

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated long-standing inequities, both in the United States and throughout the world. As studies emerge to help us understand the effects of the pandemic on every facet of modern life, it is critical that the effect of the pandemic on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual and asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities not be overlooked. While some pioneering studies analyzing the impacts of the pandemic upon LGBTQIA+ communities have been conducted, and some efforts are being made to collect data which can impact the development of policy, reliable data resources are limited to a few enterprising states, and this data has not been systematically shared with public policymakers or with the public to date. COVID-19, the LGBTQIA+ Community, and Public Policy explores precisely how the pandemic has affected these communities and what concrete steps need to be taken to ameliorate its effects.




BookTalk: What Should We Do?
November 10 | 1 p.m. EDT

Presenter:
Peter Levine, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Tufts University, Jonathan Tisch College of Civic Life

People who want to improve the world must ask the fundamental civic question: “What should we do?” Although their specific challenges and topics are enormously diverse, they often encounter problems of collective action (how to get many individuals to act in concert), of discourse (how to talk and think well about contentious matters) and of exclusion. To get things done, they must form or join and sustain functional groups and, through them, develop skills and virtues that help them to be effective and responsible civic actors. Good civic action requires insights from these three traditions of theory and practice. We need a synthesis of them that also addresses the challenge of scale: How to preserve intentional, ethical, collective action when millions or billions of people are involved.




From the Archives
KeepingCurrent: Local Government Workforce Challenges and Recovery in the Wake of Pandemic
This webinar explored disruptions to the local government workforce during the pandemic, including new public health measures, telework arrangements and additional hours in response to an unprecedented public health crisis. In the aftermath, local governments are experiencing the stress of workforce turnover and struggling to retain talent in a competitive employment market. The webinar also included pragmatic reflection on the tools and strategies local governments can deploy to retain and engage talented employees during the continued strain of pandemic and crisis management.

ASPA Opens 2023 Annual Conference Registration

ASPA has opened registration for the 2023 Annual Conference!

Featuring five days of content, including up to 200 concurrent sessions, this event will bring you everything you love about the ASPA Annual Conference in a convenient, online format!

We were delighted to hold the 2022 Annual Conference in person this past spring and know our attendees were gratified to see their friends and colleagues after such a long pandemic quarantine. We also appreciate the desire to continue in person next year. That said, as organizations like ours continue to cope with the residual effects of the COVID pandemic—hotel jam-ups, extremely limited availability and demand-driven cost increases due to postponed events that we could not pass along to our attendees—we must host our 2023 conference online.

Know this: We will use technology to our fullest advantage, providing the opportunity for those who cannot typically attend in-person events to engage their peers in our concurrent sessions. And, of course, we will be back in person for the 2024 conference in Minneapolis.

Taking place Monday, March 20 - Friday, March 24, the 2023 conference theme, Protecting Democracy for the Next Generation: The Role and Responsibility of Public Administration will guide our time together including keynote speakers, presidential panels, Chapter and Section meetings and symposia, networking events, virtual chats and more. We are looking forward to making this an engaging, energizing event full of valuable content, collaboration and consensus.

Ready to register? Member rates are as follows:

• Student/New Professional Member Rate: $199
• Member Early-Bird Rate: $249
• Member Regular Rate: $349
• Symposium-Only Rate: $149

ASPA Launches Annual Awards Nomination Period

ASPA’s Awards Program is your annual opportunity to nominate someone to be recognized as one of public administration's dedicated public servants.

• Do you know a current or former city official who has dedicated themselves to the public good?
• Do you know an unsung scholar who produces excellent research?
• Do you know a public official who has stood up for equity and integrity in government?
• Do you know someone who has bridged the academic/practitioner divide and encouraged best practices because of it?
• Do you know someone who is all-around excellent?

• National Public Service Award
• Nesta M. Gallas Award
• Gloria Hobson Nordin Social Equity Award
• Public Integrity Award
• Elmer B. Staats Lifetime Achievement Award
• Paul P. Van Riper Award
• Donald C. Stone Service to ASPA Award

PAR Symposium Call for Papers: Reviews to Reimagine and Rejuvenate Theorizing

Although reviews of scholarly literature can play an important role in reimagining and rejuvenating scholarship and pedagogy, reviews also can serve to reinforce existing understanding, thereby blocking avenues of progress. From a metascience perspective, reviews should indeed provide a synthesis on a subject but should also be critical of how we as researchers “do” research to encourage continuous development of our scientific repertoire—both in terms of theory development and methodological rigor. Breslin and Gatrell (2020) use the miner-prospector metaphor to distinguish creative and original review approaches from the standard systematic review. Increasingly, there have been calls over the last few years to reorient reviews to question taken-for-granted scholarly understanding and use reviews to reimagine and rejuvenate extant understanding and break disciplinary boundaries.

PAR’s pages have featured many creative and original review articles and the goal of this symposium is to add to this corpus of high-impact reviews. As a discipline, we need reviews to systematize existing knowledge in order to understand this knowledge better and create new ideas. To stand on the shoulders of giants does not necessarily prevent progress, but it takes some courage to go beyond summarizing what others have found and even more courage to suggest a fundamentally different organizing principle.

Public Administration Review invites manuscripts that survey scholarly literatures and promote new insights. Manuscripts will be subject to an editorial evaluation followed by PAR’s peer-review process. Manuscripts will be assessed according to review scope goals, and execution—of broad interest to public administration scholars and practitioners; clear articulation and execution of review goals; review methodology—replicable and transparent review methodology; and review contribution—contribution to reimagining and rejuvenating extant understanding. Manuscripts should be submitted online, choosing “Symposium Article” as the article type at the time of submission. In the comments to the editor, please note that the article is intended for the “PAR Review Symposium 2023.” All proposals are due by February 15, 2023. Click here to view the full Call for Papers.

National Civic League Opens All American City Competition

The National Civic League is accepting applications now for the 2023 All-America City Award. Since 1949, the All-America City Award has recognized communities that leverage civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local challenges.

The 2023 All-America City Award will recognize 10 communities that are working to improve the health and well-being of young people, with particular attention to efforts that engage young people in this work. Democracy thrives when all residents are active and engaged in the policies and decisions that shape their lives. In 2023, the National Civic League is seeking to identify communities that are breaking down barriers to meaningful youth participation and enacting programs that will improve quality of life for youth, and all residents, by extension.

Optional letters of intent to apply are due on December 15, 2022, and applications are due February 15, 2023. Twenty finalists will be named in March 2023 and invited to assemble a community team to present their work at the All-America City Award event in Denver, CO, June 9-11, 2023.

For additional information, watch this informational webinar and download the 2023 application.

Tips and Resources

How Much Are People Without High-Speed Internet Willing to Pay for It?
A new federal survey takes a look and finds that, for many who don’t have service because of the expense, the amount is $0.

A Public Service Solution for College Debt Relief
The president’s forgiveness of student loans aroused plenty of controversy. State and local governments can help craft a more sustainable federal plan that could help to relieve their own workforce shortages and staffing costs.

Two Tricks Will Help You Learn and Remember New Stuff
There are two tried and true strategies to improve your learning, whether you're prepping for an exam or learning a new skill.

Will COVID Spike Again This Fall? Six Tips to Help You Stay Safe
Recent research suggests that the COVID virus is mutating to better dodge people’s immune defenses. KHN examines what public health officials believe is on the horizon and how best to fight the disease.

People Think They Should Talk Less to Be Liked, but New Research Suggests You Should Speak Up in Conversations with Strangers
The common advice to let the other person talk more might backfire if you want to make a positive first impression.

In the News

Today's headlines contain plenty of news coverage of some of our nation's most pressing public administration challenges. ASPA has curated some of the most important stories from recent weeks. If you have not seen these yet, make sure you read them now!

Infrastructure

• Republicans Are Gearing Up for "Aggressive" ARPA Oversight If They Take Back the House
• CISA and FBI Say Malicious Cyber Activity Is Unlikely to Compromise Election Infrastructure
• Chinese Firms Exporting Surveillance Tools across the Globe, Report Says
• Paper-Based Government Forms Cost Federal Agencies $37.8 Billion
• Climate Pledges Are Falling Short, and a Chaotic Future Looks More Like Reality
• Low Water Levels in the Mississippi River Are Disrupting the Supply Chain

• Biden Administration Extends COVID Public Health Emergency
• Treasury Shuts Down Helpline for States and Localities
• Looming Leadership Void at IRS Raises Concerns Over $80 Billion Overhaul
• Student Loan Forgiveness Applications Submitted by Millions as Biden Administration Site Now Live
• A Federal Appeals Court Has Temporarily Blocked Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
• Biden's Push to Use Federal Spending to Support American Manufacturing Takes Effect

• Pandemic Struggles Still Afflict Social Security, a Last Lifeline for Many
• Review of Marijuana Policy Could Have Implications for Federal Workplace
• Lawmakers Are Calling for Permanent Leadership at Social Security
• Nominations Update: Over 400 Positions Filled, Several Hundred to Go
• OPM Approves an Emergency Leave Transfer Program for Workers Affected by Hurricane Ian
• Social Security’s Union Is Calling for $16.5 Billion in Funding and Cooperation from Management
• OPM: Federal Employees’ Engagement "Stabilized" in 2022, but Morale Continues to Fall
• After Six Years, It’s Time to Confirm a Defense Department Inspector General
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Gets Big Update to Eliminate "Barriers" to Relief

• The Largest Law Enforcement Agency in the Nation Pledges to Hire a Lot More Women
• To Keep Promises of Achieving Racial Equity, Let’s Start Keeping Score

Tell Me Something Good...

Need some good news in your world? Check out these recent items:
NASA’s Giant Telescope Captures Clearer View of "Pillars of Creation"
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a new view of an iconic cosmic site: The region known as the “Pillars of Creation,” where stars are born.

Postal Service Honors Women Cryptologists of WWII with New Stamp
The stamp includes a cipher that can be used to crack a secret code.

Around Public Administration

Here are the most recent updates from across the profession. Did we miss you? Send us your news and we'll include it in the next round!

Upcoming Events:

• 2022 NAPA Fall Meeting
  Hybrid | November 2-4
  Registration is open
  
  
• 2022 NECoPA
  Online | November 4-5
  Registration is open
  
  
• AAPAM 41st Roundtable Conference
  Cape Town, South Africa | December 6-9
  Registration is open
  
  
• ASPA 2023 Annual Conference
  Online | March 20-24, 2023
  Find the Call for Proposals online; all proposals are due November 4
  
  

• Suffolk University Call for Cases
  Suffolk University professors Aimee Williamson and Marc Holzer seek concise cases with teaching/instructor notes for an edited book focused on public administration and nonprofit management to be published with Routledge. The book will offer global concise cases and activities designed to supplement the wide variety of introductory textbooks in the field of public administration. Williamson and Holzer welcome cases that reflect diversity broadly defined (e.g., race, ethnicity, sex, LGBTQ+, disability, etc.) across authorship, setting and concepts. This book will be part of Routledge’s International Cases in Business and Management book series, with series editors Gina Vega and Rob Edwards. Authors welcome concise case topics across a wide variety of public administration concepts and themes. Brief (one-page) case proposals/expressions of interest are due November 1, 2022. Contact Aimee Williamson for the full call for cases or with any questions.
  
  
• IJPA Call for Papers
  Organized by ASPA's Section on Emergency and Crisis Management, the International Journal of Public Administration (IJPA) invites proposals for a special symposium: "Public Administration during times of conflict: Impacts on governance and service delivery." Conflicts worldwide, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine and conflicts in Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen, are increasing. There remain gaps in public administration and management scholarship relating to studying and understanding conflicts and their impacts on governing and service delivery. Conflicts often are protracted and complicated, compounding administrative burdens in ways we cannot always anticipate or fully comprehend. Their complexity, uncertainty and unpredictability make it difficult to study them, and their evolving and undefined nature complicates effective and timely public policy and administration treatment. This symposium collection seeks to redress some of these challenges. The journal welcomes research syntheses, international and comparative pieces, evidence from practice, quantitative research articles, single and comparative case studies, conceptual papers and literature reviews illustrating a particular practice or solution to the public administration and management challenges in conflicts. This symposium collection welcomes papers using analytical methods or mathematical modeling placed under public administration theoretical frameworks and models. All submissions are due by November 15, 2022. Click here for more information.
  
  
• Call for Nominations: SPAR Best Book Award
  ASPA's Section on Public Administration Research (SPAR) invites nominations for its 2023 Best Book Award, welcoming nominations for books on public administration published in 2021 and 2022. Books nominated should significantly contribute to research in public administration; all research methods are welcomed, as are books across the full range of public administration research. Books primarily written as textbooks and edited volumes will not be considered. The Section welcomes international publications written in English; only books contributing to public administration research and theory will be considered. This recognition will be awarded at ASPA's Annual Conference in spring 2023. All nominations are due by December 1, 2022. Please contact award committee Chair Angela Paez with any questions.
  
  
• Public Budgeting and Finance Call for Editors
  Public Financial Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation sponsored by the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management and the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis, invites applicants for a new editor of its quarterly, peer-reviewed journal, Public Budgeting and Finance. The call is open to a single editor or a team of editors. The current editors' term ends on December 31, 2023. The term as editor is for three (3) years and may be renewed once. Public Budgeting and Finance serves as a forum for the publication of research on all facets of government and nonprofit finance. Its purpose is to provide a meaningful dialogue among scholars and practitioners in public budgeting and finance. The search committee seeks an editor with a national reputation as a scholar in public budgeting and finance with a commitment to enhancing scholarly research and encouraging practitioners to share their insights and experiences. Nominations should be directed to the chair of the search committee. Applications for the position should include a statement of vision and editorial goals for the journal, a letter of institutional support and a CV. To receive full consideration, completed applications should be submitted to the chair of the search committee, Melissa Neuman, by December 15, 2022.
  
  
• International Social Science Journal Call for Editors
  Wiley is seeking an editor-in-chief and a team of associate editors for the International Social Science Journal (ISSJ) to start in early 2023. ISSJ bridges social science communities across disciplines and continents with a view to sharing information and debate with the widest possible audience. Originally founded by UNESCO in 1949, ISSJ has since grown into a forum for innovative review, reflection and discussion informed by recent and ongoing international, social science research. This is a pivotal time for ISSJ and the successful candidates will have the opportunity to shape the journal’s new Aims and Scope. The editor-in-chief will oversee the journal’s growth and development; a successful candidate will have an extensive global network of contacts and will be recognised internationally for their work in their field. We welcome applications from candidates from the following subject fields: business and management; communication and media; economics; education; environmental studies; policy; public administration; or sociology. Previous editorial experience is preferred. The ideal associate editor candidate will have broad and extensive knowledge in their field, excellent communication skills and the ability to work to tight deadlines. Previous editorial experience would be desirable but is not essential. Successful candidates will need to be able to devote a number of hours each week to the journal. There is an annual honorarium for each role. Candidates should submit their CV and cover letter to Anna Savage, journal publishing assistant, by December 31, 2022, though please be advised that earlier applications will be prioritized. Contact Anna for the full Call for Editors.
  
  
• Institute for Peace and Dialogue Call for Participants
  The Institute for Peace and Dialogue has issued a newly launched three-month executive diploma program, with special modules of instruction and experienced trainers to give participants field-based education, wide professional experience and fruitful networking, appropriate for a variety of positions. This program targets titles including manager, program coordinator, human resources officer, case manager, mediator, public relations manager, mentor, coacher, arbitrator and more. Modules are "Leadership, HR Management, Coaching and Project Management" and "Peacebuilding, Alternative Dispute Resolution Mediation, Conflict Management, International Security and Law." Participants may join either module. Applications are due beginning February 10, 2023, depending on your module of choice. Scholarships are available. Click here for more information.
  
  
• National Capital Area Chapter Issues Student Essay Contest
  The National Capital Area Chapter (NCAC) has established a student essay contest to encourage new thinking and thoughts to advance the practice of public administration and public policy. This essay contest also was established to help advance the development of future public administrators. The essays should focus on one of the following topics: social equity, intergovernmental relations, the future of government workforce, public engagement, community collaboration, new technologies and community resiliency. All entries are due by March 17, 2023; only NCAC student members are eligible to enter. Contact NCAC for full submission guidelines and other details.
  
  
• "Executive Appeal" Podcast New Releases
  The Executive Appeal, hosted by Alex Tremble, focuses on providing government employees with mentoring advice necessary for promotion and reaching career goals. Check out recent episodes, including Why You Should Take More Risks and Mentor Others with M. Shane Canfield & David Vela and How To Make Positive Change in the World with VP Global Head Sue Lam. Click here for more information.

PA TIMES Online

Here's a selection of current pieces on PA TIMES Online, covering a range of issues within the profession. We accept individual articles on a rolling basis; if you have a piece you think would fit our publication, submit it to [email protected] for consideration. (Please review our submission guidelines in advance!)

• A Looming Water Crisis
  By Tyler Sova
  
  
• Using Humor in Public Discourse
  By Robert A. Hunter
  
  
• Social Equity and the Whole Community Concept
  By Anthony Buller