President

Jane Pisano
Senior Fellow
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Jane Pisano, Ph.D., joined USC in 1991 as dean of the School of Public Administration. During her nearly seven-year tenure as dean, she led a major effort to strengthen the school academically at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Annual gifts and grants more than doubled (from $1.7 to $3.6 million) and the endowment increased four-fold (from $7.5 to $31 million). In 1994, Dr. Pisano was appointed vice president of external relations at the university and was promoted to senior vice president in 1998. In this role, Dr. Pisano not only worked with the USC’s chief management team, but also was responsible for establishing and maintaining communal, public, governmental and alumni connections and relations. She and four other senior officers worked with and assisted the president of the university in essentially all significant decisions.

Pisano also served as president and director of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum for 14 years. Her top priority was to oversee the transformation of the Museum into an indoor and outdoor institution for the 21st century. This includes renovations to the 1913 Building (the Museum's original home) and the adjacent 1920s Building, a slate of new visitor amenities, five new permanant exhibitions and the Nature Gardens. In all, the transformation has improved more than 60 percent of the Museum's interior and with the Nature Gardens, doubled its programming space.

Pisano holds a B.A. in political science from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D.s in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University.

President-Elect

Paul Danczyk
Director of Executive Education
University of Southern California—Sol Price

Paul Danczyk is the director of executive education in Sacramento for the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy.

In his current capacity, Danczyk designs, coordinates and presents in leadership and management programs—impacting national, state and local governmental and nonprofit organizations—teaches master level classes on strategic management, leadership, negotiation and public administration in California and Mexico, and is an executive coach. He cofounded and is the lead architect of www.LeadershipEnergizes.com.

A returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Danczyk earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on public and international affairs; his MPA from the University of Southern California; his B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University; his certified executive coach through the International Coaching Federation, trained at the Hudson Institute for Coaching; and holds Harvard University’s Mediating Disputes certification.

He and his wife are raising two sons. Danczyk enjoys landscaping, creating sculptures, painting and bee keeping.

Vice President

Kendra Stewart
Professor
Riley Center for Livable Communities, College of Charleston

Kendra Stewart is a professor of political science and public administration and director of the Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Center for Livable Communities at the College of Charleston. She has spent her career working both in government and academia and in her current position has the opportunity to do both, in addition to assisting nonprofits. Her research interests include nonprofit management, homeland security, state and local government and food policy. Stewart was able to use her professional training, along with her academic and applied research, to co-edit an ASPA series book, The Practice of Government Public Relations. Prior to her current position at the College of Charleston, where she has also served as MPA program director, Stewart was a faculty member and MPA director at Eastern Kentucky University and worked for the State of South Carolina Budget and Control Board.

In addition to her service in state government, Stewart has worked with the South Carolina and Kentucky City/County Management Associations.  She serves on a variety of nonprofit boards in her community and has recently been elected into the National Academy of Public Administration. One of her most significant career opportunities was serving on a USAID project in Lahore, Pakistan, assisting a prestigious university develop academic and professional training programs to professionalize public administration in their country. Stewart regularly conducts political analysis for a variety of print, radio and television media, including Good Morning America, NPR, BBC, Fox News Channel, the Associated Press and The New Yorker. She holds two bachelors degrees from the University of Central Florida and an MPA and Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. Stewart resides in Charleston, S.C. with her husband and their five children.

Immediate Past President

Honorable Janice Lachance

An accomplished executive, widely experienced leader, and governance expert, Janice Lachance helps both expanding and stressed nonprofit enterprise leaders and boards with transformation and transitions, performance assessment, mission and strategy reformulation, organization re-engineering, new ventures, and executive transitions. With a collaborative style, Janice’s central focus is on how to protect and build value for stakeholders by applying best practices in the fields of  strategic thinking, technology advances, social media, marketing, media relations, public policy, human resources, financial planning, fundraising, and team building.

Janice’s career spans high-level work in the government, associations and executive volunteer activities. Prior to her recent work in not-for-profit enterprises, Janice was nominated by President William Clinton and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government’s independent human resources agency, responsible for all policy and programs affecting the 2.1 million members of the nation’s civil service.

President Clinton charged Janice with the task of establishing and gaining recognition of the federal workforce as a national performance model. She is credited with many seminal achievements at OPM, including: reformulating the agency’s mission and strategy as well as re-engineering its 3,700 employee organizational structure and culture; expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act to permit the use of sick leave to care for a newborn or ailing family member; instituting affordable long-term care insurance for 20 million federal employees, members of the armed services, and retirees; making innovative and cost-effective improvements in health insurance and retirement programs; dramatically increasing outreach and recruitment efforts to first-job applicants from underrepresented populations; revitalizing the Presidential Management Fellows Program; and, establishing USAJOBS.gov, the Federal Government's official source for federal job listings and employment opportunity information and which attracts more than 20 million visits annually.

During the past decade, Janice has served as the managing executive in not-for-profit membership associations. Most recent examples include Interim President of the Better Business Bureau Institute for Marketplace Trust where she was responsible for innovative transformation of the BBB’s 501c3 foundation through the design and execution of comprehensive mission development, including communications, branding, staffing and fund development plans.   

Janice also served as CEO of the Special Libraries Association for more than 10 years, leading the global association of 8,000 credentialed librarians and scholars who devote more than 25 million hours annually to the operation and expansion of the global information and knowledge economies on behalf of private, academic and public sector enterprise in 75 countries. Among her many SLA accomplishments as chief executive, Janice guided the reformulation of association’s mission, vision and values statements and strategic plan; nurtured a positive culture of problem-solving, innovation and progression of volunteer members to leadership positions; implemented domestic and international public policy programs focused on intellectual property, the free flow of information, privacy, and internet governance.  She pioneered Click University, the first online learning and professional development member resource among library associations.  

While serving as global spokesperson and champion of the librarian profession and the association, the U.S. State Department appointed Janice to be a delegate to the World Summit on the Information Society, which led to the creation of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the multi-national/multi-stakeholder platform for Internet policy discussions and governance.  Separately, the State Department appointed her as a Subject Matter Expert Speaker on the future of the information industry and librarians in the global knowledge economy and the Internet. Engagements included Germany, Egypt, Italy and Japan.

Although not a librarian, Janice was uniquely awarded SLA’s prestigious Member Achievement Award during SLA’s Centennial Conference to acknowledge her leadership on “moving the association to unprecedented success and international presence in the 21st century.” In recognition of sustained outstanding contributions to the association, the profession, and the information industry, Janice was awarded the CEO Emeritus title at the end of her SLA tenure.

A leader in her profession, dedicated volunteer, popular speaker, and trusted advisor, Janice is the President of the American Society for Public Administration; a Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives, an honor awarded to less than one percent of its membership; an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration where she served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. At the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in The Hague—the international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users worldwide, Janice was elected chairperson of the library association management section and served on IFLA’s governing board.

Among numerous awards, Janice was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Southern Vermont College in 2013 and Vice President Al Gore’s Reinventing Government Hammer Award for advances in government-wide labor-management partnerships. Janice was born and raised in Biddeford, Maine, graduated from Manhattanville College, and earned her law degree from Tulane University. She is admitted to practice law in the State of Maine, the District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court.

Executive Director

William P. Shields, Jr.
American Society for Public Administration

Bill Shields became ASPA’s Executive Director in January 2014. He brings to the position more than 15 years of management experience in the non-profit sector, most recently as Vice President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the nation's leading public policy organization dedicated to ensuring that people with the lowest incomes have affordable and decent homes. In this role, he was responsible for the organization’s operational, financial, membership, outreach and fund development functions.

For more than a decade, Shields held senior management and research positions at the National Academy of Public Administration, a congressionally chartered organization established to assist government leaders in building more effective, efficient, accountable and transparent organizations. As Vice President and Director of Communications, he worked extensively with the Academy’s 500 elected Fellows, the nation’s top leaders in the study and practice of public administration. He served on research teams studying organization and management issues at the Departments of Defense, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation. He edited more than 50 Academy panel reports on issues ranging from federal compensation issues to FBI reorganization.

Shields also served as Director at the Chief Executives Organization, a non-profit organization of 2,000 chief executives around the world, and in the Executive Office of the Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. He received his M.A. in Government and B.A. in Journalism from American University, where he has been an Adjunct Professor since 2000. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and daughter.

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District Representatives

District I

Electoral District I includes: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont
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Dr. Michael J. Ahn

Assistant Professor
University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA

Michael Ahn is an assistant professor in the department of public policy and public affairs at University of Massachusetts Boston. Michael received his Ph.D. in public administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Michael’s research focuses on digital government, public management and international comparative public administration. He served as the president of Northeast Conference on Public Administration (NECOPA), Massachusetts Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (MassASPA) and is currently serving as the District I council representative for ASPA's National Council and as an executive committee member of the Section of Science and Technology in Government (SSTIG). He is an editorial board member of journals such as American Review of Public Administration, Public Organization Review and International Journal of Public Administration. Michael has published in journals such as Public Administration Review, American Review of Public Administration and Government Information Quarterly, and is an occasional contributor to Brookings Institution’s TechTank.

Maria D'Agostino

Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Public Management
John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Maria J. D’Agostino is currently chair and associate professor in the Department of Public Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. She has been an active member of the American Society of Public Administration since 2004, when she was a doctoral student, and is a former Section on Women in Public Administration board member, and NY Metro ASPA Chapter President, 2005-2006. She also served as a NECoPA Trustee.
 
D’Agostino has published widely in the areas of citizen engagement and public service. Her recent research has focused on women in public service including two co-edited books, Governing in A Global World (Forthcoming 2017) and Women and Public Administration: Theory and Practice. She recently collaborated as a guest editor for the Women and Public Administration symposium published in Administration and Society, and published A Narrative Approach to Understanding the Difference Women Make. She is a recipient of the Section for Women in Public Administration's Rita Mae Kelly Distinguished Research Award. She is also the co-founder of Women in the Public Sector at John Jay College and recipient of the Faculty Mid-Career Research Award. Dr. D’Agostino received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University—Newark and her Master’s from Padova University Italy.

Josh Osowski

Superintendent, NJ State Park Service
Rutgers University-Newark, Newark, NJ

Josh Osowski is a superintendent in the New Jersey State Park Service and a doctoral student at Rutger’s School of Public Affairs and Administration. During his 17 years as a practitioner in state government, Josh implemented change management at Liberty State Park by taking a park that was fraught with problems and turning it into the team driven success that it is today. Josh has made significant improvements to the parks at which he works and has been able to make difficult things happen through collaboration. Josh is also finishing his coursework for a Ph.D. in public administration. Eager to improve the connection between practitioners and academics, Josh has been integral in reestablishing ASPA's New Jersey chapter.

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District II

Electoral District II includes: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and West Virginia.
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Dr. Michael Brintnall

Independent Consultant
Cabin John, MD

Michael Brintnall is the former executive director of the American Political Science Association (APSA) and has headed the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). He was vice president for academic affairs at Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., and directed a program evaluation office at the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has held faculty appointments in political science at Brown University and Mount Vernon College. Michael is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and has served as president of the National Humanities Alliance and chair of the Board of the Consortium of Social Science Associations and as a member of the Advisory Board for the Fulbright Scholar Program, Council for International Exchange of Scholars. He serves on boards for the American Society for Public Administration, Environmental Investigation Agency and the National Humanities Association Foundation, and is secretary/treasurer of Tango Mercurio. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Diane Disney

Professor and Dean of Commonwealth College
Penn State University

A lifelong public servant, Diane Disney has worked at multiple levels for entities as diverse as the U.S. Department of Defense, the Urban Institute’s Nonprofit Sector Project and Penn State. She has successfully managed a 12-campus college, advised a governor on human resource and economic development issues, crafted legislative language to help Defense workers affected by budget cuts and developed housing for low-income, single-parent families.  Her ability to generate collaboration across economic sectors and levels of government is exemplary. Disney has been a tenured management professor at Pennsylvania State University (where she has also been dean and chancellor) and the University of Rhode Island (where she headed the Research Center in Business and Economics), as well as a management consultant to numerous state and federal departments. Internationally she has worked with governments of Slovenia, Croatia, Chile and others to design executive development programs for civil servants to promote civilian control of the military.

Being a board or committee member for more than 40 nonprofits has made her aware of the importance of strengthening Chapters and Sections to foster sound working relationships and networks within ASPA.  Her ASPA service has included membership on selection committees for the Founders’ Fellows and the Elmer B. Staats Lifetime Achievement Award. A member of the Central Pennsylvania chapter, she has been a conference session chair for NECoPA and most recently has served on the Governance Task Force, which has recommended updates to the organization’s bylaws. She has also accepted a three-year term on PAR’s Board of Editors.

A longtime fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, she has served two terms on its board, most recently as chair. She has also received the George Graham Award for outstanding service to the Academy.  Her education includes degrees from Duke (MAT), URI (MBA) and Brandeis (Ph.D).

Angela Kline

Ph.D. Student and Public Administration Fellow
Bowie State University

Angie Kline is a doctoral student at the University of Delaware’s (UD) graduate program in urban affairs and public policy. She was a public administration Fellow at UD’s Institute for Public Administration and is currently a teaching assistant. She attended Villanova University, where she earned her MPA with a certificate in nonprofit management. Before her doctoral studies, she worked for several nonprofits doing resource development and evaluation. She is currently researching communities that adopt social indicator measurement plans.

Kline is an active member of ASPA, serving as a District II Representative on the National Council. She was awarded the Founder’s Fellowship Award in 2015 and participated in the 2015 ASPA Young Scholars Workshop in Mexico and the 2016 ASPA Young Scholars Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa. Angie has served as the Student Representative on the National Council and serves as a council member for the Delaware Association for Public Administration.

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District III

Electoral District III includes: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
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Thomas Barth

Professor and MPA Director
University of North Carolina—Charlotte

Tom Barth is currently the MPA Director at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. He came to Charlotte last fall after serving at UNC Wilmington for nearly 20 years, where he founded the MPA program and also served as a chair of the Department of Public Science and two years as the interim vice chancellor for public service and continuing studies.

Barth considers himself a “pracademic,” as his professional career began as a Presidential Management Intern, working as an analyst at NASA, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency during the Reagan Administration.  While working in management development at the EPA, he became interested in teaching and research, and decided to pursue a Ph.D. at the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech while he continued to work in the federal government. Upon earning his Ph.D., he took his first faculty position at the University of Memphis.

Barth has always found himself most at home in regional universities where MPA faculty have the freedom to devote time to teaching, research and community engagement; each activity informs the others. His areas of focus include organization theory, human resource management, strategic planning, leadership and ethics.  Current projects include the facilitation of community-police conversations in Wilmington, NC, survey research on the integration of core values in local government and interviews on the personal leadership skills and qualities necessary to be an effective community bridge builder.

Jared Llorens

Associate Professor and Director, Public Administration Institute
E.J. Ourso College of Business, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

Jared J. Llorens, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Director of the Public Administration Institute in the E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University. His scholarly research focuses primarily on public sector human resource management, with particular interests in compensation and recruitment. He is the editor in chief of the journal Public Personnel Management and has served on the editorial boards of Public Administration, Public Administration Review and the Review of Public Personnel Administration. His research has been published in a variety of academic outlets and he is a co-author of the textbook Public Personnel Management: Context and Strategies, 6th ed.. Llorens received his B.A. from Loyola University—New Orleans, his M.P.Aff. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and his Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Georgia. He is also a former U.S. Presidential Management Intern, having served as a human resources specialist with the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Terry G. Murphy

Office of Inspector General, Miami-Dade County, FL

Terry Murphy is honored to serve on ASPA's executive committee the 2017-2018 National Council Representative. A practitioner who works as a contract oversight specialist with the Office of Inspector General in Miami-Dade County, Murphy remains active in the academic world as an adjunct professor at Florida International University. He is a board member of ASPA's South Florida Chapter. During his term as President of the Chapter, he initiated the "Best Practices" Conference, a popular annual event that continues to recognize the good works of public administrators throughout South Florida.
 
For more than 20 years, Murphy served as a policy advisor to elected county officials. In 2011, the electorate provided Murphy an opportunity to pursue his doctoral degree full time. After graduating, and a brief stint as a government consultant, Murphy was recruited to serve as policy advisor to the chairman of the Miami-Dade County Commission. Steadfast in his conviction that public service is a noble field, he is now at home with the dedicated men and women of the Inspector General’s Office, an agency dedicated to maintaining integrity and ethics among practitioners in the field of public administration.

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District IV

Electoral District IV includes: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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J. Paul Blake

J. Paul Blake recently retired as the director of media and external relations at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, at the University of Washington. His professional service includes three terms as president of the Evergreen Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). He is serving his fourth term on ASPA’s National Council. He serves as chair of the Financial Management Committee and has served on the Governance Committee, the Ethics Committee—which revised the Society’s Code of Ethics—and the Ethics and Standards Implementation Committee. A recipient of the Donald C. Stone Service to ASPA Award in 2016, Blake received a Chester Newland Presidential Citation of Merit Award at the 2017 and 2018 annual conferences. In 2013 the Evergreen Chapter awarded Blake a Lifetime of Public Service Award. As a member of various ASPA delegations, he has presented papers in Japan and South Korea. He is a former member of the Advisory Board for the University of Washington Public Relations and Strategic Communications Certificate program. He is also a member of the International Association for Public Participation, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, the Seattle Association of Black Journalists, Tabor 100 and Blacks in Government.

Dr. Suzanne Discenza

Professor (Ret.), Park University, Kansas City, MO
Lecturer, University of Colorado Denver

Suzanne Discenza is a professor and past director of the MHA Program at Park University, where she continues to teach part time in the online BPA and MPA programs. With her recent return to Colorado, she also currently serves as a lecturer in the School of Public Affairs at UC—Denver, where she previously completed her Ph.D. in public affairs.  A current District IV Representative to ASPA National Council, she is a past president of both the Greater Kansas City and Colorado ASPA Chapters, and is a past chair of the Section for Women in Public Administration (SWPA) and of the Health Policy Forum for AUPHA.  Discenza has served on multiple nonprofit boards in the Kansas City and Denver areas and was an HHS area trainer on the PPACA and Medicaid Expansion. A health care practitioner for more than 20 years, her research continues to focus on health policy and management, gender issues and social concerns for disadvantaged populations. She was honored by Ingram’s Magazine as one of Missouri’s and Kansas’ “Icons of Education” in 2015.

Stephen Kleinschmit

Clinical Assistant Professor
University of Illinois—Chicago

Stephen Kleinschmit, Ph.D., is the director of program development and engagement and clinical assistant professor in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Public Administration. In May 2018, he will become the director of its Master of Public Administration program. Prior to joining UIC, he was an assistant professor at Western Michigan University’s School of Public Affairs and Administration and served on the faculties of Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne and Eastern Kentucky University. He holds a Ph.D. in public administration from North Carolina State University, as well as an MS in technology systems and a dual BS in urban planning and geography from East Carolina University. His practitioner experience includes employment as an urban planner, GIS analyst and development planning consultant. He is also a former Army reservist, having spent six years as field artillery crewmember.

Kleinschmit is best known to ASPA members as the founder and president of the Midwest Public Affairs Conference (MPAC), ASPA's midwest regional conference affiliate. Established in 2013, MPAC has held annual events in Fort Wayne, Milwaukee, Columbus and Omaha, with its upcoming meeting hosted at the University of Illinois at Chicago in June 2018. He serves on the ASPA Publications Committee, is a member of the editorial review board of Public Integrity and is a co-founder of the Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs. He is a member of the ASPA Greater Chicago Chapter, has served both on the boards of ASPA’s Indiana and Michigan Capital Area chapters, and is a member of the Sections on Public Administration Education and Science and Technology in Government. 

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District V

Electoral District V includes: Arizona, California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah
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Galia Cohen

Senior Lecturer and Associate Director, Justice Admin & Leadership Program
University of Texas At Dallas, Plano, TX

Dr. Galia Cohen is the Associate Director of the Justice Administration and Leadership Master’s Program, housed in the Department of Criminology at The University of Texas—Dallas. She specializes in human resource management and organizational behavior and has more than 10 years of experience in teaching and consulting in the public sector. She teaches Human Resource Management for Public Sector, Leadership in Public and Nonprofit Management and Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the graduate level for executives and professionals in law enforcement agencies across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Cohen received her B.A. and her M.A. from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. She holds a Ph.D. in public affairs from The University of Texas—Dallas. She has published academic articles and book chapters and her research interests include strategic human resource management, organizational theory and behavior, conflict management and public safety administration.

Cohen is a District V Representative for the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and an advisory board member for the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration.

Rex Facer, II

Associate Professor
Brigham Young University

Aziza Zemrani

Associate Professor
University of Texas—Rio Grande Valley

Aziza Zemrani is originally from Morocco, where she was given an excellent undergraduate education for more than a decade. She held jobs in a variety of top level positions including division chief at the Directorate of Executive Training. She also had the great fortune to work on development projects with USAID, including capacity building for Moroccan institutions. Through this association, she had the chance to attend the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) for her Master of Public Administration.  

Because of GSPIA, Zemrani started her academic career in public administration and got her Ph.D. from Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. She is now an associate professor and associate chair of public affairs at the University of Texas—Rio Grande Valley, where she is in charge of its online MPA program. Given her international background and involvement in international public administration conferences, her primary research interest is building better relationships in public administration, especially focusing on cultural competency.

Her professional involvement in ASPA has been a remarkable experience. She joined ASPA at GSPIA when she was an MPA student. Since then, she has joined and served on the boards of different Sections and served as President of COMPA, and is currently the chair of SPOD. She has been active internationally as well, with the honor of being a rapporteur for the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (the international equivalent of ASPA).

International Director

Allan Rosenbaum

Florida International University

Allan Rosenbaum is Professor of Public Administration and Director of the Institute for Public Management and Community Service and the Center for Democracy and Good Governance at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. He went to FIU as Dean of its School of Public Affairs and Services. He is a recent Past President of ASPA and has served two terms as President of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration in Brussels, Belgium. Based on nomination by the Secretary General of the United Nations, vetting with the US Mission, and approval by UN Economic and Social Council, he is a member of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration where he serves as Vice Chairperson. He has served as acting Budget Administrator of the City of Miami and subsequently worked in state government in Illinois, and on educational policy in the national government.

He has directed large USAID democratic institution building projects in Latin America and Africa, and has carried out numerous international projects for the United Nations, the World Bank, the Swedish International Development Agency and various governments around the world. He has provided technical assistance to governments, lectured or conducted research in approximately 100 countries around the world. He has been Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Potsdam, Germany and is Honorary Professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance in Beijing, as well as at Babes Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania. He currently serves on the journal editorial boards of 11 journals located in eight countries around the world and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Prior to coming to FIU, he was on the faculties of the Universities of Maryland, Connecticut and Wisconsin, Madison and held a research position at the University of Chicago.

Student Representative

Christopher Pierce

MPA Candidate
Roger Williams University

Chris Pierce was born and raised in Santa Monica, Calif., and supported by his wonderful family of five (mom, dad, brother, dog). He is a third generation Japanese American and a first generation college graduate. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California—Santa Barbara (UCSB). During his time at UCSB, he was a member of Phi Alpha Theta (a history honor society) and also was president of an off-campus student organization. He is currently enrolled in his final year of his Master in Public Administration, also receiving a certificate in health care administration at Roger Williams University.  

Outside the classroom setting, Pierce also is a board member for ASPA’s Rhode Island chapter (RIASPA), led by former ASPA National Councilman and current president of RIASPA Michael Hall. He also has been utilizing his skills and knowledge in several government internships during his time in the MPA program, such as the Rhode Island Department of Education and the recently formed Rhode Island Office of Innovation. He has been involved in the Boy Scouts of America throughout his childhood, where he achieved the highest rank of Eagle Scout in December 2009. In his spare time he enjoys day trips, photography, playing soccer, watching documentaries and cooking.

COMPA Director

Loretta Tillery
Office of the Prince George’s County Executive, State of Maryland

A seasoned professional in the areas of social services and not for profit governance, Loretta Tillery has an extensive history on the local, regional and national levels of serving public agencies and not for profit associations.

Tillery is a health and human services special assistant in the Office of the Prince George’s County Executive in the State of Maryland. Prior to this assignment, she was assistant director for the Office of Constituent Services, Office of Information and Technology, Risk Management and Central Services for the Department of Social Services.

Tillery currently serves as president of the Conference of Minority Public Administrators (COMPA). She is also the chairperson of the American Academy of Public Administrators (AACPM).

Tillery is committed to quality education. She trains young people for careers in public service and human services for the Prince George’s Community College. She is a practitioner site visitor with the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA). In this capacity, she visits Schools of Public Policy and Administration to ensure that college students are receiving a quality education that meets the NASPAA standards and prepares students for their post graduate lives.

An avid supporter of various of various not for profit organizations, Tillery is a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians (NAP), a society dedicated to educating leaders throughout the world in effective meeting management through the use of parliamentary procedure. As a national official Loretta leads a cluster of five national committees responsible for membership growth, youth development and international presence. She uses these governance skills to aid other organizations in leveraging stronger procedures and process to better meet their mission.

A native of the State of Maryland, Tillery earned a Master of Art in Public Administration from Bowie State University and a Bachelor of Science from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. She is a Certified Public Manager through the George Washington University Regional Executive Development Program (REDP).