ASPA Launches Registration for 2022 Annual Conference

ASPA is excited to welcome members and friends next March to Jacksonville, Florida and the return of our Annual Conference. Taking place March 18-22, next spring's five-day event will include all of the conference features you have come to know and enjoy—in an in-person setting with your peers, friends and colleagues. Register online now!

The Call for Proposals remains open through this Friday, October 29, leaving you only two more days to submit your proposal. This year's theme, "Democracy under Threat: The Future of Equality in a Post-COVID World," includes seven tracks focusing on some of our profession's biggest challenges. Make the most of this opportunity to engage in critically important conversations and showcase the practice and research we all need to know about!



Knowing these remain uncertain times, we are planning for a conference experience that places your health, safety and security at the forefront of our efforts. To support those plans, we have adopted a number of robust health policies for next year's conference. Among them:

• Proof of vaccination is required to attend #ASPA2022
• Masks will be required for all indoor activities
• Social distancing and adequate spacing will be promoted and encouraged as much as possible
• Flexible refund/transfer options are available should you be unable to join us

• Student/New Professional Member Rate: $199
• Member Launch Rate: $399
• Member Regular Rate: $449
• Member Onsite Rate: $549
• Member One-Day Rate: $209

View our website for nonmember rates and more details, including our flexible refund/transfer policy. And, if you've enjoyed our options to sponsor a student, contact us and we can help you do so again for 2022.

We look forward to seeing everyone in person in March!



Use the following links to view the 2022 Annual Conference Events Code of Conduct,
Health and Safety Policies and liability waiver.

ASPA Mourns the Passing of Dwight Ink

ASPA mourns the passing of ASPA Past President Dwight Ink, who died at the age of 99. Ink’s more than four decades of distinguished public service included positions serving every president from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan. And, his contributions to a stronger society were reflected by his leadership in some of the most significant events of our times, from leading the nation’s response to the 1964 Alaska Earthquake to playing an essential role in the establishment of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act.

For these contributions, Ink earned such monikers as “Mr. Implementation,” the “Indiana Jones of Public Administrators,” and “Mr. Fix It.” Government Executive named him one of the 20 “All-Time Greatest Feds,” and President Obama honored him during a 2014 speech to the Senior Executive Service. Ink’s experiences were catalogued in Getting Things Done with Courage and Conviction, co-written with Kurt Thurmaier and published in 2018, providing a roadmap of the principles and strategies needed in today’s public sector work.

Dwight’s ASPA roots ran long and deep. A life member and longtime leader of the National Capital Area Chapter, he served as ASPA president from 1978-79, presiding during a time of great transition for the organization. In 2001, he was the inaugural recipient of ASPA’s Elmer B. Staats Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Public Service, honoring his contributions to both ASPA and the broader public service community. Shortly before his passing, he finished authoring a PA TIMES article on management lessons gleaned from his experiences in the Nixon Administration. The piece, co-authored with the late Charles Bingman, will be published in the Winter edition of the magazine.

ASPA expresses its sincerest condolences to Dwight’s wife, Dona Wolf, also an ASPA life member, and his five children.

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. Members, visit our webinar archives to catch up on what you have missed!


BookTalk: Leadership: An Honest Discussion/A Call to Lead
November 2 | 1 p.m. EDT
Presenters:
Nasha A. Johnson, Assistant Principal, Oakdale Academy
Wytress Richardson, Author and Chair, Applied Behavioral Science Program, National Louis University
Jacqueline Samuel, Moderator, Program Director and Asst. Professor, Master of Public Administration, National Louis University

A Call to Lead: Discover the Leader Within focuses on what it takes to be an effective leader. It examines the inner soul work that is imperative for leaders to perform in order to lead and care for the souls of others well. It explores the hard and soft skills required to lead successfully. Likewise, the book seeks to help readers gain the knowledge that leadership is a service and not a privilege. Join our panelists as they discuss leadership tools for effectiveness and highlight for you some of the key takeaways from A Call to Lead: Discover the Leader Within.




Student and New Professional Series: Public Communication: Skills, Applications and Value
November 4 | 1 p.m. EDT
Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Management Council
Presenters:
Aroon Manoharan, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Kayla Schwoerer, Moderator, ASPA Student Representative and Doctoral Candidate, Rutgers University, Newark

One of the most useful tools at a student or new professional's disposal is the ability to communicate appropriately in public. Whether you are giving a presentation, leading a meeting or having one-on-one dialogues with peers and colleagues, good communication skills are invaluable—and often lead you either to complete success or complete failure. What are some of the skills you need to communicate properly and how do they work in different situations? Join this discussion and learn more about how to communicate well publicly. This webinar will be led by ASPA Student Representative Kayla Schwoerer and a surprise group of presenters! We hope you will participate and enjoy the discussion! (This webinar is geared specifically toward students and new professionals but all are welcome to join!)

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

• Dennis T. Martino
• Malcolm K. Oliver

• Marlon I. Brown
• Dennis K. McBride
• Thomas H. Stanton

• Sawsan Abutabenjeh
• Terry Murphy

• Kelli Truver

• Galia Cohen

• Richa Adhikari
• Joshua Avila
• Joan Richardson

Remembering General Colin L. Powell

The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) expresses its condolences on the passing of General Colin L. Powell. His life epitomized public service at its finest: a decorated soldier, a proven problem-solver in times of crisis, a respected diplomat and a valued counselor.

“In uniform, General Powell ably represented and fought for the democratic ideals of the United States on the battlefield and in nations near and far,” said ASPA President Allan Rosenbaum. “As our nation’s chief diplomat and in his post-government career, he remained steadfast to those ideals, championing them to those in power and those who see public service as a noble calling. His death reminds us of what it means to embody the key tenets of our profession: accountability, professionalism, ethics and equity.”

Powell served as the country’s first Black national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state. He began his 35-year Army career as a young second lieutenant, commissioned in the dawn of a newly desegregated Army, and by the time he retired from the military in 1993, he was the most popular public figure in America.

ASPA also extends its gratitude to the Powell family for sharing General Powell with the country throughout his distinguished lifetime.

ASPA Opens Founders' Fellows Call for Nominations

ASPA's Founders' Fellows program is now accepting applications for its 2022 class! Geared toward accelerating careers of young public administrators, doctoral students and new researchers, this is ASPA's most competitive Fellowship program of the year and provides results that could last throughout your career. Whether you fit one of these descriptions or know someone who does, start thinking now about applying for one of our 20 available spots (or nominating a student for one).

The Founders' Fellows program recognizes the exceptional accomplishments and future potential of the next generation of public servants—in the academic and/or practitioner communities. The 2022 class will demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and professional promise. Benefits include a presentation at the 2022 Annual Conference, a specially paired mentor relationship for the duration of the fellowship year and professional development opportunities.

All applications are due to ASPA by November 30, 2021. Visit our website for more details, click here to access the application or contact ASPA's Phillip Carlisle with additional questions.

Share Your Pandemic Experiences and Perspectives: Participate in ASPA’s Pandemic Survey

ASPA's Pandemic Committee is requesting your participation in a research study.

They are conducting an administrative study of the professional activities related to the pandemic that members have undertaken during these complex and unprecedented times. It is their intention to highlight the findings from this research as an official organizational after action report at the 2022 Annual Conference as part of a presidential panel.

As a voluntary participant in this study, they are asking you to participate in an online survey, which should take you about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. After completing the survey, you will be asked if you would be willing to participate in a follow-up focus group to clarify the data.

There is only minimal risk as a study participant. Your participation is completely voluntary and there will be no penalty for choosing not to participate. Since your participation is voluntary, you are also not obligated to answer any question that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Only Dr. Claire Connolly Knox, a member of the Pandemic Committee, will know of your participation in this study. Please be assured that your responses will be kept completely confidential. Your research results, minus any identifying information, may be published and used in future research studies examining similar topics. The material findings and conclusions will be combined rather than discussed as originating from an individual source.

If you would be willing to participate in the study, please click here.

Your consideration and participation in the project is appreciated. Please contact Dr. Knox with any questions.

Now Announcing: 2022 Transatlantic Dialogue Call for Papers

The 16th Transatlantic Dialogue (TAD16), an annual conference bridging scholarly communities on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, will take place June 9-11, 2022, in Roskilde (Denmark). Co-sponsored by ASPA, the European Group for Public Administration/International Institute of Administrative Sciences and Rutgers University, we are pleased to join with our European counterparts to support this event and the scholarly communities it enhances.

Under this year's theme, “Strategic Management of Public Sector Transformation in Turbulent Times: Enhancing Collaborative Governance and Co-creation of Public Value," TAD16 will organize a broad range of workshops led by pairs of American and European scholars:

• Building capacities for collaborative governance and co-creation through strategic management
• Enhancing public performance through interagency and cross-sector collaboration
• Public innovation through networks of public and private actors: theory and practice
• Improving the performance of contracts, procurement and public-private partnerships
• Co-creating public value outcomes with citizens and voluntary organizations
• Public leadership and motivation in public value production
• Designing institutional platforms and arenas for collaborative governance and co-creation
• Political leadership and policy entrepreneurship in a turbulent world of collaborative governance
• Democratic legitimacy and accountability in collaborative governance arrangements

Public Integrity: Special Issue on Qualitative Methods as Liberatory Tools

Public administration in academia remains mired in quests for legitimacy, often confused by ontological, epistemological and methodological suppositions rooted in different ways of knowing. Many of these debates remain at the “philosophy of science” level, leaving a gap in our knowledge about not just “doing methods” well but also how methodology and methods link to broader theoretical and practical discussions in the field. Contemporarily, numerous scholars are calling for a return to the field’s heart and soul: the citizen-state encounter, the power of tacit knowledge and the ability of stories and narratives to shape knowledge.

Yet a focus on the human dimensions of public administration requires centering the uniqueness of people’s experiences. Interactions with any public service entity are woven with differing conceptions and applications of ethics, accountability, equity, justice, legality and constitutionality, legitimacy, responsiveness, transparency and more. The methods we use must be up to the task of studying and sorting through these complex dimensions, especially through providing in-depth, detail-rich description and explanation of not only what phenomena are but also how and why they work the way that they do. Qualitative methods are essential for these goals.

This special issue seeks to foster a renewed focus on qualitative methods in public administration. Specifically, we seek to unpack and understand how qualitative methods can lead to a liberatory perspective of public administration, policy and management.

Find the full call for papers online; proposals for papers should be submitted by January 9, 2022. An invitation to submit a full paper does not guarantee publication. All papers will be subject to Public Integrity’s standard double-blind peer review process. Please address any questions to special issue editors Staci Zavattaro, Sean McCandless, Ashley Nickels and Esteban Santis.

Tips and Resources

How Reframing Stress Can Make It Work for You
New research finds that reappraising stress can help you use it as a tool to perform, rather than an obstacle keeping you from success.

Coronavirus in the News
While you can find our usual assortment of news headlines from the past several weeks below, here are stories specific to the coronavirus that are noteworthy.

Infrastructure

• "It’s Not Sustainable": What America’s Port Crisis Looks Like Up Close
• White House Unveils Plans to Roll Out Coronavirus Vaccines for Children Ages 5-11

• Why Vaccine Lotteries Didn’t Move the Needle on Inoculations
• Racial Bias Skewed Small-Business Relief Lending, Study Says
• The Economic Rebound Is Still Waiting for Workers
• As White House Tries to Finalize Vaccine Mandate, Dozens of Groups Seek Last-Minute Meetings
• The Federal Government Gave Billions to America’s Schools for COVID-19 Relief. Where Did the Money Go?
• Thousands of Workers Are Opting to Get Fired, Rather Than Take the Vaccine
• How the Pandemic Changed the Government’s Health-Focused Buying
• World’s Growth Cools and the Rich-Poor Divide Widens

• Meet the Federal Employees Who Will Refuse the COVID-19 Vaccine
• VA Begins Disciplining Employees as Thousands Have Yet to Prove They’re Vaccinated
• Federal Contractors Must Show Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination by December 8
• How Will the Religious Exemption to the Federal Employee COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Work?
• Hundreds of Police Officers Have Died from COVID. Vaccines Remain a Hard Sell.

• Data Mapping the Social Determinants of Public Health
• Why Many Black Americans Changed Their Minds About COVID Shots

(Otherwise) 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

• White House Wants to Know How Biometrics Like Facial Recognition Are Being Used
• Seven Offshore Wind Leases Could Be Economic Boon to U.S. Coastal Communities
• U.S. Recorded More Than 1.6 Million Southern Border Arrests Last Year, Highest on Record

• Senate Democrats Unveil 2022 Appropriations Bills, Back Biden’s Planned Federal Pay Raise
• The Simplest Fix to America’s Rent Problem

• As Some Black Staff Members Leave Congress, Those Who Remain Call for Change
• Federal Retirees to See Largest Cost-of-Living Adjustment in Decades in 2022
• OPM to Propose Expanding Dental and Vision Benefits to More Federal Workers
• Biden Team Wants to Know How Feds Feel About the Return to Office, Inclusion and More

• Lack of Diversity in the Government Workforce Can Lead to Retention and Trust Issues
• Census Prompts Push for More Indigenous School Lessons
• A Breakdown of the Black-White Homeownership Inequality Gap
• White House Reveals Nation’s First Gender Equity Strategy, Aiming to Close the Pay Gap and Increase Abortion Access
• Trailblazing Women Who Broke into Engineering in the 1970s Reflect on What’s Changed—and What Hasn’t

Members in the News

ASPA members are in the news in a variety of ways. If you have been featured, please send a link to the article to us and we will be happy to include it in a future newsletter.

How to Budget for Equity and Drive Lasting Change
By Andrew Kleine and Josh Inaba

New Fellow Spotlight: Naim Kapucu
A profile from the National Academy of Public Administration

Leveraging State and Local Buying Power to Improve Resilience and Sustainability
By Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene

Welcome New ASPA Members!
Click here to view the most recent new ASPA members!

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:

• NASPAA 2021 Annual Conference with SPAE's Teaching Public Administration Conference
  Online | October 27-29
  Theme: “Reimagining the Civic Square”
  Registration is open
  
  
• NECoPA 2021
  Online | November 5-6
  Theme: “Responsive Public Service Needs Inclusiveness in a Diverse America”
  Registration is open
  
  
• 2021 IPAA National Conference
  Brisbane, Australia and live-streamed | November 29-30
  Registration is open
  
  
• 5th African Forum of Territorial Managers and Training Institutes
  Marrakech | December 5-11
  Registration is open
  
  
• SASPA Mini-Symposium on Capacity Building in South Asia
  Online | February 19-20
  
  
• COMPA 2022 Annual Conference
  Online | March 2-5, 2022
  View the Call for Proposals here
  
  
• ASPA 2022 Annual Conference
  Jacksonville, FL | March 18-22, 2022
  The Call for Proposals is open; all submissions are due by October 29. Registration is open now.
  
  
• NFBPA Forum 2022
  Grand Rapids, MI | March 30 - April 3, 2022
  Registration is open
  
  
• 16th Transatlantic Dialogue (TAD)
  Roskilde, Denmark | June 9-11, 2022
  The Call for Papers is open; registration is open
  
  

• SICA Announces Annual Awards Call for Nominations
  ASPA's Section on International and Comparative Administration (SICA) is seeking nominations for its 2022 Fred Riggs Award for Lifetime Achievement in International and Comparative Public Administration, David Gould Scholarship and Col Leadership Award. Awards will be announced in January 2022 and offered at the 2022 SICA business meeting during ASPA's 2022 Annual Conference.
  
  The Fred Riggs Award was established by SICA in 1985 to recognize scholars who made significant and widely recognized contributions to the conceptual, theoretical and/or operational progress in the fields of international, comparative and/or development administration. This award is named in honor of Fred W. Riggs, a pioneer in these fields and a leading founder of SICA. The award is made annually at the SICA Business Meeting held in conjunction with the ASPA Annual Conference. All nomination materials should be sent directly to Meghna Sabharwal by December 1, 2021.
  
  The David Gould Scholarship offers talented graduate students in the fields of public administration, public policy or international development some support to facilitate their participation in the ASPA Annual Conference. This Scholarship is named in honor of David Gould, an active SICA member and long-time professor of public administration at the University of Pittsburgh. He was among those killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, December 21, 1988. Each year one or two students receive a nominal stipend to attend the ASPA Annual Conference and SICA’s Riggs Symposium. For the 2022 ASPA annual conference, the stipend will help students defray registration costs. All nomination materials should be sent directly to Charlene M. L. Roach by December 1, 2021.
  
  The 2022 Col Leadership Award was established by SICA in 2016 and recognizes individual members who have made significant contributions to the development of the Section. Send all nominations to Col Leadership Award Chair Aroon Manoharan by December 1, 2021.
  
  
• UCLG Africa's 5th African Forum of Territorial Managers and Training Institutes
  United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) invites attendees to its 5th African Forum of Territorial Managers and Training Institutes, under the theme, "Local Africa Goes Digital & Smart: The Time to Act Is Now." Taking place in a hybrid format in Marrakech with some virtual sessions, this gathering will be an opportunity to inform and exchange views and ideas on the dynamics of digital and smart transformation at the level of African local and regional governments, especially in the era of COVID-19 and beyond, with a focus on the commitments made, the progress achieved, the innovations relevant to governance and development at the local and territorial level, the challenges and obstacles faced and the most relevant means to overcome them. Interpretation services will be available in English, French, Arabic and Portugese. Click here for more information.
  
  
• COMPA 2022 Annual Conference Call for Papers
  COMPA's 2022 Annual ConferenceCall for Papers is open, centered on this year's theme, "Shifting Paradigms—Challenging Assumptions." We will address the challenges facing minority public administrators in communities experiencing increasing inequalities; systemic racism; police violence coupled with racialism in legal and justice systems; housing crises and food shortages; medical mistrust; chronic underinvestment; environmental degradation; and white supremacist extremism. All of these problems and many others have been exacerbated by an ongoing global pandemic that has killed more than 1 million people as it intensifies racial/ethnic tensions and economic disparities. Communities across the globe are fighting the brutal consequences of climate change and environmental racism amidst hurricanes, droughts, fires and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. To add to the chaos, we have witnessed the widespread promotion of a lack of confidence, both internationally and domestically, in democratic governmental and administrative processes. Public administrators generally and minority public administrators in particular are in the process of adapting to the new realities while reconsidering the long held paradigms by which we live. There is a growing decline in public trust in news and information sources and a greater reliance on social media, a lack of confidence in the findings of scientific institutions, and an ever-increasing lack of faith in elected and appointed governmental leaders. The COVID-19 pandemic has been decisively marked by political divisions in the popular public trust of scientists. These realities have become a permanent element of the contemporary political discourse affecting minority public administrators and the levels of citizens' trust in the administration of public services. The current social, political and economic climate around bureaucracies, national and global, create a deluge of opportunities and challenges for the field of public administration. Minority public administrators are called upon to rethink our role as mitigators working amidst a rising sense of injustice and helplessness, the lack of hope and confidence in the present system, and a desire for radical change. This conference offers opportunities for public administration practitioners, academicians, independent scholars and students to expand the discourse through intellectual forums, research considerations and collaborative partnerships which tackle these challenges and restore public service values and meaningful governance. The conference program committee welcomes proposals to the conference's 15 tracks from academics, practitioners, independent scholars and students. Email your proposals to [email protected]. Proposals should include the title, abstract and presenter(s') name, institutional affiliation, address, email address and contact number. All proposals are due by December 15, 2022. Click here for more information.
  
  
• Journal of African Transformation Special Edition Call for Papers
  The journal invites papers and submissions for its special edition on the theme “Challenges and opportunities for curbing illicit financial flows to boost domestic resource mobilization for financing sustainable development in Africa." The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development1 identifies the reduction of illicit financial flows (IFFs) as a priority area to build peaceful societies around the world. Combating IFFs is a crucial component of global efforts to promote peace, justice and strong institutions, as reflected in target 16.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals; “By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime”. Key research questions for this special edition include: What is the nature of IFFs in different African countries?; How do IFFs impact the state and society in Africa?; What are the main challenges African countries are facing in effectively curbing IFFs?; What kind of reforms can African countries undertake in curbing IFFs?; How can digitalization and technological transformation create opportunities for curbing IFFs?; How can Africa take advantage of developments on the international stage with various initiatives aimed at curbing aspect of IFFs?; How can Africa overcome the challenges it is confronted with in recovering assets lost through IFFs?; and How can global coalition on addressing IFFs be foisted and strengthened in addressing the problem? All manuscripts are due by December 15, 2021. Click here for more information.
  
  
• SASPA Mini-Symposium on Public Policy, Public and Nonprofit Administration
  The South Asian Section for Public Administration (SASPA) is partnering with the Bengal Institute of Political Studies and the Institute of Social Sciences (New Dehli) to assembly a mini symposium: Capacity Building for Effective Governance and Administraiton: Perspectives from South Asia. The online event will feature perspectives of South Asia scholars and practitioners on capacity building to revitalize administration, civil society and governance in that region. SASPA invites reflections on how systems of institutions, civil society groups and nonprofits can be revitalized and reconstituted, given new challenges. Papers may address capacity building in the context of institutional development, innovation, human resource management, organizational learning, strategic planning, public finance and budgeting and beyond. Please send a 200-word proposal to [email protected] by January 7, 2022. The symposium will take place via Zoom February 19-20. Click here to view more information.
  
  
• SPCM Best Paper Award
  The Section on Procurement and Contract Management (SPCM) has issued a Best Paper Award for ASPA's 2022 Annual Conference. Do you conduct research in public procurement, government contracting or contract management? Are you submitting a proposal for the conferene? If so, submit your paper to SPCM for an award. First place will receive $500; second place will receive $250. Please send your full paper to Sawsan Abutabenjeh by March 1, 2022 for consideration. 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!)

• The Value of Preserving Our Thoughts
  By Robert A. Hunter
  
  
• Are Southern States Less Free Due to Lack of Public Health Policy?
  By Robyn McCullough
  
  
• Mask Mandates Find Favor in Virginia and Nationwide
  By Brittany Keegan