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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As part of The Department of Public Policy’s Fall Speaker Series, Yale University’s Professor Jason M. Fletcher presented his most recent research titled, Using Genetic Lotteries within Families to Examine the Causal Impact of Poor Health on Academic Achievement. This study explores the impact of poor health conditions on academic outcomes in students.

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