2013 06 alumninewsletter

Bringing alumni together for social networking, knowledge sharing, and professional development

Summer 2013

Message from the Editor: Greetings new graduates! Congratulations on completing the program and earning your degree! We applaud you for all your hard work and welcome you to our Alumni Association!

Over the past couple of years, we worked to create a strong foundation of alumni support. Now, we are building off that foundation and planning for our future growth. To that end, this term Dr. Kevin Kecskes asked his class to create strategic plans to increase alumni outreach and involvement. These group projects culminated in a final presentation to alumni, faculty, and students. We as an organization are in the process of reviewing the strategic plans, and intend to move forward with several suggestions. We thank Dr. Kecskes and his class for their attention, hard work, and great suggestions!

To alumni, we ask that you stay tuned for some exciting projects from your Alumni Association. We will need your help to ensure our success. In addition to your support, we will be reaching out to you with volunteer opportunities. We continue to thank you for keeping this organization alive by engaging our social media, attending our events, and reading this newsletter. We look forward to serving you even better!

ABOUT THE NEWSLETTER

This is the PSU Public Administration Alumni Association newsletter, to be published quarterly according to PSU’s academic calendar. The topics and authors will vary, but will always be relevant to the study and practice of public administration and public health. Drawing from multiple fields of study, we look forward to bringing you additional relevant content, and are always seeking input on the newsletter (format and substance) as well as article contributions. For more information, see page 8.

In this Issue

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Student Spotlight: Mark Grabow and the PSU student chapter of ICMA

Alumnus Pat Mobley on

Oregon’s Microbrews

Public Administration Division’s Accreditation Process

Division of Public Administration

Alumni Association Portland State University

Mark O. Hatfield School of Government

Page 8 How to Get Involved in the Alumni Association

Alumni Association Newsletter Summer 2013

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Student Spotlight: Mark Grabow

The International City/County

Management Association (ICMA) Student Chapters are intended to provide an integrative introduction to students interested in a career in local government. ICMA Student Chapters provide a connection from the classroom to professionals, resources, and opportunities.

The ICMA-PSU Student Chapter emerged during the 2012-13 academic school year as a result of planning with both academics and supportive local government professionals. While membership to the Student Chapter is only open to current students enrolled at Portland State, our monthly meetings are open to any who wish to attend. Each month we bring in new local government professional(s) spanning from entry level to CEO.

Per ICMA requirements, student chapters must have a faculty advisor and a practitioner advisor. Our Faculty Advisor is the Public Administration Division’s Dr. Phil Cooper, and our Practitioner Adviser is City of Sherwood City Manager, Joe Gall.

MPA Local Government student describes his successful efforts to form a student chapter of the International City/County Management Association and how alumni can get involved

Sitting as the first board of the ICMA-PSU Student Chapter are:

• Mark Grabow, President/Founder

• Dan Englund, Vice President

• Caroline Zavitkovski, Communications Officer

• John Leuthauser, Treasurer

Benefits to Both Students and Alumni

The potential benefits are great. When professionals come to monthly ICMA-PSU Student Chapter meetings, an opportunity arises to gain professional development information, network, ask for advice, and develop informational interview contacts. As potential guest speakers, alumni can have a critical role in this, as you have gone through the PSU MPA program and have ‘been in the same trenches’ so-to-speak.

The ICMA-PSU Student Chapter is looking to put together a panel of PSU MPA graduates who are interested in coming to a Chapter meeting and presenting to current students. We are interested in hearing your stories, advice, tips, cautions, and anything else that we

can glean from you.

Alumni Attendance at Monthly Meetings

Alumni are welcome to attend the monthly ICMA-PSU Chapter meetings. In fact, we encourage it. For those of you looking for professional development opportunities, networking potential, or just interested in ‘giving back’ to the current students, we would love to have your presence at the monthly ICMA-PSU Chapter meetings.

Alumni interested in attending the monthly Chapter meetings will be able to meet with local government professionals from a variety of fields. If you are looking for a job or are looking for opportunities in another area of local government, the monthly ICMA-PSU Chapter meetings may have a great impact.

Current and Future Projects by ICMA-PSU

We are currently planning a student trip to the annual Oregon City/County Management Association (OCCMA) 2013 Summer Conference. This will be built into the Chapter as an annual event of our own. Local


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government professionals, hearing of our efforts to organize a student group to attend the conference, have offered donations to the Chapter to help us achieve our goal of providing students with an opportunity to attend this valuable professional conference.

The ICMA-PSU Student Chapter board has begun planning events for next year (specific dates TBD), and has started the process of connecting with local government professionals who will present at the ICMA-PSU Student Chapter monthly meetings.

As students work through the MPA program and hone in on their specific career path within the local government profession, we invite requests as to who students would like to hear from/meet with at the monthly meetings. For instance, some students requested that we bring someone in who does auditing as a profession in local government, and the next month we were honored to have Drummond Kahn, the Director of Auditing Services for the City of Portland, speak to the Chapter.

Next year’s guest speakers will include city managers, county administrators, emergency management professionals, budgeting professionals, and human resource professionals, to name a few.

We have also begun compiling a panel of female local government professionals to come in and speak to the group, and we plan on

providing students with connections to culturally and ethnically diverse professionals as well. Historically, local government (and government in general) has been a profession dominated by white men, and this demographic is changing, broadening. The students at PSU are no exception to this changing trend. One look at a standard Chapter meeting shows that we are an eclectic group from all walks of life. We hope to provide guest speakers who can share varying perspectives and experiences with the Chapter.

Over the summer months, the board will be planning the events for the upcoming academic school year even further. If you wish to get involved, please feel free to contact me. My email is enclosed. It would be valuable to include alumni from PSU’s MPA program in our monthly meetings, as you all can relate to the students in a very unique and valuable way.

Should you wish to be involved with the ICMA-PSU Student Chapter by acting as a guest speaker, sitting in on monthly meetings, or volunteering with the Chapter, please feel free to contact me.

Warmly,

Mark Grabow

Continued


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I have been brewing beer at home

for more than a decade. It started after a summer trip to Belgium. The beer was amazing and I had to do it for myself. Over the years, there have been unexpected excellent beers as well as potable but not tasty ones. Moving to Oregon over a decade ago came with it a desire to immerse myself into a craft brewing culture I had begun to read about online and through my various home-brew friends in Austin, TX. It’s 2013 and Oregon’s brewing bounty continues to thrive. The beer industry contributes $2.44 billion to Oregon’s economy. Is your municipality ready to support the home brewer turned entrepreneur?

As a municipal, public service professional, who may or may not specialize in economic development, this is an industry growing in depth and breadth. I’ve interviewed a handful of new breweries over the past several months that have opened in the Metro area. Make sure your zoning, permitting, utility, and public safety services are primed for supporting these businesses in your city or county. Those are the number one issues they had heartburn over and delays with.

For example, one brewery informed me that they had all the City permitting taken care of and ready to drop $1m on capital

improvements when the Fire Marshall shows up for a final run through only to tell them they needed to build another side door. The brewery had already gone through the pre-app conference, engineering and design reviews with the City and Public Safety, and when all was to be finalized…oops you need to redesign everything in order to build another side door. This delayed the project by 8 months and an additional $250k. Yes, we want safe buildings. Yes, there should be some adaptability built into development plans to account for unforeseen issues. Nonetheless, someone dropped the ball somewhere in the process and this should have been avoided. The brewery owners are left with a very sour impression of the services provided by this City. This lingering negative impression, especially in this segment of the artisan economy, gets retold to others in the industry and supports a larger narrative that municipalities are in the “no” business.

Be in the “yes” business, especially when it comes to start-up breweries.

Resources:

The Oregon Brewer’s Guild is a great resource to engage when supporting the growth of a small, independent brewery. The State of Oregon, Business Oregon, provides another set of tools and resources that successfully support these businesses.

Benefits of the Brew MPA alumnus Pat Mobley (2007) describes how to get in on some of the economic benefits of microbrewing

Brewing in Oregon

• Total economic impact: $2.44 billion

• 2nd largest producer of craft beer in the USA.

• 3rd largest craft beer market in the USA

• 2nd largest hop growing state, 2011 crop value of $23,497,000.

• 3rd highest percentage of draft beer consumed in the USA.

• 1 brewery for every 23,000 people

• 24 of 36 Oregon counties have brewpubs.

Oregon has more beer jobs per capita than anywhere else in USA, with 184 total breweries employing 4,643 Oregonians (2,709 in Portland alone) Top 4 Oregon Breweries (production): 1. Craft Brewers Alliance,

Portland (aka Widmer Brothers, Kona, and Red Hook)

2. Deschutes Brewery, Bend 3. Ninkasi Brewing Co., Eugene 4. Bridgeport Brewing, Portland Portland & Metro Info: • 52 operating breweries (more

than any other City in the World)

• 69 breweries in Metro area, largest craft brewing market in the USA.

Some Familiar & Some Not So Familiar Choices:

• The Prodigal Son Brewery

(Pendleton) • Terminal Gravity Brewing

(Enterprise) • Logsdon Organic Farmhouse

Ales (Hood River) • The Ale Apothecary (Bend) • The Commons Brewery

(Portland) • Block 15 Brewpub (Corvallis) • Oakshire Brewing (Eugene) • Caldera Brewing Co.

(Ashland)


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The Public Administration Division Seeks Reaccreditation

As alumni of Portland State

University’s Division of Public Administration, we understand that our program, which includes a specialization recently ranked 16th in the county by U.S. News and World Report, is something to be very proud of. With leading scholars and practitioners of public and nonprofit administration and public health on the faculty, a dedicated and professional student body, and strong ties to the greater-Portland community, it is no wonder that our school is receiving national attention.

However, all of that is not enough. The value of our degree comes not only from the reputation of the Division, but also because the degrees awarded have been accredited by national associations that ensure quality in graduate degree programs. For instance, the Network of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) is a membership organization of university-based programs and their lead faculty in public administration related fields. The organization accredits graduate degree programs such as the MPA

Through the efforts of Drs. Erna Gelles, Jill Rissi, and other faculty members, our alma mater received accreditation for the

Public Health programs and has applied for reaccreditation for the Public Administration programs

and MPA:HA programs at PSU. Additionally, the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) accredits graduate programs in the healthcare management fields (such as the MPH at PSU).

The Division of Public Administration has recently finished its self-study year and site visit review for its seven-year reaccreditation by NASPAA for the MPA, MPA:HA, and EMPA degrees. Additionally, the MPH and the MPA:HA have both just received their first formal accreditation from CAHME.

The quality and accomplishments of the Division are the result of faculty and students at the cutting edge of public administration study and practice. This requires constant attention to leading trends by faculty and staff, as well as a consistent desire to improve and focus on innovation while maintaining the integrity and tradition of the program.

While the high caliber of the faculty and staff for the Division of Public Administration is undeniable, it was MPA Associate Professor Dr. Erna Gelles that spearheaded the

effort to be re-accredited by NASPAA; Assistant Professor Jill Rissi led the faculty charge for the first CAHME accreditation, recently awarded for its first three years (as is its practice when accrediting new programs).

The Accreditation Process

NASPAA requires an MPA program to be accredited every seven years, and has awarded the PA Division accreditation since 1970. During the 2012-2013 self-study and site visit process the Division’s Executive MPA program submitted its formal application for accreditation for the first time. Additionally, CAHME requires the Division to use a competency-based assessment and, for the first time, NASPAA has introduced a similar requirement.

The first step in the accreditation process for both NASPAA and CAHME is for the Division at PSU to conduct a self-study. Separate studies had to be done for each program (MPA, MPA: HA and EMPA for NASPAA and the MPH and MPA:HA for CAHME).

This, for the MPA and MPA:HA, is a very involved process that was led by Dr. Gelles covering


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significantly more than what will be described in this article. In brief summary, the purpose is to assess the goals of the program, how the composition and focus of the faculty, curriculum, and student body achieve those goals, and to describe how the program contributes to the general knowledge and advancement of that field of practice. For instance, the self-study reports involve:

• An assessment of the Division’s mission and values and how those concepts link to their curriculum, student body, and other stakeholder groups.

• An evaluation of the Division’s faculty research performance and how it contributes to the advancement of the fields of public and nonprofit administration and health.

• Describing the faculty composition, areas of focus, and contribution to their fields.

• Describe the general composition of the student body, and how the Division’s faculty and staff instruct and support student development.

• Analyzing how resources are used to support the Division’s mission, faculty, and students.

While all of these aspects of the report are important, of particular interest is the requirement to describe the makeup of the student body and how that informs the Division’s focus and support. This

is particularly important given the challenges of the Division at PSU, given how many or even most students live away from campus and have previous work experience or are working while in the program.

The self-study includes an assessment of the diversity of the student body, including race, ethnicity, and gender; the proportion of the students are pre-service or in-service; and what proportion come into the program intending to be either full-time or part-time.

As Dr. Gelles says, “In a program where students are so engaged in the community with work or volunteer commitments, this full- versus part-time designation is, for many of our students, a moving target. We also have noted a new aspect to diversity as recently more and more students are doing what we call ‘sector jumping.’ They have worked for years in the for-profit corporate arena and are now interested in public service. We are seeing more and more students in transition in this way.”

Competency-Based Assessment Instruments

To address both CAHME and NASPAA’s requirements, the Division had to use competency-based assessment instruments and apply them to the program. Using the NASPAA universal competencies as a baseline, the Division crafted ten competencies for both of the self-studies:

1. Articulate and exemplify the ethics, values, responsibilities, obligations, and social

roles of a member of the public service profession.

2. Identify and apply relevant theories and frameworks to the practice of public service leadership, management, and policy.

3. Respond to and engage collaboratively with diverse local and global cultures and communities to address challenges in the public interest.

4. Identify and engage with the key elements of the public policy process.

5. Employ appropriate qualitative and quantitative techniques to investigate, monitor, and manage resource use.

6. Create and manage systems and processes to assess and improve organizational performance.

7. Conceptualize, analyze, and develop creative and collaborative solutions to challenges in public service leadership, management, and policy.

8. Assess challenges and explore solutions to advance cross-sectoral and inter-jurisdictional cooperation in public programs and services.

9. Demonstrate verbal and written communication skills as a professional and through interpersonal interactions in groups and in society.

Continued


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10. Think critically and self-reflectively about emerging issues concerning public service leadership, management and policy.

In order to demonstrate each competency, the Division redesigned class evaluations. Each class exposed students to different competencies at different levels. Then the evaluation asked students what they thought and how the classes helped develop their competencies.

After Dr. Gelles completed a combined self-study report for the MPA and MPA:HA, they were sent for review by NASPAA. Dr. Rissi engaged in a similar process based on CAHME’s requirements for health care programs for the MPH and MPA:HA

NASPAA Site Visit

For the MPA and MPA:HA, NASPAA then conducted a site visit with a team that included three academics and one professional. The NASPAA site team describes its role as being “the eyes and ears of COPRA.” (COPRA is the NASPAA Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation.) The team’s task is to review documents over a three day period, meet with faculty, staff, alumni, and current students and compare what the programs claim to be doing in the self-study document (submitted to NASPAA in August 2012) to what they see on campus. This process also seeks to compare the Division to its peer programs, in this case public, mid-sized urban programs (not to include regional competitors). The EMPA conducted its own self-study under

the leadership of Dr. Craig Shinn and followed the same process, timeline, and procedures.

The Decision

COPRA meets in late May or early June and makes its final determination. They do not inform the programs up for re-accreditation or initial accreditation until mid-July.

CAHME made its decision and formally accredited the Division’s health programs in May of this year.

Conclusion

Because all of us received a graduate degree in Public Administration or Public Health, we understand that organizations must objectively evaluate their current and past practices in order to plan for future improvement. The accreditation processes through NASPAA and CAHME provide the impetus to do just that. Through the hard work of Drs. Gelles, Rissi and Shinn, and the rest of the Division’s faculty and staff, our program is able to seek continuous improvement and maintain a consistently high standard for the education of students in public administration and health theory and practice.

Continued

Email Amanda Lamb, MPA ‘10 Newsletter Editor [email protected]


The Alumni Association is expanding! There are now many ways to get involved, including:

• Attend alumni events: Watch for communication of time/location for monthly gatherings and other events! All are welcome!

• Check out our Facebook and LinkedIn pages!

• Join our group on LinkedIn or the listserv: The Alumni Association listserv allows you to get informed of upcoming events and receive the newsletter.

• Provide feedback: This Alumni Association is OURS. We can build it the way we want. Make sure your voice is heard.

The Alumni Association will continue to grow, and your participation is the key to our success. Thank you for your support!

We are now soliciting contributions for the spring edition of the newsletter. Want to contribute to the content?

For more information, to join the listserv, or to provide feedback, email [email protected]

Documents

2013 06 alumninewsletter