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Fall 2017

Alasdair Roberts Named Director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Policy

The UMass Amherst School of Public Policy (SPP) has named Alasdair Roberts its new Director. The announcement was made by the Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, John A. Hird, on March 27, 2017. Roberts officially stepped into the role on September 1.

Stan Rosenberg, President of the Massachusetts Senate, lauded this appointment, stating “In this political environment, we need all hands on deck to help people understand more and more about how our government works and how good public policy is developed. The appointment of Dr. Roberts brings new vision and energy to this critical work.”

“I’m delighted that Alasdair Roberts has accepted the position as inaugural Director of the School of Public Policy,” says Dean Hird. “As one of the world’s leading figures in public administration and policy, he will bring tremendous energy, creativity, vision, and leadership to SPP.”

Roberts is an internationally renowned scholar in the fields of governance, law, and policy. Prior to coming to UMass he was a Professor of Public Affairs at the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri. He also held a courtesy appointment in the School of Law and an adjunct appointment in the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri. Prior to this, Roberts was a member of the public administration

faculty of Queen’s University in Canada (1990 to 2001), and the Maxwell School at Syracuse University (2001 to 2008). He was also the Jerome L. Rappaport Professor of Law and Public Policy at Suffolk University from 2008 to 2014.

Professor Roberts received a J.D. from the University of Toronto in 1984, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University in 1986, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University in 1994.

Polity Books will publish his next book, Can Government Do Anything Right?, in January 2018. His last book, Four Crises of American Democracy, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

Contents Director’s letter l 2 | Students l 3 | Faculty l 4-5 | Alumni l 6-7

ConnectionsThe annual newsletter of the UMass Amherst School of Public Policy

SPP Director Alasdair Roberts with faculty, staff, and students at the school’s fall semester welcome lunch.

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Dear Friends,

It’s an honor to serve as the inaugural Director of the School of Public Policy at UMass Amherst.

SPP’s predecessor, the Center for Public Policy and Administration, has provided us with a strong foundation. SPP is supported by an extraordinary community of students, alumni, faculty and staff. We share a commitment to creating a better world through policies that are innovative and well crafted.

In the next few years, we will build on this foundation. We will enhance the learning experience for students in our degree and certificate programs. We will build stronger connections with decision-makers in government and the nonprofit sector. We will expand our communications activities, to spread the word about the accomplishments of all members of the SPP community. We will continue as the hub for engagement with public policy at the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts.

To succeed, we will need your help. Keep in touch and tell us about the work that you are doing. Get involved in SPP activities. Above all, tell us how we can do better. My email address and phone number are below.

I’m looking forward to working with you. Have a great autumn!

Alasdair RobertsDirectorasroberts@umass.eduPhone (617) 599-9029

SPP Welcomes Diverse & Accomplished ClassThe School of Public Policy (SPP) is welcoming another large class for this academic year, with forty-three students newly registered in its accelerated and two-year master’s programs. Combined with other full and part-time enrollment, the SPP community now includes almost 70 students.

This year’s students come from as near as Amherst, Northampton, Sunderland and Springfield, and from as far away as Lebanon, China, and Germany. They include students from across the United States, from Washington to Tennessee, to New York, New York! Students are returning to school following stints as arts nonprofit executive directors, fine chocolate marketers, English teachers in Japan, information technology experts in local government, political campaigners, grant writers, supply chain consultants, and business managers.

Interest in our programs is growing alongside the need for professionals qualified for careers in government agencies, advocacy, and organizations that focus on social justice, the environment, family policy, communications policy, science and technology policy, and more.

Thanks to our generous donors, we were able to award the following scholarships, and also paid fellowships, for students completing their internship requirement this summer.

2017 Student Fellows

Philip Hertz Scholarship Award

Anne McSweeney (MPPA ‘17)

M.V. Lee Badgett Social Justice Award

Stacey Sexton (MPPA/MEd ‘17)

Richard Barnard Fellows

Sarah Brown-Anson (MPPA 2018)Verité, Amherst, MA

Ghida El-Banna (MPP ’18)Truth in Accounting, Chicago, IL

Madeleine Neill (MPPA ’18)Tapestry Health, Northampton, MA

Kristen Keel Fellows

Danielle Corrado (MPPA ‘18)International Food Information Council, Washington, DC

Estefanía Martí Malvido (MPPA ’18) Mexican Health Foundation, Mexico City, MX

Erika Tai (MPP ’18)Surviving in Numbers, Arlington, MA Jason Rappaport (MPPA ’18)Estimize, New York, NY

George Sulzner Fellow

Reily Connaughten (MPPA ’18) Democrats for Education Reform, Boston, MA

Connections 2016-17

Editor: Satu Zoller

Design: Matthew Medeiros

Contributors:Matthew Medeiros

Susan NewtonSatu Zoller

From the Director’s Desk

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SPP Goes to the Big Apple!SPP students have been visiting Washington, DC and Boston as part of the Professional Development Seminar (Prosem) for many years now. The trips have become an integral part of the SPP experience, bridging the curriculum and the “real” world.

The trips are designed to give students exposure to the wide range of professional opportunities that are available to them as graduates of our programs. Students meet SPP alumni and other policy professionals who are working in a variety of nonprofits as well as government agencies.

In January of this year the Prosem class traveled to New York City for the first time! Along with Associate Director for Academic Programs Satu Zoller, SPP students visited a number of government, nonprofit and private organizations, including the United Nations, the City of New York’s Department of Education, Booz Allen Hamilton and AVAC, an international health non-governmental organization.

“We have wanted to visit New York for some time” said Zoller, “but as a policy program, DC has always been a bigger draw. I think students realized that there are many exciting opportunities in New York as well. I know that students were encouraged by the trip and that some of them are applying to internships there. Of course cost of living is very expensive, so the students will likely need the support of our travel funds to make the internships a reality.”

Beth Leibinger, MPPA ‘18, said “I really came out of the New York trip feeling inspired. When you’re in the midst of the MPPA program, it’s easy to let your focus narrow down to the work that’s right in front of you. Meeting with people working on such diverse aspects of the public policy field helped me see that there are so many directions I could go from here, and I was grateful for the chance to make professional contacts I could reach out to in the future.”

“The New York City Prosem trip gave me an opportunity to see the many sides and aspects of public policy work in practice. I was struck by the breadth of the fields and offices we visited--we went to an office for each students’ subject interest areas!” said Alex Hillman, MPPA/MPH ‘17.

SPP Students Represent University of Massachusetts in Global Simulation Competition

SPP students visit with alum Jonathan Weiser, MPPA ‘05 (center back row) at Buzzback Market Research Photo courtesy of Satu Zoller.

From left: Derek Krevat, Danielle Corrado, and Estefanía Martí Malvido at the NASPAA competition Photo courtesy of Estefanía Martí Malvido.

Four students from the University of Massachusetts School of Public Policy (SPP) joined students who were selected from policy programs around the world to take part in a competition designed to address global hunger. The competition, held on February 25, 2017, simulated real-world conditions faced by policy analysts in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working on food insecurity. Held annually, the event was sponsored by the Network of Schools of Public Policy and Administration (NASPAA) and the University of Virginia’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

Students Danielle Corrado (MPPA ’18), Palista Kharel (MPPA/MBA ’17), Derek Krevat (MPPA/MRP ’17), and Estefanía Martí Malvido (MPPA ’18) traveled to Columbia University in New York City for the competition. They were among 400 graduate students selected to participate in competitions held at Columbia and at universities in: Washington, DC; Indianapolis, IN; Tempe, AZ; Seattle, WA; Bogotá, Colombia; Beijing, China; and Maastricht, Netherlands. As part of their simulation, student teams analyzed data, evaluated computer simulation results, drafted memos and policy recommendations, and presented their proposals to teams of local site judges.

Krevat noted that the competition was a “fantastic networking opportunity,” and according to Kharel, “I learned that one-size-fits-all policy recommendations about global hunger are not a solution, especially in the growing threat of climate change.”

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When Emily Stetson, MPP ‘18, first started at the University of Massachusetts as a Chemistry major, she never would have imagined her future self would be speaking to an audience of 5,000 political activists, or meeting with significant leaders of the Democratic Party. But on June 3, 2017, she did just that—when she gave a speech and introduced US Senator Ed Markey at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention, held at the DCU Center in Worcester.

Earlier this year Stetson ran for one of the seats in the town of Amherst’s delegation, winning the race, and securing a seat at this year’s statewide gathering of Democratic activists. Since she is also President of the state’s College Democrats, the party asked her to speak onstage during the convention.

“I was honored and ecstatic to have been invited,” she says. She credits her UMass education with initiating her interest in politics.

“My experiences on campus led me down this path in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences that I never could have conceived would have fit my interests and passions so perfectly,” explains Stetson.

That path led to changing her major from Chemistry to Political Science, and now to the School of Public Policy (SPP), working on her MPP through the accelerated

degree program. Stetson feels her education with SPP has given her the skills that have led her to meeting such significant leaders, and put her on a path to grow from there. “With the Accelerated MPP program, I’m building upon my political toolkit to continue advocating for my communities after graduation. One year into the program, I’m already beginning to get a sense of navigating our state and nation’s political systems in classes like Introduction to Public Policy, Federal Budgeting, as well as developing the skills to grasp the nuances of policy itself through courses such as Legislative Drafting,” she says.

“Wherever these skills take me following graduation, I have confidence that my UMass education has prepared me well for any path I choose,” Stetson adds.

Stetson invited to speak at Massachusetts Democratic Convention

Photo courtesy of Anna Hartmann

Professor Michael Ash (Economics and Public Policy) authored a briefing paper responding to two recent reports that claimed a weak relationship between decreases in state funding for public higher education and increases in tuition. Ash asserts that evidence across the US shows a strong association between declining higher education budgets and tuition increases.

Professor, and former SPP Director, M.V. Lee Badgett (Economics) and Steve Boutcher (Sociology) were awarded a $250,000 grant by the US Department of Labor to lead a first-of-its-kind study that will examine the effectiveness of President Obama’s 2014 executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Research Professor Sylvia Brandt (Public Policy) began research into the effects of pollutants on earning potential for mothers of children with health conditions impacted by pollution, such as asthma.

Associate Professor Brenda Bushouse (Political Science and Public Policy) received a seed grant from the Institute for Social Science Research for a pilot study examining the rules and norms that govern urban park users. She also authored several publications and made presentations at several conferences.

Distinguished University Professor Jane Fountain (Political Science and Public Policy) was keynote at the 10th International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV) in Delhi, India. Her keynote was titled “Political Priorities and Administrative Performance: Building Cross-Agency Capacity,” and she was also interviewed by the Times of India during her trip. In addition, she authored several articles published by the World Economic Forum, and the US National Academy of Public Administration.

Faculty Spotlight

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Associate Professor Krista Harper (Anthropology and Public Policy) published an article with Catherine Sands in the journal Local Environment that was based on work they started together when Sands was an SPP student. The pair used youth participatory action research (YPAR) methods to evaluate young people’s understanding of food justice and school food policy. They wrote the article with youth from Nuestras Raíces in Holyoke, MA, who were involved in the project.

Recipient of a mid-career grant from the Spencer Foundation, Professor Kathryn (Katie) McDermott (Education and Public Policy) spent the 2016-17 academic year conducting research on how daily decisions made by K-12 teachers and administrators help to maintain or challenge racial bias, and affect policies that address such bias.

Assistant Professor David Mednicoff(Public Policy and Middle Eastern Studies) completed his $1 million grant on the comparative political meanings and policy implications of the rule of law in the Arab Gulf. As part of this work, he supervised and co-edited two series of online and printed Insights published by the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore. Mednicoff also published three book chapters in edited academic volumes.

Professor Joya Misra (Sociology and Public Policy) was a co-investigator with Marta Murray-Close (US Census) on a one-year, $65,355 grant from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. The study, also with economics doctoral student Eunjung Jee, analyzes how parenthood contributes to the gender wage gap.

Associate Professor Ellen Pader (Regional Planning) joined with SPP colleagues Lee Badgett, Fred Rose, Betsy Schmidt, and Charles Schweik to create one of fourteen UMass teams doing research and potential collaborations with organizations in the communities of Holyoke and Springfield. Their team’s study is titled “Assessing Policy and Pursuing Sustained University Engagement with Springfield”.

Professor Maureen Perry-Jenkins (Psychological and Brain Sciences) joined with colleague Kirby Deater-Deckard to form another UMass team for research and potential collaborations with Holyoke and Springfield community organizations. Their team’s study is titled “Community Engaged Research on the Health Impacts of Chronic Poverty”.

Associate Professor Dean Robinson (Political Science) was named the Terrence Murray Commonwealth Honors College Professor. “Behind my vision as Murray Professor is to highlight and encourage students to research and understand the broad field of social epidemiology. I also want them to think more deeply about the relationship between politics, empowerment, and inequality and how that becomes manifested in health. The Murray Professorship provides a really interesting platform potentially to do that,” Robinson says.

Professor of Practice Elizabeth (Betsy) Schmidt recently published the second edition of her book, Nonprofit Law: The Life Cycle of a Charitable Organization (Wolters Kluwer). The book builds upon Schmidt’s earlier book, providing legal information needed by all nonprofit managers and board members leading Section 501(c) (3) organizations. She also published a teacher’s manual to accompany the book, which provides additional information for professors and updates the changes that occurred after the book went to press.

Professor Charles (Charlie) Schweik (Environmental Conservation and Public Policy) received grants from the Worldwide Universities Network to establish an international collaboration in the area of low-cost open source air pollution detection sensors (with colleague Rick Peltier, public health), and from the UMass President’s Science and Technology Initiatives Fund (with Mike Knodler, Transportation Center, Engineering and others) to build a UMass network-wide program around unmanned aerial systems (UAS) research and education.

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Jackie Brousseau -Pereira (MPA) is now the Academic Dean and

Director of First Year Seminars in the UMass Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS). In her new role, she will oversee the advisement of close to 4,000 majors within SBS and those exploring curricular options in the College. Brousseau- Pereira was a member of the first class at SPP’s predecessor, CPPA, and completed her doctorate in education at UMass Amherst as well.

Christopher Ketchen (MPPA) is now the Chief Administrative Officer in the Town of Lenox, MA.

Sue (Etzel) Murphy (MPA)is now assistant director of the

Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Boston and communicates regularly with Congressional staffers. Sue looks forward to seeing Matt Saradjian ‘04 whenever she’s in the Boston office.

Julio Dantas (MPA), and SPP faculty member M. V. Lee

Badgett recently had a chance to catch up at the International Lesbian and Gay Association World Conference, held in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2016. Julio is the founder of Todo Mejora, an NGO in Chile that works to combat the high rates of suicide among adolescents. Julio reports that he and husband Juan Pablo are still happily married after ten years.

Zhimin Ma (MPPA) is now a licensed CPA working for the City

and County of San Francisco.

Ryan Aylesworth (MPPA) is the Town Manager for Enfield, NH.

Katie Boggs (MPPA) is now the Risk Assessment and Reporting Compliance Officer at PrivateBank in Chicago, IL.

Caitlin Gould (MPPA) began a doctoral program in public

health at John Hopkins in June 2017. She was featured earlier this year in a story on the UMass Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences website.

Elena Kvochko (MPPA) is now the Chief Information Officer for

the Group Security Division at Barclays.

Kevin Moforte (MPPA) advises and helps direct Esperanza Soaps,

a company in Las Malvinas, Santo Domingo that supports women in the community there making handcrafted, all natural soaps.

Gordon Adams (MPPA/MBA) now resides in Los Angeles,

where he works with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of its task force on gangs. He visited SPP during 2016-17 and talked with current students about his experience as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Kathy Colón began her career at UMass Amherst in 1992, working with records in Whitmore (the central administration building on campus). In 1998, she joined Professor John Hird (now Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences)

and Satu Zoller (now SPP Associate Director) as founding staff of the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA, now the School of Public Policy, or SPP). She has continuously served as CPPA/SPP office manager since that time.

Kathy’s bio on SPP’s website reads thus: “Kathy Colón works closely with students, staff and faculty to provide academic and administrative assistance for SPP daily operations and management. She serves as SPP receptionist, processes admissions for the MPP and MPPA programs, coordinates graduate and undergraduate course schedules, and serves as personnel coordinator.”

But SPP faculty, staff, students and alumni know Kathy as that and much more: the go-to problem solver and glue that holds everything together—knowledgeable, kind, unflappable, and always willing to help others even when it requires putting aside her own work. To boot, she is perennially modest about her many contributions to SPP.

As many CPPA/SPP alumni will attest, it’s hard to drift too far from Kathy’s orbit. If a couple of years go by and she hasn’t heard from an alum, off goes an email with a “How are you? What are you up to?? Why haven’t you written???” Alums are, and will forever remain, members of the CPPA/SPP community with Kathy in charge.

Kathy is known for her love of animals. A devoted volunteer for numerous rescue organizations, those of us in Thompson Hall look forward to the occasional visit by Tucker, Kathy’s own rescue “mutt.”

But Kathy’s pride and joy is her family, and she became a grandmother in 2016 to Piper Rae Monette, born to daughter Rachel and her husband Joel.

Kathy grew up in Whately, MA, and has lived there her entire life—indeed, she lives in the same house in which she grew up.

Kathy’s service was recognized at a University-wide breakfast held on April 27, 2017. SPP faculty and staff are delighted by the chance to congratulate Kathy, and to thank her for everything she does to make SPP a welcoming home!

Colón Recognized for 25 Years of Service to UMass Amherst

Class Notes’00

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Havlin ‘16 Publishes Research in Working USA

Michael (Mike) Havlin (MPPA ‘16) began his research on Portland, Maine’s minimum wage ordinance as part of his capstone project. Now Havlin’s work on the minimum wage in Portland has been published in Working USA: The Journal of Labor & Society.

In a paper titled “Implementation of Portland’s Minimum Wage Ordinance: Need for a Community Based Organization Approach?,” Havlin argues that there’s insufficient enforcement of the city-wide minimum wage of $10.10, soon to become $10.68.

Havlin collected data while a SPP student that showed the city’s enforcement protocols primarily revolve around addressing worker complaints--a fundamentally flawed strategy, he argues, because it relies on workers having complete knowledge about their rights and what to do when their rights are violated.

Officials that Havlin interviewed saw the city’s implementation of its new wage policy as a success because they’d received few complaints about violations. However, the workers he interviewed spoke of confusion, intimidation, and misinformation in the workplace. The result was their inability to lodge complaints when they weren’t paid the minimum wage.

Havlin argues that community organizations such as the Southern Maine Workers’ Center have a role to play in educating workers about their rights and what to do when employers fail to comply with municipal policy. He also argues that the municipality

should invest in enforcement strategies, including paid staff, that proactively work with local businesses to ensure compliance rather than relying solely on worker complaints.

Mike Havlin currently works for the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D.C. He received SPP’s inaugural M.V. Lee Badgett Award for Social Justice in recognition of his work on behalf of workers’ rights in his home state of Maine, especially low-income workers who struggle every day to support themselves and their families with minimum wage jobs.

Nicholas (Nick) Cummings (MPPA) is a research analyst at Truven Health Analytics in the Washington, DC, area.

Jenn Curtin (MPP) is a program associate with the Gill Foundation, one of the nation’s leading funders of efforts to secure full equality for LGBT people. Jenn lives in Denver with her partner Alisa.

Wendy Dagle (MPPA) is program director for Multicultural Community Services of the Pioneer Valley, Inc. She recently spoke about her experience as a human services professional at a Food for Thought Lunch, sponsored by the SBS Career and Professional Development office.

Stephanie Robles (MPPA), is a PhD student at UMass in sociology, and was the project assistant for a survey on campus climate during Fall 2016. Fellow alum Stacey Sexton ‘17 (MPPA) also contributed to the survey’s design and implementation.

Frank Nakashian (MPP) is a regional planner at the Division

of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance in Boston.

Zulekha Abu (MPPA/MED) started a new job as Manager

of Program Engagement at Junior Achievement.

Aiza Ashraf (MPPA) is working as a consultant to United Nations Women in Islamabad, Pakistan

Kelsey Barowich (MPP) started a new position as Policy Analyst for the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Derek Krevat (MPPA/MRP) is joining the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) as a transportation planner, and moved to the Boston area during summer 2017.

Liana Ascolese (MPP) became campaign manager for Alanna

Mallon, who’s running for City Council in Cambridge, MA. Mallon reports on her Facebook page that Ascolese’s capstone title, If You Need Something Done, Ask a Woman, had her “at hello”!

Em (Madolyn) Chiu (MPPA/MBA) started a new position as Information Technology Security Specialist at the US Department of Homeland Security. Connor Decosta (MPPA) has accepted a job as Assistant Director of Finance and Operations at the Sturgis Public Charter School. In 2016, Sturgis was ranked the top high school in the state by U.S. News and World Reports.

Maura Roberts (MPPA/MEd) started a new position as Off Campus Student Life Outreach Coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Stacey Sexton (MPPA/MED) started a new job as a Research Assistant at SageFox Consulting Group. Laura Sylvester (MPPA/MPH) started a new job as the Legislative and Community Partnership Coordinator at The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield.

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School of Public Policy returns to Thompson Hall

The School of Public Policy (SPP) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has moved to Thompson Hall from its former spaces across campus in Gordon Hall. All of SPP’s core faculty and staff are now located on the second floor of Thompson. SPP began there in 1998, when what was then called the Center for Public Policy and Administration was established.

“This move will strengthen our relationships with departments located nearby,” explains SPP Director Alasdair Roberts. “Our work is interdisciplinary, so everything the school does is focused on collaboration.”

The new location will not affect SPP’s operations. All phone numbers and email addresses will remain the same as they were before the move across campus. The school’s main office is located in 232 Thompson Hall.

“We’re very excited to be at the center of campus,” says Associate Director Satu Zoller. “It is easier for our students to visit us, and it feels good to be in SPP’s original home at Thompson Hall.”