Donation of funds for fellowship honors sister, niece Even though Noah Rosenberg has been

a health-care attorney in California for 30 years, he keeps a warm place in his heart for Madison. Realization of how the tumultuous late 1960s and early 1970s at the University of Wisconsin helped to shape the attorney he became, plus the de-sire to remember his sister and niece have prompted Noah and his wife, Shelley, to es-tablish the Ina Jo Rosenberg and Shiri Eve Leah Gumbiner Fellowship for a health policy student at the La Follette School.

The fellowship honors Noah’s younger sister, Ina Jo Rosenberg, and her daugh-ter, Shiri Eve Leah Gumbiner. They both passed away too soon, Ina in 2002 and Shiri in 2005.

The Rosen-bergs share a com-mitment to edu-cation. Although Shelley is a Michigan State Spartan, she concurred with her husband’s suggestion to make a donation to the University of Wis-consin, Noah’s alma mater, to help some-

“Graduate With Skills, Not Just a Degree” was the

headline of an August 26, 2010, Wall Street Journal article. Among the “relevant skills” the author emphasizes are some key ones that La Follette School students polish while earning their mas-ter’s degrees: communication, analysis, teamwork and techni-cal skills.

The beauty of a public af-fairs degree is that it prepares people for a range of profes-sional opportunities, whether in the public, private or nonprofit sectors, in domestic or interna-tional public affairs, and across a breadth of policy domains. But today more than ever, pro-spective employers are taking

Fall 2010 / www.lafollette.wisc.edu

La Follette NotesNews for Alumni & Friends of The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

From the Director Carolyn Heinrich See Fellowship on page 5See From the Director on page 8

La Follette guests enjoy Bob and Belle’s hospitalityMore than 80 alumni, incoming and continuing students, faculty, staff, family and friends gathered outside the La Follette School for a picnic dinner “hosted” by Bob and Belle La Follette on July 20. Thanks to donations from alumni and friends of the school, the La Follettes could provide beverages, brats, hamburgers, hot dogs, soy burgers and the fixings, while guests contributed salads and desserts. School officials hope to make the hillside fest an annual event.

Grads take relevant skills to job market

Romanski leads Wisconsin ag agency1995 grad Randy Romanski is the new

secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Pro-tection.

Romanski had been deputy secretary of the department since December 2007. Governor Jim Doyle named him to replace Rod Nilsestuen, who drowned in July.

“Randy was Rod’s second in command, and an integral part of DATCP recent suc-cesses,” Doyle says. “I am confident that in the coming months Randy will work hard to continue Rod’s great work, and follow through on efforts to further strengthen

See Agriculture on page 7

Save the Date

Reception for Alumni and Friends in the

Madison AreaThursday, February 3, 2011 4:30-7 p.m., Inn on the Park

22 South Carroll St. Madison

Information

alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu(608) 263-7657

Fellowship recipient appreciates gift as he starts health policy program.

See story page 5

2 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Fall 2010

A little gender analysis mixed with hip-hop and rap music can go a long way in making the

world more peaceful.Again and again, La Follette School alum Kris-

ten Rasmussen sees how understanding the differ-ent roles Cambodian men and women can play in village life can translate into fewer villagers being killed or maimed by landmines left from nearly 30 years of war.

Rasmussen spent more than three of the six years she has lived in Cambodia since gradu-ating from La Follette in 2003 helping people devise better strategies for clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance. As a project coordinator with the International Women’s Devel-opment Agency, Rasmussen led the Community Strengthening and Gender Mainstreaming in Integrated Mine Action Project and organized a music competi-tion to remind young men about the dangers of tampering with landmines.

One of every 300 Cambodi-ans is an amputee because of landmines. Eighty percent of people hurt in mine explosions had attended an education session about the risks of mines.

“In the villages, women and men face different risks from landmines,” Rasmussen says. “Men are more at risk of accidents in fields and forests, while women are more likely to be injured or killed closer to villages or water sources. It’s imperative that planning for landmine clearance factor in these dif-ferences and that officials setting the priority areas for clearance hear from men and women.”

“Rural Cambodian women are often not involved in political and public affairs,” Rasmussen says, “so we focused on helping women feel confident in speaking up about their priorities for mine clearance.”

The 2009 pilot project trained lo-cal volunteers about gender awareness and effective meeting fa-cilitation to increase involvement in plans for clearing mines,

Rasmussen says. The volunteers built on their vil-lage and gender networks to gather information.

Risks from landmines change by age as well as gender. Boys and men ages 12 to 22 have the greatest incidence of injuries related to tamper-ing with unexploded ordnance. To better inform them about the dangers of landmines, Rasmussen organized a music competition, “Rapping Against

Risk,” in three villages with the highest mine fatalities. Partici-pants submitted original songs about the danger of landmines. A concert featured the songs, and the winning piece was used in a radio ad broadcast in areas of Cambodia contaminated with landmines.

“Tampering with landmines is a specific behavioral activity people, especially young men, carry out for thrills,” Rasmussen says. “If one thinks about the situation structurally, young men tamper as a way of forming their gender identity. Others tamper with mines to make money from selling the scrap metal.”

“Rapping Against Risk” has been the highlight of Rasmussen’s consulting work in Cambodia, she says. The project’s dual focus on mainstreaming gender considerations at the policy level and at the project level was unique. It also was the first time Rasmussen worked so closely with youth. “I was inspired by their commitment to making posi-tive change,” she says. “Working in a developing country with extremely high levels of corruption and low social capital can be very discouraging at times, so it was great to see such genuine engage-ment, commitment, and integrity among young Cambodians.” w

’03 alum uses gender roles to reduce landmine riskFrom the students

La Follette shirts, mugs for saleAlumni and friends can pur-chase Fighting Bobs T-shirts and sweatshirts with a Bucky Bob image on the back and school name on the front. Ceramic coffee mugs and bumper stickers with the La Follette School logo also are available. Information: Sarah Hurley, sfhurley@wisc.edu. Orders must be received by December 1.

Students will use the funds for activities throughout the school year, including a graduation ceremony and reception in May. Merchan-dise also will be sold at the Madison reception for alumni and friends on February 3.

w

Students seek contact with alumni, friendsThe La Follette School Stu-dent Association is organizing one-time dinners or workplace visits with alumni and small groups of students in the Madison area. “Whether it’s dinner with some La Follette students at a restaurant on the Square, after-work drinks or a site visit at your work-place, we’d love to meet up,” says Kristina Krull, chair of the alumni outreach commit-tee. For information, contact Krull at kkrull@wisc.edu.

w

Blog explores issuesAlumni and friends are encouraged to read and con-tribute to the La Flog blog, laflog.wordpress.com/.

La Follette School grad Kristen Ras-mussen demonstrates a rap for the youth involved in the “Rapping Against Risk” anti-landmine music competition.

Young rappers in Cambodia’s Battambang Province celebrate with Kristen Rasmussen.

Fall 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 3

1970sEdward Madinger, 1976, retired in April 2010 after nearly 33 years with the United Nations Chil-dren’s Fund (UNICEF), serving mainly in East Af-rica and South America. His last posting was senior advisor at the UNICEF Regional Office in Panama. He has moved to Austin, from where he will do some consulting and perhaps a bit of teaching.

Ronald Luskin, 1979, joined the University of Wisconsin Foundation as a development director for the College of Letters and Science. His primary focus is working with the Economics Depart-ment and the Center for Jewish Studies. Luskin previously served on the Political Science and La Follette Board of Visitors and the City of Madison Urban Design Commission. He serves on the Downtown Madison Inc. board of directors.

1980sJohn Norquist, 1988, gave the Paul Offner memorial lecture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in September. Norquist is president of the Congress for the New Urbanism and was Milwau-kee’s mayor from 1988–2004 after serving several terms in the Wisconsin Legislature. The La Follette School sponsors the lecture with the Urban Institute.

Tony Carroll, 1980, is teaching a course on the “Politics of Foreign Aid in Africa” at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He continues to serve as co-director of the Washington, D.C., Semester in International Affairs for University of Wisconsin–Madison undergradu-ates. “I remain active on the UW board of visitors for the international studies program,” he says. “My day job remains vice president of Manchester Trade Limited.”

1990sJohn Elliott, 1989, is back working in the public sector after eight years in the insurance industry. As the senior policy advisor to the secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, Elliott is leading an initiative to reform child welfare in Wisconsin. “We are looking for ways to promote greater consistency and improvement in outcomes for children and families,” Elliott says. “I am working with county human service directors, social work-ers, advocacy groups, higher education, non-profits and private providers to identify and implement new programs and governance structures in child welfare.” In addition, he has helped start a non-profit education foundation for the Mount Horeb School District.

Tamarine Cornelius, 1999, is a research ana-lyst with Wisconsin Council on Children and Fami-lies, a policy research organization that focuses on issues affecting Wisconsin’s low- and middle- income families. She conducts fiscal analysis of state budget issues for the Wisconsin Budget Proj-ect. She previously worked in program evaluation for Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization in Madison that assists police and social workers investigating child abuse cases. She earlier worked for the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau. Her second child was born in 2010.

As the planning manager for the Wisconsin Depart-ment of Transportation, Donna L. Brown, 1994, is leading statewide planning of Wisconsin’s new high-speed rail system. Current projects include environmental studies for the stations along the Madison to Milwaukee high-speed-rail corridor and the development of the service-level National Environmental Policy Act study for the Twin Cities-to-Milwaukee corridor.

Marci McCoy-Roth, 1997, is senior director of public policy and communications with Child Trends, a research organization in Washington, D.C.

For seven years, Saad I. Samatar, 1996, has been a business reference librarian with the Hen-nepin County library system in Minneapolis. He graduated with a master’s degree in development policy and public administration and worked for the state of Wisconsin before returning to the University of Wisconsin–Madison to earn a master’s degree in library science. “I am enjoying it up here with my fam-ily, although I still come down to Madison for a good Badger game when time allows me to,” he says.

2000sBecky McAtee, 2010, is settling into her position as a consultant at the Office of Health Care Reform in the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The state established the office in response to the federal reform passed in 2010. “We are analyzing the federal legislation and how it will affect the state,” McAtee says. “I’m working on public health initiatives, including workforce devel-opment and preventive care measures, facilitating state-tribal communications, as well as many other facets of the legislation. And so far, I’m loving it!”

After graduating in 2008, Will Sierzchula moved to ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, and worked for a social housing corporation as a junior researcher. In July 2010, he began a Ph.D. in transportation policy looking at the early adopters of electric cars in the Netherlands. “I am now engaged to the lovely and talented Brynne DeNeen and will be returning to Madison for our wedding in July 2011,” he says. “In Holland I spend my time playing ultimate frisbee and failing at container gardening.”

News from alumni and friends

More Alumni-Friends News on page 4

Funeral services for 2010 graduate Julie K. Ruder, 26, were held July 22, 2010, in Madison after she

died unexpectedly. Ruder graduated from the La Follette School in May

with a master of public affairs degree. She first enrolled at La Follette in fall 2006 while working for the Wis-consin State Elections Board. After working for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in Washington, D.C., she returned to Madison to complete her degree. She worked for the city of Milwaukee’s budget office after graduating in May.

“Julie was an exceptionally bright student and a friend-ly and caring individual,” says La Follette School associ-ate director Don Moynihan. “She cared very much about public service. Hers is an extraordinary loss.”

Ruder was the daughter of Gary and Lucy (Shookman) Ruder and a 2001 graduate of D.C. Everest High School in Schofield, Wisconsin. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2006.

In her free time, she enjoyed traveling, partici-pating in outdoor activities, cooking, entertaining friends and family, reading and taking care of her cats, Charles and Jack.

She will be forever loved and missed by her fi-ancé, Richard Avramenko; parents, Gary and Lucy Ruder; sister, Jennifer (Jason) Pauls; maternal grand-mother, Ruth Shookman; and paternal grandmother, Lorraine Ruder. She will also be deeply missed by many other loving family and friends. w

Family, friends mourn 2010 graduate Julie Ruder

Julie Ruder

4 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Fall 2010

Liz Elwart, 2007, is a field director for Washing-ton’s House Democratic Campaign Committee and lives in Seattle.

Melissa Gavin, 2009, is executive director of the State Environmental Leadership Program, a national network of environmental advocacy organizations.

Natalie Feggestad, 2008, has been the fi-nance director for the city of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, since August 2010. She prepares the city’s annual budget and long-term financial forecasts, maintains the accuracy of financial records, serves as the city’s risk manager and supervises the finance department. Other responsibilities include recom-mending and implementing financial management policies, administering the issuance of the city’s long-term debt and working with bond rating agen-cies. A key part of her job is presenting financial and budget information to the mayor and city council.

Kim Zamastil, 2008, has been named 2010 Volunteer Director of the Year by the St. Louis Metropolitan Volunteer Management Association for her accomplishments as volunteer coordinator for the St. Patrick Center, the largest provider of homeless services in Missouri. To help manage 3,200 volunteers, Zamastil wrote new individual and group volunteer interest forms, plus a compre-hensive volunteer handbook. She works with every department in a very large agency to find volunteer needs and expand agency capacity by matching qualified volunteers to these new positions.

2000 alum Fumihiro Ono helped a colleague translate a presentation on biomass into English. The colleague is part of a delegation that visited Wisconsin in September as part of the sister-state relationship between Wisconsin and Chiba, Japan. The two states carry out a grassroots exchange every year. Ono is assistant director of Chiba prefecture’s International Affairs Division. In May, he provided logistical support from Japan when Chiba Governor Kensaku Morita was in Wisconsin to mark the 20th anniversary of the sister-state relationship. While Ono earned his master’s degree in development policy and administration, he took courses from professors Paul Soglin and Dennis Dresang. “Although it’s already 10 years since I graduated from UW-Madison, I still remember those good old days I spent on a beautiful cam-pus,” Ono says.

News from alumni and friends2000s continued from page 3

Destinations and results are often un-expected, Leslie Albrecht Huber finds

as she applies aspects of her La Follette training to her career as a freelance writer.

The 2002 alum has published The Jour-ney Takers, a narrative nonfiction book that tells the story of the Western Euro-pean immigrants through the story of one family — her family. Huber traced her ancestors’ travels from Germany, Sweden and England to their destinations in the United States in the 1800s. As she followed in their footsteps, walking the paths they walked and looking over the lands they farmed, Huber found herself on a journey she hadn’t expected.

“Learning about my ancestors, who they were and what mattered to them, ultimate-ly changed my perspective on my family now,” says Huber, who weaves her own story into the narrative, including scenes from her travels and her personal life as she struggled to balance family and research.

The Journey Takers has been Huber’s project-in-the-making for more than 10 years. It represents thousands of hours of research in libraries and archives across the country and the world. She uses this re-search to recreate the lives of the common people in Western Europe, their ship voy-age across the ocean, and their experiences as they settle into the United States. “The Journey Takers gives voice to the experiences of my family — and to the experiences of the group of people they represent — the Western European immigrants,” she says.

Despite the book’s emphasis on journey, much of the story takes place in Madison, Wisconsin, where Huber wrote most of it. She launched two of her “journeys,” one to Sweden and one to England, from Madison.

Book explores immigration experience

After she graduated from La Follette in 2002 with a master of public affairs degree, Huber and her family stayed in Madison until 2005, while her husband finished his Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Huber started freelance writing for magazines in addition to working on The Journey Takers. She, her husband and their four children now live in Massachusetts.

During her research, travels, writing and marketing of her book, Huber finds aspects of her La Follette training to be useful. “I feel like many of the things I learned at La Follette have helped me get to the place I’m in now — some in unex-pected ways,” she says. “Many of the criti-cal thinking skills I learned at La Follette have helped me put my book together and shape my approach to marketing.”

Huber regularly gives PowerPoint pre-sentations about The Journey Takers and family history. She put her first slides to-gether at La Follette. “I remember well the tips we got — particularly Paul Soglin tell-ing us that you should NEVER, EVER go over your allotted time,” she says. “I think of this often and make sure to follow his advice.” w

Leslie Albrecht Huber

Network via LinkedIn.comYou’re invited to join the La Follette Alumni Group on LinkedIn, a professional networking web site. Joining allows you to find and contact more than 275 other La Follette members. You canw reach other members of the La Follette community — students, alumni and friendsw accelerate careers and business through referrals from La Follette group members w know more than a name — view rich professional profiles of fellow La Follette

group members

Here’s the link to join: www.linkedin.com/e/gis/39199/57C421450A06; or go to www.linkedin.com, sign in and search groups for La Follette.

InformationCareer development coordinator Mary L. Russell w 608-263-2409 w careerdev@lafollette.wisc.edu

Share your story: alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu

Fall 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 5

Avid debate about health-care reform gave Alex Hartzman

the career focus he was seeking.As an intern for a member of the

U.S. House of Representatives, Hartz-man found himself caught up in dis-cussions with co-workers about the pros and cons of the federal govern-ment overhauling the U.S. health-care system and expanding access to health insurance. The discussions so inspired the astrophysics major that he decided to study health policy.

“I had been considering my op-tions for what to do after I finished my bachelor’s degree,” says Hartzman, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a bachelor of science degree in 2009. “I thought about law school, but it was not a good fit for me.”

This fall he began his dual degree in public affairs and public health. He added the master of public affairs to ensure he gained the policy edge and perspective on federal government. His inter-est in health policy and commitment to public ser-vice helped to win him the Ina Jo Rosenberg and

Shiri Eve Leah Gumbiner Fellowship.“The Rosenbergs’ gift means a lot

to me,” says Hartzman, who is using the money for food and textbooks. “It’s nice to know an alum cares enough about the university and what I am studying to make a donation. It’s a big boost to me.”

Hartzman is focusing on systems analysis. His course on the economics of health care was a thorough applica-tion of a macro, institutional perspec-tive. His experience with the Center for Patient Partnerships gave him perspective on the challenges individu-als face as they negotiate the health-care system. “A systems approach to health care cannot be all that meaning-ful without understanding the patients’ perspective,” he says.

Hartzman ultimately hopes to work for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “I come from a family of government workers,” he says. “I have a lot of trust in government, a strong belief in government services. If private industry does not provide services, the government needs to step in and make sure systems are in place.” w

Book explores immigration experience

one get a good, quality education, he says.Established through a multiyear pledge, the fel-

lowship is supporting its first student, Alex Hartz-man who started a dual master’s degree program in public affairs and public health this fall.

Noah Rosenberg knows well the value of good health policy. Since graduating in 1980 from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, he built a law practice based on health care. He represents physi-cian groups, hospitals, hospital systems, and physi-cian and hospital trade associations. “I live, eat and sleep health care,” he says, “so supporting a public health student is a good fit for Shelley and me. All of my practice is about the business, law and pub-lic policy side of health care, working to keep hos-pital doors open, doctors practicing medicine and getting people access to health care.”

Rosenberg loved his time in Madison during the heyday of the anti-war movement. “The UW–Madison shaped me academically, culturally, so-cially and politically,” says Rosenberg, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1972 and master’s degree in social work in 1975. He studied under historians Harvey Goldberg and George Mosse and did his share of protesting and advocating

change while on campus. Neither Rosenberg’s sister nor his niece at-

tended the university, but Ina did live in Madison for a few years when Noah was a student there. “The activism and the politics made living in Madi-son one of the more interesting times in her life,” Rosenberg says. “Madison was a wonderful part of our life in the years she lived there. Her daughter, my niece, only heard stories from me and her older brother, who did graduate from Madison, but our family has roots in Milwaukee and relatives who graduated from Madison 50 to 60 years ago.”

The Rosenbergs value supporting a profes-sional master’s degree student. “By the time some-one is in graduate school, they are ready to focus their energy on a topic,” Noah says. “For graduate school, many students are making a life change and a sacrifice, if they have been working for a while, to spend time to concentrate on one particular area, public health in this case. Shelley and I ap-preciate the opportunity to facilitate the education of somebody who is committed to making a dif-ference in someone’s health care, whether through research or through policy.” w

Wisconsin measure finds greater poverty A new method for measuring poverty developed in part with La Follette school exper-tise shows the rate of poverty in Wisconsin worsened in 2008. More than one in nine of the state’s population was living in need, including one in seven children and one in 10 elderly residents.

Produced by the Institute for Research on Poverty, Wis-consin Poverty Report: New Measure, Broader View uses a more complete accounting of resources and need to de-termine the state poverty rate than traditional measures.

The new measure was de-veloped by IRP director and La Follette School professor Timothy Smeeding; 2010 La Follette School alum and IRP assistant researcher Joanna Marks; Julia Isaacs of IRP and the Brook-ings Institution; and the IRP programming team.

w

DC alumni hold happy hour for internsAbout 15 alumni from 2007– 2010 met for happy hour in July to welcome La Follette School students and recent grads spending the summer in the Washington, D.C., area.

w

Alum touts blog’72 grad Eugene Steuerle encourages readers to sub-scribe to “The Government We Deserve,” his public policy column published by the Urban Institute. Subscribe at www.governmentwedeserve.org.

Fellowship recipientStudent pursues health policy dual degree

Fellowship continued from page 1

“The Rosenbergs’ gift means a lot to me. … It’s a big boost.”

Alex Hartzman, first recipient of the Ina Jo

Rosenberg and Shiri Eve Leah Gumbiner Fellowship

6 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Fall 2010

Professor Greg Nemet has won a three-year $183,000

grant from the National Science Foundation to explore options for public policy mechanisms to address climate change.

Nemet will examine how dif-ferent technology policies could affect climate and the economy. One of the challenges of de-termining how best to address climate change is the high degree of uncertainty involved with the outcomes of technology policies and the effects of climate change.

“An important aspect of the project’s approach is that it will provide a framework for evaluating policy options,” Nemet says, “even though we still do not know exactly how severe climate change will be or which new technologies will turn out to be most useful and efficient.”

“Addressing climate change without damaging the economy will require substantial investments in new knowledge to devise improvements to energy technologies,” Nemet says. “Because knowledge produced in the laboratory and in commercial set-tings is notoriously difficult for private firms to control and exclusively profit from, many stake-holders argue government support is required.” w

1996 grad Doug Harris is back at La Follette, standing at the podium rather than taking down

lecture notes on educational policy analysis.Motivated by the La Follette School’s empha-

sis on applying economic analysis to public policy, Harris went on to earn his Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University in 2000. He taught at Florida State University, then joined the Univer-sity of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of Edu-cational Policy Studies in 2007. He accepted a joint appointment with the La Follette School in 2010.

Harris’ recent research has informed many of the major education issues of the day: improving teacher education and performance, designing edu-cational accountability, reducing achievement gaps, reforming affirmative action higher education and making colleges run more efficiently.

Measuring educator performance is one topic in the headlines and high on Harris’ agenda. “Value-added” measures of teacher performance have become popular because they are based on student

test scores but are adjusted to more accurately reflect educa-tor contributions. Harvard Education Press will publish his book, Value-Added Measures of Educator Performance: Clear-ing Away the Smoke and Mirrors, in 2011. Harris is beginning to study school and principal value-added measures with funding from the U.S. Depart-ment of Education.

“It all started with the 819 course that I took from Maria Cancian,” he says. “That’s where I first got interested in econometrics.”

La Follette’s intellectual culture is an important influence, Harris says. “It’s not just the courses, but the mindset. Most economists focus narrowly on formal modeling and statistical methods, which are important, but the policy implications often get lost. Because of La Follette, I can do both.” w

Harris returns to La Follette as faculty member

Doug Harris

Professors comment on Social SecurityProfessors Pamela Herd and John Witte marked the 75th anniversary of Social Security by talking with the media in August about the program’s history, impact and future.

Herd discussed the Wiscon-sin connection to the creation of Social Security models in the 1930s and the current financial and political state of the program. The sociologist has studied Social Security for more than a decade and is part of a network of re-searchers who are examining policy proposals to improve the program.

Witte, a political scientist, is the grandson of Edwin Witte, who chaired the Committee on Economic Security that created Social Security.

w

Copelovitch’s book explores IMF roleThe role of the International Monetary Fund in managing the many crises that have accompanied the growth and increasing complexity of the world’s financial markets is the subject of a new book by pro-fessor Mark Copelovitch.

The International Monetary Fund in the Global Economy: Banks, Bonds, and Bailouts demonstrates how IMF politics and policies have evolved since the 1980s in response to financial glo-balization. Using an original “common agency” perspec-tive, Copelovitch explores IMF decision-making, which is driven by major sharehold-er governments and by the fund’s bureaucratic staff.

Professor Susan Yackee is featured on a You-Tube video discussing bureaucratic rule-mak-

ing in terms of the process, who participates and why bureaucratic rule-making matters. The video is part of a series publisher W.W. Norton put together as a companion to the textbook American Politics Today.

In the 17-minute interview Yackee shares how she came to be interested in studying bureaucracy, which scholars seldom examine despite its impor-tance. She describes the rule-making process and the role of the public in shaping policy issued by federal agencies, and she reflects on the role of regulatory rule-making in a democracy.

A new study by Yackee looks at how regulated entities influence rule-making before a proposed rule is released. “Sure enough, there’s lots of active, engaged, regulated entities that are speaking, having tele-phone conversations as well as face-to-face conversations and e-mail with regulators before the promulgation of this draft rule,” Yackee says, “and it turns out to be a very important political venue for influ-ence in the policymaking process.” w

Yackee discusses rule-making in YouTube video

Susan Yackee

Nemet wins NSF grant for climate, technology study

Greg Nemet

Fall 2010 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 7

Wisconsin’s agriculture industry.”“Rod was a generous mentor and his leadership

as DATCP secretary set a great example,” Ro-manski says. “I am deeply honored to take on this important role and will work hard to continue the great progress made under Governor Doyle and Rod Nilsestuen to diversify and grow our state’s agricultural economy.”

Romanski has a broad range of government and senior administrative experience. Legislation related to agricultural, rural and consumer issues that he helped to enact includes the landmark Working Lands Initiative; investment tax credit as-sistance for dairy farmers, meat processors, dairy cooperatives, food processors and beginning farm-ers; and the Farm to School program. He also helped secure funding for the Buy Local, Buy Wis-

consin program at DATCP.Prior to joining DATCP,

Romanski served as the execu-tive assistant for the Wiscon-sin Department of Natural Resources; deputy chief of staff for Doyle; executive as-sistant for the Department of Transportation; and spokes-person and policy analyst for the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He was chief of

staff for state Senator Alice Clausing and legisla-tive assistant for state representative Al Baldus.

Romanski holds a master’s degree in public policy and administration from what is now the La Follette School. w

Agriculture continued from page 7

Elmira Mangum, 1977, is Cornell University’s vice president for budget and planning.

An administrator with more than 25 years of ex-perience in executive higher education financial and resource management, Mangum says the training she received from what is now the La Follette School has proven invaluable throughout the years of her professional work and completion of her doctorate.

“Those initial courses in public policy, bud-geting and administration gave me an excellent grounding in the basic tools that I use every day in bringing people together to solve tough problems and manage resources,” Mangum says. “My educa-tional experience at UW was life changing, to say the least, and it prepared me for the future. It nourished my desire and passion for service.”

Mangum started with Cornell in February 2010, joining the university at a challenging time, when it is “reimagining” itself to strengthen its academic enterprises with reduced resources. Mangum sees opportunity in the challenge. “It’s kind of like a ball of clay,” she says. “You can look at it like it’s a lump; or you can look at it as a creative opportunity.”

Mangum had been an ad-ministrator and senior associ-ate provost at the University of North Carolina since 2001. Among her administrative positions at the State Univer-sity of New York at Buffalo, from 1984 to 2001, she served as associate and assistant pro-vost for resource management and as vice provost. She also served as senior budget and

management analyst for the Dekalb County, Geor-gia, finance department.

Mangum graduated in 1977 with honors from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a double master’s degree in public policy and public administration and in urban and regional planning. She received her Ph.D. in education administration from SUNY Buffalo. Mangum is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Manage-ment Development Program and Cornell’s Admin-istrative Management Institute. w

2010 alumni achievements markedIn recognition of their aca-demic and professional ac-complishments, 10 members of the class of 2010 joined the La Follette School’s chapter of Pi Alpha Alpha, the national honor society in public affairs and administration. The 10 are Allie Bagnall, Erika Cheng, Erin Fifield, Emma Hynes, Evan Johnson, Joanna Marks, Rebecca McAtee, Jacob Schindler, Corey Single-tary and Holden Weisman.

At the graduation celebra-tion in May, Joanna Marks received the first leadership award from the La Follette School Student Association. Rocio Sanchez-Moyano and Michael R. Schultz received the Penniman Prize for the writing the most outstanding paper as public affairs graduate students. The 2010 Piore Prize for Best Paper in Science and Public Policy went to Scott Wil-liams and Karen Walsh, who is now a second-year student. Lilly Shields won the Director’s Award, which goes to the student with the most outstanding academic record who demonstrates the ability to apply policy analysis and management skills.

As of mid-September, 82 percent of the class of 2010 reported they had jobs or internships in their field or that they were continuing their education.

Of the 44 members of the class, seven were continu-ing their studies, six of them in doctoral programs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Support the La Follette SchoolStudent Career Development

Randy Romanski

1977 alum serves as vice president at Cornell

Elmira Mangum

The La Follette School Career Development Office seeks alumni and friends to serve as ongoing men-tors or to meet on a one-time basis with students.

For information, contact Mary Russell by e-mailing careerdev@lafollette.wisc.edu or calling 608-263-2409.

Financial AssistanceInformation on supporting the school financially is available by calling 608-263-7657 or by going online, www.lafollette.wisc.edu/giving. Online giving is welcome.

Checks payable to UW Foundation-La Follette can be mailed to La Follette School, 1225 Observatory Drive, Madison WI 53706

La Follette NotesRobert M. La Follette School of Public AffairsUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison1225 Observatory DriveMadison WI 53706

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PaidMadison WI

Permit No. 658

8 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Fall 2010

Update your job and contact infoe-mail alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu, call 608-263-7657 or fill out the online form at www.lafollette.wisc.edu/alumnifriends/intouch.php

From the Director continued from page 1a closer look at the courses graduate stu-dents take and the skills that they profess to bring to the job.

In April, as chairwoman of the institu-tional representatives of the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Manage-ment, I and other deans and directors of schools of public affairs and public policy hosted employers from the Washington, D.C., area and other East Coast employ-ment centers. We explored what skills and training public- and private-sector employ-ers are looking for in our students in a “demand side” (employers) meets “supply side” (graduate schools) open discussion. Employers talked candidly about whether we are meeting their needs in our efforts to train and prepare students for careers in public affairs.

Many of the employers, whether pub-lic or from another sector, expressed the importance of a strong set of analyti-cal skills among graduating students to prepare them for an increasingly complex world of policymaking that demands care-

fully considered, “data-driven” decisions in a fast-paced and often highly politicized context. As one employer explained, they are looking for a set of quantitative and an-alytical skills among master’s-level students that employers used to expect in students graduating with Ph.D.s. Indeed, La Fol-lette graduates have relayed to me that they often find themselves moving rapidly into positions of greater authority because of their command of a sound approach to policy analysis and the rigorous analytical skills that they contribute.

The quality of our alumni and the work they do is reflected in an e-mail I received when a high-ranking official in the current presidential administration contacted me about a job opening:

“We’re looking for candidates who have ex-ceptionally strong analytic and people skills. Your program has consistently turned out graduates of the highest caliber, so I want to ask you to think about and recommend your best experienced people whose passion for management will help achieve our goals.”

In a recent strategic planning initia-tive, the La Follette School faculty con-firmed their commitment to providing a top-notch, world-recognized program of public affairs education that maintains as one of its hallmarks a strong, core analyti-cal program. Our newly refined vision is to continue to be a leading academic institu-tion in improving the design, implementa-tion and evaluation of public policy and the practice of governance worldwide.

I am pleased to say that in this time of continuing economic struggle, when even college-educated persons are feeling the pain of employment losses, my phone con-tinues to ring and my e-mail in-box con-tinues to flow with requests from prospec-tive employers looking to hire our graduate students. The La Follette School is not only keeping pace with rapidly evolving employer demands, but it is a leader among schools of public affairs and public policy in providing students with the high levels of relevant skills that they need to success-fully compete in the labor market today. w