MPA PROGRAMU N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I D A

S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 N E W S L E T T E R

WELCOME--STUDENTS, ALUMNI,& FRIENDS!As we conclude another successful (yet

unprecedented!) academic year, we

would like to welcome our MPA and

graduate certificate students, faculty,

alumni, and other stakeholders to review

this newsletter. The newsletter has been

designed with our readers in mind to

ensure its contents are appealing and

informative.

A lot has happened since the beginning

of the 2019/2020 academic year that we

would like to highlight, both for your

information and reference, to enable you

to keep abreast with developments in

our program.

In this newsletter, you will find news of

interest to students, alumni, faculty,

stakeholders, and friends of our MPA

program. These news items include

efforts made by the MPA program to

improve student learning outcomes and

to strengthen our MPA program.

 

We begin by highlighting program

developments, followed by updates

regarding our students and alumni, as

well as faculty news.

 

Please take some time to review the

contents of the newsletter and provide

feedback as to what you think needs to

be included or done differently going

forward. Thank you!

TABLE OF CONTENTSNew SPA Director

Program News

Student News

Alumni Spotlight

Faculty News

UP NEXT: MEET THE NEWSCHOOL DIRECTOR

V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1

Don't forget to check us out on

digital platforms:

In her academic career, Dr. Ersing has been the recipient of several highly competitive grants totaling over $1 million,including a federal HUD Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) grant that supported community building andasset development in an urban neighborhood, as well as several National Science Foundation (NSF) grants focused onnatural hazards and social vulnerability. Dr. Ersing is the co-author of an edited book titled Surviving Disaster: TheRole of Social Networks.

Since her tenure at USF, Dr. Ersing has worked with nonprofit community development corporations throughout theTampa Bay region conducting research and offering workshops on grassroots leadership, disaster preparedness, andgrant writing. She collaborated on a seven year anti-crime initiative in partnership with the FIOG which was implementedthroughout communities across the state of Florida. One research area of particular interest to Dr. Ersing focuses ondisaster recovery with vulnerable and marginalized populations including women and the migrant farm workercommunity. Her work on this topic is known internationally including a presentation at the United Nations WorldConference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan.

Dr. Ersing has collaborated with colleagues in Ghana and Indonesia, and more recently has partnered with colleaguesfrom Canada, Australia, Pakistan, India, and Taiwan to examine cross-national issues of rebuilding lives post-disaster.She has published extensively on the role of women to promote disaster risk reduction and community resilience. She isthe founder of the Global Hazard Resilience through Opportunities for Women (GHROW) initiative. This internationaleffort studies and documents grassroots disaster risk reduction strategies that empower women.

In addition to several prominent awards for excellence in teaching and service, Dr. Ersing was honored with theDistinguished PhD Alumni award from the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY/Buffalo) and was the recipient ofthe USF Distinguished Service Award for her considerable contributions to serving the profession and the universitycommunity. She was the original founder and faculty advisor to the American Red Cross Club at USF and has been electedfor three consecutive terms as Secretary of the Tampa Faculty Senate. Dr. Ersing is also a Community EmergencyResponse Team (CERT) member trained by Tampa Fire Rescue.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Ersing to her new role in SPA—we look forward to her leadership!

MEET OUR NEW SPA DIRECTOR

In May 2020, Dr. Robin Ersing was appointed as the Director of the School ofPublic Affairs (SPA) where she oversees academic and research programs inPublic Administration and Urban & Regional Planning. She also works inconjunction with the Florida Institute of Government (FIOG) housed in theSchool. Dr. Ersing is an Associate Professor in the MURP program.

Over 35 years ago, Dr. Ersing began her career in Western New York working inthe nonprofit sector, engaging in grassroots community organizing with under-resourced neighborhoods. Her efforts included public safety through anti-crimeinitiatives and campaigns to promote safe affordable housing. She has workedas a community organizer to address housing and quality of life issues, servedas a housing counselor with the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section8 housing voucher program, and promoted family empowerment in her role as asocial worker with the federal Head Start pre-school program.

DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRSDR. ROBIN ERSING, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

On September 18, 2019, USF's School of Public Affairs

held its first Green & Gold Student Awards Luncheon.

This event was dedicated to recognizing the

accomplishments of all of our MPA and MURP

students, current and former, and their contributions

to the community.

Congratulations to all of our award and scholarship

recipients, including the Jamil Jreisat and Joan Pynes

Memorial scholarship recipients and the Pi Alpha

Alpha Honor Society inductees! A very special thank

you to our Panelists for sharing their insight on public

service and planning, and to our Advisory Boards and

Mentors for supporting and guiding our students as

they become our community’s future leaders.

On On November 6, 2019, USF's School of Public Affairsorganized its second resume workshop for MPA and MURPstudents. The workshop is designed to enable students tolearn how to make the most of their internship experience,improve their resumes to help differentiate themselves, andgain valuable knowledge on how to succeed professionally.

Our students had the opportunity to pitch their elevatorspeech and have their resumes critiqued in "speeddating" fashion by various subject matter experts. A veryspecial thank you to our local partners—from HillsboroughCounty, Heidt Design, the James A. Haley Veterans AffairsHospital, the City of Zephyrhills, the City of Oldsmar, and theTown of Belleair—for participating and providing ourstudents with invaluable advice and feedback!

PROGRAM NEWSSPA HOSTS "GREEN & GOLD"STUDENT AWARDS LUNCHEON

SPA OFFERS "SPEED DATING"RESUME WORKSHOP

JAMIL JREISATSCHOLARSHIP 2019 RECIPIENT:

PAM SUNDOWN, MPA ’19

GREEN & GOLD AWARDSLUNCHEON HIGHLIGHTS

JOAN PYNES MEMORIALSCHOLARSHIP 2019 RECIPIENT:

SHARON HAMISAK, GCNM (CENTER)

PI ALPHA ALPHA 2019 INDUCTEE:SASHA OLIVER, MPA ’19

PI ALPHA ALPHA 2019 INDUCTEE:LOURDES RODRIGUEZ, MPA ’18

PI ALPHA ALPHA 2019 INDUCTEE:ALEXIS SEARFOSS, MPA ’19

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR2019 PI ALPHA ALPHA INDUCTEES!

CHOUNG MI AKEHURST, MPA ’18STEPHEN MALLORY, MPA ’19EVELIN OCAMPO, MPA ’18MEGAN ORLANDO, MPA ’18JANAE THOMAS, MPA ’18

In 2019, USF’s MPA program entered a partnership withSt. Petersburg College’s (SPC) University PartnershipCenter (UPC) to offer graduate Public Administrationcourses on both sides of the bridge.

During the Fall 2019 term, we piloted this initiative withPAD 6060: Public Administration Theory, taught byAssociate Professor Dr. Christa Remington. This course was taught via two-way live and interactivesessions, giving students the option to attend class fromthe USF Tampa campus in Hillsborough County or theSPC EpiCenter in Pinellas County. The newly-formed class structure andfacilities/technology was certainly a learningexperience, but the course was a success!

The Mentor a Public Administration Student Programmatches MPA students to practicing local administratorsor nonprofit managers, where they are exposed to theactual work environments, responsibilities, andinteractions of professional administrative positions inFlorida.

Mentors help the mentee develop their professionalcareer networks, as well as provide invaluable insightand feedback regarding students' professional goals.

We kicked off the 2020 cohort with a meet-and-greetdinner. This year, our students were partnered withmentors from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,Hillsborough County, the City of Plant City, the City ofLakeland, and the Senior Connection Center.

PROGRAM NEWS CONT...MPA MENTORSHIP PROGRAM:

KICK-OFF DINNERPILOT COURSE OFFERED AT ST.

PETERSBURG COLLEGE: PAD 6060

Jamil Jreisat ScholarshipNamed after (and established by) the late ProfessorEmeritus Dr. Jamil Jreisat, this scholarship rewardsoutstanding performances by graduate students in USF'sMPA program or Public Management Graduate Certificatestudents!

The $1,000 scholarship is awarded annually to 1 or 2deserving students who either: 1) submits an outstandingresearch paper in public administration or 2) hascompleted at least 24 credit hours with a perfect gradepoint average (GPA) of 4.0. The application, process, anddeadline is announced via email to current students only.

Joan Pynes Memorial ScholarshipIn memory of the late Professor Dr. Joan Pynes, thisscholarship rewards outstanding performances bygraduate students in USF's MPA program or NonprofitManagement Graduate Certificate students!

The $1,000 scholarship is awarded annually to 1 deservingstudent who: 1) is interested in pursuing a career innonprofit administration or NGO's and 2) submits anoutstanding project paper in nonprofit management. Theapplication, process, and deadline is announced via emailto current students only.

PROGRAM NEWS CONT...IN MEMORY OF

DR. JAMIL JREISAT

It is with great sadness that we share the news thatProfessor Emeritus Dr. Jamil Jreisat passed away onNovember 14, 2019.

Dr. Jreisat was the founder of the USF MPA programand a long-time faculty member of the program untilhis retirement in December 2016. Even in retirement, hecontinued to support our MPA program and providedinvaluable counsel on how to move the program tohigher heights.

His establishment of the Jreisat Scholarship is atestimony of not only his dedication to the MPAprogram, but also of his innate desire to continuallyfacilitate the training of future government andnonprofit leaders to help improve our communities.

Dr. Jreisat was an excellent educator and, above all, avery prolific scholar of international repute whosepublications on Comparative Public Administration areutilized by scholars and governments in many countriesaround the world. He was known for his sense ofintegrity and his courage in speaking out on socialjustice issues. He will be greatly missed!

May his soul rest in perfect peace.

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR MPA &GRADUATE CERTIFICATE STUDENTS

USF's International City/County ManagementAssociation (ICMA) Student Chapter was hard at workproviding students with a direct connection to the localgovernment management profession.

They’ve hosted off-campus socials and chaptermeetings, bringing in USF MPA alums to speak abouttheir professional experiences managing theirrespective cities. Chapter members also attended the Florida City andCounty Management Association (FCCMA) onsitetraining on emergency management, as well as theICMA Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Withover 6,000 attendees from across the globe, studentshad the opportunity to attend various informativesessions, as well as network with workingprofessionals.

If you’re looking to get involved in the student chapter,like them on Facebook, join them on BullSync, or emailthe President at usficma@gmail.com.

STUDENT NEWSUSF ICMA STUDENT CHAPTER:

A SEMESTER IN REVIEWUSF ASPA STUDENT CHAPTER:

INAUGURAL MEETINGUSF’s American Society for Public Administration(ASPA) Student Chapter held its inaugural meeting onNovember 12, 2019.

The ASPA Suncoast Chapter President and CityManager of Oldsmar, Al Braithwaite, provided theopening remarks—he emphasized how his affiliationwith ASPA has significantly benefited his professionalgrowth, and he hopes this newly formed studentchapter will bring similar growth, learningopportunities, and accomplishments for its studentmembers.

Leadership roles for the chapter were assigned via anelectoral process and are as follows: Chapter President- Humayra Qadir; Chapter Vice President - JorgeGutierrez Neri; Treasurer - Daniel Schoel; Secretary -Christopher Findley; Social Media Committee - BryanSkorczewski; and Event Committee - Eric Huligan,Octavia Jarnegan, & Danielle Lang.

If you’re looking to get involved in the student chapter,like them on Facebook or email the President ataspausfstudentchapter@gmail.com.

Richard Alvarez, Matthew Chernesky, EricDenney, Samantha Genske-Condon, ErvinHarris, Boniswa Joseph, Kelly Kautz, MichaelManning, Connor Masella, Nailia Ogunnaike,Bernadette Petika, Ieeshia Reed, JacobRichardson, Jessica Samaniego, Julia Shelly,and Eric Sineath.

Aimee Carpenter, Rodnecia Hemmingway,Danielle McCarthy, Michael McLaughlin,Solomon Mukasa, Chelsea Mulligan, KursadOzdemir, Ozlem Ozdemir, Karina Pogosiantc,Taylor Sanchez, Taja Sumpter, and PamSundown.

Brandon was named FCCMA's 2020 B. Harold FarmerScholarship recipient. This award is a testimony of hisdedication to, and good leadership of, the USF ICMAstudent chapter, as well as a positive representation of ourMPA program.

Carol, an international alumna from Suriname, wasrecently admitted to the doctoral program in DevelopmentPolicy & Management, where she will conduct cutting-edgeresearch in International Development, at the University ofManchester in the U.K.

Matthew was recently employed as the Finance& Operations Associate for Florida StateRepresentative Adam Hattersley’s Congressionalcampaign (FL-15). In this position, he overseestheir internship program, is the call timemanager for the candidate, and assists theCampaign Manager & Finance Director in day-to-day business.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OURSPRING 2020 GRADUATES!

STUDENT NEWS CONT...

CAROL NIJBROEK,MPA '08

CONGRATULATIONS TO OURFALL 2019 GRADUATES!

MATTHEW CHERNESKY,MPA '20

BRANDON HENRY

Services Administrator for Hillsborough County. Through this opportunity, she was able to tour variousdepartments and attend leadership meetings. That is when she fell in love with the public sector. Upon graduation,Zoe applied to be an ICMA Fellow. The overall process took about five months, between being selected as a finalistand the interview process. She had already interviewed twice, until the interview that changed everything—Jefferson County, Colorado. Zoe is one of 35 ICMA Fellows in the entire country!

The ICMA Fellowship is a highly competitive, nation-wide career-development opportunity that places Fellows infull-time local government management-track positions and provides them with rotational assignments andmentorship from senior government leaders. Finalists are selected based on academic performance, demonstratedleadership potential, commitment to public service, communication skills, initiative, creativity, and positiveattitude.

She’s worked on the foundation for the county wide strategic plan and is currently focusing on strategic initiatives.Zoe has become the Project Manager over their Communications and Operations Plan, a structured plan to manageand track ongoing county wide projects. This entails facilitating the process to determine what can be doneoperationally and financially for the county. She has recently even developed a work plan for centralization effortsfor the county. This work plan recommends what functions should be centralized first and creates the process onhow to assess, organize, execute, and evaluate centralization efforts.

Zoe Jenkins, USF MPA Class of 2018, won a prestigious

International City/County Management Association

(ICMA) Local Government Management Fellowship with

Jefferson County, Colorado.

When she first began the MPA program, Zoe wasunsure of what she wanted to do. Luckily, sheparticipated in the MPA Mentorship Program whereshe was matched with Carl Harness, the Chief Human

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTZOE JENKINS, MPA '18

Moving forward, she plans to take the lead on projects that willequip her with the needed skills for her next role. Zoe is workingon projects under the resilient JeffCo program, promotinginnovation, collaboration, and efficiency in terms of howemployees approach their work and how Jefferson Countyserves the community. She is still exploring all this field has tooffer, but Zoe is certain that she belongs in local governmentand strategic management.

FACULTY NEWS

DR. RONALD SANDERS, CLINICAL PROFESSORFORMER DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

In 2019, Dr. Stephen Aikins was reappointed to the Council of the Suncoast Chapter for theAmerican Society for Public Administration (ASPA) for a second two-year term. He servedas a member of the Council from 2017 to 2019, during which he assisted in planning andexecuting various activities for the chapter.

During the 2019/20 academic year, Dr. Aikins spearheaded initiatives aimed atstrengthening ties between the USF MPA program and the practitioner community. Forexample, working with the Director of the School of Public Affairs (SPA) and incollaboration with the Directors of the Master of Urban & Regional Planning (MURP)program and the Florida Institute of Government (FIOG), Dr. Aikins led the MPA program toorganize the first SPA-wide award luncheon. This event not only honored our deserving

DIRECTOR OF THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PROGRAMDR. STEPHEN AIKINS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

alumni and current students, but it also brought together practitioners from both the public administration and planningdisciplines to discuss contemporary issues facing our community.

Dr. Aikins continues to provide strategic and tactical leadership for the MPA program, including managing programmaticimprovements, student learning assessments, course scheduling, advising, and faculty-student relationships. Moreover, Dr.Aikins was selected, among a group of experts in the country, by WalletHub to share his thoughts on the relationship betweenhigher tax burden and better public services, efficient use of tax dollars, and how governments can handle the fiscal impact ofthe COVID-19 pandemic efficiently. Click here to read Dr. Aikins’ responses and those of other experts.

Effective June 1, 2020, Dr. Ronald Sanders accepted a new position as Staff Director for USF’s CyberFlorida, which was established by the Governor in 2013 to integrate the cybersecurity research,education, and outreach efforts of all 12 State University System (SUS) institutions.

Although he was only with the School of Public Affairs (SPA) for three years, Dr. Sanders leavesbehind a legacy of progress and accomplishment. For example, working with Dr. Aikins and thePublic Administration faculty, he successfully led the re-accreditation of our MPA program. He alsohelped Dr. Mark Hafen and the Urban & Regional Planning faculty earn accreditation candidacyfrom the Planning Accreditation Board (PAB), a major milestone in the MURP program’s evolution.

Working with Dr. Neely and a cadre of adjunct instructors—comprised primarily of our own MPAalumni—he also led the transformation of our School’s undergraduate Public Service and Leadership minor, rebranding andretooling its curriculum to lead the entire College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) in percentage increases in undergraduateenrollment this past academic year.

Dr. Sanders also oversaw changes in the School’s curriculum to make it more competitive, adding two new graduatecertificates, as well as several new undergraduate and graduate courses. Furthermore, he helped recruit five new facultymembers for the School and saw two others earn their tenure and promotion.

In addition to serving part-time as the Chair of the Federal Salary Council, he also found the time to revise and teach our MPACapstone course, increasing its rigor and relevance to prepare nearly 70 final-semester students for careers in public service.

FACULTY NEWS CONT...

DR. STEPHEN NEELYDr. Stephen Neely's Media & Politics class worked on contributing to the Sunshine StateSurvey—which measures the views and opinions of Floridians on a wide range of economic,social, and political issues, ranging from policy priorities and preferences to governmentperformance and media consumption—in partnership with Nielsen and USF’s Department ofCommunication and School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies. This year's Sunshine StateSurvey results have been released and can be found here.

Dr. Neely worked on a series of survey reports on the topic of social media hygiene in

DR. CHRISTA REMINGTON

E D I T O R S : H U M A Y R A Q A D I R                A N N I E V A L D E Z

When Dr. Sanders first joined our School, his main goal was to make it more relevant to its stakeholders, both internal andexternal, and the many strategic partnerships he helped to establish. This has paid off in terms of more learning opportunitiesfor our students, from real life projects and internships to post-graduate employment.

They’ve also led to other achievements, to include several new student scholarships and even more money for our existing ones.Dr. Sanders tells us that of all his accomplishments, those that provide more learning opportunities for our students are theones he values the most, and even as he moves on, he hopes that they will continue and grow.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

partnership with USF’s Cyber Florida. He also has forthcoming research in Social Science Computer Review as well as DigitalGovernment: Research and Practice. Additionally, in partnership with USF’s Cyber Florida, Drs. Neely and Sanders have prepareda report and recommendations entitled Cybersecurity: Are Florida's Local Government's Prepared? on best cybersecuritypractices for those local governments, which can be found here.

Dr. Christa Remington's recent research was published in the journal Governance. Her co-authored article Mitigating the negative effects of emotional labor: A study of disaster responseand recovery workers after the 2010 Haiti earthquake addresses how organizational policiescan mitigate the negative consequences of response and recovery efforts on post-disasterworkers. Click here to read the full article.

Dr. Remington's Emergency Management class visited the Hillsborough County EmergencyOperations Center and the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital to see firsthand howemergency management is practiced by local organizations. Her students evaluated theState of Florida's comprehensive emergency management plan and provided preparednessrecommendations in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Our School launched a USF Student Chapter for the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and elected its firstpresident, MPA student Humayra Qadir, with Dr. Remington serving as its faculty mentor.