La Follette Notes
Fall 2011 / www.lafollette.wisc.edu
News for Alumni & Friends of The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
Public administration group honors Bryson
A
lum John Bryson
received the
2011 Dwight Waldo
Award from the
American Society for
Public Administration. The award honors persons who have
made “outstanding
contributions to the
John Bryson
professional literature
of public administration over an extended scholarly career
of at least 25 years.”
Bryson is McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at
the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public
Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
Bryson graduated in 1972 from what
is now the La Follette School of Public
Affairs with a master of arts degree in
public policy and administration. He went
on to earn a master of science degree and
then a doctorate in urban and regional
planning from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Bryson works in the areas of leadership, strategic management, and the design
of organizational and community change
processes. He wrote the best-selling and
See Bryson Award on page 6
Alumni, friends
build social capital
See From the Director on page 8
for Alumni & Friends
February 2, 2012
4:30-7 p.m.
Inn on the Park
22 South Carroll St.
Information
and to update contact info
alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu
(608) 263-7657
’97 grad launches two CDs,
one with Madison tunes
B
y the time you read this, I likely will
have met some of you at the reception the La Follette School will be holding
in Washington, D.C., on November 4. Every
other year the Association for Public Policy
Analysis and Management holds its research
conference in Washington, and many of our
faculty attend to present research, chair sessions and catch up with
colleagues from other
campuses and institutes.
We take advantage
of that gathering to
reconnect with alumni
and friends who live
and work in the WashFrom the Director ington area, as well
as those who attend
Tom DeLeire
the conference. We
look forward to catching up with everyone,
hearing about your careers, and learning
how you might be applying the techniques
and training you received at La Follette to
improve the practice of public policy in
your jobs.
Gatherings like these are a mutually
Madison
Reception
B
en Paulos, class of 1997, is proud to
announce the much-belated release of
two CDs of music by his band, Bentham.
The first, called Miss Wisconsin, taps Paulos’
experiences in Madison while earning a
master’s degree in public affairs and policy
analysis. He launched Bentham in Boston then
See Music on page 4
2 faculty receive national recognition
P
rofessors Andrew Reschovsky and
Donald Moynihan have been honored
this fall for their expertise and service.
Moynihan was elected a fellow of the
National Academy of Public Administration. Chartered by Congress, the academy
is an independent, non-partisan coalition
of top public management and organizational leaders that advises government
agencies, Congress and private foundations.
Reschovsky will be honored in November with the 2011 Steve Gold Award,
which recognizes a person who has made
a significant contribution to public financial management in the field of intergov-
ernmental relations and state and local
finance.
“These two national awards showcase
the high caliber of the La Follette School’s
faculty and the value of the contributions
they make to scholarship and to policymaking,” says La Follette School Director
Tom DeLeire.
The Gold Award is given annually by
the Association for Public Policy Analysis
and Management, the National Conference
of State Legislatures and the National Tax
Association, in memory of Steve Gold, an
active member of all three organizations
See Awards on page 4
2 / La Follette Notes
Journal publishes
article based on
student project
A project for the 2010 public
affairs course Advanced
Quantitative Methods for
Public Policy is the basis of a
published article written by a
student and an alum.
The Electricity Journal
published “An Empirical
Investigation of Speculation in the MISO Financial
Transmission Rights Auction
Market” by student Dan
Molzahn and 2010 alum
Corey Singletary in June.
The article estimates the
profits obtained by speculators through financial electric
transmission rights auctions.
Singletary works for the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. Molzahn is working
on a doctorate in electrical
and computer engineering
and a master of public affairs
degree.
The original paper was more
focused on statistical analysis
than on the results, which the
journal article emphasized,
Molzahn says. “The journal’s
readers are not focused on
the statistical technicalities of
the study as was necessary
to provide in the class project
report. We had to eliminate
the formulas we used to describe our statistical models
because the journal editor
indicated that they would
likely be more confusing for
the intended audience of the
article. This was somewhat
shocking to me given my engineering background; some
of my previous engineering
publications have sections
comprised almost entirely by
equations.”
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Fall 2011
Alum believes government serves public good
L
awmakers in California can thank Peter
Detwiler’s experience in Wisconsin for the
easy-to-read legislative analyses he prepared for
them to summarize what a proposed statute would
do, why it was needed, its cost, why certain interests opposed or supported it and the bill’s legislative history.
Detwiler retired in September after 39 years
of public service that began in 1972 right after he
graduated from the Center for the Study of Public Policy and Administration at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. He spent 29 years as a policy
staffer for the California State Senate’s Governance and Finance Committee, a recent combination of the Revenue and Taxation Committee and
the Local Government Committee. Detwiler started with the latter as its chief consultant in 1982.
“I researched bill ideas, drafted legislation, analyzed bills, proposed amendments and gave policy
advice to the committee chair and members,” Detwiler says. “I’ve worked for both Republican and
Democratic committee chairs and tried to avoid the
nasty partisan battles when analyzing policy issues.”
When he announced his retirement, Detwiler’s
efforts to be neutral drew him praise from Sacramento journalists. “Consultants who prepare analyses are crucial to the integrity and effectiveness of
lawmaking in California,” Sacramento Bee writer Ginger Rutland wrote in an editorial. “Peter Detwiler
was one of the best, a legend in fact. His analyses
were always thorough, well-written and entertaining. Most important, Detwiler pulled no punches.”
Detwiler has been sharing his experience by teaching
public affairs at Sacramento
State, which, in turn, shaped
his approach to his legislative
work. “My teaching forced me
to be more thoughtful about
the rough-and-tumble world
of legislative affairs,” he says,
adding that he plans to continue teaching. “I was able to
find patterns and broader exPeter Detwiler
planations for my daily work.”
Re-establishing public trust
through service has been at the forefront of Detwiler’s career. “My first job after leaving Wisconsin
was for a local regulatory commission in San Diego
County, and our offices were in the county administration building,” Detwiler says. “If you entered
from the western side, there was a saying above the
portal that read ‘The Noblest Motive is the Public
Good.’ And over the eastern entrance, the slogan
read ‘Good Government Demands the Intelligent
Gifts honor Penniman,
Wisconsin’s generosity
As Peter Detwiler reflects on his career and
plans his next lecture for his Sacramento State
students, Clara Penniman comes to mind.
“She was generous with
her time and attention,”
Detwiler says. “She
provided a sympathetic
ear when I was searching for my professional
direction.”
A taxation and public
Clara Penniman
finance scholar, Penniman started the Center
for the Study of Public Policy and Administration
in the late 1960s and served as its first director.
The center grew into the La Follette School of
Public Affairs. She passed away in 2009.
In recognition of what he learned and the
mentoring he received from Penniman,
Detwiler and his wife, Carrie, have made donations to the scholarship fund Penniman established at the La Follette School of Public Affairs.
“The University of Wisconsin (and Wisconsin’s
taxpayers) were generous to me 40 years ago,”
Peter Detwiler says. “By waiving the out-ofstate tuition and by providing me with modest
monthly stipends, I could afford a first-rate
master's degree. What better way to honor
Clara Penniman's memory than by donating
giving back to the University in her name?"
Support the Penniman Fund
www.lafollette.wisc.edu/giving
Interest of Every Citizen.’ So, when you walked
into the main lobby, you were literally between
those two admonitions.
“Successful public management and leadership
are found between those two concepts. All public officials — elected, appointed, civil service —
must always struggle to find the public good. And
everyone has a civic obligation to pay attention to
the public’s business. We fail when either or both
parties forget their duties to one another. Whether
you’re about to graduate from La Follette and take
on public responsibility or whether you’re in the
middle of your career and tempted by discouragement, you should constantly remind yourself about
the noble motives and about the civic duties.” w
Fall 2011
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
News from alumni and friends
1990s
The Wisconsin Council on Mental Health has selected Shel Gross, 1990, as chair. The governor
appointed him to the council in 2010. He is Mental
Health America of Wisconsin’s director of public
policy.
Susan R. Parker, 1997, has been the town
manager of Crested Butte, Colorado, since 2006.
She has given several presentations in 2010 and
2011. The most recent was at the Colorado Munici-
pal League in June when she spoke on “Linking
Resident Opinion Surveys to Action – What Does
It Really Mean?” In March she presented at the
Conservation Excellence conference and in August
2010, she spoke at the Public Policy Forum in
Crested Butte. Her son, Shane Harris, is a senior
at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and
her daughter, Morgan Harris, is a sophomore
at Winona State University in Minnesota.
2000s
James Burnham, 2002, is now the special
assistant to the executive director and chief brand
officer of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
Aditya Chandraghatgi, 2007, is a manager
within Deloitte’s strategy practice. He works primarily within the financial services industry, especially
in the area of corporate and customer strategy.
Alan Paberzs, 2005, has been promoted to
director of development for the Bluhm Legal Clinic
at Northwestern University School of Law and
was honored as the John F. Chetlain Employee
of the Year at Northwestern Law. He was elected
president of the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s
Chicago chapter and began his term in July.
Ben Winig, 2004, is now a senior staff attorney
in Illinois’s 10th District.
at Public Health Law & Policy based in Oakland,
California.
Carrie Traud, 2008, is a research and policy
Chad D. Cotti, 2002, was promoted this school
Vivek Bavda, 2004, is running for U.S. Congress
associate at the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in Berea, Kentucky,
focusing on local foods and sustainable forestry.
She got married in Lexington in October, and many
Bob alumni were there.
2006 alum returns to budget
office after having second baby
After having her second son in April 2011,
Karina Silver, 2006, is back full time at the
Wisconsin budget office as a senior analyst
on the health services and insurance team.
She is a member of the anti-human trafficking
coalition SlaveFree Madison and the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance’s Human
Trafficking Committee. She serves on the
boards for Creative Learning Preschool and
Integrated Community Work Inc., for which
she is treasurer.
year to associate professor of economics at the
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. He recently had
papers published in the Review of Economics and
Statistics and the Journal of Health Economics.
La Follette Notes / 3
Montgomery
retires after
33 years with
State of Wisconsin
J
ohn Montgomery retired in 2010 after
33 years with the State of Wisconsin.
He worked 24 years in the Budget
Office in the Department of Administration, including 14 years as deputy budget
director. He also spent nine years as a
program administrator for the Office
of the Commissioner of Insurance.
He graduated from the Center for
the Study of Public Policy and Administration in 1977 and holds a master’s
in urban and regional planning.
“Currently I tutor in the Madison
public schools and volunteer at the
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a government watchdog group dedicated to
reducing the influence of special interest
funding in elections,” says Montgomery,
who also works with La Follette School
students through the Career Development Office.
“I was recently honored to be nominated for a Community Shares of Wisconsin ‘Backyard Hero’ award for my
work at WDC. My wife and I enjoy
traveling to places we haven’t visited yet,
and spending more time with charitable
causes, sports, politics and our family.
“My memories of the UW La Follette School (though it wasn’t called that
when I attended) are fond ones, and I
appreciate the education I received there.
Every day I’m reminded of the need for
all levels of government to attract dedicated people who want to work there.
Thank you to the La Follette School
for helping fill this need.” w
Be a Mentor to Public Affairs Students
Every year the La Follette School Career Development Office matches about 50 new students with mentors.
If you are interested in being a mentor or in meeting on a one-time basis with students, please contact career
development coordinator Mary Russell by e-mailing mrussell@lafollette.wisc.edu or calling 608-263-2409.
4 / La Follette Notes
Institute for Research
on Poverty wins 5-year
national grant
The Institute for Research on
Poverty, led by public affairs
professor Timothy Smeeding, was awarded a five-year
national Poverty Research
Center grant by the Office
of the Assistant Secretary
for Planning and Evaluation
in the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
“We are grateful for this vote
of confidence in our work and
look forward to working with
ASPE and the other poverty
centers to explain the lives
of the poor, and hopefully
improve policy and practice
to help them better their life
situation,” says Smeeding,
IRP director and Arts and
Sciences Distinguished
Professor.
The award supports the institute in its research, training
and dissemination agenda
for studying the causes and
consequences of poverty
and inequality and evaluating antipoverty policies and
programs. It comes on the
heels of a U.S. Census Bureau report that the number
of Americans living below
the official poverty line is the
highest in the 52 years for
which poverty estimates have
been published.
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Awards
continued from page 1
whose career and life tragically
were shortened by illness.
“I knew Steve Gold, which
makes receiving this award
even more meaningful,” says
Reschovsky, an economist
who focuses his research on
tax policy and intergovernAndrew
mental fiscal relations.
Reschovsky
“As a public finance economist, Steve believed his role was to communicate
to policymakers about research and analysis,” Reschovsky says. “His emphasis on the link between
scholarship and practice and on policy-oriented
work on public finance has very much influenced
my career.”
A member of the La Follette School faculty
since 1991, Reschovsky teaches the Workshop in
Public Affairs, in which students conduct policy
analysis and research for real-world clients, including the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin state agencies and international organizations. This fall he is
teaching State and Local Government Finance. He
Music continued from page 1
continued it in Madison.
Asked if any of the 12 Miss Wisconsin tunes are
about La Follette people, Paulos replied, “There
are a couple, but I’m not really at liberty to disclose
more details. So my classmates will have to be so
vain and think this song is about them. … But all
the songs on the record are about Madison people,
or things that happened when I was there. ‘Let It
Go’ is about a fight I had with a landlord. ‘Miss
Wisconsin’ is about hanging out in bars — Crystal
Corner, Mister Roberts, Mickey’s, the Essen Haus
and of course the Terrace. Blonde hair, beer and
brats. That kind of sums up Madison youth culture for me.”
Fall 2011
frequently shares his perspectives on state and national
economics and public finance
with national media, including the Los Angeles Times, the
Wall Street Journal, Fox News
and NPR.
Moynihan joined the
school in 2005 and has been
associate director since 2009.
Donald
Moynihan
focuses his research
Moynihan
on the application of organization theory to public management issues such
as performance, budgeting, homeland security,
election administration and employee behavior. In
particular, he studies the selection and implementation of public management reforms. He teaches
Introduction to Public Management and Performance Management.
“I am honored to join my colleague David
Weimer as a member of NAPA,” Moynihan says.
“The organization provides a chance to help public organizations, and in that respect represents the
Wisconsin Idea in action.” w
Paulos and his Madison band Area Man — the
name drawn from many a headline in The Onion
— played gigs in Madison and Chicago. “We did a
little recording but didn’t finish before I moved to
San Francisco,” Paulos says.
With a full-time job and a family, life got in the
way of recording, but not songwriting. The second
album, Pacific, is a compilation of songs he wrote
in San Francisco. “I had a full-time career in energy policy, and it was hard to fit in a second career,”
says Paulos, whose daytime gig is director of the
renewable power program at the Energy Foundation, which promotes clean energy policy in the
United States and China. “Then my son arrived;
my wife got cancer and died; I got remarried and had another kid.”
He attributes the two albums’ release to
his wife, Jess, who encouraged him to get
the recording done during the last couple
of years.
“It’s not like the world is clamoring for
an artist to produce art,” Paulos says. “It’s
something I had to do but struggled to find
time. My wife really gave me the time to get
it done. So here the albums are.” w
Don’t wait for
American Idol to call
Ben Paulos released two CDs this year with his band Bentham.
La Follette School alumni may find some of the songs familiar.
Share your story now
alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu
Fall 2011
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
La Follette Notes / 5
Students honored
at graduation
These students were inducted into the public affairs
honor society Pi Alpha Alpha:
DC alumni host happy hour for interns
La Follette School alumni held a happy hour July 19 for students who were interning in Washington, D.C. From left are
Kate (Clark) Amoroso, Carolyn Clow, Lilly Shields, Alison Patz, Lindsay Read, Andria Hayes-Birchler,
Katherine Sydor, Shane Spencer, Carissa DeCramer, Alexis MacDonald, Paco Fuchs, Jen Winter and
Sarah Hurley. Kate Nast took the photo. Christie Enders and Pamela Ritger also attended.
Donation enhances student’s pursuit of 2 degrees
F
or Andrew Walsh, receiving the Ina Jo Rosenberg and Shiri Eve Leah Gumbiner Fellowship
makes possible the endeavor of earning dual master’s degrees in public affairs and public health.
Noah and Shelley Rosenberg established the fellowship in 2010 at the La Follette School to honor Noah’s
younger sister, Ina Jo Rosenberg, and her daughter, Shiri
Eve Leah Gumbiner. They
both passed away too soon,
Ina in 2002 and Shiri in 2005.
“Receiving the fellowship
Andrew Walsh
is a huge morale booster for
me,” says Walsh, who started his first semester
at the La Follette School this fall. “When the program awarded me this fellowship, I had renewed
confidence that pursuing public health and public
affairs is not only something that I can do, but
something that I ought to do,” Walsh adds.
“All in all, I’m very grateful.”
After Walsh graduated from Bates College in
Maine in 2003, he worked, then joined the Peace
Corps. In Morocco he worked in community development and environmental education.
Walsh’s time abroad contributed to his decision to pursue degrees in public affairs and public
health. “I think for many people, including myself,
being able to live, work and travel in foreign countries really improves one’s ability to think critically
Support the La Follette School
Information on supporting the La Follette
School financially via the University of
Wisconsin Foundation is available by calling
608-263-7657 or by going online to
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
about the issues facing the world and also about
culture and systems in one’s native country,” Walsh
says. “This process, in turn, made me think about
how I could better participate in discussions about
health and social issues, which then led me to think
about public affairs programs.”
The dual-degree health program and the university’s resources give Walsh many opportunities to
approach health policy from different perspectives.
“Health — whether good or poor or the transition
between the two — isn’t something that is ever
going away,” Walsh says. “I feel that good health
is quite fundamental to a well-functioning society,
so I am looking forward to working in public
health and health policy because it is something
that I feel can always be made better.” w
w Jonathan Alfuth
w Melissa Berger
w Stephen Collins
w Mariah Duffy
w Patrick (Paco) Fuchs
w Lael Grigg
w Sara Kock
w Bickey Rimal
w Adam Smith
w Karen Walsh
w Peter Whalen
These students won the
following awards:
Bickey Rimal won the 2011
Piore Prize, while classmate
Karen Walsh was recognized for sharing the 2010
Piore Prize with 2010 alum
Scott Williams. The prize
is given for the best paper
in science and public policy.
Kristina Krull won the
Penniman Prize for the
most outstanding paper.
The Director’s Award went
to two students, Patrick
(Paco) Fuchs and Lara
Rosen for their academic
records, ability to apply policy
analysis and management
skills, and engagement
with the La Follette School
community.
The La Follette School
Student Association gave
leadership awards to
Melissa Berger and
Soumary Vongrassamy.
6 / La Follette Notes
Yackee advises on
limiting ‘capture’ of
regulating agencies
Professor Susan Yackee
is advising members of
Congress and federal agency
officials about legislation to
help prevent powerful special
interests from “capturing” and
controlling federal agencies
that regulate their activities.
She met with Senate staffers
on Capitol Hill in October,
several members of the
U.S. House and officials
from the Interior Department,
Federal Communications
Commission and the U.S.
Sentencing Commission,
as well as Senator Sheldon
Whitehouse.
Yackee advised Whitehouse
before he introduced the
Regulatory Capture Prevention Act, which received a
hearing in the Senate. The
bill would require regulatory agencies to report to
a public web site the name
and affiliation of each party
who comments on an agency
regulation; whether that
party affected the regulatory
process; and whether that
party is an economic, noneconomic or citizen interest.
“We know that federal
bureaucrats listen to interest
groups and tend to favor the
dominant side,” says Yackee,
an expert on federal agency
rulemaking. “Federal agency
officials respond when they
receive strong, loud and
united messages from interest groups. The volume of
the interest group comments
on either side of an issue
matters to the content of final
agency regulations.”
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Fall 2011
Alum, student collaborate on fund-raiser
A
n inquiry by La Follette School student Pete
Braden led to him and 1999 alum Debby
Anderson Meyer collaborating on a fund-raiser for
the Wisconsin Council of the
Blind and Visually Impaired.
“When I received his
email, I only knew he was a
graduate student interested in
nonprofits,” says Meyer, the
agency’s fund development
director. “Not until we met
for coffee did I learn Pete was
Debby
at La Follette. His idea was to
Anderson
Meyer
hold a Bloomsday event as a
fund-raiser for us. I thought,
‘Why wouldn’t we be interested in this?!’”
Bloomsday commemorates June 16, the day
on which all events in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses
take place in Dublin in 1904. Joyce and Homer,
the poet of the original Odyssey (on which Ulysses
is based), overcame serious visual impairments, so
collaborating seemed natural to Braden and Meyer.
Meyer joined the Wisconsin Council of the
Blind and Visually Impaired in January 2011 after
eight years in a similar position with the Wisconsin
Democracy Campaign. She shared her perspectives
on public affairs careers in the nonprofit sector
with students this fall in the La Follette School’s
professional development workshop.
The Mad City Bloomsday featured readings
from Ulysses, hors d’oeuvres and Irish music, and
drew about 80 people. “The Bloomsday event was
a lovely melting pot of people who love literature and those who have overcome vision challenges,” Meyer says. “One outcome of the evening
was a greater awareness by sighted people of how
very important it is to provide access to literature
for people with limited vision,” Meyer adds. “We
raised new funds and awareness — our two goals.
Mad City Bloomsday was so successful, another is
already being planned for 2012.” w
Bryson Award continued from page 1
award-winning book Strategic Planning for Public and
Nonprofit Organizations, and wrote with Barbara C.
Crosby the award-winning Leadership for the Common
Good. He is a fellow of the National Academy of
Public Administration.
Bryson has received many awards for his work,
including four best book awards, three best article
awards, the General Electric Award for Outstanding Research in Strategic Planning from the
Academy of Management, and the Distinguished
Research Award and the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration
given by the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of
Public Affairs and Administration. He serves on
the editorial boards of the Public Management
Review, International Public Management Journal, American Review of Public Administration, and Journal of
Public Affairs Education.
From 2004 to 2008 Bryson was associate dean
for research at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, which became a school in 2011. From
1998 to 2000 he was director of the institute’s
master of public affairs degree; from 1997 to 2000
he was collegiate program leader for the University of Minnesota Extension Service; from 1997
to 1999 he was director of the institute’s Reflective
Leadership Center; and from 1983 to 1989, he was
associate director of the University of Minnesota’s
Strategic Management Research Center. w
Stay in Touch via Social Media
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To share your news on the school’s web site (or to unsubscribe),
send a note to alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu or call 608-263-7657
Fall 2011
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
Chinn publishes book, joins CBO advisory panel
I
n the summer of
in fall 2009, Policy
2007, professor MenResponses to the Great
Menzie Chinn started a two-year
zie Chinn was among
term with the Congressional Budget Recession, also helped
those who started to
Office’s Panel of Economic Advisors to inform the book.
think something was
He also teaches Macin 2011. Journalists seek Chinn’s
amiss with the U.S.
roeconomic Policy and
opinion frequently. He publishes
economy.
International Financial
the Econbrowser blog with James
Mortgage-backed
Regulation.
D. Hamilton, an economist at the
securities were littleTogether, Chinn and
University of California, San Diego.
understood financial
Frieden have more than
instruments, but Chinn remembers red flags going
50 years of experience evaluating debt crises and
up as certain measures indicated that the AAA-ratstudying financial and currency meltdowns in Eued versions of these securities were losing value.
rope, Latin America, Asia and Russia. They drew
“That was a first and that started people woron that knowledge to evaluate what happened in
rying,” he says. “From that point onward, it was a
the United States in the past decade.
slow-motion train wreck.”
“We have watched country after country lose
As the economy stumbled the next year, Chinn
decades of economic progress to the austere afterand Harvard University political scientist Jeffry
math of financial crises,” they write in Lost Decades.
Frieden started trading emails in an effort to make
“But we never feared that we would see a classic
sense why the financial boom had fizzled.
debt crisis in our own homeland. And we never
Their emails grew into a book, Lost Decades:
imagined that our country could face the prospect
The Making of America’s Debt Crisis and the Long Reof almost two decades lost to misguided policies,
covery, published in September by W.W. Norton &
an unnecessary crisis and a daunting task of
Co. A La Follette School seminar Chinn taught
economic reconstruction.” w
Campus honors Manion for teaching
P
rofessor Melanie Manion received a Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in April.
For the La Follette School, she teaches Political
Economy of Corruption and Good Governance,
and the Workshop in International Public Affairs
Her areas of expertise include international public
affairs, the politics of China, the political economy
of corruption, introductory comparative politics
and qualitative research methods.
Manion has achieved an unusually high level of
excellence with dedication to teaching and innovative teaching methods, then-La Follette School director Carolyn Heinrich and political science chair
John Coleman noted in their nomination.
“She demands a great deal from her students,
but provides them with the support they need to
succeed,” they wrote. “She does not teach easy
classes or allow passivity in the classroom. She is
the type of teacher that students remember decades later as exemplifying all that is best about
their university education.”
Manion is a thoughtful and caring mentor, and
she is credited with playing a critical role in the
establishment of core components of the international studies program in the La Follette School.
“For me, teaching and research are not competing passions, but two sides of the same coin,” says
Manion, who is co-editor of Contemporary Chinese
Politics: New Sources, Methods,
and Field Strategies and author
of Corruption by Design.
“Indeed, the same passion
and commitment to rigorous work she brings to her
research is very evident in her
teaching,” Heinrich and Coleman wrote. “She creates the
opportunities and provides
Melanie
the tools for students to think
Manion
critically, criticize rigorously,
and create new knowledge.”
In Manion’s workshop, teams of students
work with external clients to offer solutions to real
policy problems. Two of the three groups worked
with alumni at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (Andria Hayes-Birchler) and the Center for
Strategic and International Studies (Farha Tahir)
in producing their analyses.
“The class represents the Wisconsin Idea in
action, where faculty and students are using their
skills to make meaningful improvements in the
world,” note Coleman and Heinrich. “Professor
Manion’s lasting legacy is that she has challenged
students to think critically and introduced students
to a deeper understanding of one of the emerging
world powers.” w
La Follette Notes / 7
Wisconsin academy
names Nichols fellow
Economist Donald Nichols
is a 2011 fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts and Letters.
Nichols, a professor emeritus, served as director of the
La Follette School of Public
Affairs from 2002-2006. He
is an award-winning teacher,
scholar, university leader
and public servant. For
more than 30 years, Nichols
has focused his research,
teaching and publications on
factors affecting unemployment, inflation and regional
economic growth.
Nichols served as economic
advisor to Wisconsin Governor Tony Earl, was executive
secretary of Earl’s Council on
Economic Affairs and served
on Wisconsin Governor Jim
Doyle’s Economic Advisory
Council. Nichols staffed the
U.S. Senate Budget Committee and was U.S. Department
of Labor deputy assistant
secretary for economic policy
research.
Nichols makes regular
contributions to state and
national policy debates. In
Wisconsin, he is well known
for his economic forecasts.
His papers on the Wisconsin economy have had a
profound influence on many
policy initiatives.
Wisconsin Academy fellows
are elected for their high levels of accomplishment in their
fields as well as a lifelong
commitment to intellectual
discourse and public service.
beneficial investment of time that builds social
capital for all of us. Alumni can re-establish
friendships and make professional connections with each other. They can seek advice
from faculty and from their former advisors.
School staff members and faculty can learn
about trends in the field and in hiring so they
can better advise students about their degree
programs. The benefits of these investments
include an increased sense of collaboration
among all of us as we all strive to improve
the design, implementation and evaluation of
public policy and the practice of governance
worldwide.
The next reception for alumni and friends
is in Madison on February 2 at Inn on the
Park. Last year’s gathering drew more than
100 alumni, friends, students, faculty and staff.
Our second summer picnic at the school drew
more than 70, including children and other
family members. We are in the early stages
of putting together an event in Chicago that,
we hope, will combine a social gathering with
alumni and a career development opportunity
for students.
The school is able to invest in these rela-
tionships partly because of donations alumni
and friends make to the school through the
University of Wisconsin Foundation. Donations also can be an investment in current and
future La Follette School students. Reduced
funding from the state increases our reliance
on such gifts. This year we were able to fund
three students, one of whom is featured on
page 5 of this issue of La Follette Notes.
We are pleased to report that your investment in our students continues to pay off.
By the end of September, 38 of our 39 May
graduates had reported back to our Career
Development Office that they were employed
in their field, with two of them pursuing further study. We are proud of our recent graduates as they navigate an uncertain economic
field, and we appreciate our alumni and friends
who have helped them with mentoring, sharing
job tips and offering internships.
For those of you unable to attend our receptions and other events, please keep in touch
via Facebook and LinkedIn. You can subscribe
to our news feed directly, and we hope you will
share with us news about your own careers,
families and achievements. w
Fall 2011
AOL go offline?
Miss the party?
Please be sure to share and
w
update your e-mail address.
We use postal addresses to
w
generate guest lists for receptions — although all alumni and
friends are invited.
If your household is receiving
w
two copies of La Follette Notes
or the La Follette Policy Report,
let us know the names and
address if you want us to send
only one.
Update your records by ew
mailing alumni@lafollette.wisc.
edu or by calling 608-263-7657.
And if you’d rather not receive
w
a publication or other postal
or electronic mail, let us know
which lists to exclude you from.
Alumni can control their contact information via the Wisconsin Alumni
Association, www.uwalumni.com.
La Follette Notes
From the Director continued from page 1
www.lafollette.wisc.edu
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