This year’s NASPAA Global Conference theme was “Public Service Without Borders: Reimagining Global Leadership, Inclusiveness, and Collaboration.” Schools from around the world gathered in Seattle from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 to exchange ideas, build connections and explore how public service education can respond to a changing global landscape.
Ten University of Maryland School of Public Policy faculty and staff members served as panelists, speakers and chairs across eight sessions. Topics ranged from international collaborative learning and preparing students for advocacy to sustainability education, the intersection of STEM and public policy, and supporting students and alumni through disruptions in public sector employment.
Clinical Professor Meg Brindle chaired a panel International Collaborative Teaching and Learning Models, joined by Associate Clinical Professor James Stillwell, and Roots Africa founder Cedric Nwafor. The panel drew on work connecting university students, faculty and farming communities in East Africa to explore what meaningful international collaboration looks like in practice. Among the examples shared was Roots Africa’s work connecting UMD students with university students and farming communities in Uganda and Liberia to exchange knowledge and develop locally driven solutions. The discussion also emphasized building partnerships that can continue after outside partners step away. The panel also looked at collaboration closer to home, including ways to break down silos across university campuses and connect students and faculty around shared goals.
Associate Professor Cullen Merritt chaired a panel that challenged faculty to think differently about service. Along with faculty from Georgia State University and North Carolina Central University, Merritt led the discussion Reframing Faculty Service: Elevating Professional Development and Well-Being. Endowed Associate Professor of Global Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership Angela Bies, a panel member, contributed perspectives on how service can develop leadership skills, build a sense of belonging and create opportunities for faculty and doctoral students to put their strengths and values into practice. Panelists considered how service can strengthen teaching and research, how doctoral programs can better prepare future faculty for it and how academic leaders can create environments that recognize its value.
Clinical Professor Brandi Slaughter chaired The Other Side of the Table: Equipping Students for Advocacy, Activism, and Inclusive Governance, a panel examining how public policy programs can prepare students to understand policymaking not only from within institutions, but also from the perspective of advocates, organizers and communities. The discussion explored ways to incorporate legislative advocacy, community-based learning, policy campaigns, storytelling and coalition building into public policy education. Panelists also considered how those experiences can prepare students to work across sectors, engage communities and understand the different roles they may encounter throughout their public service careers.
As policy schools prepare students for a changing political landscape, Postdoctoral Research Associate Mel George chaired a roundtable What Should Policy Schools Teach About Sustainability When the Political Ground Shifts, and How? Professor Anand Patwardhan joined faculty and practitioners from the United States and abroad to consider how sustainability education should respond to changes in public trust, political priorities and international cooperation. Patwardhan called for greater balance between idealized and real-world decision-making, concepts and applied skills, and classroom instruction and experiential learning. The discussion also raised broader questions about how sustainability fits into public policy education and how schools can connect it to other policy challenges rather than treating it in isolation.
Patwardhan returned the following morning to chair the panel Science for Policy and Policies for Science: Connecting STEM with Public Policy. Professor Steve Fetter joined the discussion on how universities can better prepare professionals to work at the intersection of science, technology and policymaking at a time of rapid technological change. The panel considered how universities can better connect STEM and public policy, from bringing more STEM students into policy programs to incorporating policy training into STEM education. The conversation also addressed how much scientific knowledge policy students need as they prepare to work on issues such as artificial intelligence, clean energy and biotechnology.
Director of Career Services and Alumni Relations Bryan Kempton led the session Supporting Well-Being Amid Public Sector Employment Disruptions: Career Transition Strategies for Students, Recent Graduates and Alumni. Kempton shared the School’s approach to supporting students, recent graduates and alumni facing hiring freezes, layoffs and other disruptions to traditional public sector career paths. The career transition program, developed through a collaboration across the School and with external partners, combined workshops on transferable skills, resumes, networking, LinkedIn, interviewing and salary negotiation with individual coaching and space for participants to talk openly about the strain of career uncertainty. Participants ranged from longtime federal employees facing workforce reductions to recent graduates and current students whose plans had been disrupted by hiring changes. All participants in the first cohorts secured jobs within three months, and the model was later shared with colleagues at other institutions.
Professor Lucy Qiu chaired the panel Teaching and Researching Environmental Sustainability Issues in Public Administration Under Political, Fiscal and Organizational Constraints. Bringing together scholars in policy analysis, governance, economics and engineering, the session focused on how faculty can continue teaching and researching environmental sustainability as government priorities, funding and available resources change. Panelists considered how environmental issues can remain meaningfully addressed in public administration education and research even when the conditions surrounding that work become more constrained.
Slaughter also participated in the session Student-Centered Assessment: Improving Undergraduate Public Affairs Programs. Together with Andrea Pierce of the University of Delaware’s Biden School, she explored two complementary approaches to assessment: gathering feedback from students in real time and evaluating programs more broadly. The session treated assessment as a tool for improving student success, with participants discussing ways to engage students in the process while also examining how well programs are meeting their goals.
The sessions reflected the range of questions facing public policy schools as they prepare students for public service in a changing environment, from what and how students learn to how institutions support faculty, graduates and working professionals.
