Call for Alumni Engagement Whether you just graduated or it has It helps us maintain our commitment to been many years, we want to extend training the next generation of public a warm welcome to our alumni and service professionals by inspiring them friends of the College of Public Affairs and to lead, equipping them to serve, and Administration (CPAA) at the University of connecting them to opportunities to make Illinois Springfield. We’re proud to support a a difference. It also improves our ability to strong alumni network that extends across lead and advocate for change on a host of Illinois, the United States, and abroad. CPAA pressing social and public problems. alumni work in government, nonprofits, Please take the time to join us on our international relations, and business. They LinkedIn Showcase Pages and begin are connected by a strong sense of civic connecting with fellow alumni and current engagement, a commitment to social students. responsibility, and an understanding of democratic values. • Criminology and Criminal Justice We view our alumni as strategic partners, • Public Administration and we want them to be active participants in the life of the college • Political Science • We hope that you will choose to be an active member of the CPAA • Legal Studies community. There are many ways to get involved: • Public Affairs Reporting • Join the CPAA Professional • Environmental Studies Mentorship Network and invest personal time and energy in advising To get involved, please contact: our students and helping them Travis Bland, Associate Dean develop essential skills [email protected] • Volunteer by giving guest lectures, hosting a networking event, or overseeing an internship experience • Attend and promote CPAA Events • Give to support our college Your involvement strengthens the CPAA. Please take the time to Inspired to Lead. Equipped to Serve. join us on LinkedIn and Facebook and begin Connected to Opportunity. connecting with your fellow alumni and our Be sure to check out the CPAA Blog at current students. uis.edu/capitolconnection To get involved, please contact College of Public Affairs and Travis Bland, Administration Associate Dean, at [email protected]. Spring 2021 Newsletter Printed by Authority of the State of Illinois - 3/21 - 50 - 57414 12 Department / Program Highlights (continued) Doctor of Public Administration Program Public Health The Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) program continues UIS Public Health programs are evaluated through Council on The CPAA Journal to enjoy a heightened level of success. We set successive Education for Public Health (CEPH) criteria that set standards for records for the number of graduates in 2019 and 2020. This We are the University of Illinois System’s capital city connection for the study of public policy, affairs and administration. the program’s mission, goals, assessment, faculty, research, service, spring (2021), we admitted a new cohort of 15 students and, and diversity. The UIS MPH program will submit its final self-study due to widespread demand, will begin seating cohorts on a document and other materials to CEPH in December 2021. The CEPH Spring 2021 yearly rather than biennial basis. We are attracting some of site visit team is scheduled to visit the UIS campus in January 2022. Message from Dean Robert W. Smith the most promising and accomplished social sector leaders in the region. Dr. Brian Chen and Lenore Killam, MPH Dr. Brian Chen Faculty, were invited to join the Sangamon For example, Governor Pritzker recently appointed Keyria County Public Health Committee’s work to March Greetings! Rodgers (2015 Cohort) to the Illinois Juvenile Justice maximize the county’s Covid-19 response since Commission. Boone County, Illinois, hired Keven Catlin (2019 March 2020. Being the committee members, Dr. I can’t believe it’s actually March! Spring programs, financial and other hardships attract students even in these difficult Cohort) as its County Administrator. Manuel Roman-Basora Chen and Lenore have been contributing their may be around the corner! We made it! and health and family issues for everyone times, we have talented faculty we care published an article in Public Integrity highlighting some of expertise, resources, and intellectual creativity Sort of!! The new spring semester has to navigate as 2020 unfolded. about these issues, and we are part of the disparities in how the five inhabited U.S. unincorporated to tackle the myriad of challenges presented by launched as planned! The COVID-19 a University and College that has and territories are treated. Finally, Lincoln College promoted John the pandemic. The committee represents a wide Pandemic continues to be an issue for Ok…we all get the picture. wants to make a positive difference in Malone (2015 Cohort) to Full Professor of Communication. variety of disciplines, including members who evaluate the economic higher education, the University and the What about the balance of 2021. The the community. impact on our community and members who research how social College. Our Spring 2021 Semester has vaccines are out there and slowly being Our faculty, staff, students, and alumni are part of a determinants of health create inequitable impacts of the pandemic started similar to our Fall 2020 Semester. administered, a new President is in office, I want to assure you we are not losing community making a difference here in Illinois and within Faculty, staff, students and stakeholders are economic relief packages in one way sight of that imperative. worldwide. There is much to celebrate about the collective vulnerable populations. holding up well and continuing to attend shape or form are being advanced, some impact of the DPA program. class, teach, stay engaged, research and COVID-19 restrictions are loosening up, Best wishes for spring and please The Department of Public Health at the University of Illinois participate in service or student activities as and students, faculty and staff at UIS have stay healthy and safe! Springfield invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position best they can. Most of that has been virtual remarkably adjusted to online and “Zoom at the assistant professor level. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. in of course. everything,” and summer weather will be the domain of Epidemiology and should demonstrate research Dean Smith here before you know it. At this point, no productivity, teaching effectiveness, and experience in public health Spring enrollments in the College are down one really knows what will happen for the education and service. a little from fall (around 800 students) but fall of 2021. The University and College we still have more students this spring would like to get back to normal and in- than last spring! All health and safety person classes but health and safety are precautions are in place and everyone priorities. Hence we are in a position to say (including visitors) are required to practice Spring 2021 will be pretty much like Fall social distancing, wear face coverings and 2020 semester and we hope that the virus submit to a COVID-19 saliva–based test as subsides and life and learning get back to required. normal by fall — but no promises. For my Dean’s Message this semester, I’d With all the turmoil in 2020, I’d like to like to look back over this past year as a way think that alumni, students, faculty and to look forward to next year for the College stakeholders and friends of the College can and University. As we look back on 2020, see the relevance of our College and our and 500,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United degrees now more than ever. Disciplines in States, an insurrection that threatened our the College be they environmental studies democracy, a fractured political world, (climate Issues), public administration conspiracy theories and ongoing charges (public services and finances), public health about “Fake News,” we are all looking (pandemic care and service), or political forward to a better 2021. Unfortunately science (policy and political response), the weather didn’t cooperate and a major public affairs reporting (free press issues), winter storm devastated many parts of the legal studies (role of the judiciary in country as the new year started. For the upholding free and fair elections and College (faculty and students) the academic immigration rights), and criminology and year looked like no other. Remote and criminal justice (on CJ reform efforts), all Robert W. Smith virtual learning, disruption of activities and matter as we enter 2021. We continue to 2 11 Department / Program Highlights (continued) Thought Leadership from the CPAA Community Public Administration • Dr. Rick Funderburg is the lead on a project looking at the Public Administration has submitted several proposals that are now impact of coal-fired plant closures and on Illinois; he has released Environmental Studies Student advancing through the UIS Levels of Governance, including: publications on tax competition and tax incentives with respect to businesses and communities; and is serving as Commissioner on Dives into Mudpuppy Research • A new School of Public Management and Policy Proposal that the Village of Chatham Planning Commission. will include the existing Department of Public Administration and Department of Human Services, effective Fall 2021. • Dr. Adam Williams is the National Dr. Adam Williams academic representative of the Institute • A new Master of Public Policy degree to include in the offerings for Public Procurement (NIGP) on their for the new School, effective Fall 2021. Certification Commission; he has had a book published, Public Affairs Practicum, with • A series of joint graduate degrees: co-editor Derek Slagle (UALR); and is the co- — Master of Public Administration-Master of author (with Travis Bland) of the “Employee Science in Human Resource Management Viewpoint Report: Bloomington, Illinois”. — Master of Public Policy-Master of • Dr. Ty Dooley is working with the Dr.