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Career Development: Speed Networking
Alumni and other public policy professionals sit down with students and talk about careers. Professionals from the public and private sectors meet individually with two or three students for five minutes. When their time is up, a bell rings and the students shift to the next professional.
2009 Participants
Joanie A. Burns, 2008 Wisconsin Women in Government seminar graduate
Joanie Burns is the chief of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Hazardous Waste Prevention and Management Section. The section resides within the Bureau of Waste and Materials Management and includes the hazardous waste, special waste and mining programs. She is responsible for the oversight and administration of these programs and their associated policies and regulations. Prior to joining the DNR, Joanie worked for the Irish Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government in Dublin, Ireland. There she served as a policy and technical advisor to the administrative units responsible for setting policies and developing legislation related to solid and hazardous waste, mining, environmental liability, and contaminated land. She served as the Irish representative to the United Nations’ Open-Ended Working Group on the Basel Convention. Joanie’s professional background includes more than seven years in the private environmental consulting sector, where she advised clients regarding due diligence and liability, and conducted environmental risk and compliance assessments.
She is a 2008 graduate of the Wisconsin Women in Government seminar.
Tim G. Connor, 1996 master’s degree in public affairs and public administration
Tim Connor has an educational background in sociology and public administration, graduating from the La Follette Institute in 1996. He has evaluated mental health and substance abuse programs in Wisconsin and other parts of the country since 1991. After evaluating the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment and prevention programs in Milwaukee and Dane counties, he worked at ORC Macro in Atlanta evaluating the children’s mental-health system of care initiatives funded by the Center for Mental Health Services. From 2003-2007, he worked as a section chief in the Wisconsin State Bureau of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services overseeing the evaluation of state-funded mental health and substance abuse programs. As section chief, he also managed the contract and budget operations for the bureau including the development and monitoring of contracts with mental-health care providers and consultants, grant writing and review, and budget and expenditure planning and monitoring. He now works at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Population Health Institute as a consultant to the state on the evaluation of all state-funded mental health programs.
Roland Couey, 1982 master’s degree in public policy and administration
Roland Couey is director of the Bureau of Budget and Facilities Management for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. He has worked in the development of state biennial budget proposals and their subsequent implementation in annual departmental operating budgets for more than 16 years. This work has covered such topics as: locating siting state patrol radio towers; sharing radio frequencies among state agencies; estimating transportation revenues; developing administrative program revenue service rates; maximizing federal funding for vocational rehabilitation services; providing mental health services for inmates; and managing state sex offenders. Before joining state service he worked as a researcher on state and local governmental issues for a non-profit organization for more than four years.
Joe Fontaine, 2008 master’s degree in public affairs
Joe Fontaine is a legislative analyst at the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, where he has worked on evaluations of prison mental health care, highway construction engineering and child care. He previously worked at the state Budget Office, the Office of Justice Assistance and the Wisconsin Sentencing Commission.
Katie Herrem, 2008 double degree in public affairs and urban and regional planning
Since June 2008, Katie Herrem has worked at the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau as a program analyst. While in graduate school, she completed two urban planning internships, one in the public sector and one with a private planning firm. She also worked as a graduate assistant for the Wisconsin Center for Education Research on campus. She worked for several years in the human services with a variety of populations in various positions, including management. She completed her bachelor of arts degree in sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.
John Montgomery , 1977 double degree in public policy and administration and urban and regional planning
John Montgomery is deputy administrator of the Division of Administrative Services for the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. He has worked in the State Budget Office of Wisconsin’s Department of Administration for 24 years upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977 with a double degree in public policy and urban and regional planning, including 14 years as deputy state budget director. He became deputy division administrator at the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance in 2001. He manages the Local Government Property Insurance Fund and the State Life Insurance Fund, in addition to his administrative duties.
BJ Panke, 2005 Wisconsin Women in Government seminar graduate
BJ Panke’s public service career spans more than two decades. She began her service with
the State of Wisconsin at the most entry-level clerical position available and moved through the ranks to become a manager. The positions she held included: student loan customer service representative; human resources director and then executive director for a conservation-based employment program with more than 300 members statewide; training officer for the highway division of the state transportation department; program manager for employment-based re-entry initiative for ex-offenders; and section chief for a statewide “public labor exchange” agency, which is similar to a private employment agency. While working for the state she began a business consulting firm serving primarily state agencies and non-profit community-based organizations. After eleven years in operation, she devoting all energies to this private business, having left state service.
Andrew Turner, 2008 dual degree in law and public affairs
Andrew Turner is a lawyer in the corporate practice group of Godfrey & Kahn’s Madison office. Before joining the firm, he served as a legal and policy intern in the Office of the Governor of Wisconsin. Prior to his career in law, he spent several years as the director of the community training and organizational support program for the Center for Regional Studies in Tarija, Bolivia, developing and overseeing projects that helped Guaraní communities navigate legal and political reforms. A graduate of the Microfinance Training Programme in Boulder, Colorado, he has worked with international microfinance and credit unions. He was also a faculty member and advisory board member in the commercial engineering department at San Bernardo University in Tarija, Bolivia, where he taught courses in anthropology and research methods. In Beloit, Wisconsin, he taught a Computers for Beginners in Spanish course for Blackhawk Technical College. As part of his lifelong interest in technology, he served for nearly 10 years as a web programmer and internet strategy consultant to numerous small businesses. He earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 1993, his master’s degree in public affairs in 2008 and his law degree in 2008, all from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Greg Wise, 1985 double degree in public policy and administration, and urban and regional planning
Greg Wise is director of the Center for Community and Economic Development and a professor with the University of Wisconsin-Extension Department of Community Resource
Development. He provides outreach and support for Wisconsin communities by working with county extension educators, elected and appointed officials and key stakeholders to build local economies. As a community development specialist he works with communities statewide on community economic development and entrepreneurship issues. Prior to his current appointment, Wise served as UW-Extension’s secretary of the faculty where he contributed to redefining and assessing the “scholarship of outreach and engagement.” He also served as Extension’s interim assistant vice chancellor for economic development and business outreach,
supporting the UW System’s economic summits. For 11 years Wise served as a community-based Extension community development educator in Manitowoc and Sauk counties. After graduating from the La Follette program in 1985, Wise worked for five years at the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, initially as a class of 1985 presidential management intern.