- Welcome
- Calendar
- For Prospective Students
- For Students
- Degree Programs
- Focus Fields
- Faculty and Staff
- Research
- Public Service and Outreach
- Career Development
- For Alumni and Friends
- News
La Follette School News
Moynihan to become associate director
Donald Moynihan will serve as the La Follette School's associate director starting in July, working with student services staff on admissions, curriculum and career development.
Even though Moynihan studies public management reform, he says he has no specific reform plans in mind as associate director. “We have an outstanding staff that I look forward to working with,” says Moynihan. His replacement of economist Menzie Chinn, whose two-year term ends this summer, marks the first time the La Follette School has been led by two public management experts. Current director Carolyn Heinrich replaced economist and health policy expert Bobbi Wolfe in summer 2008.
This summer Moynihan is finishing up a summary of findings drawn from the “From Sandbags to Sanity: Policy Implications of the Floods of 2008” symposium he organized in April to help emergency management officials and others from around Wisconsin to avoid floods like those that devastated communities in 2008. The symposium drew more than 130 representatives from local government, state agencies, engineering firms, academia, non-profits, public health and the Wisconsin Legislature. He has recently won a National Science Foundation grant to pursue research on crisis response.
Moynihan's research examines the application of organization theory to public management issues such as performance, budgeting, homeland security, election administration, and employee behavior. Georgetown University Press published his book, The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform, in 2008. The American Society for Public Administration honored him with the 2009 Joseph Wholey Scholarship Performance Award for outstanding scholarship on performance in public and nonprofit organizations.
— posted June 26, 2009
Career development coordinator is president-elect of professional organization
Mary Russell, La Follette School career development coordinator, has been elected to serve as president-elect of the Student Personnel Association at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. After serving one year, she will serve a year as president, then another as past-president.
"With her ability to implement new and innovative ways in which to enhance the opportunities available to our students, Mary will be a great leader for the SPA," says Menzie Chinn, the La Follette School’s outgoing associate director.
The Student Personnel Association creates cross-campus connections among people who work with students, bringing together employees socially and intellectually for campuswide affirmation and recognition, for professional development and for support of the university’s learning mission.
Russell has been involved with SPA since she started at La Follette in 2007. “Being a one-person office at La Follette, SPA has been a great way for me to network with other student services personnel on campus,” she says.
She first joined SPA's conference planning committee. During the 2008-09 school year she planned and coordinated a large group speed-networking program for the 100 attendees the Madison campus. She based the event partly on the speed-networking sessions she organized for La Follette School students and alumni.
Indeed, service on the SPA board has been a mini-exercise in La Follette School networking: She will join 2007 grad Will Lipske on the executive board, while 2007 grad Raul Leon is ending his term this year. Both hold master’s degrees in international public affairs. Lipske is an academic advisor in the College of Letters and Science, while Leon is pursuing a doctorate in education leadership and policy analysis.
Before becoming the La Follette School's career development coordinator, Russell served one year as with AmeriCorps VISTA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Office of Service Learning and Community Based Research in the College of Letters and Science. Prior to that she was director of career services at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa. She holds a master’s degree in postsecondary education: student affairs from the University of Northern Iowa and a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University.
— posted June 24, 2009
’09 grad wins Fulbright to study policy, sex-trafficking in Nepal
Sex trafficking and public policy is the focus of research 2009 graduate Emma Condon will carry out in Nepal during the 2009-2010 academic year. Winner of a Fulbright Institute of International Education fellowship for the 2009-10 school year, she leaves for Nepal in September.
Campus ranks 9th for student Fulbrights
The University of Wisconsin-Madison ranked ninth among research universities in the number of student Fulbright fellows in 2008, up from 11th.
Of the 20 Madison students who received 2008-09 Fulbright Institute of International Education fellowships, 18 accepted their offers. The Fulbright Institute of International Education sent 1,450 U.S. citizens abroad for the 2008-09 school year.
2009 grad Allison Quatrini won a Fulbright that took her to China for the 2007-08 school year.
Professor Greg Nemet was one of five University of Wisconsin – Madison faculty who received a Fulbright grant in 2008. He spent that summer in Berlin and Brussels researching how science is used in policymaking in Germany and the European Union.
How policymakers frame a problem affects how they craft a policy solution, the international public affairs student says. “If sex trafficking is seen as a problem of prostitution, then policies will focus on eliminating prostitution,” Condon says. “On the other hand, if sex trafficking is seen as a problem of safe migration, then policies will focus on the rights and safety of migrant laborers. The former situates sex trafficking as a moral problem; the latter focuses on human rights.”
“Under the Bush administration, the U.S. took a firm sex-trafficking-as-a-problem-of-prostitution stance,” she notes.
While in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu, Condon will be affiliated with Tribhuvan University, but her main supporting organization is the Asia Foundation, an international non-governmental organization based in San Francisco that oversees a number of anti-sex trafficking programs in Nepal. The U.S. Department of State estimates 10,000 to 15,000 Nepali women and girls are trafficked to India every year, and another 7,000 are trafficked to Kathmandu and Pokhara from rural Nepal.
Condon’s research will involve interviews with NGOs, government officials and other members of the anti-trafficking community in Nepal.
When Condon returns to the United States in July, she plans on joining the U.S. State Department as a foreign service officer, having passed her Foreign Service oral exams this spring.
Condon entered La Follette via the accelerated program through which an undergraduate begins working on degree requirements as a senior and completes all requirements with an additional year of study beyond the bachelor’s degree. She earned her bachelor’s degree in international studies and focused on international development at La Follette.
She spent a semester in Nepal through the Vermont-based School for International Training, which offers undergraduates field-based education. “We had intensive language training and spent a month doing our own independent research project,” Condon says. “I examined the shift away from arranged marriage in Nepal.”
Condon returned to Nepal in summer 2008 as an intern in the Political and Economic section of the U.S. embassy in Kathmandu, thanks to a La Follette School fellowship. One of her tasks was to help organize the visit of an official from the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
“That’s where I got the idea for my Fulbright grant,” Condon says.
Most victims of sex trafficking are women and girls who are lured by promises of marriage or good jobs in other countries or are kidnapped or sold into the sex trade by relatives or boyfriends. “The U.S. plays a major role in funding anti-sex trafficking organizations in Nepal,” Condon says, “and so we have a significant impact on how nongovernmental organizations design their programs to combat sex trafficking.”
UW–Madison is a Leader in Fulbright Fellows with Top 10 Ranking, November 12, 2008, Division of International Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison
— posted June 24, 2009
Early-bird commenters well positioned to frame public policy
A new study by La Follette School professor Susan Yackee demonstrates that public commenters who participate during the early phases of regulatory policymaking play an important agenda setting role. Results suggest that these “public” participants—who are often interest groups—can help shape the content of regulatory proposals as they move through the regulatory process and may thwart unwanted regulations.
The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management just published the sstudy, “Understanding Commenter Influence During Agency Rule Development.” Yackee wrote it with Keith Naughton and Celeste Schmid of the University of Southern California and Xueyong Zhan of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. They analyzed data from 36 U.S. Department of Transportation rules and almost 500 comments to see if public commenters play a critical agenda-setting role during rule development.
The study finds the first systematic quantitative evidence of the importance of early participation by the public in regulatory development. Public commenters who participate early in the process do influence the regulatory direction of the policymaking process.
The findings are also important, given recent government rhetoric surrounding the need to re-regulate or tighten regulation across several sectors, including the banking and finance sectors.
“This research suggests the great need for additional systematic knowledge regarding the politics of regulatory development and rulemaking,” the authors conclude.
— posted June 22, 2009
Chinn wins $10,000 WAGE grant
Outgoing Associate Director Menzie Chinn has won a $10,000 grant from the University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy to pursue his research on the determinants of how fast current account balances adjust. The grant also will support a graduate student.
The world economy is characterized by large current account imbalances. Even as of 2008, the United States was running a deficit of nearly 4.6 percent of GDP, after declining from a peak of 6 percent at the end of 2004. On the other side, China is running a large surplus. In this study, Chinn will investigate which economic factors (openness to trade and financial flows) and policies (exchange rate regimes, capital controls) determine the pace at which current account balances and real exchange rates adjust.
A current-account deficit occurs when the value of a country’s imports is greater than the combined value of exports and net income from abroad. The current-account deficit is a broader measure than a country’s trade deficit because, in addition to imports and exports, it includes income from assets abroad after payments for liabilities owed to foreigners are subtracted out.
With Yin-Wong Cheung and Eiji Fujii, Chinn is the author of The Economic Integration of Greater China: Real and Financial Linkages and the Prospects for Currency Union (Hong Kong University Press, 2007). He was a principal investigator with Charles Engel on the Current Account Sustainability collaborative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chinn has been cited in the news media several times in recent months. He noted that high interest rates are more dangerous than inflation. “‘America is a big net debtor to the rest of the world, with extremely large holdings of U.S. Treasuries by foreign private and state actors,’” Chinn told the Globe and Mail in a June 3 article. The Christian Science Monitor cited Chinn’s prediction that consumers won’t spend freely for five years, and similar comments were twice quoted in USA Today. The Wall Street Journal also picked up his entries about the collapse of international trade and the durability of the dollar’s role as the preeminent international currency from the Econbrowser blog he writes on (with UCSD professor James Hamilton).
Chinn is working on a book with Harvard professor Jeffry Frieden on the causes and consequences of the unfolding financial and economic crisis.
La Follette School faculty affiliate Ian Coxhead also won $10,000 WAGE grant to study Africa’s manufacturing industries. Coxhead will examine how firms respond to the lower tariffs and transportation costs that accompany greater integration with the global economy.
Bernanke raises alarm on spending, June 3, 2009, Globe and Mail
10 ways the new economy will look different, April 10, 2009, Christian Science Monitor
U.S. may face years of sluggish economic growth, updated May 8, 2009, USA Today
Ingenuity saves city, state jobs as budgets shrink, April 13, 2009, USA Today
Secondary Sources: Banks, Trade, Lie to Me, May 5, 2009, Wall Street Journal
— posted June 22, 2009
Available through Madison arts guide features alum's book
Jessica Berger Gross' memoir about yoga and weight-loss is featured in 77 Square, a Madison, Wisconsin, arts and entertainment guide.
The book, enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer, was published in May. It recounts how Berger Gross struggled for years with fluctuating weight and bouts of unhappiness until Berger Gross took her first yoga class in Katmandu. She lost 40 pounds and changed her life forever.
The 2000 grad is editor of the award-winning anthology About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope. Originally from Long Island, New York, Jessica lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband, son and dog. She teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
Shelf Life: Author finds physical and spiritual awakening on a yoga mat, June 4, 2009, 77 Square
Grad to publish memoir on weight-loss, yoga, April 14, 2009
Alum to publish collection of essays on miscarriage, December 11, 2006, La Follette School News
— posted June 19, 2009
Economist: federal aid won't offset Wisconsin school aid cuts
An analysis by La Follette School economist Andrew Reschovsky finds that although the total amount of financial aid provided directly to Wisconsin school districts from the federal stimulus bill for the next fiscal year (2010) is greater than the reduction in state school aids in the proposed state budget, for many individual districts the sum of state aid plus federal stimulus dollars will be less in fiscal year 2010 compared to fiscal year 2009.
"For many Wisconsin districts the decline in state aid will be larger than the additional federal funding they will receive as part of the stimulus package," Reschovsky says.
On average, under the proposed budget state aid would be 2.7 percent lower in fiscal year 2010 compared to fiscal year 2009. More than half of Wisconsin’s school districts would end up with less federal and state revenue. The districts with declining aid educate approximately half of all public school students in Wisconsin.
Given the way that the proposed state budget would cut state aid, school districts with both very low and very high levels of property wealth per student will tend to receive increases in the sum of state and federal aid. The wealthier school districts receive relatively little state aid and hence will lose little under the proposed state budget, yet they will be eligible for funds from the federal stimulus package.
At every district size, some school districts will receive additional funds and some will face declines, Reschovsky says. For example, of the 75 districts with enrollments between 2,500 and 10,000, 35 will receive more state and federal funds and 40 will have fewer funds.
He constructed a complex computer simulation model to calculate each school district's state aid based on the budget passed by the Joint Finance Committee.His findings are available as La Follette School Working Paper No. 2009-014.
Study: Stimulus infusions won't cover loss in state aid for most school districts, June 6, 2009, Wisconsin State Journal
— posted June 17, 2009; updated June 22, 2009
Director wins $3 million federal grant
La Follette School director Carolyn Heinrich has won a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to expand her evaluation of federally mandated tutoring programs in public schools.
The four-year grant will help Heinrich continue an evaluation of the tutoring programs the Milwaukee Public Schools offers as part of the district’s fulfillment of the federal No Child Left Behind law. This 2001 federal law requires public schools that have not made adequate yearly progress in increasing student academic achievement for three years to offer children in low-income families the opportunity to receive extra academic assistance in the form of supplemental educational services or tutoring.
Heinrich’s initial research found that Milwaukee’s federally mandated and funded tutoring program is not necessarily reaching the people who need the help the most, nor is it effective in increasing student achievement. “Our preliminary results suggest that the students in the tutoring programs are not performing any better on Wisconsin’s standardized tests than eligible students not involved with the tutoring,” Heinrich says.
The initial study, available as La Follette School Working Paper No. 2000-010, integrated qualitative and quantitative data from a large-scale study of supplemental educational services offered as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. She and her co-workers have been conducting this large-scale study of tutoring programs in Milwaukee Public Schools since April 2006.
The next phase will involve five urban school districts in four states: Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Dallas and Austin in Texas. Heinrich and her team, including co-investigators Robert Meyer and Patricia Burch, will examine how state and local educational agency activities influence the implementation of tutoring programs—including curriculum and instructional practices and policy and administration—and the impact they have on students’ academic outcomes (as measured by changes in test scores, course grades, and grade point averages).
The grant will enable Heinrich to employ academic staff and at least four graduate students each year to work on the project.
UW professor gets $3 million grant to expand tutoring study, June 18, 2009, Capital Times
La Follette School of Public Affairs director wins $3 million federal grant, June 18, 2009, University of Wisconsin-News, June 18, 2009
— posted June 16, 2009
Book critiques work-based safety net
A book just released by the Russell Sage Foundation reassesses U.S. labor market policies and examines eight areas of the safety net where current policies and institutions should be changed to improve the prospects of low-income families. La Follette School director Carolyn Heinrich edited the book, Making the Work-Based Safety Net Work Better, with University of Wisconsin-Madison economist John Karl Scholz.
"Putting work first was the core idea behind the 1996 federal welfare reform, legislation, but this goal collides with reality," Heinrich says. "The degree to which work provides a way out of poverty depends greatly on the ability of low-skilled people to maintain stable employment and make progress toward an income that provides an adequate standard of living."
The book, published by the Russell Sage Foundation, examines eight areas where the safety net fails families and describes how current policies and institutions could evolve to enhance their self-sufficiency.
— posted June 16, 2009
Heinrich to lead committee for policy group
The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management has elected director Carolyn Heinrich chair of its Committee of Institutional Representatives, which looks after the interests of institutional members of the organization. The La Follette School is an institutional member. APPAM fosters excellence in research, analysis and education related to public policy and management by holding conferences, publishing the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Heinrich’s term is for two years.
— posted June 16, 2009
Weimer gives keynote at forum in Taipei
Dave Weimer delivered the keynote address entitled “The Universal and the Particular in Policy Analysis Training” to the International Comparative Policy Analysis Forum, Taipei, Taiwan, on June 5.
He is co-author of Organizational Report Cards and Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice (4th edition) and Cost-Benefit Analysis (3rd edition), as well as co-editor of Investing in the Disadvantaged: Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Social Policies published by Georgetown University Press in March. He was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2008.
— posted June 16, 2009
Faculty contribute to online series on poverty, stimulus bill
Several La Follette School faculty members and affiliates are featured in a special series examining how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act affects low-income Americans. The series is published by the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity web site supported by a number of U.S. foundations.
The Stimulus and Poverty
First Steps toward a Strong Antipoverty Policy by Timothy Smeeding
President Obama's Plan to Expand Health Care Coverage by Pamela Herd
The Stimulus and Poverty: Will the Federal Stimulus Bill Protect Public Education from Spending Cuts? by Andrew Reschovsky
Community Colleges Need More Support by Sara Goldrick-Rab
Tax and Transfer Programs in the Stimulus Bill by Daniel R. Meyer
Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, opened the series. He notes that the stimulus bill that President Obama signed into law in February signals a revolution in American social policy in addition to giving fiscal relief to states and advancing job creation strategies.
Pamela Herd contributed an article on the president’s plan to expand health-care coverage. She observes the stimulus package addresses immediate health-care needs and advances long-term plans to expand health-care access, reduce costs and improve the quality of care.
With more than 90 percent of funding for elementary and secondary education coming from state and local governments, public schools throughout the United States are at risk of sharp cuts in funding, notes Andrew Reschovsky’s piece notes. The stimulus bill provides some relief, but state revenue growth is likely to remain stagnant into 2012.
La Follette School faculty affiliate Sara Goldrick-Rab, an assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology, suggests that community colleges need more aid to help more people complete two-year degrees and postsecondary certificates, which can substantially contribute to their economic well-being.
Another affiliate, social work professor Daniel R. Meyer, examines the stimulus bill’s tax and transfer programs. Low-wage workers will quality for a new tax credit and it expands the earned income and child tax credits. As for transfer programs, the federal government boosted unemployment benefits and provided a one-time $250 payment to certain recipients.
All five articles were based on presentations given at an Institute for Research on Poverty seminar in March.
— posted June 1, 2009
Grad starts family development consulting business
Jeanine Hunkele Knapp
1995 alum Jeanine Hunkele Knapp has launched One Sand Grain Family Consulting in Appleton, Wisconsin. The organization is devoted to The Nurtured Heart Approach for enhancing relationships in families to support success and positive choices. "After my work to help start the Appleton Public Montessori charter school and other educational and family development efforts, moving into the consulting arena is a perfect fit," Hunkele Knapp says.
She has 15 years of experience in community development. Prior to starting the firm, she worked for CAP Services Inc., community action program based in Stevens Point for which she completed project development efforts around worker-owned cooperatives, an energy savings curriculum, and a volunteer income tax assistance program. She also served as project director for a home-care quality measurement effort through the Medical College of Wisconsin's Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program.
— posted May 28, 2009
for alumni and friends