by Katie Geith
The UNC Master of Public Administration program celebrates the kickoff of the first cohort of students to pursue their MPA degrees through “Service to Service”, a program connecting veterans and military families with education pathways and careers in public service. Launched in October 2024 by the Volcker Alliance and We the Veterans, 12 schools were selected to be part of the program to recruit participants, provide networking opportunities and professional development, and facilitate job placement in state and local government upon graduation.
The UNC School of Government is uniquely positioned to set up the initiative for success. Nearly 15 percent of the School’s MPA student body are either active duty, veterans, or serving in the National Guard. Additionally, North Carolina has one of the largest military footprints in the United States, with over 89,000 active-duty personnel serving at bases across the state. With our mission of preparing public service leaders, our dedicated career services team, and 43 percent of our alumni network working in state or local government, the program is thrilled to be among the chosen schools for interested students.
UNC MPA’s inaugural cohort includes 12 new students, the largest cohort of all the University partners. The national cohort includes 40 students including military service members, retired veterans, and military dependents/spouses. An orientation was held in mid-September at the Ohio State University to kick off programming. Students were able to meet with each other, hear from a panel of other service members who transitioned into state and local government careers, and receive guidance from academic advisors on ensuring a smooth transition into graduate school.
Below, two participants in the program share their stories.
John Terziu
Why did you decide to join the Service to Service initiative?
Since retiring, my heart has been set on finding a way to keep serving, not just in theory, but in a way that lets me stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those who share the same calling. Service to Service felt like the perfect opportunity to do exactly that: to be back among my brothers and sisters in arms, united by a common mission and a relentless drive to make a difference. This isn’t just a program for me; it’s a chance to live out my purpose again in the company of those who know what it means to sacrifice, lead, and serve.
What draws you toward a career in public service?
For me, the answer is simple: people. I believe deeply in helping people, lifting them up, solving their problems, and making their lives better. Public service gives me the chance to channel my energy and capabilities into something far bigger than myself. It’s about impact. It’s about using every ounce of energy I have to ensure that communities thrive, and people feel seen, heard, and valued.
What was orientation like in mid-September?
I walked into that room and immediately felt like I was surrounded by the highest caliber of people this world has to offer. Every single person was educated, driven, mission-focused, and deeply inspired. The air carried the weight of purpose. It reminded me of being back in uniform, where excellence was the standard and you could feel the energy of a team that refused to settle for less than greatness.
What are you most looking forward to during this experience?
The people, without question. To be surrounded by such highly intellectual, passionate individuals is an honor. But more than that, I look forward to being part of a team again that doesn’t allow differences to divide us. Instead, we embrace diversity as our strength. We come from different walks of life, with different beliefs and values, but at the end of the day, we are united by one thing: the mission. And when you bring that kind of unity and focus together, there is nothing we cannot achieve.
Erin Mathis
Why did you decide to join the Service to Service initiative?
I joined on a recommendation from Cara Robinson and Elizabeth Langefeld when I was first accepted to the UNC MPA program. Prior to that, I did not really know much about it.
What draws you toward a career in public service?
My experiences as a kid drive my interest in public service now. My father retired from an enlisted career in the Air Force when I was eight and did not work until I turned 16. My mother worked a minimum wage job. My mother suffered a debilitating injury at work, which left her permanently injured and unable to work. Due to the income reduction, my family qualified for free breakfast and lunch programs at school. I cannot overstate how much of a difference the free and reduced lunch program made for me. Now that I am older and in a very different situation financially, I want to play a role in ensuring that others are able to receive necessary assistance like I had.
What are you most looking forward to during this experience?
I am most looking forward to the opportunities to meet other people interested in public service who have different experiences than my own.
(Re)Connect with MPA alumni, students, faculty, and staff for drinks, lite bites, and great conversation in Tampa, FL for a UNC MPA Happy Hour Hub. Whether you are attending the ICMA Conference or not, we’d love to see you.
Where: Motorworks Brewing – 707 Harbour Post Drive Tampa, FL 33602
Join Director of Admissions, Cara Robinson as she discusses our broad-based leadership degree and how it can support you starting, advancing, or transitioning your career. Special attention will be paid to discussing what the MPA is and who it’s for, our career and program outcomes, and how this degree fits with a lot of different interest areas.
Those considering the online and oncampus formats are invited, as we will be comapring the options.
As a new semester at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill kicks into full swing, the School of Government’s Master of Public Administration faculty and staff are busy at work welcoming new and returning students. With summer now behind us, the School decided to check in with Dean Aimee Wall and MPA faculty to find out what they listened to and read during the summer—right as they kick into the new fall semester.
Ricardo S. Morse, Professor of Public Administration and Government
“I finished a real page-turner of a book this summer called Left for Dead by Eric Jay Dolin. The subtitle kind of says it all; it is about ‘shipwreck, treachery, and survival at the edge of the world.’ It is a story that takes place in the Falkland Islands during the war of 1812, and the twists and turns it takes are one of ‘those real-life is stranger than fiction’ kind of stories.”
Kimberly L. Nelson, Professor of Public Administration and Government
“I have three books I have started recently. They are: Finding Grace, The Chain, and Getting to Yes. Two fun books and one workbook. I would describe The Chain as a crime thriller. I just started Finding Grace, so I can only say that it has a great beginning. I also recently finished a book titled, Who is Government? I would definitely recommend this book for MPA students. The author Michael Lewis uses a set of essays to highlight the importance of the work of the government bureaucrat. Reading this book validated my passion for public service.
Podcasts help me relax at night before going to sleep. I like history podcasts and true crime, particularly ‘American Scandal: The Plague of San Francisco’. The podcast tells the story of a bubonic plague outbreak in San Francisco in 1900 and how a young, early bacteriologist tries to stop it and is faced with a corrupt city government that hinders his efforts.”
Charles Szypszak, Albert Coates Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government
“I’m reading Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides, about a troubled family from South Carolina. I was reminded of the title while watching Ted Lasso. In the show, Ted asks others about their favorite books. His is The Fountainhead, which is one of my all-time favorites. A therapist for the team tells Ted that hers is The Prince of Tides. One interesting aspect of the book to me is the contrast of the author’s portrayal of the cultures of New York City and South Carolina.”
Aimee N. Wall, Dean
“I just finished reading Southern News, Southern Politics by Rob Christensen. The Daniels family and the Raleigh News and Observer serve as the anchors—but this book is really a fascinating study of the role of journalism in local, state, and even national politics. I learned a great deal about North Carolina politics and history. I came away with a long list of questions I need to investigate and rabbit holes I need to go down.”
Jeffrey Welty, Professor of Public Law and Government
“One book I’m reading now is Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Much of the book is about housing, infrastructure, and how to make our great cities more affordable and more livable. It also examines the unintended consequences of zoning and development regulations—concerns that are as pertinent in Chapel Hill as they are in New York or San Francisco.”
Teshanee Williams, Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Government
“I listened to ‘Ear Hustle’, which is a podcast that shares daily realities of life inside prison and stories from people once they’ve gotten out. It was created inside San Quentin State Prison by visual artist Nigel Poor and formerly incarcerated men Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams.
The episodes cover everything from the nuances of prison culture to the challenges of reentry, told in first-person narratives that are raw, empathetic, and often surprisingly funny. I enjoy listening to it because it brings attention to many unseen issues and raises awareness of the benefits associated with rehabilitation in prisons. The podcast’s stories, whether about cooking in a cell or facing parole hearings, offer a humanizing and eye-opening look at life during and after incarceration, showing resilience and the importance of second chances.”
This fall, the UNC MPA program welcomes 71 new students to the program. 31 are enrolled in the full-time on campus format and 40 are enrolled in the online format—which launched back in 2013 to accommodate working professionals across the country. Currently, the School of Government has 247 students enrolled across both formats of the MPA program.
Director of Admissions Cara Robinson says, “We are continuously thrilled with the level our new students are at. The public service mindset is palpable, and their contributions are already marked with leadership and commitment.”
UNC MPA enrolls students at all different points in their careers–from the 21-year-old recent graduate just starting their career to the 67-year-old retiree looking to reimagine their career in public service leadership/nonprofit work and give back to their communities. Several of our students are currently employed across the public sector and looking to gain leadership expertise and new skills. With interests in local, state, and federal government work to nonprofit organizations and even the private sector, students in the MPA program come packed with a variety of interest areas and goals. Approximately 65% of our new students come from different parts of North Carolina while the other 35% come from different parts of the country–as far west as Washington State and as far east as Washington, D.C. 19% of our new students are military affiliated.
We have interviewed four of our new students to find out more about them and why they’re pursuing the MPA degree. From environmental protection of sea turtles to public health collaborations between the private and public sectors, read more about our new students and where they’re going with UNC MPA.
Justin Guinta, oncampus format
Sarah Marzouk, oncampus format
The North Carolina Benchmarking Project was established in 1995 to help municipalities compare their service and performance trends with other participating units. Each year, throughout August and September, partner municipalities submit performance and management data across eleven services to the University of North Carolina’s School of Government. The Benchmarking Project audits and uploads that data on a dashboard and invites participants to eleven performance strategy sessions in November to analyze data and discuss shared challenges and practices likely to resolve those challenges. The information from the strategy sessions and the dashboard is synthesized into annual reports.
Last year, the Benchmarking Project leveraged AI to manage report-development and data-auditing processes. The use of AI in these two tasks significantly reduced the hours spent on them, decreased the error rate, and strengthened the outcomes. This bulletin describes how the Benchmarking Project team adopted AI for that data auditing and report development. The team hopes that its experience will serve as an example for others thinking about leveraging AI to improve their processes.
Keegan Huynh, a special projects coordinator for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, and Christopher L. Cole II, a project coordinator for the North Carolina Benchmarking Project, co-authored this bulletin.
Download (pdf, 438.33 KB)
Join Director of Admissions, Cara Robinson as she discusses our broad-based leadership degree and how it can support you starting, advancing, or transitioning your career. Special attention will be paid to discussing what the MPA is, who it’s for, our career and program outcomes, and how this degree fits with a lot of different interest areas.
This will be held online via zoom and is open to anyone considering the online or oncampus UNC MPA.
By Cara Robinson
“Invest in the people around you, and you’ll build something far greater than any individual accomplishment.”
UNC MPA student Javier Limon follows these words as he embarks on his coming term as the elected President of the UNC Association of Student Government (ASG) and his ex-officio appointment for the coming year to the UNC Board of Governors. Javier found his way into student government first as the President of Eastern Carolina University’s student government, where he received his undergraduate major in political science. There, he developed a passion for service, leadership, and collaboration.
Enter Cameron Brown, also a current student in the UNC MPA program, who first met Limon at ECU, where he was also an undergraduate student pursuing his passion for government and student leadership. Brown served on the executive board of the student government as the Vice President of Media Outreach while Limon served as President.
This was only the beginning of their joint service. Since this time, they have alternated back and forth several times serving with one another. While Limon served as student body president at ECU, he hired Brown to serve as his director of local and state affairs. When Brown became president of ASG, he hired Limon to serve as Chief of Staff. Now this year, after Javier was elected President, he selected Cam to serve as his Vice President of Budget and Finance.
While the two admit that they are friends beyond just their interests in student government, they take their positions seriously and ensure that their respective assignments on each other’s staff have been earned and based on the merit and trust they have developed in each other over time.
“We definitely know each other’s strengths—and we play on those as we navigate our professional relationship” said Limon.
The two also simultaneously applied for the MPA program at UNC, were admitted, and decided to enroll in the program independently of one another. They both credit the program for providing the space where they can each grow as a leader—especially in the areas of communication, objectivity, and budget management while doing the work that fulfills their passion.
By pursuing the UNC MPA program and continuing to surround themselves around work and people who care about their communities, they have found themselves with a tangible skillset to practice as well as more experiences to practice these skills in.
Limon states: “I don’t worry too much about what will happen in the next 5 years. The MPA is allowing me to do the work I want to right now, and this degree is versatile and will go with me as I move forward in my career.”
Together, with their work in ASG and the UNC BOG, they have found themselves surrounded by other like-minded leaders who were put to the task of advocating for the more than 240,000 students they serve and helping to allocate resources across the 17 higher education institutions.
Through this work, they are harnessing what they have learned in the UNC MPA program to meet these goals. Whether it is strategic planning, reorganizing a department, or communicating out to a student body in a way they will understand, they have gained a tangible skillset to apply in their ASG and BOG work from UNC MPA.
“I’ve learned the importance ofbeing a leader who has morals and principles and isn’t afraid to put their foot down while also trying to be a leader who is collaborative and trying to build partnerships and coalitions so that everyone feels heard,” Brown reflected.
Looking forward to the future, neither knows exactly what is in store for their careers. Brown is drawn to local government and economic development work at the moment while Limon is currently interning with the federal government in the Minority Leaders Office in the United States House of Representatives. No matter where they end up, they both have their eyes on leaning into the challenges that exist in government work.
As Brown states: “Public service work truly matters, and if you understand what motivates you, nothing can keep you from wanting to do great work like this.’
Limon agrees.
“I can’t resign myself to complacency. Doing nothing is not an option for me. The best public servants understand that and understand that the challenges are the biggest opportunities for us to really make a difference.”
With the backing of the MPA program from UNC and their transferrable experiences across the BOG and ASG, the two’s path to joint service may come together again.
Sarah Dhunjishaw is originally from Colorado and received her undergraduate degree from Queens University. She is a 2nd year oncampus student interested in local government and is currently working on her Professional Work Experience with Wake County Budget Department.
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The North Carolina Local Government Budgeting Association awards two scholarships every year to attend their summer conference. This year, it was held July 9th-12th in Asheville, North Carolina for a weekend of learning, networking, and all things budgeting.
Sarah’s interest in budgeting developed after she discovered her interest in local government. Sarah was formerly a Lead for North Carolina Fellow who returned to the School of Government to obtain her MPA because ‘it felt like the right next step, and I always knew a Masters would help open career doors a bit wider for me’.
While Sarah discovered local government through the LFNC program, she has always had a public service mindset and had originally planned to go into nonprofit work. Through her local government experience, she began to learn the vastness of how local governments impact. As she explains, “Local government isn’t for a specific population. It serves everyone in a geographic area. So anyone within the geographic area, regardless of your socioeconomic status or specifics that a nonprofit might normally target, local government encapsulates all of those people.”
She began to see how the budgets told a story about where a community wants to go. “I want to be the person that’s working behind the scenes, telling the story, and helping people get the funding so they can implement the programs they want to do.” She has also enjoyed getting the chance to work with departments that serve the areas of education, public safety, social services, and other community services like parks and recreation and libraries.
First year students are required to take a budget and finance class, and Sarah used that class to help her figure out where she wanted to do her PWE. She chose to study Wake County’s local government budget as part of a class project which she said helped her land the Wake County Professional Work Experience this summer.
Over the next year, Sarah is gearing up to finish her MPA and hopes to continue her professional career in a budget office after she graduates.
As a graduate student that is interested in pursuing a career in local government budgeting, this experience at the NCLGBA conference was incredibly valuable to her. Through formal sessions at the conference, she was able to dig deeper into the current local government budget landscape in North Carolina and gained valuable takeaways on how to respond as a budgeter in this political atmosphere.
“The personal and professional development that I received from the sessions and networking events has helped prepare me for my future as a young professional in local government. I have left the NCLGBA conference inspired, motivated, and more knowledgeable about my chosen career path. I am so grateful to the NCLGBA for the scholarship and opportunity to attend such a transformational conference!”
The theme of this year’s Deil S. Wright Public Service Forum is emergency management. Organized by School of Government faculty member Crista Cuccaro and offered In conjunction with the UNC MPA Immersion course on Emergency Management, this year’s Deil S. Wright Public Service Forum will feature an engaging discussion on the topic with experts and practitioners in the field.
The Deil S. Wright Public Service Forum will again be linked to the UNC MPA program’s Immersion course, this year on Emergency Management. The Forum will be a panel discussion moderated by Norma Houston that focuses on relationships and coordination between local, state, and federal governments for successful emergency management.
Speaking about emergency management from the local government perspective will be UNC MPA alumna Christina Farrell ’92, First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Emergency Management; Will Ray, North Carolina Emergency Management Director; and Erik Hooks, former Deputy Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
In person registration for School of Government community members and #uncmpa program alumni. Reception to follow.
Virtual registration available for prospective students and those interested in emergency management.