Professor Kimalee Dickerson uses her research on studying women of color in government to bring back the Engaging Women of Color Conference. Held last June with over 80 participants and a focus on mental health and well-being, Dickerson talks about the importance of her study, on the group of women this conference brought together, and how this work and group helps shape the roles of women in government. The 2024 conference will be held June 14th. Registration is open to all public officials, government employees, and nonprofit employees. This conference focuses on the perspectives and experiences of women of color working in public service.
Read more on the story here.
The UNC School of Government’s Master of Public Administration Class of 2024 gathered with faculty, family, friends, and staff on May 11 to celebrate their graduation from the program. The ceremony, held at the Frank Porter Graham Student Union, honored 52 on-campus and online graduates—who completed the program in Summer 2023, Fall 2023, and Spring 2024, respectively.
UNC MPA Director Willow S. Jacobson and School of Government Dean Aimee N. Wall welcomed and congratulated graduates for their achievements.
Carl W. Stenberg, James E. Holshouser Jr. Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Government, presented the annual Wright Research Paper Award, honoring the legacy of its namesake—former faculty member and public administration visionary Deil S. Wright.
Stenberg presented the 2024 honor to Jonathan Douglas Hill for his paper on Evaluating the Organizational Location of Keep America Beautiful Affiliates.
In his address, commencement speaker Dean Emeritus Michael R. Smith remarked upon the challenges that the future public service leaders of UNC MPA will face in their roles— challenges in the public sphere that are increasingly multifaceted and complex on multiple organizational and sectoral levels—and necessary to aim to solve.
“For complicated decisions, you are never going to have enough information because— wait for it—you cannot predict the future,” he advised the graduates before him. “You have to find ways to be comfortable and get other people comfortable with recommendations and decisions based on the information you have at the time.”
“We need you to take bold action as public service leaders. There are lots of headwinds today that make it harder than ever to take bold action, but we need public service leaders who will push through those headwinds.”
Before the hooding and pinning ceremony of the graduates, Director Jacobson wished her former students and future public service leaders well in their careers—and urged them to harness the values they learned in the program as they effect positive change.
“As you take on leadership positions, it will take courage to face challenges, uncertainty, and hard choices,” she said. “At those moments, I hope you will draw on your public service values and your ethics as you approach them and know that you can do remarkable things. Your commitment and courage will continue to have a lasting impact on the world around you and the issues you care about.”
The School of Government and UNC MPA program extend their congratulations and warm wishes to all graduates of the Class of 2024.
The UNC School of Government is proud to share the continued success of its Master of Public Administration program. Now in its 27th year at the School, the UNC-Chapel Hill MPA has once again been named one of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” by U.S. News & World Report in its 2025 rankings.
The program earned a 23rd overall rank in the public affairs category and remains the top-ranked MPA graduate program in North Carolina. This marks the 12th consecutive year UNC MPA has maintained its position among the top 25 public affairs programs in the United States.
In addition, the program retained its prestigious second-ranked position in the local government management specialty area. As part of the public affairs category, U.S. News ranked Carolina programs and specialty areas based in the School of Government and the College of Arts and Sciences’ department of public policy.
The program improved its top standing in the public management and leadership field, improving three spots to rank 10th in the nation. UNC MPA also improved its position in the public finance and budgeting specialty, ranking among the top 20 programs in the field at 18th best in the nation.
“The work we do—through research, advising, and instructing—generates award-winning, transformative scholarship that shapes the practice and future of public administration,” said UNC MPA Program Director Willow S. Jacobson. “ We are grateful to our esteemed public affairs counterparts for recognizing our continued impact and achievements.”
“As always, our faculty, staff, students, and alumni are united in ensuring the program enjoys continued success in the coming year and beyond.”
This year’s list—released April 9, 2024—saw numerous University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate programs earn high rankings. Altogether, 23 programs increased their rankings, including multiple programs in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, School of Nursing, School of Education, Kenan-Flagler Business School, and UNC School of Law.
Find all of the U.S. News & World Report rankings online.
In early March 2024, the UNC MPA program sponsored four current students to participate in the annual NASPAA Student Simulation Challenge. The Challenge invites NASPAA-affiliated program students to participate on teams from other NASPAA-accredited schools in a competition with a cash prize to help solve a particular public sector challenge. This year’s topic was on ‘humanitarian aid and refugee asylum programs’. Paired with other students from Villanova University and Georgia Southern University, UNC MPA students Ben King, Angel Padilla, Lorenzo Pedro, and their teammates won the 2024 NASPAA Simulation Challenge.
UNC MPA Students from left: Angel Padilla, Allie Omens, Lorenzo Pedro, Ben King
Teams were tasked with serving leaders of countries confronted with the sudden arrival of refugees fleeing a war zone. They had to decide which policies to implement to get the best results for their country’s economy, stability, and international reputation. Some policy choices focused on border control, housing, and education, and decisions had to be made while staying within a strict budget. The students also negotiated a regional response, allocated limited resources, and weighed short-terms costs against long-term benefits.
Competition participant Allie Omens, an online UNC MPA student living in Nashville, TN and working for Metro Nashville Waste Services leading outreach efforts, said the experience left her better equipped to navigate tough decisions as a public administrator.
“In our post-simulation debrief with Competition staff, one thing we discussed was the idea of ‘selective equity’. At the start of the simulation, most countries embraced generous aid packages and relaxed asylum policies. But as the simulation went on, the necessity to manage our budgets compelled many of us to scale back assistance. This led to the difficult task of deciding which refugees merited our country’s assistance, creating a genuine moral dilemma. As people striving to be equitable public administrators in real life, facing these simulated choices compelled us to face the discomfort of complex humanitarian crises and other wicked problems.”
As in real-life public sector roles, the students had competing interests and goals as assigned before the competition. The challenge is similar in many other workplaces—how to balance multiple priorities within the group while putting together a collaborative plan to reach a shared goal.
Lorenzo Pedro, another online UNC MPA student from Morganton, NC works as a Legislative Liaison for the North Carolina Department of Transportation and intends to use the MPA degree to better inform himself on collaboration between governments and nonprofit organizations.
He found the competition to be stimulating practice and preparation for a real public sector situation. “Each round offered valuable insights into impactful proposals concerning the immigrants we were helping and our citizens. We also recognized the unpredictable nature of policy implementation, stressing the need for adaptability and flexibility in our approach.”
Each year, the UNC MPA program sponsors students to participate in this theory to practice professional development opportunity.
Looking back on the experience, participant Ben King reflected that “my biggest takeaway from the event was the ability to connect with other students interested in public service from across the country. Everyone was super nice, and we were able to make some good friends who we will still keep in contact with.”
Angel Padilla, another participant in the simulation, summed it up succinctly.
“Through this opportunity, I gained experience making critical decisions under strict time constraints, applied budget management skills through frequently changing costs, and improved my debating skills.”
by Stephen Wright
This year, an MPA student with a record of service and dedication to the public interest was recognized with the prestigious Harvey Beech Scholarship.
As a child welfare advocate and online student in the Master of Public Administration program here at the School of Government, Angelica Foster feels that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and especially the UNC MPA program, was the only choice she could have made in pursuit of her master’s degree. To her, becoming a 2024 recipient of the UNC Harvey Beech Scholarship solidified that choice and builds upon the legacy of the first African American to graduate from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law.
The Harvey Beech Scholarship is awarded annually to UNC-Chapel Hill students interested in careers in law. Recipients are selected based on academic progression, GPA improvement, and contributions to campus life. Only five Carolina students receive the award per year.
The award is named for Harvey Beech, who was born in Kinston, North Carolina, in 1923. He attended Harris Barber College in Raleigh and later Morehouse College in Atlanta alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1950, Beech was asked to join a court case that would ultimately lead to him and four other African American students being admitted to UNC School of Law in 1951. Beech graduated in 1952 and had a successful career as a criminal defense and personal injury lawyer for more than 35 years, becoming a well-regarded civic leader in his hometown of Kinston. Beech would ultimately pass away in 2005, having paved the way for other African American students to attend and transform UNC-Chapel Hill.
Foster saw a kinship with Harvey Beech’s advocacy and serves as a child welfare advocate herself. Her belief that no child should go through the pains of abuse and mistreatment, along with deeply personal experience with the issue, informs her desire to one day serve as a family court judge and be avoice for children. For her, public service means becoming a “force for leadership and change,” rising to occasion and paving the way forward.
For Foster, receiving this scholarship is more than a means of furthering her own public service goals; it is a testament to all that African Americans have done, and must still do to create a place for themselves at Carolina.
“My ancestors built this university but could not attend it,” said Foster. “They built this university and did not have a choice. Harvey Beech paved the way forward.” She also highlights that as a Black woman, “It’s not about glass ceilings, it’s almost like cement; it’s just that much harder. I do this because my ancestors could not, and to pave the way for my own daughter and others to come.”
UNC Master of Public Administration faculty members contribute their talents through a variety of public administration national leadership and service positions. Reflecting the breadth of expertise of its faculty, UNC MPA faculty provide service as committee members, board members, and editors of some of the nation and world’s leading scholarly public sector organizations.
“Our faculty have been extraordinarily successful connecting the School’s model of engaged scholarship with the broader national academic and professional communities,” said UNC School of Government Dean Aimee N. Wall. “As recognized experts in their fields of public administration, they are making practical and significant contributions that not only advance the field but directly benefit our students and North Carolina’s public officials every day.”
Read more about the variety of public service organizations and positions with which UNC MPA faculty engage.
Whitney Afonso, Professor of Public Administration and Government
Editorial board member| Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory; Public Budgeting & Finance
Executive committee member | Association for Budgeting & Financial Management
Finance committee member | Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration
Leisha DeHart-Davis, Professor of Public Administration and Government; Director, Local Government Workplaces Initiative
Founding board member | Consortium of Race, Gender, and Equity Researchers
Board member | Center for Organizational Research and Design, Arizona State University
Editorial board member | The American Review of Public Administration; State and Local Government Review
Willow S. Jacobson, Director, UNC MPA Program; Robert W. Bradshaw Jr. Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Government
Board member | The Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations, American Society for Public Administration
Editorial board member | Public Personnel Management; Review of Public Personnel Administration; Korean Journal of Policy Studies
Jonathan Q. Morgan, Professor of Public Administration and Government
Board of directors | International Economic Development Council
Kimberly L. Nelson, Professor of Public Administration and Government
Board member |The Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management, American Society for Public Administration
Co-editor | State and Local Government Review
Co-chair | Local Government Education Committee, Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration; Graduate Education Committee, International City/County Management Association
Editorial board member| Public Administration Review; The American Review of Public Administration
William C. Rivenbark, Professor of Public Administration and Government
Editorial board member | International Journal of Public Administration; Public Administration Quarterly; Public Administration Review
John B. Stephens, Associate Professor of Public Administration and Government
Steering committee member | University Network for Collaborative Governance
Leisha DeHart-Davis is a professor of public administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also the director of the Local Government Workplaces Initiative at the School of Government. LGWI is a research program that investigates workplace climate and employee engagement. This information aids local government agencies in creating great work environments. DeHart-Davis also researches organizational behavior within the public sector, organizational structure, and workplace incivility. She is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration which is a nonprofit organization that provides expertise on public policy and governance issues. DeHart-Davis is also a two-time published author of Creating Effective Rules in Public Sector Organizations and Understanding Gender Imbalance in Public Sector Leadership. Her research articles have also been published in Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, International Public Management Journal, Administration and Society, and Review of Public Personnel Administration. The article is an interview with Leisha DeHart-Davis about her service through research to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It discusses her career path and her passion for local government. It also highlights her overall dedication to the School of Government and the Carolina community.
Read the full interview written by UNC Research here.
The School of Government is pleased to announce that Willow S. Jacobson has been selected by the National Academy of Public Administration for inclusion in its 2023 Class of Academy Fellows, in recognition of her years of public administration service and expertise.
Jacobson is a distinguished professor of public administration and government at the School, where she also serves as associate dean for graduate studies and director of the UNC Master of Public Administration program. She is an expert on human resource management, leadership development, and organizational theory and behavior. Jacobson’s research has appeared in publications including Public Administration Review and Public Personnel Management.
Previously, she directed the LGFCU Fellows program, which she helped create in 2011 to develop local government leaders in North Carolina. She earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University and joined the School’s faculty in 2003.
She joins fellow faculty members Leisha DeHart-Davis, Kimberly L. Nelson, Carl W. Stenberg, and David N. Ammons (ret.) as current Academy Fellows.
“I am very pleased to welcome Willow Jacobson to the Academy’s 2023 class of Fellows,” said Terry Gerton, President and CEO of the Academy. “Our distinguished Academy Fellows are nationally recognized and respected for their expertise in the field of public administration and Willow is no exception. We proudly welcome this outstanding new class of Fellows that will help advance the Academy vision – a just, fair, and inclusive government that strengthens communities and protects democracy.”
Selection of the Academy’s new Fellows follows a rigorous review of the individual’s contributions to the field of public administration and policy. A Fellows Nominating Committee makes its recommendations to the full Fellowship, which then votes on those individuals to be elected. The 2023 class joins nearly 1,000 Academy Fellows—including former cabinet officers, members of Congress, governors, mayors and state legislators, as well as prominent scholars, business executives, and public administrators.
Induction of the new Fellows will occur during the annual Academy Fall Meeting, which will take place in-person November 1-3 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C., with a focus on “The Grand Challenges in Public Administration.”
This Fall we welcomed 29 new students into the online format of our MPA. They come from different geographic regions, bring varied interests and experiences, and we are so happy they chose us. Read about 3 of them here!
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Alma mater: UNC-Chapel Hill
Degree: Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy
Where were you before you joined the MPA program?
I attend the online MPA@UNC program from Nashville, Tennessee where I lead education and outreach efforts for Metro Nashville Waste Services, a division of metropolitan government. I develop waste reduction programs and promote resilient waste, recycling, and composting collection for Nashville residents.
I was born and raised in San Diego, California and I attribute my passion for local environmental regulation from growing up surrounded by these policies in my own community. I took this passion with me to Chapel Hill when I attended Carolina for my undergraduate studies in Public Policy and Environmental Studies. I would not be where I am without the expertise and guidance from UNC Public Policy faculty, and I am thrilled to be returning virtually to Carolina to further my skills for public service.
What are your areas of interest in the program?
I was drawn to the MPA@UNC program because of its clear focus on building public service leaders. I have already enjoyed meeting fellow public servants in my first semester classes – some of my classmates are city planners, librarians, civil affairs officers, municipal information technology managers, and elected officials. I enjoy opportunities to get to know my classmates and learn from their specialized experiences within public service.
I also plan to concentrate in Local Government, which includes coursework such as City and County Management, Productivity Improvement in Local Government, and Governmental and other Nonprofit Accounting and Reporting. I look forward to learning a deeper understanding of local government structure and function through this coursework.
Why did you decide to get your MPA at UNC?
Through my combination of undergraduate and professional work experience in waste reduction, I envision a career path for myself championing solid waste regulation to serve communities across the United States. The MPA@UNC curriculum provides the academic and public service framework that will position me for greater professional success in this field.
It is an honor to be furthering my public administration education at my alma mater and the country’s first public university. I value that Carolina faculty are committed to understanding and improving government.
Hometown: Richmond, Virginia
Alma mater: Hampton University
Degree: Bachelor’s degree in Finance
Where were you before you joined the MPA program?
Before I joined the MPA program I was doing a few things. First, I am currently a Bank Examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Second, I am a JV Football Coach at Glen Allen High School. For me this is my day-to-day life, and those two roles definitely keep me busy.
What are your areas of interest in the program?
There are many things about the program that interest me but so far my intro to public administration course has kept my attention the most. To see the connection between how governments interact with each other has super interesting and has opened my eyes to the roles we can play in public administration.
Why did you decide to get your MPA at UNC?
I decided to get my MPA from UNC because I have always wanted to be a Tarheel. My parents used to bring to the football games as a kid and I loved the Tarheel spirit. In addition to that, my mentor at the Federal Reserve went through the MPA program here and loved it! So I truly only had one option.
Hometown: Royal Oak, Michigan
Alma mater: Michigan State University
Degree: Bachelor’s degree in Social Relations and Policy
Where were you before you joined the MPA program?
I graduated from Michigan State University in 2014 with an undergraduate degree in Social Relations and Public Policy. I then began working at a high school in Detroit through the College Advising Corps, an AmeriCorps program. After my AmeriCorps service ended, I moved to Washington, DC, where I began working in program operations at the Relay Graduate School of Education—a nonprofit institution of higher education that provides a variety of professional development programs to teachers and school leaders across the country. I now live back home in Metro Detroit.
What are your areas of interest in the program?
I have greatly enjoyed the trajectory of my career thus far, working in direct community outreach, program operations, and partnership development. I am eager to get better at the work that I have been doing and to learn how to be a stronger leader at public service institutions. The MPA@UNC covers topics that I am interested in—for example, how can I be a strong organizational leader, particularly in the nonprofit space? How can I better collect, interpret, and react to data? How can I be a good steward of public dollars?
Why did you decide to get your MPA at UNC?
The MPA@UNC was my top choice when looking at graduate programs. This program is offered online, which would allow me to stay in Michigan, stay in my current role, and ensure a strong alumni network both in and out of North Carolina. The interactive structure of the program ensures that I will have the opportunity to engage in the material, not just complete asynchronous assignments. Finally, I was excited at the opportunity to visit campus and meet fellow students at an Immersion weekend on campus.
As the University prepares to welcome back faculty, staff, and students to campus, the School of Government recently checked in with many of its own faculty to find out how they continued reading, listening, and learning during the slower, warmer months of the year.
Hear below from our faculty about what books, publications, and podcasts caught their attention this summer.
Melanie Crenshaw, Teaching Assistant Professor
“This summer, I have been reading The Jurisprudence of Sport: Sports and Games as Legal Systems by Mitchell N. Berman and Richard D. Friedman. The book explores the intersection of sports and the law to learn about and teach legal systems. “Formalized sports systems at every level are institutions designed to facilitate and regulate complex behaviors, principally by means of formal rules promulgated in advance by rulemaking bodies and enforced by independent adjudicators.” (Berman, Friedman) I became interested in the idea of using sports to teach the law because I teach rules of civil procedure to magistrates who are primarily not lawyers. The rules of sports and games give them context to which they can anchor their new knowledge of legal rules of procedure.
“To improve my teaching, I often listen to the podcast ‘The Cult of Pedagogy‘ by Jennifer Gonzalez. The podcast was recommended to me by a friend who is himself an excellent instructor with the NC Department of Public Instruction. The episodes explore topics such as how to improve teaching with PowerPoint and how to keep students engaged. I have applied what I have learned from the podcast when designing my courses.”
Kirsten Leloudis, Assistant Professor of Public Law and Government
“This summer, I’ve been listening to episodes of ‘This Podcast Will Kill You’ when I go on my evening walks. It’s a woman-led podcast that delivers highly detailed and heavily researched episodes on disease ecology. The podcast team has also recently branched out to include episodes on the history and science of certain medications. As someone who would’ve loved to have been an epidemiologist in another life, I’m obsessed! My favorite episodes thus far are the ones on rabies (season 2) and on Tylenol (season 6).
“I’ve also recently been re-reading Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues by Paul Farmer, which focuses on inequitable access to treatment for tuberculosis and HIV for those living in poverty around the world. I first read this book in high school and it’s what sparked my interest in public health. Although Farmer’s book is over two decades old, his analysis of the systems that inform who gets access to health care and who does not is still relevant and on point.”
Ricardo S. Morse, Professor of Public Administration and Government; Director, LGFCU Fellows Program
“I’ve been listening to a lot of episodes from the ‘Phronesis: Practical Wisdom for Leaders’ podcast, hosted by Scott Allen, a management professor at John Carroll University. It is easily my top-recommended leadership podcast and features interviews with the best leadership scholars from around the world. It’s great to hear conversations with the authors of the research I read and use in the classroom, and those conversations often spark ideas for how I can improve what I’m doing on the leadership development front here at the School.
“As far as my summer fun reading, I recently finished Bono’s memoir Surrender, and found it to be so much more than expected. Sure, I grew up with U2 and have been a fan since the early 80s, so I was bound to like it. But I didn’t expect the great writing with many laugh-out-loud moments, interspersed with some truly deep and poignant wisdom. It was a great read. One of the best books I’ve read in quite some time.”
Kristi A. Nickodem, Robert W. Bradshaw Jr. Distinguished Term Assistant Professor of Public Law and Government
“This summer I’ve been reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Demon Copperhead. It is a coming-of-age story set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, where the young hero faces poverty, domestic violence, involvement with the foster care system, and addiction. Kingsolver paints a vivid portrait of a childhood profoundly shaped by the opioid crisis, which has disproportionately impacted the Appalachia region.
“As someone who grew up in the Appalachian mountains, I particularly appreciate how Kingsolver interrogates the economic exploitation of the region and challenges reductive stereotypes about the people who live there. Though the novel is punctuated by tragedy, it is also a compelling tale of resilience, humor, and imagination in the face of overwhelming adversity.”
Aimee N. Wall, Dean
“I have a stack of leadership and team-building books on my bedside table these days and they all have helpful insights. My favorite so far is Radical Candor by Kim Scott.
“I was drawn to it initially because of the focus on honesty, communication, and trust. But the core message is also deeply connected to our humanity: how we show up for ourselves and how we show up for others. While this book is included on many leadership book lists for women, the messages are truly universal.”