UNO School of Public Administration Annual Report | 2020-2021

ANNUAL REPORT 2020-2021

THE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AT UNO HAS A WORLD-CLASS FACULTY. WE ATTRACT STUDENTS FROM ALL OVER .

WE GIVE A RIGOROUS, RELEVANT EDUCATION. WE ARE NATIONALLY RANKED, LOCALLY ENGAGED.

2018-2019

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MAVERICK STRONG The School of Public Administration (SPA) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) offers award-winning, nationally-ranked programs on campus and online.

Whether it is preparing the next generation of pilots, emergency managers, public and nonprofit professionals, or honing the skills of public managers--preparing students for public service careers is what we do.

This is a highlight of our many accomplishments during the 2020 - 2021 academic year.

Enjoy the read!

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Craig Maher, Ph.D.

Director, School of Public Administration University of Nebraska at Omaha

Hello and welcome to our School of Public Administration.

No doubt 2020 will be known as the year we endured one of the worst pandemics in history. In response, the School of Public Administration (SPA) shifted courses to virtual platforms and diligently worked to show compassion to and engagement with our students. When we had to teach on campus, for instance with students taking flight instruction, we followed protocols to ensure the safety of students and instructors.

In addition to ensuring the safety of faculty, staff, and students, I am proud of the work done by faculty to use the experience as a “teaching moment.” For instance, in Fall 2020, we offered the special topics course, “Pandemics, Protests and Policy.” The course was led by Drs. Tara Bryan and Jodi Benenson while faculty throughout the School and College taught weekly modules on topics where they were the content experts. Challenging content was covered, it offered a safe space for difficult conversations and the course was highly rated by students. My hope is that it served as a template for future special topics courses.

We also celebrated the 25th anniversary of SPA’s PhD program.

The celebration consisted of three events: the first focused on the Program’s history (moderated by Dr. Christine Reed). The second was a presentation and discussion led by keynote speaker, Dr. Susan T. Gooden, Dean, VCU L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University on the topic, “25 years of understanding and enhancing public service in a democratic and diverse society.” The third event was a round table discussion among faculty, students, and program alumni on social equity in Public Administration.

SPA’s commitment to public service also enabled us to partner with the Volcker Alliance’s NextGen Service Partnership. The result is a new undergraduate minor in cross-sector collaborative leadership being offered in Fall 2021 in partnership with UNO’s College of Business. UNO was one of only four universities nationally to be invited to be part of this inaugural group. The minor prepares students to become professionals with a sense of social responsibility and civic engagement. The minor also complements our undergraduate degrees in EMDS and Aviation Administration, and minors in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management.

WELCOME Affairs Review, and Journal of Public Administration and Theory. Faculty also conducted more than 525 hours of professional services to local, national, and international organizations.

The School excellence has once again been recognized by our peers.

The latest U.S. News and World Report ranks our MPA program 28th in the nation. Just as impressive, we were ranked 8th in public budgeting and finance, 11th in local government, 12th in nonprofit management, and 24th in public management and leadership. According to CPACS Dean Dr. John Bartle, “It’s no surprise to see UNO’s Public Affairs programs ranked alongside institutions like Texas A&M, Florida State, Wisconsin, and Kentucky,” Bartle said. “The College of Public Affairs and Community Service at UNO has a world-class faculty, we attract students from all over and we give them a rigorous, relevant education.

And while we are nationally ranked, we are also locally engaged: our faculty and students work closely with community partners, nonprofits, and governments.”

This past year also exposed Americans to several important social issues. SPA faculty and staff stated in no uncertain terms our condemnation of the violent mob attack on our National Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., by individuals associated with white supremacist, male chauvinist, antisemitic, and Islamophobic groups.

We also stood against the unprecedented rise in anti-Asian hate and unfair treatment of all non-white members of our society.

I am proud to be a member of SPA. I appreciate and respect the efforts of our students, faculty, and staff. We live our mission and vision: we serve to strengthen public service in a democratic and diverse society, and we aspire to be a pre-eminent resource for public service.

We have much to be proud of. Here’s to another exciting and fulfilling year in the School of Public Administration. Please be safe and take care.

Despite the challenges caused by the pandemic, SPA faculty were highly productive. SPA faculty published more than 50 pieces in academic journals and books, including top public administration journals such as Public Administration Review, The American Review of Public Administration, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Urban UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 3

CONNECTIONS

UNO’s network of Mavericks stretches across Omaha and beyond.

You’ll have access to exceptional programs that lead to internships, careers and lifelong relationships within a thriving, global community of Mavericks. At UNO, sharing ideas and discovering your purpose are limited only by your imagination.

SOME OF OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS 2020/21 Faculty conducted a total of 526 hours worth of Professional Services to a variety of public and nonprofit organizations.

8 Faculty members were active on campus as committee members or guest speakers through departments and organizations on campus.

6 Faculty were interviewed by variety of media outlets.

68 publications, published across 56 publishing platforms. Top publishers are: Journal of Public Affairs Education, Lexington/Lexington Books, Public Budgeting & Finance, Routledge Publisher & Social Science Quarterly. Each publisher has published two or more of the School of Public Administration Faculty.

Alumni & faculty have published 5 articles and chapters in books together. Ph.D. students and faculty have published 3 articles and chapters in books.

Pro Bono work world-wide includes research for Ouko Community Initiatives in Muhoroni, Kenya and the Thornburg Group in New Mexico; as well as data analysis for Ralston, Nebraska.

SPA STAFF

Nicki Allen, Student Services Associate, EMDS; Sarah Krafka, Staff Assistant, TMES; Ciera Mosley, Academic and Career Advisor, SPA; Megan Nelson, Communications Specialist, Instructor, CPACS; Lyndsey Rice, Academic Advisor/Program Coordinator, EMDS; Dr. Meagan Van Gelder, Academic Program Coordinator, SPA; Sara Martin, Student Services, AI; Amy Kelley, Office Associate, AI; Gayle Lokey, Grant Associate, AI; Kylie Robinson, Student Services Specialist, AI; Melissa Wragge. Grants Program Manager, NASA Space Grant; Michaela Lucas, Associate Director, NASA Space Grant; Amelia Tangeman, Grants Specialist, NASA Space Grant

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A COMMUNITY OF SPA FACULTY

EXPERTS

Dr. Craig S. Maher, Public Administration Professor, Director of SPA Dr. John R. Bartle, Dean of CPACS, Professor in Public Administration and Urban Studies Dr. Jodi Benenson, Assistant Professor in Public Administration Dr. Tara Kolar Bryan, MPA Program Chair, Associate Professor in Public Administration Dr. Yu-Che Chen, Isaacson Professorship, Professor in Public Administration and Director, Digital Governance and Analytics Lab Dr. Carol Ebdon, Professor in Public Administration Dr. Angela M. Eikenberry, D.B. and Paula Varner Professor, Doctoral Program Chair, Professor in Public Administration Dr. Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga, Assistant Professor in Public Administration Dr. James Harrold, Instructor & Student Services Coordinator, SPA Dr. Nuri Heckler, Assistant Professor in Public Administration Dr. Trang Hoang, Assistant Professor in Public Administration Dr. A. Bryce Hoflund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of NE, Chair of Health Care Administration and Policy, Associate Professor in Public Administration Dr. Danbee Lee, Assistant Professor in Public Administration Dr. Jooho Lee, Associate Professor in Public Administration and Associate Director of Digital Governance and Analytics Lab Dr. Thomas Jamieson, Assistant Professor in EMDS Dr. Gary Steven Marshall, Professor in Public Administration Dr. Njoki Mwarumba, Assistant Professor in EMDS Dr. Namkyung Oh, Chair and Professor in EMDS Dr. Daniel Scheller, Chair and Associate Professor in Urban Studies Carol Redwing, Instructor in EMDS Edouardo Zendejas, J.D., Lecturer and Director of TMS Jordan L. Zendejas, J.D., Instructor and Associate Director of TMS

SPA EMERITUS FACULTY

Dr. Robert Blair, Professor, Public Administration Dr. Richard C. Box, Professor Emeritus, Distinguished Fellow of Public Affairs, Park University Dr. Dale Anthony Krane, Professor Emeritus, Professor in Public Administration Dr. Patrick D. O’Neil, Associate Professor in Public Administration, EMDS Dr. B.J. Reed, Senior Vice Chancellor, Academic & Student Affairs, Professor in Public Administration Dr. Christine Mary Reed, Professor in Public Administration Dr. Ethel Williams, Professor Emeritus Dr. Densel Acheson, Professor Emeritus, Instructor and Community Service Associate

PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS

Ellen Freeman-Wakefield, Director of Professional Programs, SPA Dr. Mary Hamilton — Consultant, NE Certified Public Manager Program® and Midlands Superintendents Academy, Senior Executive in Residence

AVIATION INSTITUTE

Dr. Scott Tarry, Director, Aviation Institute, Professor Dr. Chenyu Huang, Assistant Professor, Aviation Institute Dr. Becky Lutte, Associate Professor, Aviation Institute Skip Bailey, Flight Training Coordinator, Aviation Institute Theodore Johnson, Instructor, Aviation Institute Eric Taylor, Instructor, Aviation Institute Scott Vlasek, Lecturer, Aviation Institute

SPA ADJUNCT INSTRUCTORS Susan Ogborn, SPA Dr. Sandra Sattler Weber, SPA Dr. Felicia Sullivan, SPA Megan Nelson, SPA Dr. Barbara Hewins-Maroney, SPA

EMDS ADJUNCT INSTRUCTORS

Robb Gottsch, Battalion Chief, Omaha Fire Department Jason Graber, Battalion Fire Chief-Executive Officer to the Fire and EMS Chief, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Alan Joos, Training Manager, Training Division, NE State Fire Marshall Dan Mallory, Fire Chief, Bennington Fire Department Jim Palensky, Drill Master (retired), Omaha Fire Department Dennis Snook, Manager of Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity at Omaha Public Power District

AVIATION ADJUNCT INSTRUCTORS

Todd Andrew Bonkiewicz, MPA, Director of Integrated Communications, Salvation Army; Elizabeth D’Allura, MPA, Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration Terry Kennefick, ATCS, Federal Aviation Administration Joseph Kirby, PhD, Performance Management, LLC Mike Lemkpe, Customer Business Manager, Honeywell Michaela Lucas, MS, Associate Director, NASA NE Space Grant Kelly McManus, MPA, Operations Supervisor, Omaha Airport Authority Jenny Rancourt, Aircraft Maintenance Scheduling Coordinator, Jet Linx Joe Rotterdam, AAAE, Director of Air Service Development, Pittsburgh International Airport Patrick Ryan, CFII, Flight Instructor Mark Sheldon, Meteorologist, USAF retired Jacob Tewes, J.D., Commercial Counsel, Skydio UNO’s School of Public Administration (SPA) houses these programs: Masters of and Ph.D. in Public Administration, Aviation Institute (AI), Emergency Managment & Disaster Science (EMDS), Master of Science in Urban Studies (MUS), Graduate Certificates and Professional Programs, and minors in Tribal Management and Emergency Services (TMS). The SPA is in the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS).

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MAVERICK STRONG

AVIATION U N O AV I AT I O N I N S T I T U T E 2 0 2 0 / 2 0 2 1

ACCOMPLISHMENTS Major Awards/Honors

Dr. Becky Lutte- 99s Award of Achievement for Contribution to Aviation.

UNO’s Aviation Institute (UAS program) was selected to be one of institutions of the FAA UAS Collegiate Training Initiative.

Scott Vlasek, Aviation Institute Lecturer - Alpha Eta Rho National President.

Scott Nugent- Alpha Eta Rho National Student President.

Community Partners

The Unmanned Aircraft systems (UAS) program collaborates with Omaha Drone Services LLC. on UAS student internship (Joey Poppleton has been working part-time with ODS for over one year).

UAS program collaborates with NDOT Division of Aeronautics on UAS student internship of UAS based airport inspection (Jason Chan and John Koch) .

Burke Air & Space Academy- Student built plane took to the sky this year.

Student Spotlight

Alex Nguyen, graduated in December 2020 and continued his service in USMC. Alex won first prize of 2019-2020 ACRP competition, was hired as student researcher and test pilot in a research project of runway incursion prevention technology funded by the ACRP. He was also an awardee for multiple UNO scholarships.

UNO Alumnus Spotlight

Meet Ryan Goertzen, Vice President Maintenance Workforce Development at AAR, a leading aviation services provider to commercial airlines and governments worldwide. He oversees AAR’s various workforce based initiatives and was responsible for the development the EAGLE Career Pathway Program. Mr. Goertzen is also the President of Choose Aerospace, whose purpose is to unite the aerospace industry to implement solutions to the workforce shortage.

He holds a B.S. in Aviation and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

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Ryan has had an industrious career, thanks in part to his education at UNO. He began his career as a pilot instructor for Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation. In 2005 Ryan transitioned to the maintenance side of the airline as Air Wisconsin’s Manager of

Ryan Goertzen Featured Aviation & MPA Alumnus Maintenance Training and ASAP Manager. He then worked with Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in 2011, holding the positions of vice president of education, president of Spartan’s Tulsa campuses and corporate officer. He also spent three years at AAR Corp managing the training and ASAP programs in Oklahoma City.

Ryan was also ATEC president from 2014-2018.

Ryan is married and has three sons.

INSTITUTE

UNO is home to one of the nation’s best-kept secrets in the sky: its Aviation Institute. Since its inception in 1990, the Institute offers students flight instruction and education in the many facets of aviation such as air traffic control, airport management, ground operations and security.

NASA NEBRASKA SPACE GRANT Virtual Space Camp 2020

The NASA Nebraska Space Grant delivered a Virtual Space Camp in the summer of 2020. The Nebraska Space Ambassadors organized activities around the Mars Perseverance launch. The rover has since landed on Mars and is sending back amazing images of the Red Planet. There were 691 campers and 119 teachers from 29 states, Puerto Rico, and even a few international campers. The first 250 registered families from Nebraska received a free mailed kit that included all the supplies and some NASA goodies.

By the Numbers:

Blessed with funding this year: NASA EPSCoR funding this year of $150,000, with $175,000 expected next year.

New NASA Nebraska Space Grant funding of $700,000, with $800,000 expected next year.

More than $150,000 has been awarded to 40 NASA Nebraska Space Grant student fellows across the state this year.

Seven students (to date) have been placed in paid internships at NASA Ames Research Center, NASA JPL, Honeybee Robotics, and the Nebraska Division of Aeronautics.

NASA Nebraska EPSCoR Highlights

The NASA Nebraska EPSCoR program funded Seed Research MiniGrants to faculty members at Creighton University, the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. These mini-grants are intended to grow productive collaborative relationships with NASA researchers to stimulate cooperative scientific inquiry that contributes to NASA’s strategic research and technology priorities.

Dr. Congrui Jin, UNL Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is researching construction of locally available materials on Mars in combination with the use of genetically engineered fungi as building agents. Synthetic microbiology toolkits are used to engineer fungi to create useful minerals via biomineralization and grow them into living building blocks that could bring our extraterrestrial buildings to life. Engineered fungal cells are nanomachines that constantly sense their environment, draw from a plethora of energy sources and simplistic molecular building blocks, and refashion the molecules into new structurally and functionally more complex materials. If successful, rather than transporting construction materials from Earth to Mars with incredibly high costs, fungi could rapidly grow new structures for interplanetary colonization based on in-situ raw materials on Mars.

Partnership with Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC) The NASA Nebraska Space Grant has a long-time partnership with the Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC) which serves the Santee and Omaha Nations through 3 campuses in Nebraska. Last year, we took two faculty and one student from NICC to Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to establish collaborations with NASA for the NICC Prairie Restoration and Climate Change Projects. This trip resulted in the development of a dedicated virtual collaboration space on Microsoft Teams where we have met virtually on a regular basis to continue discussions and make progress towards advancing NICC’s research capabilities. This collaboration has led to partnerships with MUREP, DOE, DOD, USDA, & NEFA. NICC is implementing drone technology to expand their research with the help of Chris Cruz, National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence; Bonnie Murray, MUREP; and Matthew Pierce, Goddard Institute of Space Studies at Columbia University. In addition to these collaborations, the NASA Nebraska Space Grant has funded many student fellowships at NICC’s three campuses.

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Becky Lutte, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Aviation

The

March, 2021 marked a full year since the world felt the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few industries have been as hard hit as the aviation industry.

March also is Women’s History Month and there is no doubt that whatever the future holds for the airline industry, there is a growing number of women pursuing careers in the field.

UNO’s own Becky Lutte, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Aviation, is an expert in recruitment and retention of women in aviation, as well as aviation safety policy. Last year, Lutte was also asked to join the newly-formed Federal Aviation Administration Women in Aviation Advisory Board.

As we look back at the last year and toward the future of safe travel, here are some observations and predictions provided by Prof. Lutte.

UNO’s Becky Lutte, Ph.D.: the airline industry is down, but not out as the nation and world begin to recover.

When will it be safe to fly again?

My short answer is that it’s safe to fly now. The airline industry and airports have taken great steps to create the safest environment that they can. I’ve personally traveled a couple times during the pandemic and it’s really all about passenger compliance - making sure everyone is following the rules and being aware of what’s expected from us.

I think the vaccine is going to further enhance people’s comfort level of getting out there and traveling again by air.

What should airline travelers be prepared for if they do decide to fly?

I think general best practices for travel at this time are really just knowing and following the guidelines in place. Things like wearing a mask and physical distancing, especially during the pre-boarding phase, if you can, and when you get on the plane as well. My standard is that I board later if I can because I’m able to distance in line better.

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Many airlines provide antibacterial wipes when you enter the airplane and I always wipe down everything from the seatbelt to the arm rest to the upper buttons and tray table. So, really it’s just following protocols and being smart about it.

Do you think proof of the COVID vaccine will be required to travel by air in the future?

I don’t anticipate a vaccine requirement for domestic travel. I think this will remain a bigger priority for international travel.

One of the things I’m really fascinated about that we are seeing is the development of a digital health passport, for aviation in particular. Basically it is an app that allows passengers to quickly see what the COVID requirements are for the country they are traveling to and also upload their COVID test results or vaccination records.

If you want to talk short-term versus long-term consequences of COVID-19, this could be the long-term new normal.

MAVERICK STRONG: AVIATION

Future of Flight in a Post-COVID World What do you think the other long-term impacts to the airline industry will be?

Well, COVID-19 has decimated the passenger-carrying industry worldwide, without a doubt. Here are just a couple of statistics: Global losses for airlines in 2020 were $118 billion; overall demand for international airline services was down 66 percent in 2020 compared to 2019; and at the peak of the downturn, we were close to 50 percent of planes being parked because there just hasn’t been demand.

The forecast for an industry comeback is about 2023 or 2024, to get back to pre-COVID levels of travel. The future still looks strong.

Boeing is forecasting the need for over 43,000 new aircraft deliveries globally over the next 20 years.

How about parts of the industry that aren’t focused on passenger travel?

There are certainly areas in the industry that are actually doing better than the passenger-carrying side. One example is private jet transport, which is used often for business or corporate travel.

More people are exploring this option for the security, flexibility, and convenience.

The cargo-carrying market has also fared much better than the passenger-carrying market. In 2020 just over 2 billion people worldwide shopped online during the pandemic and a large percentage of those goods are getting there by air. Just recently, January 2021, air cargo demand returned to pre-COVID levels for the first time.

What does the future look like for aviation students?

Actually, students today are really well positioned, especially those just starting in our program because they are going to be hitting the market at a time when you should see that hiring start to ramp up again. I would definitely encourage any current students or future students who are interested to stay the course.

goals, they are going to need to tap into a large community and that is going to include women and underrepresented groups.

The industry continues efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce. As evidence, I am a member of the FAA Women in Aviation Advisory Board working to increase the numbers of women in the field. So, yes, there are many opportunities for women and I think this is a great time for women in aviation, perhaps the best I’ve seen in the 30 years or so that I’ve been a part of the industry.

What other issues, predictions, or trends should people be on the lookout for?

I think one of the big changes for passengers, will be awareness of what travel restrictions may exist in other countries going forward and what our responsibilities are to meet the requirements a particular country has in place.

I’m very excited about the innovations occurring in the field. The integration of UAS and the introduction of electric vertical takeoff and landing (EVTOL) aircraft are a few examples. New technology not only makes the industry more efficient and enhances safety, it also leads to more environmentally focused, sustainable operations.

And, finally, the COVID impact has been a slow burn in that it’s going to be a little while before we see air travel comeback. The industry has always been cyclical and so you always have downturns and upswings. While this is one of the biggest downturns we’ve seen, it will return as it always does and I am excited about the future of the industry.

“Students today are really well positioned, especially those just starting in our program because they are going to be hitting the market at a time when you should see that hiring start to ramp up again.”

Long-term, the same increased need for pilots is going to be there because demand will return combined with a heavy number of retirements over the next 10 years, which is going to create a demand for pilots. In fact, the Boeing forecast says that there will be a demand for 763,000 new pilots worldwide over the next 20 years.

Given your expertise in industry trends, especially for hiring more women, will there be any impact due to COVID towards diversifying who works in these fields?

As I mentioned, the industry is going to need to meet workforce demand in many areas: flight, maintenance, engineering, management, finance, airport operations, and so on. To reach these UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 9

MAVERICK STRONG

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND DISASTER SCIENCE

The Bachelor of Emergency Management and Disaster Science is intended to academically prepare students for employment in the public sector at the local, state, or federal level of government, in numerous agencies, while performing emergency planning, mitigation, response, recovery, and prevention. With a degree in Emergency Management and Disaster Science, students are equipped to plan and respond with the best.

UNO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT 2020-2021

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Dr. Tom Jamieson Publications

Cortés, J.J., & Jamieson, T. (2020). Incorporating Research Design in Public Diplomacy: The Role of Listening to Foreign Publics. International Journal of Communication, 14, 1214-1231.

Van Belle, D.A., & Jamieson, T. (2020). Imperial Pandemicide. Social Science Quarterly, 101 (5), 19952000.

Jamieson, T. (2020). ‘Go Hard, Go Early’: Preliminary Lessons from New Zealand’s Response to COVID-19. The American Review of Public Administration, 50 (6-7), 598-605.

Conference Papers & Presentations International Studies Association Annual Convention, Honolulu, HI, 2020 [Canceled].

American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, 2020.

USC Center for Economic and Social Research COVID-19 Work in Progress Conference, Virtual Meeting, 2020.

Dr. Namkyung Oh Publications

Oh, N., & Lee, J. (2020). Changing landscape of emergency management research: A systematic review with bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 101658. (SSCI) Oh, N. (2020). Collective Decision-Making for Developing Emergency Management Capabilities. International Journal of Emergency Services (SCOPUS).

Lee, J., Hoornbeek, J., & Oh, N. (2020). Social Cognitive Orientations, Social Support, and Physical Activity among at-Risk Urban Children: Insights from a Structural Equation Model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(18), 6745. (SSCI Elected as ASPA Section on Emergency and Crisis Management Board member.

Ed Zendejas

Ed was part of a US Commission of Civil Rights panel that was put on by Dr. Jonathan Alvarado.

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Top Five 2020-21 Accomplishments

Hired Dr. Namkyung Oh as program chair.

Gained three new internship opportunities for students. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Pottawattamie County Emergency Management, and the Omaha Correctional Center.

Published six publications from two faculty.

39 students earned a BS in EMGT in 2020/2021.

16 students earned a certificate in Tribal Management and Emergency Services in 2020/2021.

Njoki Mwarumba, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, EMDS

Dr. Njoki Mwarumba, Assistant Professor with UNO’s Emergency Management and Disaster Science shares her perspective as we work through COVID its many impacts on the field of Emergency Management.

COVID Through the Eyes of the Public Servant Do you have any advice for current UNO students or future high school students who may be unsure of a career in emergency management post-COVID? What implications did COVID have on the field of emergency management?

Emergency management (EM) professionals initially had significant rates of infection due to the physically centralized working model in an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). They had to rethink service delivery and decision-making processes. De-centralizing work functions, telecommuting and phased in office teams were adopted to keep functions going.

Emergency management as a profession is quite dependent on a political environment supportive of mitigation and preparedness for successful response and recovery. With COVID-19 and the challenges of resource (PPE, personnel), supply chain impediments, social-political unrest, etc. EM response mode - dependent on a national response framework - has had to re-structure and straddle potentially volatile situations.

Another important topic to the field of emergency management was rethinking seasonal disaster management in a pandemic.

“Management of ‘regular’ seasonal disasters has had to continue within a pandemic. Historical operational models have had to adapt to a minimal human contact model. For example, the wildfires in 2020 in California: response team management and operations had to shift from a central camp approach to smaller groups operations,” shares Dr. Mwarumba.

Historically, the community has physically rallied for preparedness and response. We are having to rethink and support ongoing preparedness and response with very limited physical engagement and increased non-physical collective support.

In addition, Mwarumba shares that volunteers are sparse, as those most vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19, (think about the elderly) may not be able to help due to increased vigilance and isolation.

This has resulted in a very limited volunteer base nationwide.

Emergency Management is the profession involved in preparing for, and coordinating response to major events like tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, flooding, pandemics, cybersecurity attacks, terrorist attacks, infrastructure failures, etc. Emergency managers work with fellow emergency managers from local, tribal, state, federal and international agencies, and the private sector to mitigate and prepare for major disasters, as well as participate in supporting recovery. The work is focused on helping people prepare for disasters at the family level as well as at community and institutional levels. The work is very diverse and extends beyond disaster response. It is a profession that is very important for supporting families and communities before, during, and after disasters. The role of emergency managers during COVID-19 will include working alongside healthcare providers in various capacities by organizing points of vaccine distribution, as well as preparing for the ‘regular’ disasters such as winter storms, flooding, tornadoes, and the like.

Emergency Management as a college major is available at the undergraduate, master, and doctorate levels. UNO’s undergraduate population has the option of earning a greater understanding of the field via the bachelor’s degree, minor, and certificate offerings.

UNO is also the proud home to the only Tribal Management and Emergency Services Program nationally. Emergency Management scholarship is central to understanding the history, current practice, policies, research, and organizing principles of disaster management.

Given the global challenge with the pandemic response, Emergency managers will be integral in supporting ongoing response as well as recovery from COVID-19, and preparing us all for future challenges which are inescapable but can be met with resilience.

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UNO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT 2020-2021

ACCOMPLISHMENTS New Internship Goes to Dominic Donnay

The Emergency Management and Disaster Science (EMDS) program is excited to announce a new internship opportunity with Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Dominic Donnay is the first EMDS student to intern with DHHS under the direct supervision of Brian Madison, Incident Command Preparedness and Emergency Response Administrator. Donnay is currently pursuing a double major in Emergency Management and Business Administration and is interested in building partnerships to develop business continuity plans.

As the incident command preparedness and emergency response intern, Donnay assists with developing state and local plans for the protection of civilian populations and the economic well-being of the state within emergency preparedness and response activities.

“The day-to-day routine of my internship is constantly changing as the state continues to respond to the needs from the pandemic and coordinate resources down to the local level.

I have been fortunate to be a part of stakeholder meetings with Local Health Directors, Emergency Response Coordinators, and DHHS State Officials working on prevention, allocation, and vaccine distribution,” says Donnay.

In addition to developing state and local plans, Donnay has also assisted with writing Emergency Operation Plans (EOPs), participating in various tabletop exercises, attending emergency planning meetings, as well as networking and building relationships across the state.

When asked to give advice for current and future emergency management interns, Donnay said, “Keep an open mind for wherever you decide to intern at. Being in an intern position gives you the unique lens to understand what you have learned in the classroom and how it is applied to the real-world.”

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Dominic Donnay

MAVERICK

EMDS STUDENT

Meet Emergency Management Student Brant Miller Brant Miller is a May 2021 recipient of a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Management with concentrations and minors in both Fire Service Management and Public Administration and Management. .

Brant plans to continue working with the Council Bluffs Fire Department. He looks forward to using his knowledge to be a better member of the department and prepare for promotional opportunities. Brant is also considering graduate school and completing a Master’s in Emergency Management.

What was most beneficialto you about your Emergency Management degree?

The most beneficial thing about my Emergency Management Degree is what I have learned in my course of study. I can apply it every day in my career as a firefighter. We use the Incident Command System for every incident, not always in great depth, but I know what the next steps are and what my role is. I am prepared to do what needs to be done within the system. Everything that I have studied will be or is currently beneficial as I move through my career. My Public Administration minor has also better prepared me to further serve my volunteer department and in my capacity as Mayor of Oakland.

STRONG

PROFILES

How will your degree benefit you in your career?

My degree will benefit me in several ways as firefighter. The more I move up the ladder, the more I’ll start using the things we have learned in class. For example, on a recent promotional exam that I took for the Captain rank, there were several questions about ICS, leadership, strategy, mitigation etc. With my minor in Fire Service Management, I have learned about several other aspects of the fire service that were very beneficial when it came to testing as well.

What did you enjoy most during your time in the Emergency Management program?

I have enjoyed studying with and learning from like minded people.

When I can study something that interests me from instructors who share those same interests it makes the whole process more enjoyable. The interactions with classmates and faculty have been positive and I’ve learned a lot from both.

What was your favorite thing about the Emergency Management program?

My favorite part about the program was the ability to continue to work and finish my degree. I’m a nontraditional student. Being 38, a fulltime firefighter with a family and busy life, it was really a great option for me. I think that the ability to obtain a degree in a field of study that will benefit me in my current job and in the future is what drew me to the program. It wasn’t always easy, but I’m very thankful for the opportunity that this program afforded me.

What was your favorite Emergency Management class and why?

My favorite Emergency Management class was Disaster Response and Recovery. As a first responder, that is what I do. Every day I respond to people in times of crisis or need. Usually on a small scale, but learning about response and recovery on a large scale was something that really interested me and showed me how I could help the most when needed. The class had my interest from the beginning and I truly enjoyed the class from start to finish.

What advice do you have for students considering the Emergency Management field?

My advice for students considering Emergency Management would be to look into the degree program that is offered by UNO. There are so many different opportunities in the Emergency Management field that there is something for everyone. It is really a diverse field that offers you opportunities to help people and communities and make a difference in some of the worst situations encountered.

Brant also gave a shout out to the faculty: “The current faculty and staff were all great! They were all very knowledgeable, helpful, and were a pleasure to work with and learn from.”

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 13

MAVERICK STRONG

UNO SCHOOL OF

NEW PARTNE

“We are seeing the need and challenge with students and organizations to train students across sectors: public, private and nonprofit.”

Dr. Craig Maher UNO SPA Director The new initiative aims to expand service learning experiences for undergraduate students. It highlights the importance and mission-centric foundation of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts of UNO. T

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14

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

ERSHIP WITH NEXTGEN SERVICE

new initiative aims to expand service learning experiences for undergraduate students with three minors on |The campus. It highlights the importance and foundation of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts of UNO’s SPA. The School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is excited to partner with the Next Generation Service Partnership (NextGen Service). The new initiative aims to expand public service learning experiences for undergraduate students.

In the wake of international protests and the coronavirus pandemic, the creation of this new undergraduate offering was deemed critical. This partnership highlights the importance and mission-centric foundation of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts of the UNO College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS), which houses the School of Public Administration.

“SPA is known for its high-quality undergraduate and graduate programming as well for appreciating the importance of community engagement,” says director of the School of Public Administration, Dr. Craig Maher.

“We are seeing the need and challenge with students and organizations to train students across sectors: public, private and nonprofit. It is common for students to move across these sectors, yet UNO lacks the programming to offer those skills. The civil unrest and pandemic we’ve experienced are examples of the need to train the next generation of leaders to be effective across sectors.

“Having the ability to partner with the Volcker Alliance and Arizona State University means that we have access to resources that will enable us to get this program up and running at a much quicker rate. We are grateful for the partnership with our College of Business and for the support of our CPACS Dean, John Bartle, who has been a great champion of this endeavor. We believe that this is a great opportunity to help our current students and with effective marketing, a program that will draw new students to UNO.” The Volcker Alliance is supporting UNO’s initial costs for building and launching NextGen Service. Its financial support of $100,000 for the first year covers collaboration endeavors, curriculum development and marketing efforts. Collaboration and curriculum development is happening now to be ready for launch in the next academic year.

“We will be welcoming our first cohort of students in the fall of 2021.

The Omaha-metro area and the UNO campus are a perfect pair for launching NextGen Service,” says Dr. Meagan Van Gelder, academic program coordinator of the School of Public Administration.

“Omaha gets things done by working across sectors. UNO values service learning and has the framework already in place through the Student Service and Leadership Collaborative (The Collaborative) and the Service Learning Academy. As we meet with departments and colleges across the campus, faculty see how their students can take knowledge from their fields of interest and apply it address challenges through collaboration.”

Next Gen will include a minor, which was just approved. The minor will be interdisciplinary because students need to know how to work across different topics, challenges and sectors.

“We want students to be able to understand their own values and develop their leadership skills while collaborating with private, nonprofit and public sectors,” states Dr. Van Gelder. The minor’s focus is on collaborative leadership across sectors.

The UNO School of Public Administration is one of the first schools to participate in the NextGen Service planning cohort. NextGen Service is a newly launched program from the Volcker Alliance and the Arizona State University Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.

Four-School National Cohort

City University of New York: Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College Georgia State University: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Indiana University: O’Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs University of Nebraska at Omaha: School of Public Administration

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 15

#28

NATIONAL RANKING

#8

PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE

#11

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

#12

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

#24

PUBLIC MANAGEMENT

LEARN MORE: SPA.UNOMAHA.EDU

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UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 17

COMMUNITY ENGAGED

Though we are in a pandemic, our faculty remains committed to community engaged research.

Dr. Jodi Benenson fielded the Nebraska Nonprofit Advocacy Survey in partnership with three nonprofits and the Nebraska Legislature.

She is also conducting research on the gender pay gap in nonprofit organizations with Center for Public Affairs Research and the Women’s Fund.

Drs. Tara Kolar Bryan and Nuri Heckler are evaluating a capacity building program for nonprofit executive directors of color in partnership with the Omaha Community Foundation.

Through the MPA Capstone project, many students work with community-based organizations on applied projects. This year, students worked with the following organizations: Sarpy County Public Defender’s Office 18 | UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21

RESEARCH

Project Everlast

Children’s Hospital & Medical Center First Tee Avenue Scholars Foundation Mosaic Douglas County Community Mental Health Center Sarpy County Attorney’s Office Nebraska Association for County Officials Lancaster County Veterans Service Office

Integrated Behavioral Health Services U.S. Naval Air Systems Command Southern District of Iowa Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program Children’s Scholarship Fund of Omaha University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine Rapid City Campus University of Nebraska at Kearney

M A S T E R S O F P U B L I C A D M I N I S T R AT I O N

ACCOMPLISHMENTS Health & Social Policy Concentration

We are excited to announce the new Health and Social Policy concentration. This replaces the previous health care administration concentration.

Health and Social Policy affords students the opportunity to focus on two major domains of public policy and the intersection of several subareas of policy. The concentration covers several topics (e.g., health, social welfare, emergency preparedness, climate change) and centers on issues of access, opportunity, social justice and equity, inequality, and vulnerable populations. The concentration seeks to build students’ skills and understanding of nonprofit management and policy issues in public and nonprofit contexts.

The Pandemic Course

This new course was a huge success! Knowing the turmoil and challenges going on in the world, we wanted to offer our students a place to learn and grow by connecting with others in a learning environment to make sense of our world. A subset of our faculty offered a team-taught elective course called “Pandemics, Protest, and Policy” during the Fall 2020 semester.. This was an opportunity for our school’s faculty to come together and lead with our individual expertise during this time of uncertainty and unrest. Students found the course to be relevant and needed during these challenging times.

COVID-19 Engagement and Response Discussion

New Masters of Public Administration Faculty We welcomed two new faculty this year in the MPA program. While it has been a nontraditional start, Drs. Bárbara Gómez-Aguiñaga and Danbee Lee have gotten off to a great start!

Faculty/Student Awards & Honors: Dr. Angela Eikenberry was selected by the National Academy of Public Administration for inclusion in its 2020 Class of Academy Fellows.

Dr. Nuri Heckler was elected as Board Chair of the PA Theory Network.

Dr. Yu-Che Chen was elected to the Board of Directors of the Digital Government Society.

Our recent MPA graduate, Yuriko Doku, was selected as a marshal for the December 2020 Commencement.

We are proud of our MPA alum, Lieutenant Neal Bonacci.

He is the new commander of the OPD Public Information Office. In this position Lieutenant Bonacci works as a liaison to the public and news media outlets.

MPA student, Marissa Cuellar, was selected as the recipient of the Claire Parker Phi Delta Gamma Scholarship for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society Recipients Spring 2021 – Annabelle Abisset, Leigh Ellis, Vaughan Fischer, Christine Henningsen. Fall 2020 : Yoriku Doku, Danielle Galvin, Samuel Huppert, Cameron Koenig Summer 2020 : Kassaundra Hartley & Janel Marx

When the COVID-19 pandemic became a reality, and our campus quickly transitioned to all-online or remote modalities, we wanted to understand how our students were handling the pandemic in their academic, personal, and professional lives. On our existing MPA Hub, we launched an open-ended “COVID-19 Engagement and Response” discussion. We had around 25 students participating in this discussion. Their professional experiences were in government, nonprofit, and the for-profit sectors. This platform allowed candid inquiry and brainstorming into how all of us can cope and thrive in this unexpected environment.

MPA Alum Lands National Position

MPA Graduate, Kyle McGlade, was recently selected for the Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF).

His position will be with the U.S. General Services Administration in the Northeast/Caribbean region.

Congrats, Kyle!

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 19

INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH UNO’s School of Public Administration, in support with the Nebraska City Manager Association (NCMA), is exploring the development of an academic relationship with the University of Catania in Sicily, specifically with the university’s Public Management Administration in the Department of Political and Social Sciences.

With the strong potential of Omaha Sister Cities Association (OSCA) to begin the Friendship relationship with Carlentini, Sicily, we believe this is a good fit for both UNO and the University of Catania. In addition, NCMA is exploring a partnership with the City of Carlentini in Sicily. It is our hope that as Nebraska city managers begin an exchange program with locally elected officials and city managers in Sicily, these connections can pave the way for faculty and students to connect with faculty and local government officials at the university and the surrounding Sicilian cities. Through partnerships with NCMA, OSCA, and UNO’s SPA, new connections and experiences can be made for our city managers, faculty and students.

Another excellent partnership continues with Norway’s University of Agder, NCMA and UNO’s SPA. Our MPA and MSUS students may attend classes at the university in Kristiansand, Norway (when there is not a global pandemic). We have our hopes that travel and study abroad to Norway resumes in 2021 or 2022.

We continue to have a strong partnership with one of Omaha’s sister cities, Siauliai, Lithuania and its university, Siauliai University. The exciting news for the year is that Siauliai University merged with the country’s foremost university, Vilnius University. Between UNO and Vilnius University (VU), we continue to share scholarship and teaching. The great news for students is when it is safe to travel again, UNO students have the opportunity to attend VU in Lithuania and VU students may attend classes at UNO.

STUDENT STORIES UNO continued to support the annual simulation exercise sponsored by our accrediting agency, NASPAA. Simulation Exercise” was timely, and called “The Simulation Game.”

Participating students teamed up with other students from across the globe in a full-day exercise focused on solving some of the issues associated with the pandemic, using real-world data.

This year, three of our MPA students, Franecia Moore, Elsa Taylor-Cless, and Robert Holbert, participated in the exercise.

All three students thoroughly enjoyed being part of this important experience.

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THE NEBRASKA TIES THAT BIND NU FOUNDATION FEATURE:

UNO URBAN STUDIES ALUMNUS IS WORLD-WIDE TRAVELER Now that Greg Snyder is retired, he spends a lot of time at airports.

As a volunteer with Travelers Aid, Greg, who is a Burnett Society member, staffs the information desk at Reagan Washington National to help people find their gates, hail a cab or even get patched up like one unlucky man who fell down an escalator.

“I can do something to help,” Greg said in a recent interview from his D.C. home. “And I meet all kinds of interesting people.”

If Greg is not at the airport, you might find him volunteering at a neighborhood library group or a COVID-19 testing site. He’s a person who likes to keep busy and likes to give back.

“I can always try to have an impact,” he said. “Volunteering at the COVID site, it’s like, I can’t fix this, but I can do something.”

In fact, Greg considers giving back — especially when it comes to Nebraska, his home state, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, his alma mater — sort of a duty.

“I got a good-quality public school education in Nebraska, and taxpayers helped make that happen,” he said. “I haven’t been a taxpayer in Nebraska for a long time, so I need to start paying that back.”

Raised in Omaha, an alumnus of Benson High School, Greg studied urban studies at UNO. It was an unusual major, which allowed him to plan his schedule and take some off-menu subjects.

“It was fascinating,” he said. “Those classes expanded my horizons.”

Greg loved his time at UNO. He loved to learn and felt inspired by many of his professors.

“College was the best time in my life,” he said. “You have all the advantages of being an adult but hardly any of the responsibilities.

I really loved it.”

Greg received a small scholarship to attend UNO that he has never forgotten. It was about $250 for the year, as he recalls, not enough to make a dent in tuition, but enough to cover his books. However, it wasn’t the amount that was most meaningful.

“It was more like UNO wanted me and thought I could succeed,” he said. “They noticed me as an individual. It was a loving kind of gesture.”

MAVERICK STRONG Greg went on to study law at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and receive his juris doctor degree. From there, he practiced environmental law in Denver. Later, he began a career with the Environmental Protection Agency where he helped clean up toxic waste sites.

Greg feels UNO nurtured his love of learning and set him up for a successful career. In return, Greg made a bequest to support scholarships at the College of Public Affairs and Community Service, where he received his degree.

“I just like to have a tie to UNO,” he said. “It was a very good time in my life. I wouldn’t be where I am without that education.”

If you would like to make a difference in a College of Public Affairs and Community Service student’s life, please contact Tessa Barney, Director of Development at tessa.barney@ nufoundation.org.

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 21

MASTERS OF SCIENCE URBAN STUDIES

ACCOMPLISHMENTS Enrollment Growth

The Masters of Science Urban Studies (MSUS) program enrollment grew by 21% from last spring 2020. It also saw an increase in student diversity as the MSUS Committee, MSUS Advisory Board, alumni, and faculty worked to promote growth in the student population to reflect a 21st Century demographic more reflective of Omaha and the nation at large. Currently, 52% of students identify as underrepresented minorities, up from just 21% last year.

First Honors Society Members

The MSUS Program inducted its first members into the Upsilon Sigma Honors Society through the Urban Affairs Association, an international organization of scholars and practitioners. Students become eligible once they have completed one-half of the program requirements with a 3.7 GPA. Our inaugural class in Fall 2020 consisted of 7 inductees: Alexis Bromley, Marianna Foral, Lucy Morrison, Deidre Rivera, Jonathan Scherling, Katherine Swinarski, and Haley Weber.

The honors society periodically hosts events. In the fall, the students organized a discussion panel on Tax Increment Financing (TIF).

College of Public Affairs and Community Service Dean, Dr. John Bartle; School of Public Administration Director, Dr. Craig Maher; and legislative legal counsel for the Nebraska Legislature’s Urban Affairs Committee, Trevor Fitzgerald, served as experts. Students from the Public Administration and Urban Studies programs were in attendance. In spring 2021, we inducted new members Ryann Ickes and Heike Langdon. Following the induction, members attended the Omaha Mayoral Forum hosted by Spark CDI, One Omaha, and the Heartland Workers Center.

Learning And Service

Students in the Fall UBNS 8000 (Seminar in Urban Studies) course participated in a service learning project through UNO’s Service Learning Academy, partnering with the Heartland Workers Center and Together Inc. to study youth civic engagement along the 24th Street corridor in North and South Omaha. Students interviewed stakeholders and high school students in these communities to better understand existing youth civic activities and to identify opportunities for participation. MSUS students produced logic models for the Heartland Workers Center and Together Inc., identifying ways to promote and increase youth civic engagement.

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Mentorship Program

In spring 2021, the MSUS Committee developed a mentorship program as part of student success initiatives. Launched for all new spring 2021 admits, new students are matched with an MSUS alumni mentor based upon academic and career interests. Mentors and mentees meet virtually to network, discuss career options, and discuss navigating graduate school.

Student Profile —Mentor Program:

Meet Nicholas Kiser, a recent graduate from UNO with a BMS in Sustainability, now enrolled in the Masters of Science of Urban Studies Program with goals for a career in the urban planning field.

According to Nicholas: “A lifelong student, I have a wide interdisciplinary background, and would love to apply all of my life’s experience into my newfound vocation.

“When looking for a mentor, I needed someone who I could relate to on several levels, while also advising me of the intricacies of a field that is not necessarily in my native box of tricks. As a person of color, I specifically asked for a mentor of color with the goal of removing any potential blind-spots and incompatibilities that are not related to other inevitabilities that make us unique as human beings.

“Mr. Terrance Hancock (MSUS ’96), my mentor, is professional and insightful, and I cannot thank the program more for matching us. My belief is that his guidance and direction with my career aspirations are invaluable. I expect that my success is inherently tied to our continued correspondence.”

Student Award: Talia Smith received

a Graduate Research and Creative Activity (GRACA) grant from UNO’s Office of Research and Creative Activity to conduct original research.

Her paper, “Mobilization in Place-Based Social Movements: Identifying Participation Trajectories in Urban Housing Rights Organizations,” was presented at UNO’s Student Research and Creative Activity Fair in March 2021. She plans to do a thesis in her final year as an MSUS student before pursuing a Ph.D.

MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN URBAN STUDIES

MAVERICK STRONG MSUS Student Spotlight: Ryann Ickes

Ryann Ickes is currently employed by Nebraska Extension, where she works as a SNAP-Ed Extension Assistant with the Nutrition Education Program. Her work spans four counties— Dodge, Saunders, Colfax, and Platte—and she has an additional partnership with Umonhon Nation Public Schools in Macy.

She delivers both youth and adult nutrition education and is involved in several projects that aim to increase food security and promote healthy food access for food insecure individuals and families.

An accomplishment that Ryann takes great pride in is the success of the Growing Together Nebraska donation garden in Schuyler, which provided 1,381 pounds of fresh produce to over 3,300 individuals in 2020. Her greatest accomplishment she shares with a colleague, for they worked diligently together to develop a program for middle and high schools that will not only provide food assistance to students and their families, but it will also provide support to local grocery stores. Still in its early stages, Ryann believes this program has the potential to significantly impact children, families, and local businesses across the entire state.

MSUS Alumni Spotlight

The MSUS Program is proud to announce that Athena Ramos (MSUS ’04) has received the CPACS Alumni Award for Excellence in Public Service!

The university and community leaders established the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS) to ensure the university was responsive to the critical societal needs and concerns of our community and state. Critical to the mission of the new college was the provision of educational and training programs of the highest caliber that would prepare students for careers and leadership in the public service.

The individuals honored with the alumni award for excellence in public service demonstrate through both daily deeds and greater achievements, the finest attributes of public and community service: integrity, stewardship, volunteerism, leadership, and a commitment to social justice and human dignity. They are a credit to their professions, their families, and our college.

This degree is for individuals desiring to make a difference in urban areas. We train professional leaders to critically analyze urban problems and to engage residents in the creation of innovative solutions to conditions in the human community, built environment and natural systems.

Since completing her MSUS degree, Ms. Ramos has gone on to complete a Ph.D. in International Family and Community Studies. She is now an Assistant Professor in the College of Public Health at UNMC. She has spent many years working with community and neighborhood organizations throughout the Omaha-metro area and has numerous scholarly publications related to public health, community development, and public service. She was also recently awarded the “Familia y Comunidad” Award by the Latino Center of the Midlands.

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 23

Ph.D. Program: Students Are Educators

UNO’s Public Administration Ph.D. students taught a range of courses as instructor of record in our undergraduate programs: Introduction to Urban Studies Leadership and Administration Introduction to Public Administration Introduction to Emergency Management Applied Statistics Program Planning and Evaluation

Nonprofit Organizations and Management Financial Management for Nonprofits Marketing in Public and Nonprofit Organizations Seminar in Public Policy Public Budgeting Strategic Planning

25y

ears

Ph.D. Program Celebrates 25 Years of Excellence

In our 25th year of the Ph.D. in Public Administration, we saw our largest graduating class yet. These eight graduates have come from all over the U.S. and several countries, and landed jobs in academic and other institutions in the U.S. and Korea. We wish them the best as they pursue their future. More than 50 students have graduated from the program.

Student Spotlight: Felipe Blanco

Felipe Blanco has not only garnered notice at UNO, but he has recently been recognized as a 2021 Founder’s Fellow by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). He was also selected as a Rising Grad Scholar by Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine. He has also been named an equity and inclusion Fellow by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM).

Felipe is a third-year public administration Ph.D. student, focusing on matters of race and ethnicity.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in public sector economics in 2007 from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and his master’s degree in public administration and public policy in 2010 from Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE). In Mexico City, he transitioned into teaching as an adjunct professor of public administration.

Not long after moving to the US and working as a community organizer, Felipe enrolled at UNO to continue his education. He has earned a UNO Graduate Research and Creative Activity grant to study anti-discrimination initiatives in Mexican federal public administration and presented his findings in March.

Felipe says he views racism as one of the most serious public policy issues that needs addressing in the U.S. After finishing his doctorate, he plans to pursue a tenure-track position at a research institution.

Congrats and well done for all, Felipe.

UNO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DOCTORAL PROGRAM

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2020 GRADUATES

Dr. B.J. Fletcher

Dr. Byungwoo Cho

Dr. Elizabeth Gillespie

Dr. Dell Gines

24 | UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21

Dr. Megan McGuffey

Dr. Ming Xie

Dr. Jiseul Kim

Dr. Xian Gao

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DOCTORAL PROGRAM P U B L I C A D M I N I S T R AT I O N P H . D . P R O G R A M

ACCOMPLISHMENTS Public Administration Awards and Partnerships The UNO Office of Research and Creative Activity (ORCA), with support from the University of Nebraska Central Administration, UNO Graduate Studies, and the Nebraska Research Initiative (NRI), has developed the Research Development Program aimed at stimulating research and creative activities at UNO. The program provides support in the form of doctoral graduate research assistantships (GRAs) with the goal of increasing scholarly productivity, doctoral program enrollment, and grant support, contributing to an overall growth in UNO’s external funding.

SPA Faculty Receive Support for GRAs:

Dr. Tom Jamieson, in partnership with Dr. Cristián Doña-Reveco in the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS), and Dr. Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga in SPA, are collaborating on a research project on “Human

Mobility and Emergency Management.” Dakota Caldwell, a first-year PhD student, is the GRA for this project.

Dr. Yu-Che Chen, in partnership with Dr. Yuliya Lierler in Computer Science, and Dr. Chenyu “Victor” Huang in the SPA Aviation Institute are collaborating on a project on “Transparency and Fairness of Artificial Intelligence in Government Decisionmaking: Regulation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.” Yi-Fan Wang, a first-year PhD student, will be the GRA for this project.

The UNO Center for Public Affairs Research also provides support to the PhD program in many ways, including regularly supporting Graduate Research Assistants. For example, in 2020, Ryan Rouse worked on research exploring the effects of local government fragmentation and structure on the performance of libraries at the city, county, and special district levels.

Award Funding

Six students received UNO Graduate Research and Creative Activity Award funding in 2020, totaling $30,000: Bit An Felipe Blanco Minshuai Ding Wei-Jie Liao Reyna (Liz) Reyes-Nunez Morgan Vogel

Student Awards

Ming Xie won the 2020 UNO Helen Hansen Outstanding Graduate Student Award.

Wei-Jie Liao won the 2020 Western Social Science Association (WSSA) Outstanding Graduate Paper Award.

We foster a culture of openness where the process of knowledge creation among students is a common enterprise. As our students move through the Ph.D. program, they have opportunities to teach and to work hand-inhand with faculty. When they graduate, they are prepared to understand and help solve public problems.

Gabrielle L’Esperance and Ming Xie were selected to receive a 2020 International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) Ph.D. Fellowship.

Yunseung Kim won the 2020 UNO American Association of University Professors Bernard Kolasa Scholarship.

MAVERICK STRONG

ALUMNI: PROMOTIONS AND POSITIONS:

Dr. Gang Chen became Associate Professor at the Rockefeller College, University at Albany – State University of New York.

Dr. Jim Harrold became Student Services Coordinator at the UNO School of Public Administration.

Dr. Courtney Jensen became Associate Professor & Director of Public Administration at Eastern Washington University.

Dr. Junghack Kim moved to become Assistant Professor Graduate School of Public Administration, Korea University.

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 25

PH.D. STUDENTS PUBLISHED 15 PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS Bullock, J., Young, M., & Wang, Yi-Fan. (2020). Artificial Intelligence, bureaucratic form, and discretion in public service. Information Polity.

Bryan, T. K., Robichau, R. W., & L’Esperance, Gabrielle E. (2020). Conducting and utilizing evaluation for multiple accountabilities: A study of nonprofit evaluation capacities. Nonprofit Management and Leadership.

Eikenberry, A. M., & Song, Xiaowei. (In press). Collaborative philanthropy and doing practically relevant, critical research. Researching Voluntary Action: Innovations and Challenges, J. Dean & E. Hogg (eds), Policy Press.

Heckler, N., & Kim, Yeonkyung. (2020). Crypto-governance: The ethical implications of blockchain in public service, Public Integrity.

Liao, Wei-Jie, & Chuang, S-H. (2020). Assessing the patterns and causes of local budget changes: Incremental budgeting theory or punctuated equilibrium theory? Journal of Public Administration (Taiwan).

Liao, Wei-Jie, Kuo, N-L., & Chuang, S-H. (2020). Taiwan’s budgetary responses to COVID-19: The use of special budgets, Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management.

Kim. Yunseung. (2020). A study on the influence of the government’s organization policy on the performance of state-owned entities – From the policy instrument perspective, Journal of Policy Analysis & Evaluation.

King, K.M., Tchouankam, T., Keeler, H., Minter, C., Love, Kenya S., Teel, M., Cai, G., & Estabrooks, P. (2020). Conceptualization and utilization of community engagement approaches in translational research: a scoping review. Journal of Translational Science.

Lin, W-H., Wang, H., & Wang, Yi-Fan. (2020). A study on the factors affecting the success of passing the threshold of an electronic proposal in Taiwan. The Journal of Public Administration & Policy.

McNabb, Emily, & Fletcher, B.J. (In press). Food insecurity and economic crisis: The case of Omaha, Nebraska during the Covid-19 Shutdowns. Food Policy and Politics: Administering and Managing the U.S. Food System. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Inc. Maher, C.S., Oh, Jae Won, & Liao, Wei-Jie. (2020), Assessing fiscal distress in small county governments, Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management.

Pautz, M. C., & Vogel, Morgan D. (2020). Investigating faculty motivation and its connection to work-life balance: Engaging public service motivation to explore faculty motivation. Journal of Public Affairs Education.

Heckler, N., & Rouse, Ryan (2020). Freedom of speech versus racial justice: Homeplace theory, antiparallelism, and becoming-minor.

Administrative Theory & Praxis.

Tzeyu L. Michauda, Paul A. Estabrooks, Wen You , Todd J. McGuire, Fabio Almeida, Kelly Karls, Kenya Love, Keyonna King, Jennie Hill, Jill Reed, Gwenndolyn Porter, & Dejun Su. (2020). Sustaining the reach of a scalable weight loss intervention through financial incentives-a pragmatic, feasibility, online randomized trial protocol. Contemporary Clinical Trials.

Vogel, Morgan D. (2020). When service calls: Public service motivation and calling as complementary concepts for public service.

International Public Management Journal.

MAVERICK STRONG 26 | UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21

Ph.D. Students’ Community and Professional Service Felipe Blanco and Morgan Vogel serve as Council Members of the ASPA Nebraska Chapter.

Lora Frecks served as Treasurer for ASPA’s Section for Science & Technology in Government (SSTIG).

Josey Hazelton served as a Board member of ASPA’s Section for Transportation Policy and Administration.

Nick Juliano serves as Cochair of the Juvenile Service Committee of the Nebraska Children’s Committee and Youth Impact! of Douglas County, the Nebraska Juvenile Justice Association Board, and Boys Town South Omaha Advisory Board.

Kenya Love is Vice President, Black Family Health & Wellness Association, Member of the North Omaha Area Health Clinic-Governing Board of Directors, and Treasurer of the POC Collaborative Shawn Maxwell serves on the Food Systems Subcommittee, Share Our Table Emily McNabb is a Board member, UNO Schawlb Center for Israeli and Jewish Studies and Nebraska Chapter of the National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI).

Carol RedWing serves on the UNO Native American Studies (NAS) Executive Council and a Board member of Mode Shift Omaha.

Theodore Johnson serves on the UNO College of Public Affairs and Community Service – Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee.

TRIBAL MANAGEMENT AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

UNO’s Tribal Management and Emergency Services Program offers a minor and a certificate. It is led by Edouardo Zendejas along with Adjunct Professor Cindy Krafka.

TV Show Hosts: Ed and Cindy host a weekly local TV show, “Native Honor Hours.” The goal of the show is to spotlight positive Native American achievement both locally and at a national level.

Featured in a Webinar: “Native Images and Struggles Over Representations: A Conversation with Edouardo Zendejas, J.D.” (Omaha) and was held in November, 2020; sponsored by the Center for Indigenous Community Engagement, Northwestern State University.

The group prepared a series of public, web-based meetings discussing the impact of the continued use of Native American names, images, and symbols as school mascots in Nebraska. Benjamin Alvarado, the group’s commissioner, invited Ed to be a panelist at the event. He participated in the second panel which was held in December.

Partnership News: Ed and Cindy have developed a working partnership with Union Pacific’s Council on Native American Heritage (CONAH). This is a group of employees with Native American heritage or an interest in the Indian culture. CONAH’s mission is to assist Union Pacific with the recruitment, retention and development of employees with Native American heritage. We are often guest speakers and share information about UNO. This has been an excellent recruiting tool as we work closely with the groups President, Alyssa Smith. Alyssa has appeared on their TV show educating the public about her group and about the partnership between CONAH and TMES. Local School Partnerships: TMES has a working partnership with Omaha Public Schools, specifically the Native Indigenous Centered Education (NICE) program. This is a program for the native students within the district. We focus on future plans, and educating and recruiting middle school/high school students to both our TMES program and UNO in general.

Native Chancellors Cabinet Meetings: TMES sends bi-annually a representative to the Native Chancellors Cabinet meetings; meetings between the Native community and the Chancellor to exchange ideas and comments. Cindy is also present at these meetings for her role as an adjunct professor as well as being an elder in the Native community.

TMES is housed in the Barbera Weitz Community Engagement Center (CEC). This keeps us engaged with many different community entities within the Omaha area.

Student Spotlight:

Meet Sara Bowen-Isaac, a May 2021 recipient of a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Management with concentrations and minors in Tribal Management and Emergency Services and Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Sara also earned a certificate in Tribal Management and Emergency Services.

Armed with her bachelor’s and certificate, Sara plans to start applying for positions working with the Emergency Management department for the Seneca Nation.

Tell us about your experience as a fully online student in the Emergency Management and the Tribal Management and Emergency Services programs: My experience was amazing. Even when COVID hit and everyone at UNO had to switch over to totally online the instructors still worked through the required topics and were available at any time. Everything that I could have learned in a traditional classroom I feel I learned online. I enjoyed getting my degree online and would recommend to anyone.

What was most beneficial to you about your degree?

Having the Emergency Management degree and the certificate opened the door for more opportunities in the Emergency Management field.

This concentration covered many topics including the history and legal issues for tribal emergency management.

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 27

DIGITAL GOVERNANCE AND ANALYTICS LAB The Digital Governance and Analytics Lab (DGA) Lab focuses on the use of information and communication technologies in public governance and services. 2020-21 marks the second year of the launch of our new name with a strategic synergy between digital governance and data analytics. Our main areas of research and practice include e-participation, artificial intelligence, smart city, Nebraska local governments, and technologies for public transit. Dr. Yu-Che Chen, Dr. Jooho Lee, and Dr. Victor Huang are the core faculty members.

DIGITAL GOVERNANCE AND ANALYTICS

ACCOMPLISHMENTS The Lab hosted the International Conference on Digital Government Research at UNO in 2021. The theme was Digital Innovations for Public Values: Inclusive Collaboration and Community. Dr. Chen: lead conference chair and Dr. Lee: lead program chair.

A signature project of the DGA lab includes Nebraska Transit Technology: Dr. Chen serves as the campus Co-PI of this five year 2.4 million project (2017-2021). Dr. Lee serves as technology co-lead.

Dr. Lee conducted and presented a summer research project on the impact of Covid-19 on rural transit service in Nebraska, sponsored

by Center for Public Affairs Research, CPACS. Dr. Lee conducted a book project (with some Korean scholars in the U.S.) on American Public Administration with the support from Korean Association of Public Administration and published a book (in Korean), entitled U.S. Public Administration and Policy: Perspectives from South Korean Scholars.

Honors and Awards Dr. Chen received Best Management Paper Award, (with Dr. Michael Ahn), International Research Conference on Digital Government (dg.o 2020), June, 2020.

Dr. Chen is the campus-wide Isaacson Professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (2019-2022).

Presentations and Professional Service

Dr. Lee was invited as a guest speaker to present “Local E-government in Korea” at KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) Master of Global Public Administration Program.

Dr. Huang and Dr. Chen have published two research articles on the policy and use of unmanned aircraft systems (drones) with the support from the CPACS Inquiry Award on Regulation Compliance and Risk Mitigation of Recreational Drone Users.

Dr. Lee was invited as a guest speaker to present An Exploratory Study of Citizens’ Use of E-government Services and Covid-19 Compliance: A Case of City of Omaha” at Monthly Comparative Research Forum on Korean and U.S. Local Government.

Dr. Chen received a two-year UNO research grant of approximately $80,000 to study transparency and fairness of artificial intelligence in government decision-making.

Dr. Chen presented with Dr. Michael Ahn on “Artificial Intelligence and Digital Government Transformation: perceptions, attitudes and misconceptions by the government administrators” at the American Society of Public Administration’s 2021 virtual conference.

Our lab welcomes Yi-Fan Wang, a first-year doctoral student, as our newest lab member starting January 2021.

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Dr. Chen served as the instructor for the IT module for the Nebraska Association of County Officials in spring 2021.

DIGITAL GOVERNANCE AND ANALYTICS LAB Selected Research Advancements

Eom, Seok-Jin and Jooho Lee (eds.). 2020. dg.o ’20: The 21st Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, June 15-19, Online, New York: Association for Computing Machinery.

Lee, Jooho and M. Jae Moon. 2020. “E-government and Digital Governance,” in Chung-in Moon and M. Jae Moon (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Korean Politics and Public Administration, New York: Routledge Huang, Chenyu, Yu-Che Chen, and Joseph Harris, (2021), “Regulatory compliance and socio-demographic analyses of civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems users,” Technology in Society, Volume 65, May 2021.

Zuiderwijk, Anneke, Yu-Che Chen, Fadi Salem, (2021) “Implications of the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Public Governance: A Systematic Literature Review and a Research Agenda,” Government Information Quarterly.

Chen, Yu-Che and Chenyu Huang, (2021), “Smart Data-Driven Policy on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS): Analysis of Drone Users in U.S. Cities,” Smart Cities, 4(1): 78-92.

Bullock, Justin, Matthew Young, Yi-Fan Wang, “Artificial intelligence, bureaucratic form, and discretion in public service,” Information Polity, vol. 25, no. 4, 2020

THE FUTURE IS

URBAN

Urban areas are centers of employment, diversity and progress.

57%

The Omaha metropolitan area will reach

1 million in population by

2023

81%

lives in urban areas

of the state of Nebraska lives in urban areas

55%

of the U.S.

People of color make up

of the world

lives in urban areas

this will grow to 68% in

36%

of the workforce nationally UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 29

PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS Spotlight: Certified Public Manager Kelly Oelke

The School of Public Administration offers Professional programs throughout the state and beyond.

Nebraska Certified Public Manager® Program

The Nebraska Certified Public Manager® (CPM) program offered by the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is a nationally-accredited, comprehensive management, development program. It is designed for current and aspiring managers in federal, state, local government and nonprofit organizations.

Nebraska Municipal Clerk Institute and Academy

One of Nebraska’s fastest growing cities is Hickman, south of Lincoln. Young families are moving in, and building permits in 2021 have already superseded 2020.

Leading this growth is Kelly Oelke, the new City Administrator who was promoted to the position in early 2021.

“Helping lead this community is a wonderful opportunity,” she said.

“I like the variety of tasks and goals that need to be accomplished on behalf of the Mayor.”

Kelly Oelke began in Hickman as the Municipal Clerk. She is a graduate of the CPM Program, a past member of the Nebraska Clerks Education Committee, and obtained her CMC through the Nebraska Clerks Institute and Academy. She has returned to UNO to complete her degree in Multi-Disciplinary Studies. We are proud of Kelly’s accomplishments, and glad to take part in her path.

Congratulations to Kelly for her hard work and reaching her goals.

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The Nebraska Municipal Clerk Institute and Academy is an annual continuing education professional training and development program held in Nebraska during March of each year for municipal clerks in Nebraska. This training program is one of a few accredited programs in the country.

Other Certificate Programs

Certificate in Fundraising Management: With nearly one million nonprofits competing for the same contributions and facing the same cutbacks, fundraising professionals need an advantage.

This comprehensive, noncredit program provides essential training in vital areas of fundraising such as annual giving, capital campaigns, corporate giving, donor stewardship, and marketing.

Certificate in Emerging Nonprofit Leadership: The program will help you hone your managerial and leadership skills. The program will help you develop competencies to better understand your role as a manager, increase your self-awareness, build relationships and communicate effectively, manage diverse work groups, and manage change in yourself and your organization.

UNO PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS 2020/2021

ACCOMPLISHMENTS TOP ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2020

Facilitated the Sarpy County Core Values discussion over a course of three months.

MAVERICK STRONG SPRING, 2021

Held the Great Plains Government Finance Officers Association Conference (GPGFOA ) virtually for 82 people.

The Certificate in Fundraising Management is now under the leadership of the School of Public Administration.

Collaborated with the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, University of Eastern Illinois, and Rutgers Center for Government Services to provide virtual training over six weeks for Municipal Clerks across the country.

12 Certified Public Managers (CPM) graduated from the program in December.

Received a two-year extension to provide Sarpy County with the CPM program.

CPM (Certified Public Managers) Alumni Achievements:

JoEllen Martin Lieutenant with the Sarpy Jail was recently promoted to Interim Director of the Jail. She is a 2019 graduate of the CPM Program.

Coli Hunter was promoted to Assistant CS Manager/Motor Vehicles Division at Sarpy County Treasurer Coli graduated in 2019, from the CPM program.

Chad Lingel in addition to being a Papillion/LaVista Firefighter Chad started a new position as Adjunct EMS INSTRUCTOR at Boys Town.

Chad received his CPM in 2018.

Matt Howey is a Training Sergeant with Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office. His 2020 CPM project was implemented this year.

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 31

Dr. Daniel Scheller, Associate Professor

Dr. Jodi Benenson, Assistant Professor The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally. It has been an incredibly difficult year. But, amidst all of the uncertainty and rapid change over the past year, we came together as a School to support our students and each other. We pivoted pedagogically and leveraged our collective expertise by offering timely new courses and concentrations. We took deliberate stances around the social, political, and economic injustices happening all around us, and recognized that our actions must follow our words and be guided by expertise and lived experience. There is still much work to be done. I see signs of reevaluation, re-imagining, and reflection, and I am hopeful for policy change that centers racial equity and social justice.

But we must continue to do the work. We must continue to support each other. We must continue challenging ourselves, our biases, and assumptions. And we must continue to strive for equity and justice.

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Communicate with your professors. Not having inperson classes means it is more difficult for us to know what’s going on with students and issues they may be having. Open lines of communication during these difficult times makes it easier to adapt to and to respond to student needs.

Theodore W. Johnson, Instructor, Aviation Institute I have two pieces of advice for students traversing through this difficult time. The first is to not be afraid, hesitant, or too prideful to ask for help.

Life is difficult enough as-is, but when coupled with academic and/or professional stressors, can quickly become overwhelming. This past year was difficult for everyone with the immense loss of life, jobs, stability, etc. Therefore, if you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or even not sure how you feel, reach out to someone (e.g., a friend, family member, confidant, or utilize one of UNO’s many resources) and see how they may able to help you overcome whatever you are experiencing.

The second piece of advice I have is for students to explore their latent passions, especially the ones that they did not necessarily have the time to explore prior to the pandemic. The epochs of virtual/ remote learning and working has given back much time to many individuals. As such, this time can be used to either further current or learn new skills, and/or engage in more hobbies. Doing so can provide one with more methods to de--stress during high volume periods and/or share the activities with others such as loved ones,

REFLECTIONS

on 2020/21

Ellen Freeman-Wakefield, Director of Professional Programs Professional Programs pivoted quickly on March 11, 2020 with the cancellation of the 2020 Clerks Institute and Academy two days before the event was due to take place. Professional Programs then became virtual programs; using Zoom. Even though we canceled the Institute and Academy, we offered six training sessions so municipal clerks could still achieve points towards their CMC and MMC. Professional Programs at their heart are an environment that needs to be in-person.

We build communities with our cohorts, and some of the intimacy is lost when we do a session virtually. Be gracious with yourself and others. Because we don’t know when we may find ourselves in a situation where we need someone.

Dr. Scott Tarry, Director and Distinguished Professor

Dr. Meagan Van Gelder, Academic Program Coordinator Wow! Go with the flow--I certainly learned this concept is easier said than done. Thanks to the global pandemic, I had to learn how to accept changes and adjust to new expectations while watching people lose their loved ones and special life events.

The most difficult challenge for our team in the Aviation Institute was sustaining our flight training operation during COVID. While it wasn’t terribly difficult to shift our classroom instruction and other functions to remote operations, flight training cannot be done virtually. You can’t socially distance in an airplane or in a simulator. We even had to grapple with whether it was safe to wear a mask in flight since it might interfere with communications and distract from safe flight operations. Skip Bailey, Eric Taylor, Sara Martin, and my other aviation colleagues worked with our flight training providers, our academic administration, as well as health safety experts at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine to devise safety protocols.

Ultimately, we had to suspend flight training operations in April for two months, which was hard on our students, who lost proficiency. It was also hard on their flight instructors, many of whom are alums of our program, who lost income.

We worked diligently throughout the spring and into the summer to put together a plan for resuming flight training. In the end, we had to arrange COVID testing for over a hundred and thirty students and instructors before we were allowed fly again in June.

Dr. Victor Huang, Assistant Professor The pandemic of COVID19 changed many ways how we live, work and study. The impact to aviation industry is significant; aviation education is no exception given the impossible social distance in the cockpit or cabin. In addition the challenges to maintain our flight training, being creative, flexible and adaptive is one of the lessons learned from the pandemic. We observed difficulties for many classes when transiting from classroom to remote teaching. However, contingency, such as pandemic and emergency, cannot be always avoided. Given the virtual class is believed to be the best alternative to in-person learning in such situations, both faculty and student need be more adaptive and creative when delivering or receiving education. Ideal condition is always preferred, but unfortunately does not exist all the time. Sustaining quality education creatively and adaptively in unexpected special situation is an important reflection to me.

Dr. Tom Jamieson, Assistant Professor The last year has been extremely difficult for a number of reasons, but it has also provided a chance for reflection on what matters. For me, this has led to more empathetic practices as a teacher and a healthier work-life balance, although this remains a work in progress.

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 33

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

PUBLICATIONS John Bartle: Financial Condition Analysis: A Key Tool in the MPA Curriculum, Journal of Public Affairs Education; Merger Has Many Complications, Omaha World-Herald; Sustainability and Air Freight Transportation: Lessons from the Global Pandemic,”Sustainability; Infusing Equity into Public Budgets: The Gender Perspective, PA Times; Budgeting for Departmental Needs in The Public Affairs Faculty Manual: A Guide to the Effective Management of Public Affairs Programs, Routledge Press; UNO Analysis Helps Lawmakers, Omaha World-Herald.

Jodi Benenson: What’s Past is Prologue? The Role of Gender, Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Prior Nonprofit Sector Experiences on Experiential Philanthropy Course Outcomes, Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership; Talking about Antisemitism in MPA Classrooms and Beyond, Journal of Public Affairs Education; Using a Multidimensional Food Insecurity Framework to Inform Public Policy, Lexington; Starting at Home: Using Local and Current Events to Combat Antisemitism, AJS Perspectives.

Tara Bryan: Conducting and utilizing evaluation for multiple accountabilities: A study of nonprofit evaluation capacities, Nonprofit Management and Leadership Journal; Teaching about Pandemics and Inequality While Living Through Those Realities, The Conversation.

Yu-Che Chen: Implications of the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Public Governance: A Systematic Literature Review and a Research Agenda, Government Information Quarterly; Performance of U.S. Scientific Research Cyberinfrastructure: Structural and Relational Factors for Usage,22nd Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research; Regulatory Compliance and Socio-Demographic Analyses of Civil UAS Users, Technology in Society; Smart Data-driven Policy on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS): Analysis of Drone Users in U.S. Cities, Smart Cities.

Carol Ebdon: Inter-local Collaboration and Local Fiscal Outcomes: Do State Incentives Work? Public Budgeting and Finance; Asset Maintenance Practices and Challenges in U.S. Counties, Public Works Management & Policy; Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Short-Term Collaborative Networks: A Case Study of Communities Putting Prevention to Work Nutrition Initiatives in Douglas County, NE, Rowan and Littlefield/Lexington; Financial Condition Analysis: A Key Tool in the MPA Curriculum, Journal of Public Affairs Education; Participatory Budgeting: Direct Democracy in Action, Chinese Public Administration Review; Participatory Budgeting in the Philippines, Chinese Public Administration Review

34 | UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21

Angela Eikenberry: Towards a Typology of Critical Nonprofit Studies: A Literature Review, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly; Do Giving Circles Democratize Philanthropy? Donor Identity and Giving to Historically Marginalized Groups, Voluntas; Giving Circles and the Civic and Political Participation of Collaborative Philanthropists, Knowledge and Civil Society; Nonprofit/Nongovernmental Organization Sexual Corruption: A Critical Feminist Perspective, Global Corruption and Ethics Management: Translating Theory into Action. Giving Circles, International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Collaborative philanthropy and doing practically relevant, critical research, Researching Voluntary Action: Innovations and Challenges Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga: One Group, Two Worlds? Latino Perceptions of Policy Salience among Mainstream and SpanishLanguage News Consumers, Social Science Quarterly; Listos para Votar: Latino Immigrants are Energized and Ready for the 2020 Elections, National Center for Institutional Diversity’s Online Magazine; Compliant but Unprotected: Communities of Color Take Greater Action to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 but Remain at Risk, Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health; The Latino Rejection of the Trump Campaign: The Biggest Voter Gap on Record, Latinos and the 2016 Election; The Importance of State and Local Variation in Black-Brown Attitudes: How Latinos View Blacks and How Blacks Affect Their Views, Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics; How Latinos’ Perceptions of Environmental Health Threats Impact Policy Preferences, Social Science Quarterly.

Nuri Heckler: Crypto-governance: The Ethical Implications of Blockchain in Public Service, Public Integrity; Spatial density of placebased and crime-reduction oriented nonprofits and crime; Urban Affairs Review; Women and Men Municipal Managers Doing and Undoing Gender, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (J-PART); Freedom of Speech v. Racial Justice: Whiteness, Antiparallelism, and Becoming-minor, Administrative Theory & Praxis; Feminism, Masculinity, and Active Representation: A Gender Analysis of Representative Bureaucracy, Administration & Society; Effective Resolutions of Ethical Dilemmas in Social Enterprise Organizations: A Moral Philosophy and Public Management Approach, Public Integrity; Managing Masculinity in Public Organizations, Handbook of Gender and Public Administration. At the Intersections of Identities and Public Service, Achieving Social Equity; From False Empathy to Honest Engagement: Using Emotional Intelligence to Bridge the Gap between Cultural Diversity and Social Equity, Practicum in Public Administration.

Trang Hoang: Fiscal Condition, Institutional Constraints, and Public Pension Contribution: Is Pension Contribution Shortfall Fiscal Illusion?, Public Budgeting & Finance; Looking at the Nonprofit Accountability-Charitable Donations Relationship through the Publicness Lens, Nonprofit Management & Leadership; Nonprofit External Communications: General Management, Public Relations, or Fundraising Tool?, Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs; Pension Reforms and Public Sector Turnover, Journal of Public Administration and Theory; Fiscal Responses to COVID‐19: Evidence from Local Governments and Nonprofits.” Public Administration Review; Tax Incentive and Household Saving Strategy: A Regression Discontinuity Approach to Catch-Up Contributions, Social Science Journal, (online first).

Bryce Hoflund: Administering and managing the U.S. food system: Revisiting food policy and politics, book, Rowman and Littlefield/Lexington; Setting the Table to Study Food Systems through Public Administration, book chapter, Rowman and Littlefield/Lexington; Connecting Food Systems and Public Administration: Key Takeaways and Future Research, book chapter, Rowman and Littlefield/Lexington; Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Short-Term Collaborative Networks: A Case Study of Communities Putting Prevention to Work Nutrition Initiatives in Douglas County, NE, book chapter, Rowman and Littlefield/ Lexington.

Craig Maher: Do We Really Need Another Municipal Fiscal Health Analysis? Assessing the Effectiveness of Fiscal Health Systems, Public Finance and Management; Financial Condition Analysis: A Key Tool in the MPA Curriculum, Journal of Public Affairs Education; Framework for a Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Large-Scale Food Processing Plant in a Small Rural Community: The Case of Costco’s Poultry Plant in Fremont, NE, Lexington Books; Government Financial Management and the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Comparative Look at South Korea and the United States, The American Review of Public Administration; Fiscal Responses to COVID‐19: Evidence from Local Governments and Nonprofits.” Public Administration Review.

Gary Marshall: The Dream, Refusal of the Body or Body Event?, World Association of Psychoanalysis.

Njoki Mwarumba: COVID-19 pandemic response amid broken promises: Implementing Native American Sovereignty for resilience, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management (JCCM); Large Secondary Datasets: Imperative for addressing Global Public Health Disasters, Routledge Publisher.

Namkyung Oh: Changing landscape of emergency Urban areas are centers of employment, diversity management research: A systematicand review progress. with bibliometric

Thomas Jamieson: “Go Hard, Go Early”: Preliminary Lessons From New Zealand’s Response to COVID-19. The American Review of Public Administration; Imperial Pandemicide, Social Science Quarterly; The Effects of Certain and Uncertain Incentives on Effort and Knowledge Accuracy, Journal of Experimental Political Science; Incorporating Research Design in Public Diplomacy: The Role of Listening to Foreign Publics, International Journal of Communication.

Danbee Lee: Bureaucratic reputation in the eyes of citizens: an analysis of US federal agencies, International Review of Administrative Sciences; The value of public organizations’ diversity reputation in women’s and minorities’ job choice decisions, Public Management Review.

Jooho Lee: E-government and Digital Governance, Routledge; Public vs. Public: Balancing the Competing Public Value of Participatory Budgeting, Public Administration Quarterly.

analysis. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction; Collective Decision-Making for Developing Emergency Management Capabilities. International Journal of Emergency Services; Social Cognitive Orientations, Social Support, and Physical Activity among at-Risk Urban Children: Insights from a Structural Equation Model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Daniel Scheller: How might the Covid-19 pandemic affect 21st century urban design, planning, and development?, Urban Science.

SPA faculty wrote a total of 68 publications, published across 56 publishing platforms.

MAVERICK STRONG

UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21 | 35

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

A SUSTAINABLE DEGREE

FOR THE FUTURE. Nationally-ranked degree programs with award-winning faculty---the School of Public Administration is a powerhouse of innovators, academics, and social entrepreneurs with an unforgettable reputation.

LEARN MORE AT SPA.UNOMAHA.EDU

DEGREE OFFERINGS Master of Public Administration Master of Science in Urban Studies PhD in Public Administration Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management Graduate Certificate in Public Management

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The University of Nebraska does not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and/or political affiliation in its programs, activities, or employment.

36 | UNO SPA YEAR IN REVIEW 2020/21