Reflecting on American Society for Public Administration, 2015-2019

Reflecting on the American Society for Public Administration, 2015-2019

Julie Ann Racino, Syracuse University Maxwell Alumni

July 25, 2023 

      As the political campaigns for 2023 and 2024 are underway, Julie Ann Racino will spend a moment reflecting on the American Society for Public Administration, leaders in government service and governance, in the period of post health care reform in the US (See, Public Administration Review, 2013). 

      In 2015, I was delighted to head to Chicago, Illinois to propose a new section at ASPA on Public Administration and Disability with support from Allan I. Bergman, a colleague from the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities and United Cerebral Palsy. Not coincidentally, Dr. Allan Bergman was an early leader in family support in the US and has a stellar government services career via NGO and legislative sectors. now with the Disability Policy Consortium in DC.

      In addition, I was presenting on financing and disability (e.g., Long Term Services and Supports) which included updates from my new book, Public Administration and Disability: Community Services Administration in the US (Racino, 2014).  Similar to back in 1991, Dr. David Braddock with now faculty Dr. Richard Hemp were still publishing the US State of the States in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2017, at AAIDD) now from the University of Colorado.

     By 2016, Dr. Allan Bergman and I headed for Seattle, Washington on Employment First: Policy and Financing for Individuals with Disabilities in the 21st Century.  We were partnered with university and college representatives on culture and diversity in the workplace on a panel led by Dr. Sanjay Pandey of George Washington University. Gender diversity, gender equation and female management was a major theme. I, of course, thanked Amy Omang of ASPA for arranging the joint panel.

     Already, I was honored to be featured in the Section on the Environment and Resources Administration (SENRA) on Climate Change (Racino, 2015) in which everyone knows (or should) the critical importance of clean drinking water and clean air (back to the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration), the role of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA and US standards), and the historic Paris Climate Change meetings which occurred in 2015. Thank you to Dr. Sarmisthma Majumdar, Section Chair.

    2017 was a busy year with ASPA (American Society for Public Administration) with a November presentation on Deinstitutionalization Status and the State of the Science on Public Administration and Disability in Burlington, VT with a panel led by Dr. Robert Bartlett of the University of Vermont. Of course, Julie Ann Racino was enjoying the drive to Vermont, meeting new ASPA members and leaders, and the receptions and meetings (e.g., Howard Dean, keynote).

    Two critical meetings in 2017 were the ASPA Leadership meeting in Arlington, VA  wth Dr. Susan Gooden (new ASPA President) of Virginia Commonwealth University, post the first black Governor Wilder and Public Administration and the Law led by Dovie Dawson in Atlanta, Georgia. Allan I. Bergman and I were honored to be joined by ASPA Board members Andrea  J. Huston and Stephen J. Rolandi Jr. for a panel presentation on Expanding theories in disability and community. As an aside, critical race theory (2023 campaigns) is one of race-based, social justice and minority theories.

    In 2018 Julie Ann Racino returned to Reflections on the community integration in the US and Great Britain (Racino, 2014), enjoyed the reception at the Denver Aquarium, and met with the HHSA Executive Board in Denver, CO which hosted 20 health and human services panels at the annual event. The HHSA Executive meeting also discussed whistleblowers in government and the Me Too movement with HHSA journal location already resolved at the last meeting. 

      In March 2015, while the International Symposium at ASPA featured the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of the Child, in March 2018, the International Assembly endorsed the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nation. I thanked both Dr. Alan Rosenbaum of ASPA for his international leadership, the UN for its work on Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2018, 10th Anniversary), and Dr. Hugo Renderos (See, 2019 article, Racino) for his work on peace and conflict studies. (e.g., Cox & Renderos, 2013) 

       The 2019 Annual ASPA Conference was held in Washington, DC, and I was very excited about the collaboration with the Section on Science and Technology in Government (SSTIG). I was pleased to author the international paper, UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to International Treaties on Human Rights and Peace Accord (Racino, 2019) before beginning the period of Covid-19 and the global health care crisis.

      We continue to thank everyone for their commitment to making the world and government services better than before, and  challenge all of us to accept the environmental (See, blogspot, May 2018) and peace challenges of the 21st Century. 

The author also continues to acknowledge her diverse memberships during her lifetime including American Public Health Association, Inclusion International, American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and TASH International.