ABOUT THE PROGRAM

HISTORY

PARC was established in 1986 with a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Its founding director was Professor Emeritus Louis Kriesberg, who continues to make important intellectual contributions to PARC and to the field of conflict resolution. Professor Robert A. Rubinstein was director from 1994-2005.  Under Robert’s leadership, PARC expanded both its domestic and international reputation in the field of conflict resolution.  In July 2005, Rosemary O'Leary and Catherine Gerard became Co-Directors of the PARC program. 

PARC CO-DIRECTORS

Rosemary O'Leary

PARC Co-Director,

Maxwell Advisory Board Endowed Chair
Distinguished Professor of Public Administration
J.D., University of Kansas
Ph.D., Syracuse University

Class website: Summer 2008 PPA753 Executive Leadership

Rosemary O'Leary is Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Maxwell Advisory Board Endowed Chair. An elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration, she was a senior Fulbright scholar in Malaysia in 1998-1999 and the Philippines in 2005-2006. Previously O'Leary was professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University and co-founder and co-director of the Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute.

O'Leary is the author or editor of six books and more than 100 articles on public management and public policy. She has won nine national research awards, including Best Book in Public and Nonprofit Management for 2000 (given by the Academy of Management), Best Book in Environmental Management and Policy for 2005 and 1999 (given by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)), and the Mosher Award, which she won twice, for best article by an academician published in Public Administration Review.  Her research has been funded by the Hewlett Foundation (9 years), the International City/County Management Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the American Bar Association, and the IBM Center for the Business of Government.

She is the only person to win three awards from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA): Distinguished Research (2004), Excellence in Teaching (1996), and Best Dissertation (1989). In 2007, O'Leary won the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in teaching, Research and Service, given jointly by NASPAA and ASPA.  In 2003, O'Leary was awarded the Syracuse University Chancellor's Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement, the highest research award at the university.

She has won eight teaching awards and was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by ASPA's Section on Environment and Natural Resources Administration. O'Leary has served as national chair of the Public Administration Section of the American Political Science Association, and as the national chair of the Section on Environment and Natural Resources Administration of ASPA.

From 2003-2005, O’Leary was a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Return to Flight Task Group assembled in response to the Columbia space shuttle accident.  In 2004, she also served as a member of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.  O'Leary has worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and the International City/County Management Association.  She has worked as an attorney and as an administrator in Kansas state government.

Catherine Gerard

PARC Co-Director
Associate Director, Executive Education Programs
M.A., University of Toronto
M.P.A., Rockerfeller College

Catherine M. Gerard serves as Associate Director of Executive Education Programs and Co-director of the Program on Analysis and Conflict Resolution at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. In that role, she manages the Master of Arts in Public Administration degree program, serves as graduate course professor for the Department of Public Administration, and designs and delivers executive education programs for domestic and international customers.

Before joining Syracuse, she was Assistant Director for the New York State Governor’s Office of Employee Relations where she led a consulting and training organization devoted to statewide training and organizational effectiveness. Throughout her State government career, she specialized in assisting leaders with organizational change and in the design and development of training programs.  In addition, Ms. Gerard was a key architect of the State’s total quality management program and served as adjunct faculty member at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs at SUNY Albany. 

Ms. Gerard teaches leadership for managers at many levels.  Her graduate course at the Maxwell School is targeted for mid-careers managers from public and nonprofit organizations in the United States and abroad.  She recently conducted leadership training for Senior Executives in the Department of Defense and New York State government.  She co-developed and delivered a workshop, entitled, “Leadership and Learning,” for almost 8,000 managers in federal and New York State agencies.  A recent project was leadership development for school superintendents and Board presidents through the Central New York School Boards Association. 

Ms. Gerard has consulted with public and non-profit organizations in the areas of strategic planning, leadership/management, organizational change, team-building and conflict resolution, labor-management partnerships, and total quality management.

Her current government customers include the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the New York State Department of Health.  Her most recent public sector projects include curriculum development of a multi-day leadership program and a year-long Certificate Program in Advanced Public Management.  Selected strategic planning clients include Arise and Child and Family Services, Onondaga Citizen’s League, Rape Crisis Center, Fabius-Pompey School District, Jordan-Elbridge Central School District, the City of Syracuse Board of Education, and Onondaga Central School District.  She recently completed a major facilitation project for the Salvation Army.  

PARC STAFF

Elizabeth S. Mignacca

Administrative Assistant: Responsibilities include program budgets, payroll, reimbursements, travel and speaker arrangements, grant writing, grant administration, coordinating the Summer Institute for Creative Conflict Resolution, assisting PARC co-directors with the day-to-day administration of the Institute, and assisting PARC faculty with various research and course related activities.

Carin D. McAbee

Records and Publications Coordinator: Responsibilities include keeping PARC records, running the certificate of advanced study in conflict resolution program, advising students in the certificate program, serving as webmaster for PARC, and crafting the institute's annual report.  In addition, she assists the PARC co-directors with the day-to-day administration of the Institute, and assists PARC faculty with various research and course related tasks.