Public Administration and International Affairs Department News, Media Commentary and Research

“I don’t think we have the conditions for a cease-fire. The U.S. presence will likely need to remain what it is for the foreseeable future,” says Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs. “Shuttle diplomacy can’t move people if they have an interest in keeping the hostilities going.”

“If the appropriations bills are not passed by the end of December, January benefits will still go out because SNAP benefits are obligated in the prior month (December),” says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs, says President Zelenskyy is here to “garner additional support from the administration, the Congress, and address the United Nations in ways that will provide the military support and also looking forward to negotiations.”

The association is a hub for networking, programmatic initiatives and the exchange of ideas in international studies teaching and practice.

Richard Barton, assistant teaching professor of public administration and international affairs, suggests that Trump could decide to “do whatever he wants and let somebody file a lawsuit and bring it to the Supreme Court, who have been pretty favorable to Trump on matters of executive power.”

This university-government-nonprofit collaborative research project aims to better understand how civil servants access and use evidence in their decision-making process. Published in Public Administration Review.

In this paper, the fourth in a series on a public health approach to suicide prevention, Michiko Ueda-Ballmer and co-authors contend that the transmissibility of suicide must be considered when determining optimal ways to address it. Published in The Lancet Public Health.

Minjung Kim, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs, and co-authors examine citizen satisfaction in the context of the U.S. healthcare system. Published in International Public Management Journal.

“Stability and Volatility in the Contextual Predictors of Working-Age Mortality in the United States,” co-authored by Maxwell faculty members Jennifer Karas Montez, Shannon Monnat, Emily Wiemers and Douglas Wolf, was published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

“The risk is greater than zero, that's for sure, and it's certainly higher than anything that has been accomplished on a commercial basis,” says University Professor Sean O'Keefe.

“Everybody has a risk of suicide,” says Michiko Ueda-Ballmer, associate professor of public administration and international affairs. “That also means that everybody basically should think about suicide prevention as their...business.”

“The Effects of Waiving WIC Physical Presence Requirements on Program Caseloads,” co-authored by Maxwell professors Colleen Heflin and Leonard Lopoo, and Ph.D. student W. Clay Fannin, was published in Social Service Review.

Julia Liebell-McLean and Mael-Sanh Perrier are seeking dual master’s degrees in public administration and international relations.

The Maxwell School welcomes several new faculty members for the start of the 2024-25 academic year.   

Dean David M. Van Slyke met with alumni, partners and dignitaries including India's minister of education, Shri Dharmendra Predhan, during a recent visit that celebrated the Maxwell School's centennial and its 70-plus year partnership with the country. 

“Fiscal Implications of Disasters and the Managed Retreat Thereafter: Evidence from Hurricane Sandy,” co-authored by Yilin Hou, professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in Natural Hazards Review.

“Pilots rely on a dashboard of instruments to tell them where they are, where they are going and how they are going to get there. Financial managers have their own cockpit with a dashboard of financial instruments. If they are working, they guide the manager to keep the government going in the direction set by the budget,” writes Minch Lewis, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

The team hopes to develop tools for effective and data-driven decision making and to assess collaborative governance in public bus fleet electrification. 

Longer storage periods open the data up to potential hacks and misuse, says Johannes Himmelreich, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs. “Even if SPD is doing everything right, and I expect them to do everything right, the vendor might have their own policies or data leaks that might be problematic,” he says.