Mike’s Blog

Willow Jacobson attended the last round of Faculty Lunches with the Dean and she talked about her work with the LGFCU Fellows Program.  Each class includes local government department heads, supervisors, heads of special projects, fairly new managers of small jurisdictions, and assistant managers of larger jurisdictions.  It is an intensive two-week program designed to […]

Frayda Bluestein participated in the last session of Faculty Lunches with the Dean, and she shared several things that she has been working on.

We had yet another round of Faculty Lunches with the Dean about a week ago, and it included Adam Lovelady, Frayda Bluestein, and Willow Jacobson.  As with past lunches, it demonstrated the remarkable diversity of programs and activities at the School.  Adam focused on using technology in the classroom, and the experiences he shared are […]

Kara Millonzi participated in the last round of Faculty Lunches with the Dean, and she talked about the evolution of an important project called NC Finance Connect.  Kara received a grant from the School’s Innovation Fund to support development of the site, and she has received first-rate support from folks in our IT Division. NC […]

This is the next installment of posts from the last round of Faculty Lunches with the Dean.  The idea for these lunches with faculty grew out of the strategic foresight process. One of the recommendations was to “[e]ncourage more communication and collaboration among faculty in order to help them be successful.”  According to the implementation […]

Public corruption takes a toll on the citizens in affected communities. It also undermines overall confidence in government institutions, and that makes it harder for all public officials to govern effectively. Citizens and government leaders need to understand the impact of the form of local government on public corruption as they consider the most appropriate choice for their communities. It is exciting that Kim and Whitney are breaking new ground in this important area of research.

The most recent Faculty Lunches with the Dean was a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been slow in posting this first summary.  These lunches are one of several helpful innovations that emerged from our strategic foresight process a couple of years ago.  The lunch group included Dave Owens, Kim Nelson, Jamie Markham, and Kara […]

I am incredibly proud of the commitment by Aimee and others to the School’s traditional values around non-partisanship and non-advocacy on policy issues. Legislators continue to rely on us because our faculty are knowledgeable and practical—and because they know that we will help them in advancing their policy interests rather than our own. They trust us. I hope that our conversations earlier this year on political neutrality will reinforce those values and make it possible for us to continue making important contributions at the General Assembly.

We have been trying to find the right way to assist decision-makers since the idea emerged as a high priority during an earlier round of strategic planning in September 2009. Our goal is to be the go-to place that bridges policy and practice. We were successful in recruiting Anita back to the School to lead this effort.

Margaret shared with the group her growing work on anti-human trafficking efforts. Since October 2017, she has spent half of her time working on Project No Rest, a statewide effort to increase awareness and prevention around human trafficking.