School of Public Administration: Celebrating 50 Years in 2023
By Craig Maher, Ph.D.
School Director, School of Public Administration
Nestled in the corner of the CPACS building, UNO’s School of Public Administration (SPA) is unassuming.
But don’t be fooled by this; the national presence our school wields is strong and noticeable through the strength of its accomplished, well-regarded faculty, students, and leaders.
SPA is Nebraska’s highest ranked school according to U.S. News and World Report. We are in the top ten in the nation for graduate programs focusing on Public Finance & Budgeting (No. 5) and Local Government Management (No. 7), and rank highly overall. We feature renowned authors, award-winning faculty, and alumni found world-wide.
We’ve had many accolades throughout our 50 years of existence; here are some of our most recent honors in the first six weeks of 2023:
- Our past school director and current CPACS Dean, Dr. John Bartle, was honored as being named President-elect of ASPA, the American Society for Public Administration.
- Dr. Jodi Benenson, Associate Professor, was named the winner of UNO's 2023 CCSGE Outstanding Achievement Award for Faculty or Staff.
- Dr. Trang Hoang, Assistant Professor recently won the 2023 IRSPM Rosemary O’Leary award for her recent co-authored publication entitled “Beyond a Numbers Game? Impact of Diversity and Inclusion on the Perception of Organizational Justice” in our top journal – Public Administration Review.
- Ph.D. students Shawn Maxwell and Theodore Johnson were named ASPA Founders’ Fellows. Theodore, a Ph.D. candidate and aviation instructor, is also currently on a prestigious national fellowship in Washington DC – the Samya Rose Stumo National Air Grant Fellowship from the Federal Aviation Administration.
- Ph.D. candidate Felipe Blanco was recently chosen for the UNO Helen Hansen Outstanding Graduate Student Award.
Our Mission: Our school’s mission is to strengthen the public service in a democratic and diverse society by educating students to manage and lead public and nonprofit institutions effectively, ethically, and democratically. Our alumni work in a variety of areas including: federal, state, and local governments; in nonprofit organizations delivering services such as health care, youth and human services, and community development; in international development; and in public service-related private businesses.
Public Administration: With public service at the core of our school, we offer two graduate programs focused on administration. Our highly rated and internationally accredited MPA (Master in Public Administration) is the recognized graduate degree for professionals in public service. The degree is offered on campus, online or through a combination of modalities. Our Ph.D. program in public administration is Carnegie - designated with a robust research tradition. It was one of UNO’s first doctoral programs offered; now in its 27th year. More than 70 graduates have earned their Ph.D. from us, and our graduates are found throughout the nation and abroad.
Urban Studies: In our Master of Science in Urban Studies (MSUS) program, students earn a professional degree that trains them to critically analyze urban problems and to engage residents in the creation of
innovative solutions to conditions in the community. You’ll find our graduates are social entrepreneurs, urban thinkers, and agents of change. To help meet the evolving demands of students, we recently developed two additional pathways to Urban Studies – a fast-track to the MSUS and a Certificate in Urban Leadership. The Fast-Track program provides students the opportunity to complete a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in an accelerated time frame. The Urban Leadership Certificate is multidisciplinary and allows all credits earned to count toward the MSUS.
Professional Programs: Here you’ll find ongoing classes and nationally recognized certificates in nonprofit management, fundraising and public management for those already working in the public and nonprofit fields. Our professional programs director ensures our school has a statewide presence as she also coordinates programs with the Nebraska Clerks Association and the Great Plains Government Finance Officers Association.
Undergrad Programs – Aviation and Emergency Management: Down the hall from our central office, you’ll find two exciting undergraduate programs in aviation and emergency management. Our Aviation Institute attracts students who are interested in flight, both as pilots and controllers of unmanned aircraft systems. The Institute formed formal partnerships with United Airlines and Southwest Airlines as a pipeline for pilot training. Our students consistently win awards at national flight competitions. In February, 2023 a new flight simulator was installed in our building’s basement, and will soon be available for training. (Want to visit it? It is amazing; please call!).
Our Emergency Management and Disaster Sciences program develops skills in preventing, planning and preparing for, responding to, and recovering from large scale natural or man-made disasters and public events that require inter-agency and/or inter-jurisdictional involvement. The undergraduate program also offers three undergraduate minors: Emergency Management, Fire Service Management and Tribal Management and Emergency Services (TMES). The TMES minor is one of the very few in the nation and offers the opportunity for students to understand emergency management from the perspective of sovereign tribal nations within the US. Our students and instructors are found both in person and online, and the EMDS program has a robust internship component.
Other Programs: We offer a certificate in Tribal Management and Emergency, as well as a collaborative minor called the Cross-Sector Collaborative Leadership Minor & NextGen Leadership Corps, which engages with other cohorts nationally.
Active In Our Community: Catch our activities in the Omaha community through our new photo gallery here. This past year we have helped coordinate a community forum on Omaha Redlining, a national 2030 Government assembly for future public leaders from every state, co-hosted a regional state floodplain managers training through our EMDS faculty and alumni; held an urban studies community project evening, and hosted roundtables featuring our faculty, including Dr. Tara Kolar Bryan who has recently returned from her year as Fulbright Scholar in the Czech Republic.
We truly are locally engaged with a national presence. Please feel free to follow us on social media for updates on our good news
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