2023 Award Winners and 2023-2024 Elections


Awards:

Julian F. Hirst Award
George Bains

Wolfgang Pindur Award
Stephen King

John Dunning Award
Gary Roberts

Christine Mann Darden Award
Amelia Ross-Hammond

Academic Scholarship
Saige Hill

Elections:

President Elect (2023-2024)
Stephen King

Executive Council (2023-2025)
Gail Nicula
Steve Wright
Jasmine Benford
Brian Smith

Student Representative (2023-2024)
Robin Dunbar

Annual Research Symposium – Call for Proposals

Annual Research Symposium 

The Hampton Roads Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (HR-ASPA) is holding its annual research symposium on March 16, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. (EST). The symposium is virtual. We welcome presentations from scholars, practitioners, graduate students, and anyone else interested in sharing their thoughts and ideas on the symposium theme. This year’s theme is “Trust in Government and Other Challenges of Public Service in a Multi-sector Environment.” The
symposium will explore, in sequential panel presentations, how public, private, and non-profit agencies approach the growing trust gap between government organizations and the public, in inter-and intra-agency and boundary-spanning settings, and where the work of public/private/and non-profit entities intersect. Topics could include: 

  • Transparency and responsiveness in government 
  • Leadership best practices to further trust in government, including servant
  • leadership, ethical leadership and decision making
  • Equitable resource allocation and fiscal stewardship; competition for funding  
  • Environmental justice, including equity for neglected and marginalized communities 

Format 

Panel Presentations are expected to be 10-12 minutes in length, with each panel having no more than 4 presentations. Each panel is moderated. Panels will be 60 minutes in length.  

Submission 

Participation in the symposium is free. We welcome submissions from both members and non-members of the Hampton Roads chapter of ASPA. Proposals are being solicited for panel presentations. You can propose an individual panelpresentation or a full panel (3-4 presentations).   Proposals must be submitted to Gail Nicula (jnicula@odu.edu) by February 3, 2023. Acceptance
notifications will be shared no later than February 20, 2023. Proposals must include: 

  • Author(s) name, affiliation, and contact information (i.e., email and phone).  
  • Member/Non-member status in ASPA and HR-ASPA.  
  • Title and abstract of the proposed presentation (250 words). 

Questions? 

If you have any questions, please contact either Gail Nicula (jnicula@odu.edu) or Gary Roberts (garyrob@regent.edu).

ASPA HR 2022 Award Recipients

Congratulations to the chapter award recipients for this year:

  • Julian F. Hirst Award for Distinguished Service
    Mechelle Smith, Director, Norfolk Criminal Justice Services
  • George Robert House, Jr. Award for Outstanding Service
    Jimmy McNamara, Director, Chesapeake Planning Department
  • Dr. Wolfgang Pindur Award for Distinguished Service in Academia and Practice
    Gary Roberts, Regent University
  • John Dunning Award
    David Chapman, HR ASPA webmaster, Master Lecturer Emeritus, Old Dominion University
  • Hampton Roads ASPA Chapter Academic Scholarship for Studies in Public Administration
    Norah Alshayhan, Ph.D. student, Public Administration and Policy, Old Dominion University

We celebrated the chapter award recipients and welcomed the incoming HR ASPA council at the Annual Awards event on Thursday, May 19, 2022 from noon-12:30 pm, via Zoom.

Annual Research Symposium

The Hampton Roads Chapter of ASPA Annual Research Symposium on Examining Public Service in the Wake of COVID-19: Challenges, Successes, and Future Implications.

The Symposium will be on March 24, 2022, from 9.45 am to 1.15pm EST, via Zoom.

Symposium program (PDF).

We thank the organizing committee – Dr. Marina Saitgalina, Dr. Stephen King, Caitline Stein, and Taiwo Lasisi – for their hard work.

All are welcome to attend the Symposium, so please invite your colleagues and students.

Awards, Scholarship, and Nominations

Applications for the annual awards and scholarship are now being accepted. Please see the Awards tab for more information. All applications are due via e-mail by April 11 at 11:00 PM to the Chapter President (Wie Yusuf, wieyusuf@gmail.com). Please include HR ASPA scholarship/award in the e-mail subject.
Winners will be recognized at the May meeting.

We are also seeking nominations for our chapter leadership for the next year starting July 1, 2022. Dr. Marina Saitgalina will assume leadership of the chapter in the role of President. Several Executive Council members will also continue the 2nd year of their term (Jerry Hoddinott, Gail Nicula, Gary Roberts, Caitlin Stein). We thank Vincent Afedi, Elijah Agyapong, Celeste Green and Stephen King for their service on the Executive Council (terms expiring June 2022). We also thank Tihara Richardson for serving as student representative.

We are looking for those interested in serving in the chapter’s leadership positions. These are great opportunities to become more engaged with the chapter!
Please consider nomination yourself or others for the following positions:

  • President Elect (2022-2023)
    • This person will become President in 2023-2024
  • Executive Council (2022-2024)
    • Four vacancies
  • Student Representative (2022-2023)

Note: Chapter members are required to be active members of ASPA during the year(s) of service in a leadership position.

Further information on the specific roles for the upcoming year may be found by reviewing our Chapter Constitution, or by contacting the Wie Yusuf (wieyusuf@gmail.com).

Nominations should be submitted via this Google Form by 11pm (Eastern) on April 11, 2022. Self-nominations are encouraged. Anyone nominated will be contacted to ensure they are willing to run.

The Virtual Workplace: Implications for Leadership and Human Resource Management

This event was held on Thursday, November 18, 2021 from Noon-1 pm.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented public administrators with unprecedented stress and disruption in service provision and foundational human resource management practices such as staffing and job design. Concurrently the challenges gave impetus to an accelerated utilization of the virtual workplace with overall positive results from both an efficiency and effectiveness standpoint and more favorable employee attitudes and behaviors. This webinar featured four experienced local government administrators and academics reflecting on the effectiveness of the virtual workplace in addressing the key service delivery and the associated HR management challenges.

Recording (video) of the webinar.

Panelists:

  • Ms. Marva Smith, Human Resource Director, City of Norfolk
  • Ms. Kim Harrison, Senior Human Resource Generalist, City of Chesapeake
  • Julianne Mahler, Professor Emerita of Government and Politics, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
     
  • Myungjung “MJ” Kwon, Professor and Public Administration Program Coordinator, California State University Fullerton