NCAC Board Retreat to Assess Chapter’s Progress and Plan for the Future

On Saturday, January 4, 2020, the NCAC Board started the New Year by meeting to assess the chapter’s progress during 2019 and to plan for 2020. The Board thought 2019 was successful and was pleased with trying a new format for some of its events. That new format was the World Café style format used for its October program on education and November program on regional affordable housing issues. It was agreed that while the format was successful, it needed to be mixed with other formats throughout 2020 to provide the best events to NCAC members. 

Looking ahead, the Board set a regular production schedule for the Chapter newsletter. Now, the NCAC newsletter will be produced in January, March, May, July, September and November 2020. They also agreed to hold five chapter events during 2020—two in the spring, one in the summer and two in the fall. The Board further agreed to refresh the Chapter’s web site and make it a better knowledge tool for NCAC members. The Board agreed to make sure that all of its work and the Chapter’s programs focus on the Chapter’s mission–providing personal growth, knowledge-sharing and networking to NCAC members. 

All Board members agreed that the Saturday together was fun and productive. Look for exciting changes in 2020.

Allen Lomax

By NCAC Board Secretary Allen Lomax

Categories: ASPA News, Current Events

Nawras Taffal (Federal Government)

I am a leader with a strong engineering and public administration background, and executive skills that when put to use can make things happen. I have a passion for success and believe strongly in honesty, integrity, hard work, commitment to work and core principles. I’m a strong leader, a talented engineer, and a problem solver with strong interpersonal skills.

I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from The State University of New York at Buffalo, a Certification in Management & Executive Negotiation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Master of Public Administration at George Mason University.

I am the Founder and CEO of Young Engineers of America (YEA). I also work at the Department of Defense as a Civil Engineering Project Manager, and I bring about 8 years of professional experience in engineering, public administration, and executive management. I am also the current director at the National Capital Chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), and a membership champion at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

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Chris Harrington (Local Government)

Budget and Management Analyst, Dept. of Finance, City of Baltimore

I currently work for the City of Baltimore in the Department of Finance as a Budget and Management Analyst. Before coming to Baltimore, I spent nearly three years leading government affairs for a statewide advocacy organization in Connecticut.

As a Budget and Management analyst I am responsible for guiding eight agencies through the City’s outcome based budgeting process. Additionally, Baltimore is nationally recognized for its fiscal responsibility and budgetary prowess. I assist my portfolio of agencies in financial planning during the current fiscal year to ensure that operational goals are effectively met and resourced. Finally, I also identify and implement managerial and procedural changes to make City government work more efficiently.

Outside of my work with the City, I am researching and developing a public health toolkit, which is designed to integrate explicit considerations of public health in decisions including policies, practices, programs, and budgets. Too often, policies and programs are developed and implemented without thoughtful consideration of public health outcomes. When public health is not explicitly brought into operations and decision-making, poor public health outcomes are likely to be perpetuated.

The problems that our world faces are becoming increasingly more complex. In trying to solve these problems, I help government to understand how the financial and administrative decisions they make today can impact the people they serve years down the road. Our current environment is the sum of all the decisions that were made before us. It is our responsibility to do everything that we can to better our present and future.

I look forward to connecting with more ASPA-NCAC members. Feel free to reach out to me through my LinkedIn profile, or email me at Christophereharrington@gmail.com

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Isaac White (Federal Government)

Systems Analyst, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

I decided on a career in public administration while serving as an Army combat medic in Iraq. I witnessed some of the outcomes that policy decisions produce and became interested in the processes that generate decisions of such consequence. After undergraduate studies in political science and economics at Edinboro University, I began working for the Social Security Administration. I started with SSA as a claims representative processing disability, retirement, and survivors applications and later moved into the IT department as a systems analyst.

Last year, while completing my MPA degree at Arkansas State University, I transferred to my current position with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service within USDA. As a systems analyst, I conduct a wide range of duties including business process analyses, systems evaluations, capital and resource planning, and project management. The task consuming most of my time lately is serving as the project manager for an application being developing internally for agricultural inspectors at our nation’s ports. When completed, the application will provide a simplified method for obtaining regulatory guidance regarding which commodities can be granted entry into the country and under what conditions.

My project is just one of many at the agency with the goal of protecting American agriculture by preventing and controlling the spread of invasive species. Pests such as the Spotted Lanternfly, which is currently threatening fruit crops and trees in southwestern Pennsylvania, threaten our food supplies and can cause billions of dollars in damage if left uncontrolled.

I look forward to connecting with more ASPA-NCAC members. Feel free to reach out to me through my LinkedIn profile, or chat with me at the next chapter event!

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Yianni Alepohoritis (Federal Government)

Management and Program Analyst, U.S. Department of Education

I am a Management and Program Analyst at the U.S. Department of Education. I serve as a Program Officer for the Education Innovation and Research Program (EIR)–formerly the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3)-within the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) at the U.S. Department of Education.

I wear many hats in my position with EIR. Some of the roles include being a steward of the taxpayer dollar by monitoring my program’s grantees for fiscal compliance, helping manage the competition process in which applicants compete for federal grants, and fostering communities of practice amongst our grantees and the educational field at large by leading the planning of our annual conference as well as other dissemination efforts.

The work of my program is important to public service because it provides grants to tackle persistent educational challenges and improve student achievement for high-need students. It does so by generating, validating, and scaling evidence-based solutions in order to serve substantially larger numbers of students throughout the country

I welcome the opportunity to network with my fellow administrators. You may contact me at Yianni.alepohoritis@ed.gov and through my LinkedIn.

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Jennifer Prioleau (State Government)

Administrative Assistant, Virginia Board of Accountancy (VBOA)

I received a Bachelor’s  in Communications from Christopher Newport University. Not only did this degree help me land my current job within state government, it also helped me improve my public speaking and writing skills.

I currently serve as the Administrative Assistant for the Virginia Board of Accountancy (VBOA) which provides licenses to Certified Public Accountants (CPA). My position requires being comfortable with addressing the public daily and enforcing new regulations and policies. In my position, I review new policies for obtaining and maintaining a CPA license. Once, I am familiar with the new polices I call accountants, construct emails, and letters informing them of the changes.

As the initial point of contact, I clarify controversial questions in regards to the policy changes. I act as a personal consultant to accountants. I advise them on how to receive all the required documents and work experience to issue the CPA license. Frequently, I provide advice to college students to select the appropriate classes needed to apply for the CPA license in their future.

During my time with the VBOA, I’ve been inspired to start a Master’s in Public Policy Administration. I loved the thrill of learning about new government policies and helping the community. An employee at my job encouraged me to start my Master’s at Liberty University for Public Policy Administration.

I look forward to finishing my MPA degree and networking with others in the field of public service. Please feel free to contact me at prioleaujennifer@gmail.com.

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Pamela Foster (Student)

Master of Public Administration (MPA) Candidate, Walden University

I chose to pursue my MPA after years of having a career as a social worker. In this role, it was my responsibility to help individuals gain access to valuable public services such as mental health/substance treatment, crisis prevention, food, shelter, and emergency assistance.

Frequently seeing the populations I served, deal with constant day to day struggles, followed by their normal daily challenges, I realized that I held a passion for advocacy and public policy, and that I wanted to help people on an organizational level rather than on an individual level.

I look forward to my future in public administration and welcome the opportunity to network with my fellow public administrators. You may contact me at my LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-foster-a9ba0a75

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Denver Supinger (Local Government)

Legislative Aide, Fairfax County Government

As a Legislative Adie to a local-elected official in Fairfax County, I assist our constituents with their day-to-day needs and hardships which pertain to public safety and transportation. I came to this position after working for a health system and a fundraising department for a state university. Throughout my experiences, I have continually fallen back on education and academic understanding of public administration.

I earned both a B.A. in Political Science and a Masters of Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. While attending this institution, I was surrounded by academics who believed that our government and nonprofit agencies could advance to uphold the pillar of social justice. My exposure to world-class faculty has installed the value of community, justice, and service into everything I do. As I expand my horizons and experiences in public administration, I want these values to grow and show in my daily work.

Outside of day-to-day work, I express my passion for public administration and the hope for a better government through political advocacy. Though the field of public administration remains a nonpartisan entity, I believe that we need the support of our elected officials to ensure that our daily government processes are efficient, effective and fully supported.

As I continue to navigate the realm of public administration, I am always open to learning for veterans in the field. I would be honored to connect with fellow ASPA members, please feel free to connect with me via email at supingerdb@gmail.com or at https://www.linkedin.com/in/denversupinger/.

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Erica L. Van Steen (Private Sector)

Government, Social Impact, and Organizational Consultant

When people ask me “what do you do for a living?”, I often have a hard time answering. I began my career as a high school activist and volunteer for public health, homelessness, and community organizing efforts. During my undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin, I founded a nonprofit coalition to build educational programs for health and gender equity. My sociology degree took me to Israel and the UK for research and an internship in Parliament. This was perhaps my first peak “behind the curtain” into public policy and administration. I loved working in our tiny Westminster office on casework, helping in-need individuals navigate services and access benefits to keep them in housing, in a job, or with their families. I went on to achieve my MS in Social Policy Research at the London School of Economics where my dissertation examined a cross-governmental policy in its 10th year of implementation. My research found that geographic areas with higher positive health and social outcomes had created public-private and citizen feedback loops in their implementation strategies; these loops were associated with improved services and program innovations.

These foundational experiences drove my career in DC when I relocated here in 2010. From studying innovation in the Federal government and learning good government management principles as a researcher with the Partnership for Public Service to my work on cross-governmental initiatives in cybersecurity and STEM education as a Booz Allen Hamilton consultant, I began to establish an understanding of the intersection between government, business, and social enterprises. For the past 3.5 years, I’ve had the privilege of working on a wide variety of Federal projects as a consultant with Herren Associates: developing Veteran economic opportunity programs, creating military health system improvements, and supporting the Performance Improvement Council in its mission to drive performance management government-wide.

This field is about creating “good.” We can act as a stabilizing force for individuals going through a difficult personal experience or for an organization going through a time of turmoil; we can be champions for improvement or guardians of dollars, processes, services, and better outcomes. My advice to those starting out in the field is to be fearless and hopeful. Be willing to learn and to work hard, but don’t let other people define your values or your boundaries. Use your values and your boundaries to help you stay focused and empower you in your career choices. I’d also suggest that anyone starting out should do their best to chase experiences, not dollars. The dollars will follow you as you gain unique experiences, a specialized perspective, and credibility for your contributions across meaningful work.

I find the challenge of working in emerging policy and cross-governmental contexts incredibly exciting. The future of public sector work will require an even broader toolkit and more multi-disciplinary voices from the field. We will need to grow creativity and strategic skills, incorporate advances in data and computational techniques, and develop stronger levers for collaboration across social enterprises and sectors. I welcome the opportunity to connect with fellow public administrators.

If you are interested in discussing social impact initiatives, the future of public administration, evidence-based policy making, or techniques for data-driven design, please reach out to me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericavansteen/

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