ASPA is proud to host a robust e-learning program including three series of webinars: BookTalks, KeepingCurrent events and Students and New Professionals topics. This list is refreshed constantly as new events are added to our calendar. Please contact us if you have any questions about our upcoming discussions or would like to join us to host an event.

KeepingCurrent: Undermining Our Rights: A National Emergency for the LGBTQ+ Community

August 13 | 1:00 p.m. EDT

Accurate data on the numbers of LGBTQ+ people is very important to understanding the current climate for the LGBTQ+ community on the national, state and local levels. Chris Surfus will discuss the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey and present demographics data on the LGBTQ+ population of the United States. This data contrasts with the recently released (March 13, 2024) Gallup poll data. The importance of this discrepancy is that the LGBTQ+ population in the United States, which is actually above 10 percent of our American population, is facing critical challenges by forces opposed to human rights. Wallace Swan will review the various attacks on the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and present opportunities for advancing the LGBTQ+ community in federal data collection.

Speaker:
Christopher Surfus, Founding President, The Surfus Foundation
Wallace Swan, Contributing Faculty, Walden University

KeepingCurrent: The UN Global Report on Gender Equality in Public Administration

August 20 | 1:00 p.m. EDT

The 2021 Global Report on Gender Equality in Public Administration (GEPA), jointly produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, was launched first at the United Nations High level Political Forum in November 2021. The report provides an overview of key trends and analysis on women’s participation and leadership in public administration, drawing from the Gender Parity in Civil Service dataset. The report finds that though there has been progress on women’s representation overall in public administration, persistent gaps remain. Women continue to hit glass ceilings and glass walls that stop them from advancing to positions at the highest levels of power and influence, including in organizations tasked with COVID-19 response. The report also highlights the important ways that gender intersects with disability; race, ethnicity and indigeneity; age; and other social categories to shape inequalities in public administration. The report closes with practical recommendations to reimagine and redesign more gender inclusive and diverse public administrations. The report is the product of six years of collaboration between United Nations Development Programme and the GEPA working group researchers at Gender Inequality Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh led by Müge Finkel and Melanie Hughes.

Speakers:
Mihriban Muge Finkel, University of Pittsburgh
Melanie Hughes, University of Pittsburgh

BookTalk: Organizational Behavior and Management

August 27 | 1 p.m. EDT

Harry Briggs, Moderator, Publisher
Jone Pearce, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Organization and Management, University of California, Irvine
Jessica Sowa, Professor, University of Delaware

This is a different kind of textbook, addressing the practical problems managers in public and nonprofit organizations face in doing their day-to-day work. It looks to systematic research on organizations, seeking to discover which actions and practices actually do and do not work. Unlike other textbooks, Organizational Behavior and Management actually translates this scholarly research for those managers seeking to understand and successfully manage their public or nonprofit organization. Note: This edition was written in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has dramatically altered many behaviors and organizational practices we often took for granted. Where relevant, the authors acknowledge the significant impact COVID-19 has had (and continues to have) on how we organize to pursue public service goals and produce public value.

BookTalk: The Overlooked Pillar

September 3 | 1 p.m. EDT

Alisa Moldavanova, Associate Professor, University of Delaware

Offering an original perspective on the sustainable-development discourse by emphasizing the importance of culture and cultural institutions in facilitating societal sustainability goals, The Overlooked Pillar conceptualizes sustainability as an institutional logic that develops in organizations and is enacted by managers of such organizations who make decisions and engage in sustainable thinking on a daily basis, leading them to reconcile current organizational realities and the need to adapt to those realities with considerations of the needs of future generations. Drawing on more than five years of research conducted on a variety of organizations within the domain of the arts and humanities, author Alisa V. Moldavanova provides a framework for organizational sustainability based on the dynamic interplay of two narratives—institutional resilience and institutional distinctiveness—and identifies mechanisms and strategies adopted by managers of cultural organizations that maintain and enhance intergenerational sustainability. The broader intellectual implication of the insights offered here encompasses the critical notion that genuine long-term sustainability, the kind that secures the rights of future generations, requires sustainable stewardship today.

KeepingCurrent: Building Capacity for Performance Management: Lessons Learned over 25 Years with Mid-Atlantic StatNet Leaders

Sponsored by ASPA's Center for Accountability and Performance
September 5 | 1 p.m. EDT

More Details Coming Soon!

KeepingCurrent: 2024 Park University Hauptmann Lecture

Sponsored by Park University
September 12 | 1 p.m. EDT

This year's Hauptmann Lecture will be provided by Don Moynihan, The Ford School at the University of Michigan.

More Details Coming Soon!

BookTalk: Collaborative Governance Primer: An Antidote to Solving Complex Public Problems

Sponsored by Rutgers University—Newark, School of Public Affairs and Administration
September 17 | 1 p.m. EDT

James Agbodzakey, Author
Peter Haruna, Moderator

Drawing on examples from the U.S. at the local government level, author James Agbodzakey will share how this book accentuates the growing utilization of bottom-up approaches in addressing complex societal concerns, with a particular emphasis on public health issues such as HIV/AIDS and the COVID-19 pandemic. The book approaches the topic with the following questions in mind:
(1) Does collaborative governance provide a viable alternative to complex public problem solving compared to the traditional top-down bureaucratic approach?
(2) Is cross-sector stakeholders’ involvement in collaborative governance a viable pathway forward in the administration of peoples’ affairs?
(3) Can societal well-being be better promoted with non-mandated collaborative governance?
(4) Would the representation and participation of target populations in policy decision making and/or implementation generate constructive and sustainable solutions for societal benefits? and (5) Is collaborative governance the future of public management/administration?

Attendee takeaways:
  • a primer on collaborative governance and its essential principles
  • unique references to health services within the context of complex public problem solving
  • key components such as antecedent conditions, process variables, outputs and outcomes