News: Public Service

In the La Follette School, I found a program committed in word and deed to supporting students who want to make a career of public service. That made all the difference for me.

David Axelrod shared his deeply personal connection with health care reform during a 90-minute conversation with La Follette School students September 28. As a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, Axelrod understood the political risks of the issue and was deeply conflicted about it.

La Follette School Associate Professor J. Michael Collins and former La Follette School Associate Director Hilary Shager (MPA ’05, PhD ’12) are among the leaders of the Alliance for the American Dream: DreamUp Wisconsin, a new community-university collaboration aimed at promoting shared prosperity and increasing American competitiveness.

Two weeks before receiving her master's degree in public affairs (MPA), Karina Virrueta was honored with the 2017 Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Graduate Student award from the Morgridge Center for Public Service at UW–Madison. Associate Director Hilary Shager nominated Virrueta for her dedication to community-based learning and research.

New York Times reporter Yamiche Alcindor frequently writes about inequality, race, and incarceration. Most recently, she has focused on the consequences of incarceration on the communities left behind as well as “the stereotypical way that we look at who’s to blame that these families are this way.”

Safe & Sound operates at the intersection of policy and practice, and it’s an exciting opportunity to see how the research plays out in community work on a daily basis.

A team of public employees in Washington and Ozaukee counties along with two co-workers at the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF) will receive 2016 Lloyd D. Gladfelter Awards for Government Innovation on Thursday, February 2.

My most rewarding experience at La Follette was working with the Wisconsin Legislature on a special taskforce to address childhood obesity.

More than 60 people attended each of four recent Town Hall meetings on key election issues with University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty members. The meetings in Appleton, Madison, Milwaukee, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, were sponsored by UW–Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Political Science along with the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

The La Follette School of Public Affairs is seeking nominations for the 2016 Lloyd D. Gladfelter Award for Government Innovation.