An international organization of professional public managers has bestowed a huge honor in 2021 on the Public Administration (PUBA) program in the College of Social Sciences. The Public Management Research Association has selected PUBA as the virtual host of its world conference from June 23-26.
The meeting was originally scheduled for 2020 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, with a large social gathering to be held at the Bishop Museum. But the pandemic pushed back the eagerly anticipated annual conference for a year, and will now be held entirely online.
Still, the prestige of being named international conference host is an historic highlight of the innovative graduate-level program, which began at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1984. “Hosts are usually full public administration schools at universities, not a program such as ours,” said Morgen Johansen, conference chair and PUBA director and professor. “We were chosen because of our unique focus on public administration in the Asia-Pacific region, and our dedication to diversity and inclusion.”
Highlights will include pre-conference workshops, and programs on social equity and inclusion; leadership and collaboration; policing, policy and public management responses; and the impacts of COVID-19.
The conference was last held in 2019 at the University of North Carolina’s School of Government, and in 2018 at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
This is an exciting year for PUBA, which is No. 95 out of 285 national graduate programs in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 Best Graduate Schools ranking. The master’s degree in public administration is the state’s only Network of Schools Public Policy, Affairs and Administration accredited program, offering an 18-month accelerated, two-year full-time and three-year part-time plan.
In addition, PUBA students are making a difference in the community in a big way. Take note, for example, that General Election Night 2020 saw five-out-of-five candidate victories: Radiant Cordero (2016) now serves on the Honolulu City Council; Jackson Sayama (2021), Roy M. Takumi (1993) and Ty Cullen (2007) are representatives in the state Legislature; and Keola Lindsey (2016) is a trustee on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board.
“We are so proud of our students, because they are the future transformational leaders who will positively impact society,” said Jaret K.C. Leong, PUBA program manager and chair of the UH Mānoa Staff Senate Executive Board.
Added Helen H. Yu, PUBA graduate chair and associate professor, “Our faculty have active research agendas and are recognized experts in various subspecialties. Several have extensive practitioner experience, which can be instrumental in helping students to advance their careers.”
