Director's Letter, March 2016

Dear CORD members,

As the 2015-2016 academic year unfolds CORD becomes more expansive in its activities. Our Center provides an anchor to research and scholarly activity at Arizona State University and, at the same time, provides a vital link among policy and administration scholars around the world.

Some of the highlights of the year thus far include:

    • CORD hosted the international Public Values Workshop, drawing scholars from many parts of the globe. Though featuring diverse papers and topics, this year’s workshop was dedicated to its founder and first host, the late Torben Beck Jorgensen, long a faculty member at university of Copenhagen.  An award was provided for the “Best Paper” at the Workshop and after reviewing many fine papers the award was provided to co-authors Shannon Portillo, University of Kansas, Edmund Stazyk, Rockefeller College, University at Albany, and Randall Davis, Southern Illinois University, for their paper “More Dissimilar Than Alike? Comparing Minority and Non-Minority Managers’ Value Preferences.”

 

    • The highlight of many fine lectures and presentations sponsored by CORD was the inaugural CORD/Arizona Centennial Distinguished Lecture, provided by Professor Andy Whitford, Andrew Crenshaw Professor of Public Policy, the University of Georgia. The topic of Andy’s lecture was “Above Politics: Bureaucratic Discretion and Credible Commitment.”

 

    • CORD also hosted ASU Visiting Associate Professor of Sustainable Management, Francesco Testa, from the Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy. Testa met with CORD researchers about possible joint research projects and delivered a talk on “Green Public Procurement in Europe."

 

    • A CORD committee recently chose the recipient of the first CORD Award for Scholarly Excellence. Professor Russell Hassan, CORD Fellow and faculty member at Ohio State University’s John Glenn School of Public Affairs.

 

    • The CORD pro bono project, a study for the St. Mary’s Food Bank, was concluded and the research presented to the executives of the nonprofit organization.  The project’s director, Dr. Marla Parker, was one of many who contributed greatly to the projects success.  Professor Alex Murdock, a CORD fellow and emeritus professor at the University of London South Bank visited for several weeks and was instrumental in the work of the project. A new pro bono project is under discussion, under the direction of CORD Associate Director Nicole Darnall. The project focuses on "green" procurement and CORD researchers are working with officials of the City of Phoenix to assist with implementing its Environmental Purchasing Policy.

 

    • CORD research director Stuart Bretschneider received a grant from the National Science Foundation to work on issues related to the mobility and return patterns of STEM doctoral recipients in the U.S.

 

    • CORD Affiliate Monica Gaughan and yours truly received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study research collaboration and especially the relationship between the degree of “cosmopolitanism” of collaboration and the productivity of STEM degree holders.

 

    • CORD fellow Jan Youtie and I put the finishing touches on another NSF grant, one focusing of the use of scientific and technical information (STI) in policy-making, focuses particularly on the impacts of STI in National Research Council reports.

 

    • We are very pleased that CORD postdoctoral researcher Marla Parker succeeded in reaching the goal of nearly every postdoctoral researcher- employment as a full-time, tenure-track professor in a university.  Marla is still with us at present but later this summer will begin her job at the California State College at Los Angeles.

 

    • With Marla’s departure CORD will not be without a high quality and engaging postdoc. In January, Dr. Angel Molina joined us.  While he is working on a variety of projects, his chief assignment is to a project directed by President Michael Crow and myself on the topic “Public Values-Based Institutional Design.”

 

    • The long process of data gather and cleaning under the most recent National Administrative Studies Project, NASP-Citizen, has nearly concluded and data will be widely released soon. CORD recently hosted a NASP-Citizen internal conference where the doctoral students working with the data presented research papers and received criticism from CORD faculty and visitors.

 

    • We welcomed a number of new CORDites, both Fellows and local Faculty Affiliates. New faculty affiliates include Molly Ott, Kendall Funk, and Ulrich Jensen incoming (Fall 2016).  New Fellows include Francesco Testa, Paul Hirsch, Shena Ashley, Mogens Jin Pedersen, Russell Hassan, Mary Tyszkiewicz, and Walter Valdivia.

 

    • CORD is pleased to have hosted a number of visiting researchers from stays ranging from a few weeks to a few months. These include Wesley Kaufmann, Alex Murdock, and Francesco Testa.



While the year has obviously been eventful, there is much to look forward to in the coming months.  For example, Russell Hassan will be visiting and delivering the lecture associated with the CORD award.  At the of the current term our CORD Board of Advisors Chair, Leisha Dehart-Davis will visit, making a research presentation and also conferring with CORD leadership about various planning issues.

One exciting development is a collaborative initiative with CORD Fellows in Mexico at the University of Guanajuato and CIDE (Mexico City).  In late April, CORD will host Professors and CORD Fellows Fernando Patron and Katya Rodriguez (UG) and CORD Board of Advisors member David Arellano-Gault (CIDE).

One of the highlights of the 2016 will be CORD’s hosting the International Meeting of the Technology Transfer Society November 3-5 in Phoenix, Arizona.  CORD Affiliate Chris Hayter is the chief organizer of the meeting.  Needless to say we are hoping to receive many proposals for papers and panels from CORD researchers.

In short, we progress.  Please stay in touch and make sure that we know about developments and events in your career and professional life.

Please continue to thrive, as we do.

Best wishes,

Barry