La Follette Schoolmarks 25th anniversaryOne of the benefits of an anniversary

is it gives us occasion to measurehow a relationship or an institution hasevolved. Another benefit is that we alsolook to the future and think about wherewe want to be in the next 10 or 25 years.

This academic year we are celebratingthe La Follette School’s 25th anniversary.Looking back, we mark the growth of our

program from theCenter for the Studyof Public Policy andAdministration, estab-lished in the late1960s under thedirectorship of ClaraPenniman. Anotherimportant milestonewas academic year1983-84, the first forwhich the WisconsinLegislature allocated

money to establish the La Follette Insti-tute. Dennis Dresang, then head of thecenter, became director of the institute.

In the ensuing 25 years, the institutegrew to become a highly regarded school,nationally and internationally, with 23 fac-ulty. This growth we owe in part to Den-nis Dresang’s vision 25 years ago and hisleadership of the center and the institute

Fall 2008 / www.lafollette.wisc.edu

LaFollette NotesNews for Alumni & Friends of The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

From the DirectorCarolyn Heinrich

With career taking wing, grad gives back to La Follette SchoolJon Montgomery checks out the cockpit of a C-17 military cargo aircraft at the 2007 Paris AirShow. The 1993 alum attends international aerospace trade shows to check out new technology for his job with the U.S. Department of Commerce. He supports the La Follette School financially in part because it helped him follow this career path. See story page 5.

Dennis Dresang took a roundaboutway to become an internationally

recognized expert on public management.His career and research interests took himfrom Kimberly, a little town in Wisconsin’sFox Valley, to Madison, Los Angeles andAfrica, all in pursuit of knowing moreabout how governmental systems function.

Along the way, Dresang taught hun-dreds of public affairs and political science students. Outside the classroom, he was vilified or sanctified (depending on one’s position) on so many issues of fairness and equity for women that he was namedan “honorary woman” and was the onlyman ever allowed on stage at WisconsinWomen in Government’s annual banquet.

Dresang will retire at the end of the fall2008 semester after 39 years at the Univer-

sity of Wisconsin–Madison.Dresang’s academic journey began

when he attended the University of Wis-consin in Madison, graduating with hisbachelor’s degree in 1964. Dresang thenheaded for the University of California,Los Angeles, to work on his master’s and doctoral degrees in political science.

“From the beginning, I wanted to spe-cialize in public management, but in thosedays that field was the kiss of death for apolitical scientist just starting a career,”Dresang says. “The hot fields were elec-toral studies or something comparative,so I focused on making comparisons ofpublic management in East Africa — in Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania.”

After finishing his degrees, he landed a

Founding director Dennis Dresang to retire

See Dresang on page 6

2009 Madison Reception for Alumni and Friends

of the La Follette SchoolThursday, February 5

4:30-6:30 p.m.Inn on the Park’s Top of the Park

22 South Carroll StreetFor information and to RSVP

alumni@lafollette.wisc.edu(608) 263-7657

See From the Director on page 8

2 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Fall 2008

The City of Milwaukee and the state ofWisconsin are reaping the benefits of

the La Follette School’s workshop reports.The Milwaukee Common Council over-

rode a mayoral veto to adopt — in part,anyway — a May 2008 recommendation to establish a local vehicle registration fee.

The project determines how a $20municipal vehicle registration fee in addi-tion to the state fee would affect vehicleowners in the City of Milwaukee with andwithout a property tax offset. While thecouncil did not include a property tax off-set, the city plans to use the fee, sometimescalled a wheel tax, to eliminate assessmentsfor redoing side streets and to reduceassessments for sidewalk and alley projects.

One of the authors, Jake Miller, wasn’tsurprised when the mayor vetoed the regis-tration fee in August. “When we presentedour report to Mayor Barrett in May, hementioned that he’d prefer to modify prop-erty taxes and assessments over having thevehicle registration fee,” says Miller, wholater joined Milwaukee’s budget office as ananalyst.

In addition, Wisconsin Governor JimDoyle’s decision to make a record purchaseof renewable electrical energy from stateutilities was based on recommendationsstudents made in a 2007 workshop report to the Department of Administration.

The reports are available online via www.lafollette.wisc.edu/publications/workshops.html.

Pamela Herd won a $30,000Rockefeller Foundation InnovationAward to Strengthen Social Securityfor Vulnerable Groups. She will usethe award to develop a proposal toimprove Social Security benefits forolder low-income women who raisedchildren. “Many women end up poorin old age, in part, due to the timeand energy they devoted to raisingchildren as opposed to participatingin paid labor,” Herd says. “Most othercountries reward women for thiswork. The U.S. does not do so.” TheNational Academy of Social Insur-ance selected her.

A journal edited by director Car-olyn Heinrich reclaimed the No.1 ranking for 2007, based on its cita-tion impact factor. The Journal ofPublic Administration Research andTheory saw an increase in its cita-tion impact factor from 2006 to 2007.The impact rating measures thenumber of times authors cited arti-cles from the journal within the pasttwo years, adjusted for the numberof articles published. Citations ofpublished research are key indica-tors of the influence of scholarlywork. The rankings are compiled byThomson ISI Web of Knowledge’sJournal Citation Reports database.

Susan Webb Yackee won thePaul Volcker Endowment JuniorScholar Research Grant from theAmerican Political Science Associa-tion's Public Administration Section.The $3,000 award will support herresearch project “Does PoliticalAccountability Lead to RegulatoryDelay? An Empirical Assessment of Federal Agency Rulemaking.”

Andrew Reschovsky is backin Madison after spending the 2007-08 academic year as a visiting fellowwith the Lincoln Institute of Land Pol-icy in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Former director Barbara Wolfe isusing her Guggenheim fellowship toconduct two projects on the relation-ship between income and health.“The evidence clearly shows thatpersons with higher incomes havebetter health,” Wolfe says. “What isless clear is the extent to which dis-parities in income cause differencesin health and vice versa. We alsoneed to better understand the under-lying causes of these disparities.”One project examines how increasedincome for American Indians whosetribes operate casinos affects theirhealth and use of health care. Theother uses a new data set of multiplebrain scans of children coupled todata on income, family status andschool performance.

Wolfe and Bob Haveman partici-pated in two conferences at the endof August. The first, the meetings ofthe International Institute of PublicFinance (of which Haveman is apast president), focused on demog-raphy and pensions. These meet-ings were at the university in Maas-tricht, The Netherlands. The secondconference, the meetings of theInternational Association onResearch in Income and Wealth,was in Portoroz, Slovenia.

Paul Soglin is bringing his expe-rience in the public and private sec-tors to the La Follette School this fallby teaching the public managementcourse as an adjunct associate pro-fessor. Soglin served as Madison'smayor from 1973-79 and 1989-97.He taught public finance, publicmanagement and public personnelpractices for the La Follette Schoolfrom 1997-2002. He spent severalyears with health-care softwaredeveloper Epic Systems, leading the move of the company's 2,600employees to its new corporate cam-pus in Verona outside of Madison.

Gregory Nemet has beenawarded a $100,000 multiyear grantfrom the Center for World Affairs andthe Global Economy at the Universityof Wisconsin–Madison. Nemet isworking on a three-year collaborative

research project called “GoverningNew Conflicts in Global EnergyFutures” with University of Wiscon-sin–Madison faculty in several otherdepartments. Nemet presentedresearch on modeling the impacts of government action on low carbonenergy technologies at the Interna-tional Energy Agency in Paris and atthe Santa Fe Institute. In June, heparticipated in a two-week Fulbrightseminar in Berlin and Brussels study-ing how science is used to informpublic policy on climate change, foodsafety and stem cells in Germanyand in the European Union.

Associate Director Menzie Chinngave two papers at four conferencesin May and June. One is a new paperon business cycles and exchangerates, presented in June at the BancaMonte dei Paschi di Siena confer-ence on “The Impact of Global Finan-cial Imbalances” in Siena, Italy, andat the Reinventing Bretton Woods/Austrian National Bank conference“Global Markets Disruptions: WillGlobal Imbalances Unwind?” inSalzburg, Austria. He gave a paperon the misalignment of China’s renminbi at the Brookings Institution'sGlobal Economy and Developmentprogram and at the Deutsche Bun-desbank/Center for Financial Studies-Goethe University Frankfurt work-shop on “Panel Methods and OpenEconomies.”

News from faculty

Alum running fordistrict attorney

La Follette School alum Peter Tem-

pelis is running fordistrict attorney inJefferson County,Wisconsin. As anassistant direct attor-ney for JeffersonCounty, he prosecutesmisdemeanor, felony,juvenile delinquencyand child protective

services cases. He has tried 20 jury trialsfor Jefferson County and the state.

Policymakers adopt student proposals

Peter Tempelis

Fall 2008 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 3

Friends

The American Political ScienceAssociation presented JudithHicks Stiehm the Frank Good-now Award in August. The award isfor scholars who have made out-standing contributions to the devel-opment of the political science pro-fession. A member of the advisoryBoard of Governors the La FolletteSchool shares with the Departmentof Political Science, she is professorof political science at Florida Interna-

tional University. She received herbachelor’s degree in 1957 from theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison,which honored her with a distin-guished alumni award in 2006.

Judge Angela Bartell retiredfrom the Dane County Circuit Courtin February. She now offers media-tion and arbitration services throughBartell Dispute Services in the areasof business, financial, corporate,insurance, personal injury, familyand general litigation.

1980s

Jonathan S. Drake, 1987,received his Ph.D. in wildlife sciencefrom from the University of Washing-ton College of Forest Resources. He continues to work as a researchfisheries biologist for the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-tration Fisheries Service in Seattle,where he focuses on species listedunder the Endangered Species Act.

Grant Huber, 1985, left his posi-tion of senior policy advisor with theWisconsin Senate in January 2007and accepted a position with theUniversity of Wisconsin SystemAdministration. As a special assis-tant for communications and exter-nal relations, he communicates UWSystem policy positions to numerousinternal and external groups, and herepresents the UW System at theState Capitol and elsewhere on a full range of issues affecting publichigher education in Wisconsin.

John Norquist, 1988, will receivethe 2008 award for ProfessionalExcellence from the Ed Bacon Foun-dation in recognition of his extensivecareer focusing on the built environ-ment. The foundation gives thehonor to an outstanding national figure who has advocated for excel-lence in urban development, plan-ning and design. He will receive theaward in December in Philadelphia.

1990s

Ayana (Wayne) Bembry,1998, has formed her own manage-ment consulting group, P4 SolutionsLLC. The company's tagline is “Peo-ple. Processes. Programs. Projects.Defined.” P4 Solutions offers innova-tive business transformation and pro-gram/project management solutionsfor public and private organizations.

Chicago Transit Authority pensiontrustee and Chief of Staff TheresaE. Mintle, 1991, reports the CTAcompleted the sale of $2 billion inpension funding bonds for the pen-sion trust and the newly createdhealth-care trust in August.

Bill Cosh, 1993, is now aspokesperson for the WisconsinDepartment of Justice.

Ben Paulos, 1997, is director ofthe renewable power program at theEnergy Foundation in San Francis-co, where he has worked since2000. The foundation promotesclean energy policy in the UnitedStates and China. His wife Marypassed away in 2005 from pancreat-ic cancer. Their son, Jerome, turned4 in September. Ben remarried in2007, and he and his wife Jess have a baby daughter, Georgia.

See News from Alumni andFriends on page 4

As a U.S. Army colonel, Darrel Branhagen, 1974, was chief liaisonofficer to the Karzai government and its 32 ministries for the militarycoalition in Afghanistan, and he was director of the Civil Military Coordi-nation Center in Kabul. He now is counsel with Siemens Corporation.

It’s a Small World of Baby Bobs Five La Follette School alumni collect their children from the same childcare center near Madison’s Capitol Square. From left, Donna Wong,1994, holds Ilan while her son Ari sits next to his buddy Tamirat, whosefather, Brian Solomon graduated in 1992. Karina Silver, 2006, holdsJacob; Carrie Schneck, 2007, holds Abigail; and Alison Bergum, 2005,

holds Simon. Bergum is with the university’s Population Health Institute.The others work for the State: Wong and Schneck for Health Services; Silver for the Budget Office. Solomon is at Workforce Development andserves on the Madison Common Council. Wong’s husband, Abe Rabi-nowitz, 2000, is with the Veterans Administration. The children get to play.

News from alumni and friends

Matthew Weber, 1997, has start-ed a Ph.D. program at the Universityof Michigan in urban and regionalplanning. “I will be focusing on plan-ning and policy initiatives to addressissues particular to shrinking cities(e.g. Detroit),” he says. “Please setaside a professor position for me atLa Follette. I’ll be there in four years(I hope!).” He holds a dual degree in law and public affairs.

2000s

Ellen (Wuennenberg) Gruby,2005, is now an associate consult-ant with Euromonitor International inChicago. Euromonitor offers high-level market intelligence on variousindustries and provides macroeco-nomic data on countries and con-sumers. As part of the consultingand custom projects team, sheresearches and analyzes markets,industry trends and products.

Melissa Schmidt is back in Wisconsin after clerking for the NewHaven (Connecticut) Superior Courtfor two years. She earned a dualdegree in public affairs and law in2006. Now an attorney with the Wis-consin Joint Legislative Council, shestaffs the Special Study Committeeon High Risk Juvenile Offenders and the Special Study Committee on School Safety. She interned withthe Legislative Council in 2005 whilea student at La Follette, having wonthe Bonnie Reese Women in Gov-ernment Scholarship.

Katie (Davis) Herrem,2008, and her Wisconsin Center for Education Researchteammates will present theirresearch at the American Evaluation Association confer-ence in Denver in November. “I worked on this project for a little over two years while I wasa graduate student, so I amvery excited that I get to be apart of presenting our work toa national audience of profes-sional evaluators.” She is nowan analyst with the WisconsinLegislative Audit Bureau.

Natalie (Walleser)Solverson, 2005, marriedfellow Badger Karl Solversonon August 30. She works atthe University of Wisconsin–La Crosse in the AdmissionsOffice, where she is primarilyresponsible for the recruitment of non-resident students.

The wedding of Trisha Schmid,2004, to Franz Helchinger in July inMilwaukee brought together La Fol-lette School alumni from severalclasses. Carrie Hoback, 2005,was a bridesmaid, while AnnaNiles, 2004, Chad Ruppel,2004, Trevor Pelot, 2003, andKrista Willing, 2008, attended.Trisha Helchinger started working for Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold’s Washington, D.C., officein March and is responsible forissues related to women’s health.

Carrie Schneck, 2007, is co-author of an article forthcomingin the journal Educational Evalua-tion and Policy Analysis. She wrote“A Multi-Site Cluster RandomizedField Trial of Open Court Reading”with Geoffrey D. Borman and N.Maritza Dowling of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. On thehome front, Schneck and her hus-band, Mike, are the proud parentsof Abigail Magdalene Schneck, bornMarch 1, nine days after Schneckattended the Madison reception for La Follette School alumni and friends.

Louisa (Kennedy) Kuljurgis,2007, married Philip Kuljurgis inAugust in Minneapolis, Minnesota.They live in Washington, D.C.

Joe Fontaine, 2008, is engagedto Kaelin Butch. They plan to marryMay 23 in their shared hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Bai Linh Hoang, 2006, isenrolled in the political sciencePh.D. program at University ofMichigan–Ann Arbor. Her fields willbe political theory, public law andAmerican politics, with an emphasison the values and ethics that shapedomestic policymaking and imple-mentation.

Byron Dorgan, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,selected Heidi J. Frechette,2003, to be senior counsel to themajority in December 2007. Herwork for the committee includesdrafting and managing major Ameri-can Indian bills regarding housing,health care and education.

2006 classmates Karyn Kriz andRoberto Dall’Asta got marriedon May 24. They met and starteddating during new student orienta-tion in 2004.

4 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Fall 2008

Share Your Story: alumni@ lafollette.wisc.edu or www.lafollette.wisc.edu/alumnifriends/intouch.php

News from Alumni and Friends from page 3

Shigeaki Kamo, first from right, visits with customs officials from the United States, Canada and Japan at the

U.S.-Canada border at Niagara Falls. Since graduating from the La Follette School in 2002, Kamo has held several

positions with Japan’s Ministry of Finance. As deputy directorfor the Customs Clearance Division, he was in charge of

planning policy for border enforcement for goods that infringeintellectual property rights. He reports that when he is dealing

with international issues, his U.S. counterparts have beencustoms officials and trade representatives, with whom

he gets along well. “Every time I had one of those interactions, it reminded me of the policy implications

I learned about at La Follette,” he says.

1994 grad Frances Huntley-Cooper, left, was a delegate to the DemocraticNational Convention in Denver, Colorado, August 25-28. She was a pledgeddelegate for Senator Barack Obama and one of 92 delegates. She says thiswas her third national convention but the most memorable and historic duringher lifetime. Huntley-Cooper is the worker’s compensation administrator forthe Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. With her, from left, areWisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing Secretary Celia Jackson,DWD Secretary Roberta Gassman, Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylorand Madison community leader Mary Lang Sollinger.

Fall 2008 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 5

Gifts fund hors d’oeuvres at D.C. happy hourStudent Justin King and alumni Alexis MacDonald, 2008, and Christie Enders, 2007, met up at a Washington, D.C.,happy hour that recent alumni arranged this summer. Fiveinterns visited with seven 2007 grads and one from 2008.

“We had some good conversations about our experiences inD.C. and at La Follette,” reports 2007 grad Kate Clark, who

helped organize the gathering, which was partly made possiblethrough gifts from alumni and friends of the La Follette School.

“People were very appreciative of the food,” Clark says.

Adesire to understand the practical application of economic theory led Jon Montgomery to

enroll at the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs— and to a 15-year career with the U.S. Depart-ment of Commerce, where he is an expert on thedevelopment of economic and trade policy affect-ing the U.S. civil aerospace manufacturing sector.

The 1993 La Follette alum hadn’t consideredfederal service until he spent some time in Madi-son. “I was inspired by my education — thecoursework and conversations with classmates and professors — to use my skills and abilities for the betterment of the nation,” Montgomerysays. “My diverse coursework atLa Follette gave me a sense ofdirection and purpose for how toapply my education. In additionto the theory and mechanics ofpublic policy analysis, I learnedhow that analysis could shapepolicies and legislation that would,in turn, affect everyday lives.”

While at the La Follette Institute, Montgomeryapplied his analytical skills as a research assistantto a project that assessed the financial impact of agas tax on people in different income groups. Hewon a scholarship that placed him with the U.S.Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.“I saw firsthand how the U.S. government helpscompanies to build partnerships with businessesin other countries, and how the federal govern-ment funds technical and policy exchanges withforeign government officials to share best prac-tices and govern more effectively. I was hooked.”

These experiences are why Montgomery sup-ports the La Follette School financially. “I believeit is important to pay a dividend back to the schoolthat invested in me,” he says. “The Wisconsin Ideaencourages a lifelong partnership between theschool and the community. Just as the universityparticipates in and contributes to the community,so do alumni have a responsibility to nurture and

enable that partnership after graduation.”“Financial assistance was a critical enabler for

me to take an internship in Washington,” he adds.“And I remember what it was like to live on ashoestring budget while at La Follette. Hopefullymy contributions will help alleviate at least a smallportion of that financial burden for a current La Follette student or provide an activity orresource that would otherwise be unavailable.”

Montgomery is fond of the La Follette Schoolfor personal reasons as well: He met his wife,Stephanie, at the 1994 wedding of fellow studentColleen (Prentice) Meiman, who is now a manage-

ment analyst with the HealthResources and Services Adminis-tration in the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services. TheMontgomerys had their first child,Jack Montgomery, in June 2006.

As for his federal-sector careerpath, Montgomery has served on

U.S. delegations to international negotiations ontrade finance and environmental standards for avi-ation. He organized and developed policy recom-mendations as a staff member of the PresidentialCommission on the Future of the United StatesAerospace Industry. He co-developed an integrat-ed plan for modernizing the nation’s air trans-portation system in partnership with executivesfrom the White House, seven other federal agen-cies and industry. Most recently, he helped devisethe first policy to cover all aspects of nationalaeronautics research and development.

“My success in each endeavor has been basedon the solid foundation of education and experi-ence gained during my time at the University ofWisconsin–Madison,” Montgomery says. “At La Follette, I learned that I have a unique respon-sibility as a federal employee to provide help tothose who need it, to speak for those who don’thave a voice, and to be an effective steward ofpublic money and public trust.”

Grad pays dividend to La Follette School in thanks 60 percent of Maygraduates working in their fieldsThree months after graduation,60 percent of the members of theclass of 2008 had found work intheir fields. Including the threestudents who plan to continuetheir education, 66.1 percent of the 56 new alumni are takingthe next steps in their careers.

“That’s an impressive percent-age of students to have jobs sosoon after graduation,” saysCareer Development CoordinatorMary Russell. “This shows howin demand our students are.”

An unprecedented three stu-dents reached the finalist stagein the Presidential ManagementFellows Program that placesapplicants with federal agenciesfor two years. Andria Hayes-Birchler and Patti Reis movedforward, while Kavan Kuckotook a position with the FederalReserve Board of Governors.

Carissa DeCramer won the L.P. Cookingham ManagementFellowship with the City ofKansas City in Missouri.

Twenty are in Madison, whilethree are in Milwaukee. Sevenare in Washington, D.C., andseven are elsewhere in the United States.

Alum testifies beforeU.S. House panelSean Dilweg, a 1998 alum who is Wisconsin commissionerof insurance, testified in Julybefore a U.S. House subcommit-tee about long-term care insur-ance. On behalf of the NationalAssociation of Insurance Com-missioners, Dilweg spoke beforethe Energy and CommerceCommittee’s Subcommittee onOversight and Investigations.

Support the La Follette School

Information is available at www.lafollette.wisc.edu/giving/

or call 608-263-7657.

tenure-track position with the University ofWisconsin–Madison’s Department of Politi-cal Science in 1969. He used his internation-al expertise to teach public management forthe Center for Development, which trainedmid-level civil servants from developingnations and Americans interested in devel-opment careers. “I was primarily teachingprofessionals, people from Africa, Asia andLatin America, who had been working forseveral years and could take a two-year leavefrom their government jobs to come toMadison to earn master’s degrees,” he says.

As the political scenes in Africa shifted,

Dresang found that African immigrationofficials could no longer tell the differencebetween professors and Central Intelli-gence Agency operatives and barred himfrom their countries. So when WisconsinGovernor Patrick Lucey asked Dresang forhelp with an examination of the State ofWisconsin’s personnel structure, Dresangwelcomed the opportunity. He took aleave of absence from the university forthe 1976-77 academic year and directedthe Wisconsin Employment RelationsStudy Commission. “It was an opportunityto work on management issues,” Dresangsays, “which I couldn’t do in Africa at themoment, and public management was no

longer the taboo specialty that it had been.The rest is history.”

That history includes a memorabledebate with conservative political activistPhyllis Schlafly on pay equity — the effortto remove the effects of gender discrimina-tion from pay scales. Dresang and Schlaflyargued about the effects pay equity mighthave on the workplace and the role and status of women. Dresang’s involvementwith the issue and other personnel mattersmarked him as someone open and commit-ted to fairness and equity in pay and workfor women and minorities — issues hechampioned outside the classroom.

6 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Fall 2008

Dresang from page 1

Dennis Dresang’s influence reaches all of Wisconsin, not just with his service to the state, but through the hundreds of students he has taught and mentored. These students are now local, state,federal, and international public officials and civil servants.

“Each of his students has taken the tools, education, and commitmentto serving the public that Professor Dresang helped us cultivate,” saysPeter Tempelis, a 2006 alum and one of three siblings to earn mas-ter’s degrees in public affairs under Dresang’s tutelage. He is assis-tant district attorney in Jefferson County, while his brother Eric, 2003,holds the same position in Brown County. Their sister Mindy, 2002, is a managing deputy district attorney in Outagamie County.

Tempelis and his siblings say that as Dresang’s students they livedthe Wisconsin Idea, the extension of the university’s resources to theborders of the state, by traveling with Dresang and fellow studentsacross Wisconsin to research public policy problems and make rec-ommendations to address them. “While we each became lawyers,we bring something special to the table because of our training at La Follette,” Peter Tempelis says. “We see things differently than a lot of other lawyers, thanks in part to Professor Dresang.”

2000 graduate Amy Brennan gained many valuable lessons whilewatching Dresang interact with national public policy experts andwith the people affected by the policies the experts advocated. “Aswe hosted gang prevention conferences, Professor Dresang made at-risk kids from throughout the state feel at ease with his down-to-earth style and genuine listening skills,” says Brennan, a lobbyistfor nonprofit organizations in Illinois. “I feel blessed and thankful tohave worked with him and learned from him. What he taught mekeeps me a little more grounded as I navigate Illinois politics.”

Dresang’s teaching style, plain-spoken manner, commitment togood public policy, plus solid advice about courses and career deci-sions made him a popular teacher. “He always encouraged you tothink outside the box with his probing questions or gentle directionto see a different perspective,” says Frances Huntley-Cooper, a1994 graduate who is now a division administrator with the Wiscon-sin Department of Workforce Development. “It was great to have a

professor with experience in the community and the state that hebrought into the academic world of public policy.”

Dresang also brings his students and his academic expertise intothe practitioner’s world. As part of Lieutenant Governor BarbaraLawton’s Wisconsin Women = Prosperity initiative, Dresang over-saw 35 students’ independent studies every semester for two yearsas they helped develop public policy on the status of women in Wisconsin. “Dennis Dresang works at the top of his field, leadingwith an infectious spirit of generosity that kindles innovative researchand brings all of us — students, community and state officials — to better imagine the possibilities for public policy,” Lawton says.

Dresang is always ready to give advice or serve as a soundingboard. “He takes the time to talk with you,” says 2000 graduate WesSparkman, contract compliance officer for Dane County, Wisconsin.Sparkman still values Dresang’s advice and approach, especiallywhen trying to solve complex policy questions. “He reminds me thatit is OK to solve really big problems and keep it simple,” Sparkmansays. “You can tell that he cares about what he talks about.”

This plays out in Dresang’s service to the state. “I consider him theforemost scholar on public personnel administration in Wisconsinbecause he has dealt with so many departments and institutions,”says Sparkman, who also serves on the Madison Police and FireCommission. “It’s a testament to him and the quality of his workthat he has had state agencies coming to him to work on projectsand that they keep coming back to ask for help.”

Roberta Gassman, secretary of the Wisconsin Department ofWorkforce Development, echoes that sentiment. “I can think of very few individuals who so embody the Wisconsin Idea as doesDennis Dresang,” she says. “Throughout his career he has sharedhis nationally recognized expertise and research capacity withmany units of government to spark the very best in public policy.Multiple governors, mayors, county executives and legislators haveall turned to him. Not only is Dennis an incredibly principled and trusted advisor, but he has been a remarkable leader on behalf of equality and fairness in the workplace.”

See Dresang on page 7

Champion of the Wisconsin Idea: Alumni, friends value Dresang’s expertise, style, advice

Fall 2008 www.lafollette.wisc.edu La Follette Notes / 7

MIPA alum organizestraining in QatarYoung women from the MiddleEast and North Africa gatheredin Doha, Qatar, to improve theirleadership skills, thanks in partto the organizing efforts of alumKatie Croake.

“The participants were students,civil society leaders and politicalactivists from Algeria, Egypt, Jor-dan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatarand Yemen,” Croake says. “Dur-ing the week we were in Doha,they gained the intellectual tools,comparative knowledge and prac-tical skills they need to becomeleaders in their communities.”

Croake designed and imple-mented the Young WomenLeaders Academy as part of her job as program managerwith the National DemocraticInstitute for International Affairsin Washington, D.C. The non-profit organization strengthensand expands democracy world-wide. Croake graduated in 2003with a master’s degree in inter-national public affairs.

If you plan on passingthrough Wisconsin …If you will be visiting Wisconsinand would enjoy adding the LaFollette School to your itinerary, please let us know. Our studentsappreciate talking with alumniand friends about their careerexperiences.

To set up your visit, contactCareer Development CoordinatorMary L. Russell, 608-263-2409,mrussell@lafollette.wisc.edu

When Dresang returned to campus, he addedteaching American public management and publicpolicy to his repertoire. He became associate direc-tor of the Center for the Study of Public Policyand Administration in 1977. As director in theearly 1980s, he won a Ford Foundation grant sofaculty could conduct research for the State ofWisconsin. “The program brought together stateagencies and the university, and it enabled us toenhance the center and create what became the La Follette Institute of PublicAffairs,” Dresang says.

As director, Dresangnursed the unit through itstransition, working with Wis-consin Assembly speaker TomLoftus, a 1972 center alum,and Rep. Tom Harnisch tophase in the institute as partof the university’s budgetedstate funding.

“It was kind of improbable that we began theinstitute when we did because we were in the mid-dle of the Reagan era and the recession,” he says.

The institute was formally established in 1983,with Dresang as its first director, a position he helduntil 1988. During that time, he served as chair andresearch director of Wisconsin Governor TonyEarl’s Task Force on Comparable Worth. Thepanel’s 261-page report presented research findings,policy recommendations and legislation that wassubsequently enacted. For his effort, Dresang is stillpraised or damned because the changes that cameabout included new job descriptions and more payfor many women in Wisconsin government.

In the classroom, Dresang teaches two coursesfor La Follette, Public Management and PersonnelManagement, and he developed Advanced PublicManagement. Three of his textbooks are stan-dards: Politics and Policy in American States and Com-munities, co-author James J. Gosling, now in itssixth edition; Public Personnel Management and PublicPolicy retitled Personnel Management in GovernmentAgencies and Nonprofit Organizations for the fifth edi-

Dresang from page 6

Dennis Dresang

Network via the WebYou’re invited to join the La Follette Alumni Group on LinkedIn, a professional networking web site. Joining allows you to find and contact more than 60 other La Follette members. You can

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InformationCareer Development Coordinator Mary L. Russell 608-263-2409 mrussell@lafollette.wisc.edu

tion; and the Public Administration Workbook,co-author Mark W. Huddleston, sixth edition.

Dresang has advised federal agencies, state unitsin Alaska and Iowa, and governmental units inSouth Korea and Eastern Europe. Continuing toserve the State of Wisconsin and help its publicmanagers improve employee relations, Dresang:

worked with the City of Madison and DaneCounty on good government, pay equity andthe merger of their public health departments;collaborated with many of Wisconsin’s 11 Indi-an tribes on a variety of issues, including specialtraining projects with the Ho-Chunk, Menomi-nee and Lac du Flambeau Chippewa;ran, for 10 years, a class on gangs and youthviolence that visited almost 50 Wisconsin com-munities to help form teams to address thismajor public health issue;directed a project in 2004-05 that recommendedhow the Wisconsin State Supreme Court couldoverhaul its personnel administration; and has been the primary organizer, for 15 years,with the Council of State Governments to giveleadership training to legislators as part of theBowhay Institute for Legislative LeadershipDevelopment. Nearly half of all Wisconsin legislators have participated since its inception.Dresang is the La Follette School faculty mem-

ber behind an annual six-week leadership programfor mid-career women that La Follette and Wis-consin Women in Government sponsor. More than160 women from around the state have participat-ed to improve their skills in management, network-ing and leadership to help them advance theircareers. His work with WWIG earned him a spoton stage at the group’s 2006 meeting, where Lieu-tenant Governor Barbara Lawton named him an“honorary woman” for his work on leadership,equity and pay issues for women.

In learning how governmental systems operate,Dresang has uncovered inequities and made rec-ommendations for improvement. “My interest inremoving barriers faced by women and minoritiesis personal, part of my value system,” he says.“Inequities in pay or access to government shouldbe addressed. Inequities are an injustice.”

for most of the 1980s. Dennis is retiring at the conclusion of this fall semester, andI join our alumni and friends in thankinghim for his 39 years of service to the university and the state.

This year we welcome to our facultyTimothy Smeeding, who is serving as direc-tor of the Institute for Research on Poverty.He is founder of the Luxembourg IncomeStudy, a research center and cross-nationalwealth and income data archive. Sweden’sStockholm University gave Tim an hon-orary degree in September to recognize thisimportant contribution to research. We alsowelcome former University of Wiscon-sin–Madison chancellor John Wiley to ourfaculty and the expertise he brings in highereducation studies and leadership.

Looking ahead, our priorities continueto be providing more support for graduatestudents, further strengthening our interna-tional program, enhancing the vitality ofthe Wisconsin Idea and raising funds for a new campus home for the school.

Our alumni and friends help ustoward these goals not only throughfinancial donations but also by givingtheir time to our students. This fall,2005 international public affairsgraduate Bill Schmitt shared with ourstudents his experiences as an areacoordinator with Catholic ReliefServices in West Darfur, Sudan.We encourage our alumni who willbe visiting Wisconsin to contact usabout meeting with our students.

All our alumni and friends practice theWisconsin Idea by extending the reach ofthe university worldwide as they analyzeproblems, devise alternative courses ofaction and select the best solutions. Thesuccess of our graduates and quality ofour faculty and staff show why the La Follette School’s reputation for excellencehas grown nationally and internationally.We have a demonstrated impact on theresidents of Wisconsin and their govern-ment, as well as the federal governmentand international programs.

I hope that our anniversary or the news

of Dennis’ retirement prompts you to takefurther stock of your relationship with theLa Follette School. Some of you find thatyour experiences here helped you achieveyour career goals. Others witness the differ-ences sound public policy can make in people’s everyday lives. Some alumni andfriends stop by our receptions, help ourstudents in their job searches or send finan-cial contributions. This issue of La FolletteNotes recounts some of these stories.

We look forward to hearing from moreof you and to strengthening our relation-ship with you in the years to come.

8 / La Follette Notes www.lafollette.wisc.edu Fall 2008Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PaidMadison, WI

Permit No. 658

Robert M. LaFollette School of Public AffairsUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison1225 Observatory DriveMadison WI 53706

LaFolletteWe’d like to hear from you

To update your contact informationwww.lafollette.wisc.edu/alumnifriends/intouch.php

To support the school financiallywww.lafollette.wisc.edu/giving

To work with studentsmrussell@lafollette.wisc.edu or 608-263-2409

To ask questions or submit commentsalumni@lafollette.wisc.edu or 608-263-7657

From the Director from page 1