Virginia Tech

Michael C. Geertson, Jr.
Director, Business Development
Casals & Associates, Inc.

A 2006 graduate of the MPA program in Northern Virginia, Michael Geertson is currently Director of Business Development and Senior Program Manager for Casals & Associates, Inc., a firm specializing in carrying out public sector reform projects for international organizations in developing countries. "We work on a broad range of good governance issues, but are particularly well-known for programs that fight corruption, promote transparency, and foster accountability," Michael reports. "USAID is our biggest client, but we also work with UNDP, the World Bank, and other foreign governments. Right now, I am responsible for the cultivation of new projects, but I have supported ongoing programs in Albania, Nigeria, Mongolia, Equatorial Guinea, and Honduras, among others."

An undergraduate double major in political science and English, Michael returned to school for his MPA while working full-time. He says he sought a fuller understanding of the theories of "governance" central to his work in the developing world. "The academic thrust of the MPA program paralleled a lot of the practical work I was doing overseas... things like civil service reform/personnel management, budgeting, policy change, quantitative research, and government ethics." He says he chose CPAP based on its affordability, positive feedback from other CPAP graduates, and because Professor Jim Wolf "sold me" during an information session about the program. Looking back, Michael reports the CPAP MPA has served his career aspirations well, particularly his understanding of "…why American democractic models do or do not work when planted into overseas settings that are generally very different from those that we know in the United States."

Jose Miguel Gonzalez, Jr.

A 2005 graduate from the CPAP MPA program in Northern Virginia, today Jose Miguel Gonzalez, Jr. works in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, providing policy advice and oversight support for a variety of major defense acquisition programs across all branches of the military. An undergraduate major in electrical engineering, he began his career first with a private defense firm and, since 1989, as a federal government employee. "My initial interest in the MPA program began as I was taking on increasingly larger supervisory responsibilities in my job," he recalls, noting that the MPA offered a departure from his earlier training in the sciences and engineering. He joined CPAP based on the recommendation of CPAP alumni with whom he worked. Through the CPAP MPA, he says, "I learned to think at a different level. The professors at CPAP are outstanding instructors and true scholars. They challenge students to think and learn in new ways." Since completing the MPA, Jose reports he has been able to apply what he learned to his management and policy responsibilities. "With the MPA program, I learned how to acknowledge, understand, and appreciate the multiple and diverse perspectives and interests that are a part of every decision, from small to large, in the public sector."

Louise Wyatt
Organizational Development Manager
Albemarle County, Virginia

A 2004 graduate of the CPAP MPA program in northern Virginia, Louise Wyatt is currently a human resources manager with Albemarle County, Virginia. Her responsibilities include competency-based and technical training, tuition reimbursement, and assisting with the biennial employee climate survey for the 700 county employees. "My current job blends all my interests perfectly - teaching, performance management, and government administration," she reports. Louise joined CPAP while she was working full-time as a budget/management analyst with the government of the District of Columbia. "I knew I wanted to be in public service and an MPA seemed like a good general degree to have." Louise recalls, "I chose CPAP because it catered to working adults such as myself, in addition to being affordable and convenient." Of her coursework at CPAP, Louise says, "I found the classes to be really challenging in a good way - I learned to really examine public policy in a much deeper, systemic way than I previously had." She also notes that she learned a great deal from her classmates, many of whom brought very different perspectives based on their careers and backgrounds. "My MPA education exposed me to a wide variety of issues and sub-specialties that I didn't even know existed." She feels the MPA has given her insight and credibility in her work that she might not have gained otherwise. One hazard of the MPA, she says, is that it "turned me into a public administration nerd." She admits to reading Public Administration Review regularly, and often passes articles on to colleagues.

Nick Avdellas
Research Fellow
LMI Government Consulting

A 1995 graduate of CPAP's MPA program and 2005 graduate of CPAP's PHD program, Dr. Nick Avdellas is currently a research fellow at LMI Government Consulting, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping federal managers address strategic issues. His responsibilities include providing analytical, educational, and policy-related support and counsel, primarily to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. "I decided to pursue my PHD," Dr. Avdellas writes, "because I continually found relevance within the curriculum that helped me frame and, hopefully, help address the multi-dimensional problems we face as a government and a people. CPAP provided an environment for healthy dialogue about such issues and the faculty was absolutely top-notch in terms of knowledge and dedication to the students and community." He says his research and coursework through CPAP taught him, "to view policy issues from various perspectives and to always understand the social and historical context that underlies them….CPAP's strong commitment to the "life of the mind" truly comes to life as we have students and professionals work within our institutions to frame and solve the important issues we face.

Ed Gibson
Assistant Professor, Public Finance
University of Baltimore

A 2007 CPAP PhD, Ed Gibson is an assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore, specializing in public finance. His path was not exactly direct."I got here by moving steadily (glacially?) away from my initial work as a computer programmer," he says, "first to analysis, then supervision, then consulting, and, finally, doing a steady diet of life-cycle analysis (e.g., cost-benefit analysis) for federal clients." He admits, in retrospect, his decision to join CPAP's PhD program in Northern Virginia seems arbitrary. "However ignorant I was choosing the program, when I had the great benefit of learning from professors such as Goodsell, Hult, Khademian, Kronenberg, Rohr, White, and Wolf it was hard to believe my good fortune. What I learned from these and other gifted teachers extended my horizons concerning what public service is for, what it can do, and how those of us in the field can help." He adds, "One other thing: CPAP is a family, and I have made many good friends there."