Graduate students went head-to-head on Saturday, Feb. 16 during the Second Annual Georgia Students for Public Administration Policy Competition at UGA. The student-run competition was co-sponsored by the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the Department of Public Administration and Policy, and funded by the Jerry R. Griffin Endowment for Public Administration and Policy. The competition is an annual opportunity for students from different universities and disciplines to build and demonstrate their analytic skills in a collaborative environment. Participants had the chance to learn from each other and from judges representing leading public, nonprofit and private organizations.
This year’s case centered on housing policy, and incorporated issues of nonprofit governance, financial management, and public-private-nonprofit collaboration. First place was awarded to a UGA MPA team made up of Jamison Dague, Rachel Burns, Taha Hameduddin, and Margaret Hruschka. Second place was awarded to a Georgia State University team made up of Reyyan Acar, Philip Garnett, Rana Rzayeva, and Bauyrzhan Yedgenov.
The judges were Dr. Deborah Carroll, associate professor, UGA Department of Public Administration and Policy; Samantha Chandler, accounting technician, Athens-Clarke County Financial Services Division, UGA MPA ’12; Caitlin Childs, organizing director, Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities; Laurel Hart, division director, Housing, Finance, and Development, Georgia Department of Community Affairs; Jack Halper, first vice president, the WHM Group at Morgan Stanley, Athens, member of the SPIA Board of Visitors, and UGA MPA ’77; Delene Porter, president and CEO, Athens Area Community Foundation, UGA BSW ’02 and MSW ’03; and Tyler Reinagel, senior doctoral fellow, J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, UGA MPA ’09 and Ph.D candidate ’13.
Leslie Hale
Service Chair, Georgia Students for Public Administration