Faculty and students from the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) earned national recognition at the 2026 American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Conference, with multiple prestigious awards highlighting their contributions to public administration scholarship, teaching, and leadership.
J. Edward Kellough, department head and Thomas P. and M. Jean Lauth Professor of Public Affairs, received the 2026 Paul P. Van Riper Award for Excellence and Service, one of ASPA’s most distinguished honors. Presented to scholars with a sustained record of professional achievement and service to the field, the award recognizes Kellough’s long‑standing influence on public administration research, education, and practice.
That recognition was reinforced with a second national honor for Kellough. His most recent book, The Fragility of Merit: Presidential Power and the Civil Service under Trump, was selected for the annual book award from ASPA’s Section on Personnel and Labor Relations. The book examines the importance of a professionally competent and politically neutral civil service, analyzing how efforts to expand presidential control over the federal workforce threatened long‑standing merit principles and bureaucratic expertise. Kellough’s work makes a compelling case for protecting the civil service and renewing a national commitment to merit‑based public employment as essential to effective democratic governance.
SPIA faculty excellence was further recognized with Eric Zeemering, professor of public administration and director of the Master of Public Administration program, being named the recipient of ASPA’s Donald C. Stone Scholar Award from the Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management. The award honors scholars whose work has made significant and sustained contributions to the study of intergovernmental relations, recognizing impact across the field rather than a single organization or policy area.
Student scholarship was also celebrated at the national level. Nayeong Kim received the 2026 ASPA Section on Korean Public Administration (SKPA) Best Student Paper Award for her dissertation‑based research, “Whose Merit Matters: Politicization and Favoritism in Personnel Selection,” which was chaired by Kellough and successfully defended earlier this year. The award recognizes outstanding student research that advances understanding of public administration theory and practice.
In addition, Rebekah Lankford was selected as an ASPA Founders’ Fellow for the Class of 2026, an honor that supports emerging leaders with a demonstrated commitment to the future of public administration and public service.
Together, these recognitions reflect SPIA’s strong national presence within ASPA and underscore the school’s continued leadership in advancing scholarship, mentoring the next generation of public service professionals, and shaping the field of public administration.
