Volcker Alliance at ASPA 2025 Annual Conference
The Volcker Alliance presence at this year's annual conference for the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) extended to a couple key panels on Friday, March 28 and Saturday March 29. The morning of Saturday, March 29 began with an Opening Plenary where Dr. Mae Jemison delivered ASPA’s 2025 Elliot Richardson Lecture and received the inaugural Paul A. Volcker Public Integrity Award, exclusively sponsored and underwritten by the Volcker Alliance and supported by Ray and Barbara Dalio. The award pays tribute to an individual or organization who has made outstanding contributions to exemplary conduct in public service, leading the way for accomplishing significant programs or projects benefiting the general public.
“Dr. Jemison and Paul Volcker had very different public service paths—one, a pioneering astronaut and physician; the other, a towering figure in public finance and banking. But they share several attributes emblematic of public service leadership: an eagerness to take on formidable challenges, an unwillingness to relent in the face of political or societal pressure, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.” said Sara Mogulescu, president of the Volcker Alliance.
Volcker Alliance President Sara Mogulescu joined Janice Lachance, interim executive director of the American Geophysical Union, and Thomas Stanton, a former career executive, for the Presidential Panel, “Public Service Under Siege: The Future of the Federal Government Workforce” on Friday, March 28. Mogulescu and her fellow panelists shared their perspectives on how the Department of Government Efficiency is impacting government operations and what the future will hold for the field of public service. Attendees were then given the opportunity to discuss in small groups and share what the field could do to protect current and future public servants.
Later that evening, the Volcker Alliance hosted a dinner for Future Leaders of Schools of Public Service initiative mentees and mentors, as well as board members of the Alliance. This dinner was an opportunity for guests to network and build relationships amongst the program cohorts and mentors.
On Saturday afternoon, the Volcker Alliance's research partners, Jerry Zhao from Zhejiang University and Camila Fonseca-Sarmiento from the University of Minnesota, shared the current findings from the Deferred Infrastructure Maintenance Project as a part of the “Budgetary Issues across Levels of Governments” panel. The project is focused on assessing the deferred infrastructure maintenance needs across all 50 states and will include in-depth case studies on ten different states. Fonseca-Sarmiento walked the audience through the project's background, research methodology, an explanation of deferred maintenance, and an overview of the project findings thus far. The presentation, Assessing and Reporting Deferred Maintenance Needs, can be found here.
