Mastering Public Service Ethan Bernick, MPA Kansas State, Brianne Heidbreder

In this episode we have a conversation with Dr. Timothy J. Shaffer, who is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies and director of the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University. He is passionate about helping to find ways to advance democratic practices by focusing on the role of civic professionals in local government, higher education, and in the nonprofit sector. In our discussion, we discuss such issues as how we might do a better job cultivating civil discourse; how public administrators can foster a healthy dialogue with community members in such a polarized political climate; and how we might reimagine public administration education to better address the wicked problems our society is facing.

This episode of Mastering Public Service is with Connie Schmidt, the Election Commissioner for Johnson County Kansas, the largest county in the state. Connie served as the election commissioner from 1995 to 2005 before owning and running an election consulting business that has provided consulting services to numerous local and state agencies. Connie was reappointed by the Secretary of State to serve as Election Commissioner for Johnson County in February 2020 and has worked in local government in Johnson County for a total of 31 years and previously served as City Clerk for the City of Merriam, Kansas. In December 2004 she received the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) Medallion Award for outstanding service to American democracy. In August 2005 received a Lifetime Membership Award from the Election Center, Inc. and in August 2007 received the Election Hall of Fame Award from The Election Center Inc. Its safe to say that she knows more than just a little bit about the administration of elections and possibly more than anyone in the state and probably the region. There are so many things about the administration of elections that most of us do not know and she helps makes the how elections are run a lot clearer. In addition to a very useful discussion about election administration we discuss her career and her love for public service.

On this episode of Mastering Public Service we interview Justin Stowe, the Legislative Post Auditor for the State of Kansas. What that means is that he is the head of the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit, the non-partisan audit arm of the Kansas Legislature. As he explains the organization seeks to inform policy makers by providing accurate, unbiased information and oversight about state programs. Justin, has his MPA degree from Kansas State University and is a real champion of the program. We first begin by discussing the role of the Legislative Division of post audit and how they interact with various parts of state government. Our conversation then goes on to discuss the many ways public organizations can adapt to meet the needs of their constituencies and how these changes are becoming even more important during a pandemic. We also discuss the ways the workplace has changed over his time at Legislative Post Audit and some of the innovative changes they have made to make the workplace environment better for everyone.

This episode of Mastering Public Service is a conversation with Julie Gibbs, the local Health officer and the Director of Riley County Health Department. In our conversation we discuss what it was like for her to start her job and then soon after have to figure out how to handle a pandemic. Were there things that she was not expecting and how the county has responded to all the challenges surrounding COVID. We then discuss her role in communicating with the public. How can public agencies balance the need to provide timely and accurate information? How they use traditional and nontraditional media and information sharing, and what are some of the pitfalls she is trying to avoid when communicating with the public? We then end or discussion talking about the current COVID situation in the local community.

In this episode of Mastering Public Service we are interviewing Dr. Kimathi Choma. Dr. Choma is the Assistant Dean of Diversity, Recruitment, and Retention in the College of Arts & Sciences. In our conversation we discuss important issues such as why its so important to work towards a more diverse and inclusive organization. What effective actions can be taken to support a diverse and inclusive organization? What are the most common obstacles to implementing those actions? And, how we can be better allies? As you will see Dr. Choma is someone who is passionate about the issues he is working on, and really pretty positive about some of the steps that have been taken and the opportunities we have to do better going forward.

Rina Neal, Controller for the city of Manhattan, Kansas, joins for a discussion about what it is like on an everyday basis to be a public employee. We discuss the ways Covid-19 has changed her role and the way the city is adapting. We then move on to a discussion of her other role in the community, That of an elected official. We discuss how she got into politics, why the school board was the avenue she took and how she sits in both the administrative and political world.