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August 29, 1996

GSPIA dean named

Carolyn Ban, a faculty member at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, has been named the new permanent dean of Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). She will assume her post Jan. 1.

Ban is currently an associate professor of public administration and policy at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at SUNY-Albany.

In a prepared statement, Provost James Maher said: "I firmly believe that Dr. Ban is ideally qualified to lead the development of the University's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. I look forward to working with her as she builds on GSPIA's past successes." Ban will replace GSPIA professor Martin Staniland, who has been serving as interim dean since permanent dean Davis Bobrow resigned in January 1995, citing differences over management style and philosophy with the provost.

"She's good. She's very good," Staniland said of the new dean. "It's a very good appointment. I think it is going to be a very easy sort of transition." Ban graduated cum laude from Smith College with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1964. She earned a master's degree in regional studies of the Soviet Union from Harvard University in 1966 and a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in 1975.

Prior to joining the SUNY-Albany faculty in 1982, Ban served as division chief and program analyst in the Civil Service Reform Act Evaluation Management Division of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In 1991, she also was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institute.

"Dr. Ban has headed large scale evaluations of public sector programs and provided consulting and training services to federal and state agencies and to the World Bank and the Morozov project in Russia," Maher noted.

The Morozov project is a program to train Russian private and public sector managers. Ban helped design and deliver training programs for it.

Ban's research has focused on human resources management and administrative reform. She has written one book, "How Do Public Managers Manage? Bureaucratic Constraints, Organizational Culture, and the Potential for Reform," and co-edited "Legislating Bureaucratic Change: The Civil Service Act of 1978" and two editions of "Public Personnel Management: Current Concerns, Future Challenges." Journals in which Ban has published include Public Administration Review, Administration and Society, and Review of Public Personnel Administration.

As an administrator, Ban has served as director of SUNY-Albany's master's in public administration program and as the associate director of the Institute for Government and Policy Studies at SUNY-Albany. In the private sector, she worked as manager of the Arthur Young & Co. consulting firm in Washington, D.C., in 1978-79 and as a senior research analyst for the Educational Systems Corp. in Washington, D.C., 1976-78.

On the academic front, Ban has taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Stanford University and Ohio State University, and has lectured at the World Bank, George Washington University, Prince-ton University and American University.

Ban sought the GSPIA job because of both Pitt's reputation and GSPIA's reputation. "It's a school with a fine tradition," she said. "It's a very well known school in the field." The city of Pittsburgh also was a draw. Ban has friends who live in the area and she had grown fond of the city during visits here. Although she was not prepared to discuss specifics about any changes she might like to make at GSPIA, Ban said she had some broad goals that she wanted to accomplish, starting with maintaining and building on GSPIA's reputation.

"I want to make sure that we continue to hire outstanding new faculty," she said. "And I want to make sure that we work aggressively to recruit outstanding students." Ban also wants to increasing fundraising, get alumni more involved with GSPIA and maintain the school's strong commitment to international programs. As a sign of her commitment to GSPIA's international program, Ban said the school will immediately begin a search for a permanent director of the International Management Development Institute. The institute currently has an acting director.

"I definitely see MD [the International Management Development Institute] as a very important part of GSPIA," Ban said. Ban will not assume her post until January because she was already committed to teaching and working with graduate students at SUNY-Albany this fall when the GSPIA offer was made.

–Mike Sajna

Filed under: Feature,Volume 29 Issue 1

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