Guest Essay By Dr. Angel Wright-Lanier: The Making of a Public Servant
By Dr. Angel Wright-Lanier | Executive Director | Network of Schools of Public Policy Affairs and Administration (NASPAA)
I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to write an article for this journal. I started my local government career after working in the private sector for ten years. I secured my first local government job as a management analyst in the Finance Department at the City of Raleigh, NC. About a year into my tenure in Raleigh, I met a grad student from NC State University who asked me if I’d met the new City Manager, Russell Allen. She urged me to schedule a time to introduce myself to the manager. I scheduled my appointment with Russell. He took about 45 minutes to meet with me. He asked me why I left the private sector for public service and what I wanted to do with my career. About a year later, there was an opening for a senior management analyst position; I applied and landed the job. I credit managers like Russell, Dave Treme, and Scott Stevens for giving me opportunities, believing in me, and helping me to land other positions by providing me with references when I applied for higher-level positions.
In 2017, I had the opportunity to attend the Senior Executive Institute (SEI) at the University of VA. The course was more about the individual than my professional role. During that program, the sessions we attended led me to seek my doctorate in Education. In January 2018, I enrolled in Vanderbilt University’s Leadership and Learning program. Three and a half years later, I finished my degree during the COVID pandemic.
When COVID hit, I was an assistant city manager for the sixth largest city in the State of NC. I don’t have to tell this group about our many challenges during COVID. We had to take care of our employees, our citizens, with a particular emphasis on our houseless residents. On top of human service needs, we innovated and continued to provide day-to-day services, like planning submissions. In January 2021, I moved to the county as an assistant county manager. I’d spent over 19 years working with city governments, so the county was a new challenge. Learning how to deal with the quasi-state agencies and the other elected officials, such as the Sheriff, and Elections Administrator, were unique and interesting challenges.
One of my departments was Human Resources. During this time, people left the organization in droves. Several employees found better pay and the opportunity to work from home for private sector firms. Many people quit because they were eligible to retire, so they decided to go home and not risk catching COVID. Our county ended up with a 33% vacancy rate!
After 20 years of government service, I decided to try something new. Shortly after graduating in May 2021, I secured a new job as the Executive Director of the Network of Schools of Public Policy Affairs and Administration (NASPAA).
What is NASPAA?
NASPAA is a nonprofit membership association. Its two-fold mission is to ensure excellence in education and training for public service and to promote the ideal of public service. The organization was founded in 1970 by a group of deans who came together to improve public affairs education at the Master’s level. NASPAA has more than 300 colleges and universities worldwide. More than 60% of those members are accredited programs. NASPAA has an accreditation arm called COPRA. COPRA’s primary function is to ensure that the schools follow the standards NASPAA’s Standards Committee sets. And here’s where this group comes in.
One of the things that I noticed almost immediately after starting this job was that there needed to be more connection between theory and practice. I have always believed that what professors learn in their research should be shared with practitioners; we need a feedback loop. Practitioners should build relationships with the people teaching the next generation of public servants.
I spent my local government career in North Carolina. We are blessed with the UNC School of Government, which has enjoyed a good working relationship with the NC City/County Managers Association. One of the things that I’d like to do is improve the quality of the communication between professors who train our students to fill jobs at the local level, along with state and federal government jobs.
During my career, I hired many capable graduate interns. However, I was often frustrated by the things students didn't know or weren’t taught during their programs, one being project management. I have managed many projects throughout my years. Since students didn’t understand project management, I trained them on the job. My area of expertise is intergovernmental relations. Few students had an understanding of the practical workings of intergovernmental relations either.
Local government officials should have a significant role in training the next generation of public servants. Over the next year, I will work to increase our partnerships with ICMA, NLC, and other organizations that hire our graduates. We must partner to ensure students have the skills necessary to run the government now and in the future.
We Need You!
Remember the poster ads that pictured Uncle Sam pointing his finger with the headline: “We Need You?!” Some of you may be too young to remember, but that was an ad campaign that hoped to appeal to the patriotism of the nation’s youth by recruiting them for the Armed Services. We need a similar recruiting effort for public service. Talk to any recruiter at the local government level, and they will tell you that they’re having difficulty finding job applicants. This morning, I noticed that Wake County, the most populous county in the state of NC, is offering tiered sign-on bonuses of up to $5,000 for nurses, EMS personnel, and project managers, to name a few. Wake County is in the Triangle region, which has been called the new silicon valley due to the IT giants that have moved to the region due to the educated populace. The Triangle is home to North Carolina Central University, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and Duke University. We’ve all heard about the coming “Silver Tsunami,” well, it is here.
How You Can Help
1. Consider serving as a site visitor for our accreditation visits. Our teams spend two days on the ground at universities worldwide. There is roughly six-hour training, but after that, you’ll be paired with two other site visitors to evaluate Master’s programs for initial accreditation or reaccreditation.
2. Consider being a visiting lecturer for an MPA/MPP program near you.
3. Take the plunge and teach a course in one of our programs. We need lecturers with real-world experience. I taught my first class this past semester, and although challenging, it was rewarding.
4. Mentor Masters students in one of our programs near you. Mentor early career professions.
5. Consider hiring our students for internships and other available positions.
Parting Advice
Although I love my new role at NASPAA, I miss local government. My area of expertise is intergovernmental relations. Since 2004, I’ve advocated at the federal level for every employer. At last count, I’ve helped secure roughly 50 million dollars via grants and Congressionally Directed funding opportunities. Having just left the Hill last week, I want to advise Managers to train some of your staff in grants management (grant seeking, grants management, and advocacy, working with federal and state lobbyists) if possible. There’s money left on the table in many federal programs every year.
Partnership
My goal with this article is to issue a clarion call to help us bridge the gulf between theory and practice. We need practitioners to help our universities produce students qualified to fill the many vacancies your organizations are dealing with due to retirements and decreased interest in public service for various reasons. We can build a better-trained workforce, but we must work together. Here’s to our partnership.
If you’d like to reach out to Dr. Angel Wright-Lanier personally, she can be reached at: angelwrightlanier@gmail.com.