Institute Insider

Humphrey Institute community members were recognized as outstanding community partners by the University of Minnesota's Campus Community Coordinators Alliance (CCCA) at the University's second annual Public Engagement Day, Tuesday, April 22. Congratulations to the Jane Addams School for Democracy, CHANCE, and Humphrey Institute graduate student Adam Maleitzke. All were recognized for their efforts to build community-university partnerships that serve the common good.

Four front desk student workers will graduate this May or summer and move on to bigger things: Greg Luecht, Aaron Marquette, Nancy Parker, and Megan Weyenberg. And conference center worker Adam Hennings will study abroad this summer and fall (returning in 2009). Please join us to thank them for their service to the Humphrey Institute and to wish them farewell at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 9, in Freeman Commons (205 HHH). Refreshments will be served.

Continue reading for a few farewell notes from our student workers:

After turning down endless impressive job offers, Megan has decided to pursue her one true passion of interpretive dance. Her summer will be dedicated to perfecting her innovative dance moves. Watch for her on the next season of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance where she plans to take over the dancing world by storm.

With two Bachelor of Arts degrees in her hand, one in history and another in global studies, Nancy believes that she is now qualified to become a reality television star. Nancy will start out by doing some dating shows, but her ultimate goal is to become a part of the Real World cast. After the Real World, she plans on doing different Real World/Road Rules challenges and never getting a real job.

Upon graduation with a bachelor of science in kinesiology, Greg will be moving to The Golden State (California). He plans to enjoy the NorCal culture in San Francisco while being a surfer dude getting a tan.

After Aaron graduates with a degree in sociology and a minor in anthropology, he will be moving to sunny San Diego. He hopes to be the manager of a Kiss memorial band, and in his spare moments he will perform magic tricks on the beach in the hopes of making a few extra dollars to help pay for his rent.

The flowers in the atrium this week are courtesy of Jessica Horning to celebrate the closing of another year with great colleagues.

Ever wonder how things are going with the 35W bridge construction? Find out by receiving weekly e-mail updates from MnDOT. The weekly e-mails are a great resource for the most up-to-date information, including traffic changes and road closures. The e-mail updates also provide details of the progress as well as up-close photos. To sign up for these updates, go to this link and enter your e-mail address: http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101510483087&p=oi. Read old updates at www.mndot.gov.

Farewell to Assistant Dean Bobbi Cordano and research associate Clare Mortensen. Both will take on new endeavors this summer, and we wish them all the best.

Assistant Dean Bobbi Cordano will be joining Park Nicollet Health System's executive management team as president of Park Nicollet Institute (a research and education entity). Her new responsibilities will include supporting the acceleration of innovation, learning, and improvements in health through excellence in research and education. A major focus of her work will be to improve health care outcomes and value through research, and ensure excellence in patient education, continuing medical education, and graduate medical education. She will start her new position in July.

Clare Mortensen, a research associate with the Public and Nonprofit Leadership Center, has resigned from her position. She and her husband are relocating to the San Francisco Bay area in California. She will be working at the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education. Her last day will be May 16, 2008. Good luck to you, Clare!

Several annual Humphrey Institute awards were given out at the spring banquet on April 11, 2008. Congratulations to the following recipients:

AICP Award for outstanding planning student: Jessica Horning
Lukermann Award for service to the planning community: Aly Pennucci
TA of the Year: Joanie Lofgren and Jaquilyn Waddell Boie
Teacher of the Year: Deborah Levison
Required Course Instructor of the Year: Gary DeCramer

The Public Affairs Student Association (PASA) will host this month's Thursday's at Three gathering from 3 to 5 p.m. on April 24 in Freeman Commons. PASA representatives will facilitate a workshop about race and privilege. Students, staff, and faculty members of all backgrounds are encouraged to attend. Light refreshments will be provided.

MPP candidate Graham Lampa, Humphrey blogging initiative project lead, will host blog training sessions (beginning to advanced) the week of Monday, April 28, for anyone interested.

Please RSVP to Graham by e-mail for each session you plan to attend. If you are unable to attend but are still interested, contact Graham about possible trainings later this spring.

All sessions will be held in Lab 85 from 3:20 to 5:20 p.m. The session schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, April 30
Basic blog training

• Posting to UThink
• Adding authors and setting permissions
• Editing entries
• Uploading files
• Managing categories
• Republishing

Thursday, May 1
Web design

• HTML basics
• CSS basics
• "Best practices" of web design
• Resources to learn more

Wednesday, May 7
Movable Type templating

• Understanding MTEntries tag
• Creating archive listings

Thursday, May 8
Google Analytics and Feedburner

• Installing GA code
• Redirecting RSS links to Feedburner
• Understanding Google Analytics reports
• How to use GA output in your own reports

The flowers in the atrium this week are courtesy of Kimberly Harrison from Artemisia Flowers (an oft-used florist for Humphrey events, artemisiaflowers@yahoo.com).

Thanks to all who have donated this year to keep the flowers blooming in the atrium. We still need more people to fill up the semester, so please contact Barb Sullivan at (612) 624-1546 if you are interested.

Martha Krohn has been promoted to assistant director of career services. Congratulations!

All University offices will be closed on Friday, March 21, due to spring break. Enjoy the long weekend!

The Humphrey Institute and Carlson School of Management have announced a Master of Public Policy and Master of Business Administration (MPP/MBA) dual degree in response to students and employers interest and demand. The degree was approved by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents at its February 2008 meeting and will be available for full-time students beginning in September 2008. Prospective students must apply to both the Carlson School and the Humphrey Institute. For more information, contact Jeff Bieganek, director of admissions and recruiting, MBA Programs, Carlson School, at (612) 625-5555; or Julie Harrold, director of admissions and recruiting, Humphrey Institute, (612) 626-9749.

There are no flowers in the atrium this week due to spring break.

Methawat Chanla will join the Compstaff team as the desktop support supervisor. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Macalester College and has been employed at the University of Minnesota's Office of the Vice President for Research as an info tech professional since November 2007. Methawat begins March 24.

Yingling Fan has been hired as an assistant professor in urban planning. Fan joins the Institute from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation was titled “The Built Environment, Activity Space, and Time Allocation: An Activity-Based Framework for Modeling the Land Use and Travel Connection,” and she was recently nominated for the 2008 Graduate Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award. She will join the regional planning and policy area this fall.

Dawn Fish has been named the new senior director of development for the Humphrey Institute. Fish has worked in fundraising and communications at nonprofit organizations for nearly 20 years. From 1998 to 2005 she worked as director of development at the University’s Minnesota Medical Foundation. She also worked for Resources for Child Caring in Saint Paul and Scholarship America in Edina. Currently, she is the executive director of the John T. Petters Foundation in Minnetonka. She holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership from the College of St. Catherine and a bachelor’s degree in communication from Metropolitan State University. Fish will begin April 1.

The flowers in the atrium this week are courtesy of Humphrey student Taina Maki who is celebrating the memory of her brother Kurt who fought a long battle with multiple sclerosis (MS). Please consider donating to her annual walk for MS.

The flowers in the atrium this week are courtesy of the Humphrey Institute in memory of Dean J. Brian Atwood's mother, Bernice Atwood, who recently passed away. We send our warmest wishes to the dean and his family at this time.

Welcome back to Professor Edward G. Schuh. He has returned to the Institute after spending time teaching in Brazil. He's back in his old office so stop by and say hello.

The flowers in the atrium this week are courtesy of Morrie Kleiner to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the Graduate Certificate Program for Policy Issues on Work and Play, the first of its kind at the University of Minnesota.