Officially beginning his term as president of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), John Glenn College of Public Affairs Dean Trevor Brown last week outlined the paradox of a strengthening field of public affairs education amidst declining faith and trust in public sector institutions. 

“Through our degree programs, we produce change agents committed to public service, and through our research we purportedly generate knowledge in service to the common good,” he said at the 2022 NASPAA Annual Conference. “And yet, the public rejects the result of all that hard labor.” 

As a field and association, he said, a pathway forward requires leaders in public affairs education to replace exclusivity with inclusivity; resist fragmentation by pursuing collaboration; collectively commit to grow the overall number of students served rather than individual existing degree programs; and celebrate and support not only the peer-reviewed research our faculty create, but also the application of that knowledge to solve pressing public problems.