Patricia Ingraham, Syracuse University Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and director of the University's nationally-acclaimed Government Performance Project (GPP), has been named the 2001 Dwight Waldo Award recipient.
The award is named for the late Dwight Waldo, who is widely viewed as the intellectual giant of his generation in the field of public administration. He served as professor of political science and public administration in The Maxwell School of Syracuse University from 1967-79 and was SU's first Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities. Waldo died in October 2000.
Although she has received numerous awards and accolades in recent years, Ingraham says the Waldo Award holds special meaning.
"The award is particularly meaningful for me because I genuinely loved Dwight Waldo," Ingraham says. "He was a wonderful man, a very important intellectual leader and a great friend. My only regret is that he isn't here so I can tell him how important this award is to me."
The Waldo Award has been given by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) since 1980 to persons who have made outstanding contributions to the professional literature of public administration over an extended career. To be eligible, the nominee must have a minimum of 25 years of active scholarship that has furthered the discipline of public administration.
"The Waldo Award is the highest public administration honor given for contributions to the field of scholarly literature, and Pat Ingraham is exceedingly qualified for this award," says John Palmer, dean of The Maxwell School. "Additionally, she's only the second woman to have received this prestigious award."
Ingraham, who rejoined the Maxwell faculty in 1991, was the director of the Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute. She is on sabbatical this year, developing new courses and writing the scholarly pieces generated by the GPP.
"I love teaching and this time away is giving me a wonderful opportunity to get back to it," Ingraham says. "Don't misunderstand, being director of the Campbell Institute was very important to me and heading the GPP was the hardest thing I've ever done. It's awfully nice to have a bit of a break."
One of Ingraham's fondest memories of Waldo was centered on the Public Administration and Democracy course she taught, a course which Waldo taught years ago.
"He came to speak to my class a couple of times, spending almost an entire day with the doctoral students, who were thrilled," Ingraham says. "I sent him a note to say it was a day the students would not forget. He responded that he wasn't sure that there was anything special about his visit. He was very modest and thoughtful, but totally compelling."
Jeffrey Straussman, chair of the public administration department in The Maxwell School, describes Ingraham as a nationally and internationally renowned scholar of public administration. Straussman says Ingraham's work in the area of human resource management is respected and widely cited, as well as her contributions to the area of administrative reform.
"Pat is a first rate teacher and a mentor to many doctoral students at Maxwell who have since gone on to distinguished careers at universities throughout the United States," Straussman says. "Her intellectual breadth is impressive; and working with her is a great opportunity for students to study with one of the nation's leading scholars of public administration."
