Maxwell School establishes new endowed chair

Maxwell School establishes new endowed chairApril 26, 2007Jill Leonhardtjlleonha@maxwell.syr.edu

Rosemary O’Leary, Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and co-director of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts (PARC) in the Maxwell School, has been named the inaugural occupant of the Maxwell Advisory Board Chair, according to Dean Mitchel Wallerstein.

“It is both appropriate and fitting that the first holder of the Maxwell Advisory Board Chair is Professor Rosemary O’Leary, who is herself a Ph.D. graduate of the Maxwell School,” says Wallerstein. “Rosemary has won virtually every professional award in the field of public administration, and she is a prolific scholar whose work is creative and groundbreaking. She is truly an academic leader and innovator, and I can think of no one more richly deserving of this honor and recognition than Professor O’Leary.” The chair holder will serve a five-year term, which is renewable.

The new endowed chair was established through generous contributions from members of the Maxwell School’s Advisory Board to recognize exceptional faculty from across the school’s disciplines. The Maxwell Advisory Board is composed of distinguished individuals from the United States and abroad who are alumni and/or supporters of the school.

“Establishment of the Maxwell Advisory Board Chair reflects the deep level of commitment of the board’s members to the distinguished and highly acclaimed academic work of the Maxwell School,” says board Chair Susan Penny. “We are delighted that the first such honor should be given to Dr. O’Leary.”

O’Leary, who also holds an appointment in the Department of Political Science, is a recognized authority on public management, environmental policy, dispute resolution and law. She is the author or editor of six books and more than 100 articles on public management and public policy.

She has won nine research awards, including Best Book in Public and Nonprofit Management for 2000, from the Academy of Management, and Best Book in Environmental Management and Policy for 2005 and 1999, from the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). She is the only person to win three awards from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). In 2003, she was awarded Syracuse University’s Chancellor’s Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement, the highest research award at the University. In 2007, she received the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration for excellence in teaching, research and service, an honor given jointly by ASPA and NASPAA.

From 2003-05, O’Leary was a member of NASA’s Return to Flight Task Group, which was assembled in response to the Columbia space shuttle disaster. In 2004, she also served as a member of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. O’Leary has worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the International City/County Management Association. She has twice been a senior Fulbright Scholar: in Malaysia in 1998-99 and in the Philippines in 2005-06.

O’Leary received a J.D. from the University of Kansas in 1981 and a Ph.D. in public administration from the Maxwell School in 1988.