Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

A Working Mother’s Triumph: Juggling Parenting, Career, and Master of Public Administration Courses

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:46:18 +0000

A Working Mother’s Triumph: Juggling Parenting, Career, and Master of Public Administration Courses Andrew J Schappert Wed, 08/28/2024 - 08:46

During her four years as a Master of Public Administration student at ��ӽ紫ý's Schar School of Policy and Government, Dana Staley held down a fulltime job, survived a global pandemic, and became a mother, in addition to the ample reading and writing required in a master’s program.

Dana Staley: ‘I appreciated that I was able to participate in classes in the evening so that I could still work full time.’

A year later, Staley, who graduated in 2023, has sage advice for those facing similar trying circumstances.

“If you find yourself in an impossible season of juggling too much and not knowing when rest will come again, keep going,” she said. “Keep pushing, surprise yourself, and don't be afraid to ask for help. The end will come, and it will be so worth it!”

That was her message in a recent LinkedIn essay that caught the eye of one of Staley’s former professors, Associate Professor of nonprofit studies Mirae Kim, who vivid recalls Staley’s ambition to complete her degree, not to mention her dedication to her family.

“I could never forget her,” said Kim, who teaches in the Schar School’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise. “She was one of the most engaged students in my recent semesters at ��ӽ紫ý.”

When Staley enrolled in the master’s program in 2019, she was working full time as the director of programs at a small nonprofit in Washington, D.C. Two years later, still deep into her studies and with a 9-month-old, she landed a position with Auxilio Partners as a nonprofit business consultant.

“I lead a team to support 15 different nonprofits nationwide in finances, human resources, risk management, compliance, and board governance,” she said, adding that her firm does the backend work “so that the organizations can focus more on their mission.”

While Staley was an exceptionally devoted student, the Schar School’s graduate programs are attractive to early- and mid-career professionals for many reasons, including location, flexibility, and higher education specialists to rely on for support. In Staley’s case, online conferences with professors were key to her success.

Dana Staley, ‘Mom with a master’s’

In fact, “I had [online] office hours to get support on an assignment,” Staley said. “I sat at my kitchen table, got on Zoom with my professor, and had my 4-month-old, Kai, in a baby bouncer next to me. It’s an image that will never be erased from my mind: All of my responsibilities tied into one simple memory.”

The success is summed up in the slogan on her favorite mug: “Mom with a master’s.”

Kim, who recalls that Zoom session vividly, understands the need for assistance beyond the classroom, as do other Schar School professors.

“It is not simply the instruction they appreciate, but when they feel supported, students are empowered to engage more,” she said.

“I appreciated that I was able to participate in classes in the evening so that I could still work fulltime,” Staley said. “I also enjoyed that many of my classmates were also working, so there were a lot of real-life experiences shared in the classroom. The professors were excellent and balanced the task of challenging us as students while understanding we all had many other responsibilities we were juggling.”

Staley closes her LinkedIn essay with this:

“Being a mom, being a student, being a professional—those are all experiences that, in their own right, are difficult...But as I look back, I am proud of what I accomplished and am forever grateful for my husband, family, friends, coworkers, and professors who cheered me on through it all.

“By the way, that Nonprofit Financial Management class has become invaluable in my work today!”

In This Story

Mirae Kim

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Topics

Master of Public Administration

Alumni

Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

Schar School of Policy and Government

Schar School Featured Stories

Schar School News for August 2024

Campus News

Soto-Harmon: Schar School Alumna Named Leader of National Conservation Nonprofit

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 16:59:15 +0000

Soto-Harmon: Schar School Alumna Named Leader of National Conservation Nonprofit Andrew J Schappert Tue, 06/06/2023 - 12:59

In This Story

Alan J. Abramson

Request program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Lidia Soto-Harmon: She hopes to connect fellow MPA grads ‘to the work we are doing to inspire the next generation of conservation leaders.’

When Lidia Soto-Harmon graduated from ��ӽ紫ý in 1991 with her Master of Public Administration degree, she knew her education had “set the stage for me to become an effective leader,” she said.

She wasn’t kidding: Soto-Harmon’s resume spans decades as she’s served with public-facing organizations including the Fannie Mae Foundation, literacy nonprofit First Book, and the President’s Interagency Council on Women established by President Bill Clinton. In addition, she spent 18 years at the regional council for Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital, including 12 years as the chapter’s CEO.

But most recently, the Schar School of Policy and Government alumna was named the next president and CEO of the Student Conservation Association (SCA), a national conservation nonprofit founded in 1957 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, that provides hands-on environmental conservation programs to more than 2,000 youth and young adults each year.

Speaking of her time at Mason, Soto-Harmon, a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, said that her Schar School degree provided “a comprehensive understanding of the tools needed to thrive in the nonprofit space and make an impact.”

Her conviction to shape the future of nonprofit leadership is self-evident: She chairs the MPA Advisory Council at the Schar School and returned to Mason during the pandemic to teach a graduate-level nonprofit management seminar.

Now at the helm of one of the largest conservation nonprofits for youth in the country, she said she’s looking forward to connecting “MPA students at ��ӽ紫ý to the work we are doing to inspire the next generation of conservation leaders.”

The admiration between alumna and alma mater is mutual.

“The Schar School's MPA program is very proud to call Lidia Soto-Harmon an alumna and wishes her well in her new position at the Student Conservation Association,” said Alan J. Abramson, director of the Schar School’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise. “The association is fortunate to have this smart, passionate, warm leader as its new executive.”

Soto-Harmon received the 2014 Wayne F. Anderson Award for Distinguished Public Service from Mason, an honor reserved for those dedicated to “embodying the spirit of public service.”

If you’re interested in what a Master of Public Administration degree could do for your career, click here.

Topics

Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

alumni

Master of Public Administration

Schar School News June 2023

Alumni

Schar School’s Nonprofit Center Brings Major Research Project to Mason

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 20:25:47 +0000

Schar School’s Nonprofit Center Brings Major Research Project to Mason Andrew J Schappert Thu, 12/01/2022 - 15:25

In This Story

Alan J. Abramson

Mirae Kim

Stefan Toepler

Request program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Alan Abramson: ‘Tapping into these additional data sources will allow for a more robust understanding of the nonprofit sector’s economic role, the demographics of the nonprofit workforce, and federal funding of nonprofit organizations.’

A 2017 study revealed that one in every 10 workers in the U.S. works for a nonprofit organization, indicating that the nonprofit industry is larger than all branches of manufacturing combined. Only retail and the hospitality and food service industries are larger.

That breakthrough study—as well as other important reports on the nonprofit sector—was the result of work performed by the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit-Economic Data Project (JHU-NED). With recent death of project leader Lester Salamon, the project will continue under the leadership of the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise at ��ӽ紫ý.

The project, now called the ��ӽ紫ý-Nonprofit Employment Data Project (GMU-NED; see it here), continues to be supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The project will be led by Alan Abramson, director of the Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise, in collaboration with center faculty members Stefan Toepler and Mirae Kim.

“We are honored to continue this important work pioneered by Dr. Salamon and his colleagues, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, Stephanie Lessans Geller, and Chelsea Newhouse,” Abramson said. “They tapped a crucial new source of data on nonprofit employment and wages embedded in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages [QCEW].

“The data from the QCEW are unique in that they are systematically collected for all sectors of the economy, making data on nonprofits directly comparable to data on for-profits and government employers. This had never been done and the nonprofit sector continues to benefit from this vital information.”

The JHU-NED team’s work tracked how nonprofits compare to their for-profit counterparts in key fields, including health care, education, social services, and the arts.

“This changed the understanding of the importance of these critical institutions,” said Abramson. “More recently, their work during the COVID-19 pandemic to highlight the impact of the crisis on these institutions provided a unique resource, which in turn, helped lead to a number of important policy changes that supported nonprofit recovery.”

Abramson added that the GMU-NED project “will not only continue the work of the JHU project, but will build on it, bringing the unique expertise of the Schar School’s center’s faculty and staff to bear to broaden and enhance the available data on nonprofit employment, wages, and economic impact in the U.S.”

“Nonprofit employment data is essential for informed and effective nonprofit and philanthropy advocacy efforts,” the Mott Foundation associate program officer Carlos Rios-Santiago said in a statement. “We are confident that Alan Abramson and his team at ��ӽ紫ý are ready take on the challenge of producing, analyzing, and visualizing this data and are proud to support their efforts.”

The GMU-NED project will continue to issue cutting-edge reports on nonprofit establishments, employment, and wages based on available QCEW data. Mason has engaged former JHU-NED project manager Chelsea Newhouse, now a senior program manager at East-West Management Institute, to lead the production of these reports.

The Nonprofit Works interactive database application will remain live while the GMU-NED team explores options for further development of the site in anticipation for the planned 2024 release of Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) employment and wage data covering 2018-22.

“We will also continue to work with our colleagues at Independent Sector, the Aspen Institute, the National Council of Nonprofits, and other organizations to seek more frequent release of nonprofit employment data by BLS,” said Abramson. “The ultimate goal is to have BLS report on nonprofit employment more frequently than every five years, which is the current reporting cycle.”

Abramson said new initiatives include broadening the nonprofit data landscape by maximizing his team’s expertise in a broad range of federal data systems to enhance and expand the pool of available data on nonprofit employment, wages, and impact.

“Tapping into these additional data sources will allow for a more robust understanding of the nonprofit sector’s economic role, the demographics of the nonprofit workforce, and federal funding of nonprofit organizations,” he said.

The GMU-NED project will also explore with other stakeholders creating and hosting a network for federal officials who work with databases containing useful nonprofit data.

“We believe convening these officials on a regular basis would be of significant benefit for the nonprofit sector by highlighting the importance of nonprofit data for federal data experts, creating opportunities for collaboration, and expanding the pool of experts who can support nonprofit data generation, publication, and analysis within Federal data systems,” Abramson said.

Topics

Nonprofits

Research

Center on NonprofitsPhilanthropy

Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

Schar School News December 2022

workforce

Schar School’s Alan Abramson Honored for ‘Distinguished Achievement’ in Nonprofit Research

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 19:39:14 +0000

Schar School’s Alan Abramson Honored for ‘Distinguished Achievement’ in Nonprofit Research Andrew J Schappert Tue, 09/13/2022 - 15:39

In This Story

Mirae Kim

Stefan Toepler

Alan Abramson is the 2022 Distinguished Achievement and Leadership in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Award recipient from ARNOVA. Photo by Creative Services.

Schar School of Policy and Government Professor Alan Abramson has been presented with the 2022 Distinguished Achievement and Leadership in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Award by ARNOVA, the national body representing university-based and other nonprofit researchers in the U.S. It is one of the highest awards in the field of nonprofit research.

Abramson is the founding director of the Schar School’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise, which ARNOVA recognizes as “the premier nonprofit academic program in Virginia.”

“His excellent scholarship, mentoring of students, strategic management, and community outreach are well-documented, but it is his tireless leadership at the national level that sets him apart and characterizes his many contributions to the field,” ARNOVA said in a statement. “There are few people who know as much about the major policy issues facing the nonprofit sector as Dr. Abramson and even fewer who are able to communicate findings across sectors. His research has deepened our understanding of the relationship between nonprofits and government.”

As an example, Abramson was an early pioneer, with Johns Hopkins University Professor Lester Salamon, in researching the implications for nonprofits of federal budget decisions. “That work, updated by Dr. Abramson over the years, is a key resource for policymakers and nonprofit leaders,” the association said. More recently, he has studied how the nonprofit sector advocates for itself and worked with the organization Independent Sector to develop better and more timely measures of the health of the U.S. nonprofit sector.

Abramson directed the Aspen Institute’s nonprofit and philanthropy program for more than a decade, overseeing the Nonprofit Sector Research Fund and other initiatives that helped build the nonprofit research field in the U.S., strengthen nonprofit and foundation leaders, and deepen the understanding of policymakers about nonprofit activities.

“While I am honored to receive this recognition, I think it is also important to highlight the numerous accomplishments of the other faculty at the Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise,” Abramson said, recognizing Professor Stefan Toepler and Associate Professor Mirae Kim. “I believe a real strength of our program is having terrific, nonprofit-focused faculty at the Schar School.”

Topics

Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

Schar School News September 2022

Awards

Nonprofits

2022 Paul L. Posner Federal Budgeting Award Winner Announced: Philip Joyce

Andrew J Schappert — Fri, 27 May 2022 15:29:17 +0000

2022 Paul L. Posner Federal Budgeting Award Winner Announced: Philip Joyce Andrew J Schappert Fri, 05/27/2022 - 11:29

Philip Joyce, senior associate dean and professor of public policy in the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, is the recipient of the 2022 Paul L. Posner Federal Budgeting Career Legacy Award. Joyce received the award at the spring lunch of alumni of the Office of Management & Budget and the Bureau of the Budget.

The award, presented for the eighth time, recognizes those who over a career have made an important and lasting contribution to the federal government’s budget process and institutions and demonstrated high personal integrity and dedication to the public service.

Presenting the award, former OMB and House Budget Committee chief economist Joe Minarik said, “Phil Joyce personifies the standards set for those receiving this award. He has had a distinguished career both as a budget practitioner and as a scholar and teacher of the federal budget process. He literally wrote the book on the Congressional Budget Office.”

The Posner award is named for the late Professor Paul L. Posner, who served as director of the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Master’s in Public Administration program at ��ӽ紫ý. He was former managing director for strategic issues at the U.S. General Accounting Office for 14 years; he worked at GAO for 30 years. He died in July 2017, at age 70.

The award was made possible by a grant to Mason by alumni of the Bureau of the Budget, a group now merged with the Office of Management and Budget Alumni Association. It is administered by the Schar School’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise.

Philip Joyce’s teaching and research interests include public budgeting, performance measurement, and intergovernmental relations. He is the author of The Congressional Budget Office: Honest Numbers, Power, and Policymaking (Georgetown University Press, 2011), and coauthor of two books—Government Performance: Why Management Matters (Johns Hopkins, 2003) and Public Budgeting Systems, 9th Edition (Jones and Bartlett, 2013). He is the author of more than 50 other publications (including book chapters and articles), appearing in outlets such as the Public Administration Review, Public Budgeting & Finance, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Administration and Society, and the Handbook of Government Budgeting. Joyce is a former editor of the journal Public Budgeting & Finance and a past president of the American Association for Budget and Program Analysts. Joyce has been on the faculty of The George Washington University, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and the University of Kentucky.

Joyce also has 12 years of public sector work experience, including four years with the Illinois Bureau of the Budget, three years with the Illinois Department of Corrections, and five years with the United States Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In 1992, he received the CBO Director’s Award for Distinguished Service. He received his PhD from the Maxwell School and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Topics

Awards

Paul L. Posner

Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

Schar School News May 2022

Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

A Working Mother’s Triumph: Juggling Parenting, Career, and Master of Public Administration Courses

In This Story

Request Schar School program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Related News

Topics

Soto-Harmon: Schar School Alumna Named Leader of National Conservation Nonprofit

In This Story

Request program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Topics

Schar School’s Nonprofit Center Brings Major Research Project to Mason

In This Story

Request program information

Learn more about the Schar School

Topics

Schar School’s Alan Abramson Honored for ‘Distinguished Achievement’ in Nonprofit Research

In This Story

Topics

2022 Paul L. Posner Federal Budgeting Award Winner Announced: Philip Joyce

Topics