Dean of University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs to Testify on Federal Workforce Challenges 10 a.m. March 19 before Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee

March 18, 2002

MEDIA ADVISORY

PITTSBURGH—Carolyn Ban, dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at the University of Pittsburgh, will testify at a hearing of the U.S. Senate's Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 19, in Room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The purpose of the hearing, titled "The Federal Workforce: Legislative Proposals for Change," is to review and evaluate S.1612, the Managerial Flexibility Act, introduced by Senator Fred Thompson, and S.1603, the Federal Human Capital Act of 2001, introduced by Senator George Voinovich.

Witnesses will discuss how these proposals address current and future workforce challenges. Federal agencies face new challenges in recruitment, retention, compensation, and management, according to Daniel K. Akaka, the subcommittee's chairman. Looming retirements and stiff competition for new talent only magnify this challenge. Pay, benefits, and management practices remain concerns for keeping current employees in the federal workforce. The proposals in S.1612 and S.1603 seek to address civilian personnel issues in a variety of ways, Akaka added.

Before joining GSPIA as dean in 1997, Ban was a faculty member in the Rockefeller College of Public Administration and Policy, State University of New York at Albany, where she directed the M.P.A. program. She also was chief of a research division at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and a manager at Arthur Young & Company. In addition, Ban served as a consultant to the World Bank in Russia and to several federal and state agencies.

Ban has published broadly in the areas of public management and personnel policy, with a focus on civil service reform. Her books include "How Do Public Managers Manage? Bureaucratic Constraints, Organizational Culture, and the Potential for Reform" (Jossey-Bass, 1995) and "Public Personnel Management: Current Concerns, Future Challenges" (Longman, 1991, 1996). Ban has conducted training courses and lectured on such topics as civil service reform, administrative reform in the U.S. and in transitional democracies, evaluation of public-sector programs, and ethics for bureaucrats.

Ban graduated cum laude with the bachelor's degree in political science from Smith College, earned her master's degree in Russian area studies from Harvard University, and received the Ph.D. degree in political science from Stanford University.

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