University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Department of Public Policy e-News

No. 12 – September 2009

Faculty
Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR) faculty recently received two major research grants:

• MIPAR and the Hilltop Institute have been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The three-year project will examine health care disparities in access and utilization among individuals with disabilities. Dr. Nancy Miller (Public Policy) is the principal investigator and project leader. Dr. Annette Snyder (Hilltop, Public Policy Ph.D., 2006) and Dr. Adele Kirk (Public Policy) are co-investigators. The Hilltop Institute is UMBC’s health services and policy research center. This project is one of the many interdisciplinary research projects being conducted among UMBC academic departments.
• MIPAR also received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to establish a new Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis. Dr. Scott Farrow (Economics and affiliated Public Policy), is the founding editor and has teamed with the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis, the University of Washington, and Berkeley Electronic Press to publish the journal. Benefit-cost analysis is a tool for performance measurement and a leading method to evaluate whether programs such as welfare, education, and housing are effective.

Professor of Public Policy Dr. Tim Brennan gave eight talks on regulation, antitrust and energy policy in Australia and New Zealand in July, including a keynote address at the Australian Railway Business Economics Conference in Perth and a keynote address at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in Queensland.

Dr. Cheryl Miller, associate dean in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and a Public Policy faculty member, has been selected to be a member of the Editorial Board of Public Administration Review (PAR), the top-ranked public administration journal. PAR serves both academics and practitioners interested in the public sector and public sector management.

Students
Frances Carter, a Ph.D. student, has been selected for the American Evaluation Association Graduate Education Diversity Internship Program. The program works to engage and support students from groups traditionally underrepresented in the field of evaluation. She will be interning at The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Ph.D. student Sergio Prada has been awarded a travel scholarship to present his essay “Special Education Placement in Early Grades: the Role of School Climate, Child Behavior Problems and Race” at the American Evaluation Association’s annual conference in Florida.

Alumni
The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) has awarded Dr. Steven Hemelt (Ph.D., 2009) its 2009 Dissertation Award. He will receive the award for his dissertation, "Essays in Education Policy: Accountability, Achievement, and Access," at the APPAM annual conference in November in Washington, DC. Dr. Hemelt is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at Cornell College in Iowa.

New Publications
Dr. Tim Brennan (Public Policy) examines two Supreme Court decisions on competition, and argues that regulation and antitrust should be considered complements in controlling market power. “Essential Facilities and Trinko: Should Antitrust and Regulation be Combined?” Federal Communications Law Journal, Vol. 61, No. 1 (2008), 133-47.

An article co-authored by Dr. Scott Farrow (Economics) investigates security regulations, which have been largely exempt from the benefit-cost type of analysis required for major federal regulations in areas such as transportation, environment and safety. He then presents a framework for developing an expected benefit-cost analysis of such regulations. “The Benefit-Cost Analysis of Security Focused Regulations,” Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, April 2009.

Dr. Donald Norris (Public Policy) and Tonya Zimmerman (Ph.D., 2008) are co-authors of two chapters of a new book, Governing Metropolitan Regions in the 21st Century (M.E. Sharpe, 2009). The book addresses trends in metropolitan governance such as city-county consolidation, local-federal coordination, annexation and special districting, and private contracting.

Events

Public Policy Forum Students at Risk: Helping Latin American Immigrant Youth Succeed Friday, October 23, 2009, 8:30–10:30 a.m. Constellation Room World Trade Center, Baltimore Our Fall 2009 Public Policy Forum will present perspectives on the Latin American immigrant family experience in the U.S. and feature an interactive discussion of strategies to help immigrant students adapt to and succeed in U.S. schools. Speakers include Dr. Carola Suárez-Orozco of New York University, Dr. Tim Gindling and Dr. Sara Poggio of UMBC, and Dr. Karen Woodson of the Montgomery County Public School System. Hector Torres of PROSABER Emergency Management Consulting will moderate. For more information, and to register, go to www.umbc.edu/pubpol/forums.

2009 Student Recruitment Fair for UMBC Graduate Programs in the Social Sciences Thursday, October 29, 2009, 5:00–7:00 p.m. University Center Room 312 Thinking about getting a graduate degree in public policy? Visit our table at UMBC's 2009 open house for graduate programs in the social sciences to talk with faculty, students and alumni from the Department of Public Policy. Get answers to your questions about earning your master's or Ph.D. degree at UMBC - admissions, class schedules, financial aid, graduate life and more! For participating programs and registration, go to www.umbc.edu/gradschool/recruitmentfair.

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Department of Public Policy • University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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