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Please email them to Melissa Dalton. Future newsletters will feature "Fellows in the News" and "Personal Notes".

National Academy Report Drives Changes at Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management

The National Academy of Public Administration has released a new report on a management review of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management, which oversees the cleanup of dangerous materials resulting from more than half a century of nuclear weapons production and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. EM has accepted and begun to implement nearly all of the Panel's proposals, which deal with staffing levels, HR improvements and related issues.

Audio Commentary: Excerpts from a joint December 18 media availability held at the Department of Energy by Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Jim Rispoli and National Academy Fellow and Board of Directors member, Jonathan D. Breul (right), who served on the study panel.

Jim Rispoli (left) discusses how EM is working to implement the report’s recommendations

Jonathan D. Breul (right) explains how the National Academy panel compared staffing at EM to that of other government entities that deal with environmental cleanup.

Read the press release.

Read the report.

Appendices to the report.

Read the Department of Energy's statement on the report.

In January 2003, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became the Nation’s 15th Cabinet department, consolidating 22 agencies under one unified organization, with homeland security as its mission.  The Department is now the third largest cabinet agency with more than 180,000 employees located in every state and many foreign countries.  Since it was created less than five years ago, the Department has never gone through a presidential transition. 

With that in mind Congressional leaders believe it is prudent to review the senior staffing structure and composition at DHS, as well as to assess and benchmark senior career training and development programs to help ensure that DHS is well positioned to carry out its important mission through the Presidential transition of 2009.

Read more about the DHS Executive Staffing Project.

Fragile states initiative

In late 2004, the National Academy of Public Administration decided to try to distill lessons learned from successful and failed foreign assistance efforts as one of ten priority initiatives it would undertake during the remainder of the decade. At almost the same time, researchers at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and Bobst Center decided upon a related initiative. Recognizing that they could bring complementary strengths to the undertaking, the two institutions agreed to a partnership in collaboration with other organizations.

 "Due diligence" surveys by the partners through mid-2005 determined that a number of policy research centers were already assessing lessons learned from foreign aid. However, it became apparent that a major need was going unmet: many individuals and organizations directly engaged in trying to build effective institutions and procedures of governance in fragile and post-conflict countries were frustrated by their inability to quickly access the practical information they needed. At several meetings convened at Princeton with practitioners, scholars, and international organizations, it was agreed that, while filling this need would be exceedingly challenging and complex, it warranted urgent attention.