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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2002
Contact Bill Shields, (202) 347-3190
Philip M. Burgess has been named president
of the National Academy of Public Administration. Burgess
is a distinguished academic, former business executive, media
commentator, and public policy architect who shaped the Western
Governors' Policy Office, Center for the New West, and other
Western regional leadership organizations.
The Academy, founded in 1967, was chartered
by Congress to provide trusted advice on issues of governance
and public management to leaders of governing institutions
in the United States and internationally. Academy revenues,
staff, projects, and advisory services have tripled over the
past decade. Recent projects include assessments of the FBI
reorganization and new federal strategies to prevent catastrophic
forest fires.
"Phil Burgess knows how to mobilize
talent to get things done," said Mortimer Downey, chair
of the Academy's Board of Directors. "His energy, vision,
and broad range of experience and skills will help lead the
Academy in its next level of development, which includes rapidly
growing programs of assessment research and institutional
problem-solving." Burgess, elected an Academy Fellow
in 1978, officially takes the reins as president on December
1.
According to Burgess, "Governing institutions
in the public and private sectors are being called to improve
their performance and advance the public interest while tackling
some of today's toughest problems. The agenda is imposing-from
combating terrorism and providing homeland security to protecting
investors and adjusting to the new realities of globalization
and anytime/anywhere communications."
"In this new environment," Burgess
added, "the Academy, especially its roster of 500 distinguished
Fellows, is a unique resource-a repository of talent, experience,
and know-how-to serve a great nation facing new challenges
on many fronts. It is an honor and privilege to serve as president
of this important institution during these times of change."
In 1988, Burgess founded the Denver-based
Center for the New West, the nonprofit, nonpartisan policy
research organization spanning 23 states that gained national
prominence in the 1990s as a leading voice on public policy
issues in the Western United States. The Center addressed
issues related to energy and economic development; education
and the environment; trade, transportation and telecommunications;
rural development and growth in the nation's most rapidly
growing region.
During three decades of public service,
Burgess worked with federal advisory groups on a variety of
issues-including privacy, aging, federalism, and national
security policy. His state and local level public service
includes executive director of the Federation of Rocky Mountain
States; two terms as commissioner to the Western Interstate
Commission on Higher Education; co-chair of the transition
team of three-term Denver Mayor Wellington Webb; and work
with 43 Western governors on matters of regional and national
concern, including international trade, beginning with the
West's "energy boom" years of the mid-1970s.
Colorado Governor Bill Owens said, "For
more than 20 years, Phil Burgess played a pivotal role in
helping Western states reshape the institutions we use to
work with each other, the federal government, and trading
partners in the Pacific Rim." Owens added, "Phil
is a bridge-builder who can span partisan divides and bring
together the public and private sectors and different levels
of government to achieve common purposes. I am pleased he
will have the opportunity to make things work on a national
scale as the Academy's new president."
Burgess also worked in the private sector
during his career, most recently serving-until June 2000-as
senior vice president for communications and public relations
at U S West, the Denver-based telecommunications giant with
more than $13 billion in revenues serving 14 western states.
Burgess began his career as a teacher, scholar,
and academic administrator. He was director of the interdisciplinary
Behavioral Sciences Laboratory at The Ohio State University
in the 1960s, and founding director of the doctoral program
in public administration at the University of Colorado in
the 1970s. He also served on the faculty of the Colorado School
of Mines and now is a visiting professor of policy studies
at UCLA's School of Public Policy and Social Research.
"The Academy is fortunate to have Phil
Burgess as its next president," said Academy President
Robert J. O'Neill, Jr., who will become executive director
of the International City/County Management Association. "Phil's
stature, breadth of experience, and forward-looking approach
will serve the Academy well as it advances effective governance
in the 21st Century. I look forward to working with him."
A Fulbright Scholar, Burgess received his
Ph.D. from The American University in 1965 and graduated with
honors in political science from Knox College in Galesburg,
Illinois in 1961. An avid sailor who sailed the Atlantic in
1992, following the course of Columbus' first voyage, Burgess
lives in Annapolis, Maryland with his wife, Mary Sue. They
have three children, David, Katie, and Ben.
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