Congratulations 2010 SWPA Scholarship Winners!
The SWPA Scholarship Committee* congratulates the winners of the 2010 SWPA Scholarships! Each scholarship recipient is awarded $500 to help defray the costs associated with attending the 2010 ASPA conference in San Jose. Please stop by and offer your congratulations to these ladies at the SWPA Members meeting and the SWPA Breakfast! See you in San Jose!!!
Brandi L. Blessett
Brandi Blessett is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Urban Studies and Public Administration at Old Dominion University (ODU). Her research interests include administrative responsibility, social capital, citizen participation, and urban policy. Her dissertation involves the forced displacement of African-Americans and the poor in some American inner cities. Brandi was the recipient of the 2009 National Forum for Black Public Administrators Scholarship and the 2008 Pindur Scholarship for Applied Public Service at ODU. Brandi is co-chairing the Education Committee for Planned Parenthood of Southeast Virginia, a voluntary organization to promote sexual and reproductive health in local community.
Shanthi Karuppusamy
Shanthi Karuppusamy is a doctoral candidate in political science at Wayne State University. Her research interests are in local government structure and urban policy. She has published three articles in The American Review of Public Administration and Urban Affairs Review. She teaches undergraduate courses in American Government, Public Administration and Public Policy. Her dissertation centers on understanding how bureaucratic professionals function as epistemic communities to facilitate intergovernmental and intersectoral collaboration. Shanthi was selected as a Founder’s Forum Fellow in 2009 ASPA. She has earned her MPA and MA in English Literature from the University of Madras, Tamil Nadu, India.
Priyanka Joseph
Priyanka Joseph a second year MPA student at Roger Williams University (RWU) in Rhode Island. She is currently working for Americans for Informed Democracy, a D.C. based non-profit organization, as Regional Coordinator intern for the North East. Her academic focus is on U.S.-South Asia relations, non-profit management, disaster management, sustainable development, and civic action. Priyanka was one of 14 students from India awarded a Fulbright fellowship in 2005 to function as a cultural ambassador to the United States. She co-founded the Muslim Students Association at RWU. She was also an Elected Student Council President for 2004-2005 at Stella Maris College, India where she studied for her bachelor’s degree.
ASPA's Section for Women in Public Administration (SWPA) annually awards up to three $500.00 scholarships to help defray the costs associated with attending the ASPA national conference.
SWPA Conference Scholarship applicants must be a full-time practitioner in public service, or a student enrolled in a Master’s or Doctoral degree program in Public Administration/Public Policy/Public Affairs or a closely related field and must be a member of ASPA and SWPA. Recipients of the SWPA Scholarships will participate in the 2010 ASPA Conference, April 9-13, 2010 and will be honored at the SWPA National Awards Breakfast on Monday, April 12, at 7:30a.m. at the San Jose Fairmont in San Jose, California. Public service practitioners and MPA and Doctoral students with a keen interest in issues related to women, diversity, and/or gender are encouraged to apply!
Click here to learn more about these SWPA Conference Scholarships and to access the application.