Alumni Notes
 

Rodney Ellis named Texas Governor for a Day
Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis, a 1977 graduate of the LBJ School, was sworn in as Governor for a Day at an inaugural ceremony at the state capitol on April 8. Ellis serves as president pro tempore of the Senate, a position that assumes the responsibilities of the governor when the governor and lieutenant governor are out of the state.

By tradition, the president pro tempore becomes Governor for a Day on one day during his or her tenure when both top officials are out of the state. The swearing-in ceremony and celebration honor the senator, his family and friends, and the people of his district.

Ellis, a native of Houston, has represented the state's 13th District since 1990. He currently chairs the Senate Jurisprudence Committee and serves on the Committees on Administration and Intergovernmental Relations.

LBJ School graduate wins national dissertation award
Maureen Berner, the fourth student to receive a doctoral degree from the LBJ School, was selected winner of the annual Best Dissertation Award from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

The $500 award--presented in October at the 1999 NASPAA convention in Miami--recognized Berner's work with a new model for analyzing government budgeting from a system-wide perspective. The dissertation develops and applies empirical techniques for looking at the relationship between the expenditure patterns of federal government agencies.

At the time of the award Berner was one of nine graduates of the LBJ School Ph.D. in public policy program, which began in 1992. Out of this group, Berner was the first to obtain a tenure-track appointment in the U.S. academic job market. Currently she is an assistant professor at the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

NASPAA is an international organization that promotes excellence in public service education. It includes 245 U.S. university programs in public affairs, public policy, public administration, and nonprofit management.

Garza, Myers, Reiff teach LBJ School courses
Three LBJ School graduates taught classes at their alma mater this year. Austin City Manager Jesus Garza (Class of 1977) taught a course on issues in urban management; Cis Myers (Class of 1976), manager of community partnerships at the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), codirected a policy research project on disaster preparedness and management; and Susan Rieff (Class of 1980), senior director of the National Wildlife Federation, taught a seminar on environmental policy.

Garza, who has had a varied career in public administration, has been Austin city manager since 1994. His experiences in local government include a diverse array of departmental assignments as well as managerial positions with both the City of Austin and the City of Corpus Christi. At the state level, Garza has served as the executive director of the Texas Water Commission, and at the federal level he has served as the district administrator for U.S. Congressman J. J. "Jake" Pickle.

As part of her job at the LCRA, Myers serves as executive director of the Central Texas Recycling Association. Since beginning work at the LCRA in 1986, she has also served as business manager for conservation and natural resources, team member for comprehensive infrastructure planning, and project manager for the Smithville NPS demonstration project. From 1981 to 1985 Myers worked for the Texas Education Agency, where she was deputy commissioner of education for interagency coordination, policy development, and communication services.

Prior to becoming head of the National Wildlife Federation, Rieff held a variety of high-level posts in federal and state government. She was director of the Office of Policy Analysis and then deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1995 to 1998. From 1991 to 1995 she was director of the Policy Council and director of environmental policy for Texas Governor Ann Richards. She has also been assistant commissioner in the Texas Department of Agriculture, director of the Resource Protection Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers.

June reception cohosted by Senator Hutchison
Washington-based alumni, interns, faculty, and friends are invited to a reception cohosted by Dean Ed Dorn and U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.). The event is scheduled on Wednesday, June 21, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in the LBJ Room, S211, Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.

For more information, contact the LBJ School Office of Student and Alumni Programs at 512/471-8288 or via e-mail (c.brown@mail.utexas.edu).

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