Introducing Our Stone Award Recipients for 2015

Please join our colleagues at the section meeting to honor the contributions of these three recipients to our field at our section meeting at the ASPA Conference on 
March 8, 2015 at 4:45 p.m. in the Comiskey Room at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago. 




Scholar 

Michael Pagano, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago

Michael A. Pagano is Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, professor of public administration, Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (which was chartered by Congress to assist federal, state, and local governments in improving their effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability), former co-editor of a journal on urban issues called Urban Affairs Review, and Faculty Fellow of UICs Great Cities Institute. He has published five books, including Metropolitan Resilience in a Time of Economic Turmoil , Cityscapes and Capital and The Dynamics of Federalism, and over 80 articles on urban finance, capital budgeting, federalism, transportation policy, infrastructure, urban development and fiscal policy; since 1991, he has written the annual City Fiscal Conditions report for the National League of Cities and between 2003-2008 he wrote a column called The Third Rail for State Tax Notes, which examined contemporary local government fiscal issues; he has delivered more than one hundred papers and speeches; and received funding from John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Research Council, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Pew Charitable Trusts, Brookings Institution, CEOs for Cities, National League of Cities, Chicago Community Trust, U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, and elsewhere.

He serves on a variety of professional organizations, including the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the Metropolitan Planning Council (Chicago), the Pension Committee of the Civic Federation, and the Urban Land Institute. He earned a B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Practitioner

Peter B. Austin

County Administrator, McHenry County, Illinois

Peter Austin currently serves as the County Administrator in McHenry County, IL.  In that capacity, Mr. Austin is responsible for the enforcement of County Board ordinances, policies, regulations, and resolutions; recommends and oversees an annual budget of approximately $250,000,000; represents County’s legislative interests to State and Federal Government; coordinates work of nearly 1,400 employees, from 27 Offices and Departments, with the appropriate County Board Committees, other local governments, and state and federal agencies.

Peter Austin has been in his current position as McHenry County Administrator since 2005.  Prior to his service in McHenry County, Mr. Austin was the Assistant County Administrator in Lake County, IL; County Administrator in Kendall County, IL; and Assistant to the Village Manager in Western Springs, IL.                    

Mr. Austin received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Iowa in 1992, and Masters in Public Administration from Northern Illinois University in 1994.

Student Paper Award

William L. Swann

PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University

William "Will" Swann is a PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University. He holds an MPA from the University of Rhode Island and a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Bryant University. His research interests are in local government and institutions, collaborative public management, urban sustainability and environmental policy, and performance measurement. Will has interned as a research assistant at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections where he worked on the evaluation of prisoner programs. More recently, he interned as a research assistant for the Task Force on Consolidated Government in the City of Jacksonville, Florida. Will has also taught and helped redesign a popular undergraduate introductory course in public administration at FSU. He is a native of Rhode Island and currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida.