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| THE FORUM |
Center for Governance and Public Policy Research Established, Professor Fred Thompson Named Director
April 4, 2008 - Fred Thompson, the Grace and Elmer Goudy Professor of Public Management and Policy, has been named director of the Willamette Center for Governance and Public Policy Research located at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management.
The new center brings to five the number of academic centers that already include the Center for Ancient Studies and Archeology, Center for Asian Studies, Center for the Study of Democracy, Religion, and Law and Center for Sustainable Communities.
Policy research center faculty will represent the College of Liberal Arts, Atkinson Graduate School of Management, the College of Law and additional faculty from campuses throughout the Pacific Northwest.
“The research center will help communities make ‘evidence-based’ decisions,” said Thompson, “not decisions based on wishful thinking. The goal is to transform existing states into a preferred one.”
With a focus on transformational and governance problems, especially those with a financial component, the center will examine issues that have a direct influence on Oregon citizens. Of interest to tax payers, for example, are how to stabilize state spending or how to transform the current system of health care delivery in Oregon to be able to provide medical coverage for all Oregonians.
Research produced by the Public Policy Center would be subject to peer review prior to publication. Following publication, Thompson would hope that organizations like the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, the Cascade Policy Institute or the Oregon Public Policy Center, groups Thompson calls “the public policy elites,” would consider the research in policy creation and implementation.
“Excellence in public policy is judged by scholarship and influence,” said Thompson. “Though our research, we expect to provide both.”
Serving on the center’s board of directors are Professors Patrick Emerson, Oregon State University; Tony Rufolo, Portland State University; Vincent F. Chiappetta, Willamette College of Law; Richard Ellis and Joe Bowersox, Willamette College of Liberal Arts; Manohar Singh and Ken Smith, Atkinson Graduate School of Management, and Laura Lockwood-McCall, director of the Debt Management Division, Office of the Oregon State Treasurer.
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