Heinz College Honors Professor Silvia Borzutzky with a Lifetime Endowment of ASPA Founders’ Fellow Program
Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy is recognizing Silvia Borzutzky, teaching professor of political science and international relations, for her long-standing commitment and contributions to public policy and administration. The College has endowed in perpetuity the Silvia Borzutzky Founders’ Fellow Award. Fellowships are awarded annually by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA); each year, one designated fellow will be named the Silvia Borzutzky Founders’ Fellow.
“ASPA’s Founders’ Fellows program supports the next generation of leaders in public service,” says Ramayya Krishnan, dean of Heinz College. “We are honored by Dr. Borzutzky’s contribution and proud to be part of a program that recognizes the exceptional accomplishments and potential of the next generation of public servants in the worlds of academia and practice.”
Formed in 1939, ASPA is the largest broadly based professional association in U.S. public administration. Its approximately 10,000 members include federal, state, and local government employees; researchers and scholars; students; nonprofit professionals; and others committed to advancing excellence in public service. ASPA brings together practitioners and academics to tie theory to practice and to advance the practice and teaching of public administration.
“For years, the Founders’ Fellows program has received its support from a small but mighty group of individual contributors and mentors, but this year our extended community has embraced the opportunity to provide substantial and sustained support,” said ASPA President Patria de Lancer Julnes, Rosenthal Endowed Professor and Director, School of Public Administration, at the University of New Mexico. “These universities and institutions have stepped up and demonstrated their commitment to what this program stands for: the future of public service. By investing in these Fellows, and those to follow, they have paved the way to further propel this program to greater heights of impact.”
Open to graduate students as well as new professionals in the first three years of their public service career, ASPA’s Founders’ Fellows program is geared toward accelerating the careers of promising, rising stars in the discipline. Fellows receive a year-long series of developmental opportunities designed to enhance their professional growth.
Those opportunities start at ASPA’s annual conference, which will take place March 28 to April 1 in Washington, DC, with the theme “Not Robots Yet: Keeping Public Servants in Public Service.” Fellows will present research, take part in customized programming, and meet with mentors. Throughout the year, Fellows will participate in tailored webinars and continue to work with their mentors.
This year, Margaret Swenson, assistant professor at the University of Wyoming, will be recognized as the Silvia Borzutzky Founders’ Fellow. Swenson was selected for her work and commitment to health equity, collaboration, and public policy.
Borzutzky has been at Heinz College since 2001, and she serves on the Master of Science in Public Policy and Management (MSPPM) program Core Committee and is co-director of the Trade and Development Concentration. Borzutzky is the author, editor or co-editor of six books and the author of about 60 papers. In her research, she focuses on Latin America’s struggle with democracy and dictatorship, as reflected in the region’s socioeconomic policies, human rights policies, and approaches to the international economic system. Her contributions to the social security field have been recognized by colleagues and organizations alike.
She is also recognized for her years of mentoring graduate students and teaching in the college’s public policy program. Alumni often visit campus specifically to see Borzutzky. She takes pride in mentoring and inspiring multiple generations of students to pursue careers in public policy. Her dedication to first-generation college students is evident through her service to the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) program. She is also the faculty advisor for the Heinz Journal and other student organizations.
Her commitment to education and teaching has been recognized not just by her students but also through numerous teaching awards, including the Martcia Wade Award for Teaching Excellence from Heinz College, the Elliot Dunlap Smith Award for Distinguished Teaching and Educational Service from Carnegie Mellon’s College of Humanities and Social Science, and the Otto A. Davis Award from Heinz College for her commitment to social and racial justice.
Borzutzky serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Social and Public Policy Review, The Journal of Societal and Social Policy, and Poverty and Public Policy Journal. She is the associate editor for Latin America of the International Journal of Social Welfare and a contributing editor for the Chile/Political Economy section of the U.S. Library of Congress’s Handbook of Latin American Studies. She is also the book editor of the International Social Security Review and an active member of the Latin American Studies Association.
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About Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy is home to two internationally recognized graduate-level institutions at Carnegie Mellon University: the School of Information Systems and Management and the School of Public Policy and Management. This unique colocation combined with its expertise in analytics set Heinz College apart in the areas of cybersecurity, health care, the future of work, smart cities, and arts & entertainment. In 2016, INFORMS named Heinz College the #1 academic program for Analytics Education. For more information, please visit www.heinz.cmu.edu.