Volume 13, Number 2, 2005
Eric Jacobson, assistant professor of urban affairs and public policy, has received the Leslie A. Whittington Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Association of Public Affairs and Administration.
The award was presented in September at the group’s annual conference in Indianapolis.
“This is really a credit to the wonderful students in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy,” Jacobson says. “Being successful as a teacher depends upon having students who are interested in the subject and have strong skills and motivation. Watching bright people begin to do important work in a field I think is so important, then going on to become leaders in the field, is enormously satisfying.”
The national association is the accrediting organization of graduate programs in public affairs, public policy, public administration and nonprofit management. Its purpose is to ensure excellence in education and training for public service and to promote the ideal of public service. The Whittington Award is presented for demonstrated excellence in teaching and sustained contributions to education for public service.
“Eric’s course evaluations are uniformly excellent,” according to Jeffrey Raffel, director of CHEP’s School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, who nominated Jacobson for the Whittington Award. “That’s particularly impressive considering that many of his courses are required, quantitative ones. He is one of our more demanding faculty members and toughest graders, yet students flock to, and greatly enjoy, his courses.”
Raffel says that Jacobson excels at supervising graduate students, who participate in public service research projects on such topics as health care and human services funding.
“Eric’s interest in preparing his students for a career in public service does not stop at the borders of the University,” Amy Droskoski Hall, CHEP ’96M, says. “He is always searching for new opportunities for his students. It’s his constant effort to be an involved partner with students, in learning and expanding horizons, that attracts top students to work with him.”
Hall, who is one of several graduates mentored by Jacobson who later were selected as U.S. Presidential Management Fellows, now works on health- care issues for the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Leslie Whittington was an economist and professor at Georgetown University. She was leaving with her husband and two young daughters for several months as a visiting fellow at Australian National University on Sept. 11, 2001, on the plane that terrorists crashed into the Pentagon.
The impact of taxation policy on family life was a central interest for Prof. Whittington, who had worked on a book about women, work and family with Saul Hoffman, chairperson of the Department of Economics in UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics.
Jacobson, who is assistant director of CHEP’s Institute for Public Administration, earned his bachelor’s degree in economics in 1978 and his master of public administration degree in 1981, both from UD. He received an excellence-in-teaching award from the University in 2001.
In addition to his faculty position as assistant professor in CHEP’s School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, Jacobson serves as assistant director of the School’s Institute for Public Administration, where he also is a policy scientist.
He has ongoing projects sponsored by the Delaware state legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, the state Office of the Controller General and Office of Personnel and the Delaware Health Care Commission. His recent public service and research activities have focused on health-care quality assessment, funding of senior centers and the economic impact of sporting events. Jacobson also maintain a compensation database for governments in the mid-Atlantic region.
The Institute for Public Administration, established in 1973, works to improve the performance of state and local governments by linking the University’s resources with the management and policy information needs of governments in the region. It offers a variety of services, in which students play an integral role, including policy research, staff assistance and professional training programs.