Provost Lecture Series to discuss challenges in city management

An Austin Peay State University public management professor will discuss her book on the challenges experienced in city management as part of the next Provost Lecture Series.

Dr. Beck Starnes, associate professor of public management, will present at 3 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 4 in the Morgan University Center, Room 303. All sessions of the Provost Lecture Series are free and open to the public.

Starnes will discuss her book, “Challenges in City Management: A Case Study Approach.” Incorporating urban management theory with actual practice, she will share a series of case studies experienced by city managers and council members. The cases come from a number of city areas, including personnel, policy making, housing, homelessness, transportation and budgeting.

“Each study describes and analyzes a scenario, identifying the economic and political factors as well as the often conflicting players and interest groups,” Starnes said.

Starnes has more than 30 years of combined public administration experience at the federal, state and local levels of government. She also is a retired military officer, having served in both the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps. She earned an associate degree from Palomar Junior College, Bachelor of Business Administration from the National University, Master of Business Administration from Gonzaga University and a doctorate in public policy and public administration from Auburn University.

Other sessions in the Provost Lecture Series also are planned for the academic year. All sessions are from 3-4:30 p.m. in the MUC, Room 303 and include the following:

Oct. 11: Naomi Rendina, Alexandra Wills, Lisa Kurtz

Oct. 18: Kathy Heuston

Oct. 25: Jordy Rocheleau

Nov. 1: Kevin Tanner

Nov. 8: Lindsay Szramek

Nov. 15: Dr. Antonio Thompson

Nov. 29: Leong Lee

Jan. 10: Taj Hashmi

Jan. 17: Foloshade Agusto

Jan. 24: Mercy Cannon

Jan. 31: C.M. Gienger

Feb. 7: Tatsushi Hirono

Feb. 12: Christopher Burawa

Feb. 14: Alex King

Feb. 21: Andriy Kovalskyy

Feb. 28: Suta Lee

March 7: Sergei Markov

March 21: Kristofer Ray

March 28: Ayman Alzaatreh

April 4: Stephen Truhon

April 11: Jason Verber

April 18: Paul Collins

April 19: Carol Baskauf

The Provost Lecture Series seeks to foster a spirit of intellectual and scholarly inquiry among faculty, staff and students. The program will be used as a platform for APSU faculty members who are recent recipients of provost summer grants, who have been awarded faculty development leaves and who have engaged in recent scholarly inquiry during sabbatical leaves.

For more information about the Provost Lecture Series, call Dr. Brian Johnson, assistant vice president of academic affairs at APSU, at 931-221-7992 or email him at johnsonb@apsu.edu. - Dr. Melony Shemberger