September 3 , 2007

James R. Thompson, associate professor in the graduate program in Public Administration has been appointed acting director of the program pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees effective September 1, 2007.

Thompson will serve as acting head for the year filling the vacancy left by Michael Pagano, professor and former director of the Public Administration program, while Pagano serves UIC’s College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs as interim dean.  
  
An expert in public personnel management, Thompson joined UIC in 1996 and teaches courses in public personnel management, information technology, and public management. Thompson’s research focuses on organizational change and bureaucratic reform in the public sector.  He has also done extensive research and writing on the modernization of human resource management practices in government.   

Among many honors and awards, Thompson is the only two-time recipient of the American Society of Public Administration’s William E. and Frederick C. Mosher Award for best article by an academician.  The award recognized Thompson’s work in 1995 for “Political/Career Relationships: Where Are We Now in the Federal Government,” and in 2000 for his article, “Reinvention as Reform: Assessing the National Performance Review.”  Thompson was also voted faculty member of the year by the Greater Chicago Chapter of the American Society of Public Administration in 2001.

Prior to obtaining his Ph.D. at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1996, Thompson worked in local government in New York State at the city and county levels.