Wagner Faculty Offer Management Advice to Non-Profits and State Agencies

By Robert Polner

    Three faculty members from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service are providing their performance-based management expertise to assist operations of major nonprofit organizations and of state and city government in New York.

      Dennis C. Smith, associate professor of public policy at Wagner, and Anthony Kovner, Wagner professor of health management, recently discussed their research in management with the executive team of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) in November. The organization’s president, William Novelli, then visited NYU in December for a follow-up briefing on the topic.

      Kovner is leading the development at Wagner of a center on evidence-based management in health care systems, while Smith has been providing guidance on outcome-driven management to the state’s Office of Temporary Disability Assistance and Department of Environmental Conservation. He has extensively studied Compstat and other management processes in the New York City police department and the relevance of the Compstat process to other types of government agencies.

      In September, Smith discussed his research on management at an Atlanta conference organized by American Solutions for Winning the Future, a nonpartisan organization led by Newt Gingrich. In October, Smith, assisted by Wagner professor Dall Forsythe, a former New York State budget director, facilitated a two-hour dialogue on performance-based management before 110 state commissioners, deputy commissioners, and other government officials, marking the first Wagner/Accenture Executive Briefing Series in Albany. The event in the New York State Museum’s Terrance Gallery was titled “Supporting High Performance Government: Leading Large Scale Change in New York State Government.” A follow-up briefing on using information technology in support of outcome performance management to advance the Governor’s agenda is planned for February 2008.