Letter from Dean Plouck

March 2026

Greetings,

Versatility is a key asset of a Master of Public Administration degree. At Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership & Public Service, our graduates obtain the knowledge and skills that enable them to experience successful and rewarding careers at all levels of government, in the non-profit sector, as well as in small businesses and corporations. Versatility is also a key philosophy in delivering a high-quality learning experience, as we offer the ability to pursue a Public Administration degree in three modalities: on-campus, online, and via our Executive program, which is a cohort-based hybrid model that includes 20 Saturdays and online learning.

In this issue of the newsletter, you’ll meet current Executive MPA student Allison Walters, who is earning her degree while serving as the Director of Human Resources at the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Allison’s scholarship and leadership growth recently earned her the Mark L. Weinberg Leadership Scholarship, which is named for the Voinovich School’s Founding Dean, Mark Weinberg.

Our MPA faculty are always looking for ways to evolve programming and benefit the broader community. Dr. Holly Raffle and her team saw a need to connect organizations with free and accessible workplace wellness resources. This spring they are offering a Workplace Wellness ECHO series, which delivers content monthly via a lunchtime interactive webinar. The first session, offered in January, had more than 200 participants from public, non-profit and private sector organizations. If you’d like to join one of the remaining sessions, you can register online.

As part of her role at the Voinovich School, staff member Amista Lipot serves as the Executive Director of the Mayors’ Partnership for Progress, which provides training and technical support to small-town mayors and city managers throughout Ohio’s Appalachian Region. Amista was recently honored with the Janet & George Voinovich Faculty & Staff Leadership Award for her significant service to the region.

Voinovich School faculty and staff help students see the wide variety of public service opportunities in the broader world. Several months ago, we hosted the first Public Service Day at Ohio University. Undergraduate and graduate students attended panel discussions with our alumni and learned practical information about networking and job searches. State and local partners were onsite that day to share information about career opportunities.

Our students, faculty, staff and alumni represent the best of public administration because they are leading and serving in so many important ways.

Tracy Plouck
Dean
Voinovich School of Leadership & Public Service