SPA Spotlight

Overview

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SPA Spotlight: The official blog of the USF School of Public Affairs!

We are pleased to announce the launch of SPA Spotlight, the blog of the USF School of Public Affairs, home of USF's Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Urban & Regional Planning (MURP) programs, as well as the Florida Institute of Government (FIOG). Spotlight@SPA will feature posts about our most innovative research and teaching interests; School events and milestones; and reflections on topical subjects relevant to our Tampa Bay community and beyond.

Why start this blog? Because those of us engaged in public administration and urban planning research and education are deeply interested in a host of contemporary issues that are of concern to the broader public. Our research, as well as our work in the classroom, often have relevance to policies under discussion in local and state governments; or to ballot measures under consideration by voters; or to organizations seeking to address local or even global concerns. A blog provides a format for us to join these conversations.

What will you find here? First, you will find our faculty experts talking about policy-relevant research. We study things like the impacts of sea level rise; community resilience; how nonprofits can operate more effectively; public taxing and spending. We map community assets, we take deep dives into budgets, and we analyze culture and history. Spotlight@SPA will give you brief overviews of some of these projects. We will also be asking some of our alumni, many of whom have leadership positions across Florida, to share their views on key issues. Student projects will be featured as well.

Spotlight@SPA is intended to be topical but not partisan. Our goal is to bring solid research to bear on questions that concern us all. We plan to update the blog a few times a month, with new posts shared. Thanks for reading!