Mission
The primary mission of the Center for Public Service is to provide expert assistance to Alabama state and local government agencies as well as nonprofit organizations in the state. The Center supports ÎÞÂë¾ÞÈé's strong commitment to community outreach and utilizes both University faculty and staff as well as outside consultants to provide research and analysis to its clients.
Areas of Expertise
Among the areas where the Center for Public Service provides individual or team expertise are: organizational analysis, human resource management, strategic planning, project management, criminal justice administration, senior services policy and administration, health care policy and administration, program evaluation, local government management, policy analysis, publication development and editing, development and implementation of training programs, and conference planning and administration. If expertise is sought in other areas where social science methodologies can be problem focused, the Center would be pleased to assess whether its network of consultants may be able to provide needed services.
Contact Us
Contact us at 334-241-8716 or tvocino@troy.edu. Whitley Hall, Room 350, 231 Montgomery Street, P. O. Drawer 4419, Montgomery, Al 36103-4419.
Staff
Thomas Vocino serves as executive director of the Center for Public Service. He most recently served as executive director of the Center for Leadership and Public Policy at Alabama State University and is professor of political science and public administration emeritus at Auburn University at Montgomery. For most of his 36 years of service at AUM, he served as director of a large program in public administration that has been ranked in U.S. News and World Report Top 100 Graduate Programs in public administration. Early in his career, he served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow and a research analyst with the Commission on State Government-Illinois. He is past president of the Policy Studies Organization and Pi Alpha Alpha National Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration. He is co-author and/or co-editor of six books in the field of public administration and is author or co-author of over 40 articles in many of the leading journals in public administration and public policy. He served for a number of years as co-editor of the Public Administration Quarterly. He is also the author of numerous op-ed pieces, technical reports, consulting reports and grant proposals. His civic experiences include service as president of the board of directors of the Alabama Center for Law and Civic Education and service as a board member of a number of nonprofit organizations including Aid to Inmate Mothers, the Montgomery Education Foundation, the Auburn University Retiree Association, the Montgomery Area Council on Aging and the Alabama World Affairs Council. He is also a past president of the Montgomery Capital Rotary Club. During his tenure at AUM, he was honored with appointments as Distinguished Research Professor and Alumni Professor. Dr. Vocino earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Ph.D. in political Science from Southern Illinois University.
Affiliated Distinguished Advisors
Bernadette M. Chapple, Ph.D., Auburn University. Dr. Chapple’s primary area of expertise is quantitative program assessment. She is currently assessment division chief of the Air Force Culture and Language Center at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. For nearly a decade early in her career, she served as research director of the Alabama State University Center for Leadership and Public Policy. In this position, she was responsible for producing research, supervising the production of research and management of research projects, including survey instrument development, economic modeling and economic forecasting. Prior to assuming her current position, she served five years as associate executive vice president of Alabama State University where she was the principal aide to the EVP/COO and handled a wide range of matters of institutional importance.
Stephen E. Condrey, Ph.D., University of Georgia. Dr. Condrey's primary area of expertise is human resource management. He is retired from the Carl Vinson Institute at the University of Georgia and currently serves as president of Condrey and Associates, Inc. In his leadership capacity at this firm, he has directed human resource projects in over 800 jurisdictions. He has numerous publications to his credit, is a past president of the American Society for Public Administration, the immediate past editor-in-chief of the Review of Public Personnel Administration and current chairman of the Federal Salary Council.
James A. Johnson, Ph.D., Florida State University. Dr. Johnson's primary area of expertise is health care policy. He serves as a professor in the School of Health Sciences at the Central Michigan University. As a medical social scientist and health policy analyst, he has published over 100 academic journal articles, numerous health policy newspaper columns and 15 books on a range of health care issues. He has traveled to and worked in 45 countries and has lectured at many universities abroad including Oxford University and Cambridge University in England in addition to collaborating for over a decade with the World Health Organization.