CSUSB professor wins national award for public administration

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Montgomery Van Wart, a professor of public administration at Cal State San Bernardino and one of the most cited scholars in the field, is the recipient of the field’s top honors from the American Society for Public Administration.

Van Wart, who has taught at CSUSB since 2005, recently received the Paul P. Van Riper Award for Excellence and Service during the society’s annual conference in Chicago.

“This is a wonderful honor in that it is recognition by your peers for doing something that you love. It is quite breathtaking to get this honor.” Van Wart said. “This is definitely the highlight of my career.”

The Paul P. Van Riper Award for Excellence and Service is awarded to an ASPA member who has made significant contributions both as an academic and practitioner. It is only given to those at the pinnacle of the field.

The award criteria require that nominees be selected with at least two of the following attributes:

• Be a distinguished professional and nationally recognized leader actively and continuously engaged in contributing significantly to the practice and study of public administration throughout the 10 years preceding nomination for the award;
• Be an exceptional innovator in the practice and/or study of personnel administration and human resource development with a focus on meeting the “human capital” challenges of the 21st century; and
• Be an outstanding contributor for at least 10 consecutive years of service to ASPA, including previous recognition for exemplary service through an ASPA-affiliated national, section, or chapter award.

Van Wart is an internationally acclaimed expert in public administration in leadership, human resource management and change management. Most of his research is original.

Van Wart is a prodigious researcher and writer, producing an average of more than three works per year for the last 25 years. Van Wart has been the first author or single author of the majority of his work, and the greater part of his research has been published in flagship or top tier journals in the field.

His body of work currently includes nine books, 36 refereed articles and 40 chapters, book reviews and other pieces. Three of his books have multiple editions, and seven of his publications have been cited more than 100 times.

Last year, he was the first faculty member to receive the Cal State San Bernardino Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activities Award.

He is also the recipient of the Chester A. Newland Presidential Citation of Merit Award (twice) for exemplary scholarship and dedicated service to the profession from the ASPA for his extensive service to its organization.

In addition, Van Wart has served as a visiting scholar and professor at flagship universities in Belgium (KU Leuven), Hong Kong (University of Hong Kong) and New Jersey (Rutgers). His lecturing hasn’t been limited to the university setting, though, as he has been the keynote speaker for numerous international organizations, foreign governments and U.S. agencies. He was recently a distinguished speaker on leadership reform for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The American Society for Public Administration is the largest and most prominent professional association for public administration. It is dedicated to advancing the art, science, teaching and practice of public and non-profit administration. ASPA’s four core values are accountability and performance, professionalism, ethics and social equity.

Since 1939, ASPA has been the nation’s most respected society representing all forums in the public service arena. It is an advocate for greater effectiveness in government -- agents of goodwill and professionalism -- publishers of democratic journalism at its very best -- purveyors of progressive theory and practice and providers of global citizenship. ASPA leaders believe that by embracing new ideas, addressing key public service issues and promoting change at both the local and international levels, the association can enhance the quality of lives worldwide.

For a digital image of Montgomery Van Wart or for more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Public Affairs at (909) 537-5007 and visit http://news.csusb.edu.

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