Volcker Alliance at ASPA 2025 Annual Conference
The Volcker Alliance's work to support public servants was featured at this year's annual conference for the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) throughout key panels and events. At the conference’s Opening Plenary on Saturday, March 29, Dr. Mae Jemison—a NASA astronaut for six years and the first black woman to travel to space—delivered ASPA’s 2025 Elliot Richardson Lecture and received the inaugural Paul A. Volcker Public Integrity Award, supported by Ray and Barbara Dalio. The award recognizes an individual or organization who has made outstanding civic contributions through exemplary conduct in public service, leading the way to significant programs or projects benefiting the American public.
“Dr. Jemison and Paul Volcker had very different public service paths—one, a pioneering astronaut and physician; the other, a towering figure in public finance and banking. But they share several attributes emblematic of public service leadership: an eagerness to take on formidable challenges, an unwillingness to relent in the face of political or societal pressure, and an unwavering commitment to excellence,” said Sara Mogulescu, president of the Volcker Alliance.
On Friday, March 28, Mogulescu joined Janice Lachance, interim executive director of the American Geophysical Union, and Thomas Stanton, a career executive, for the Presidential Panel, “Public Service Under Siege: The Future of the Federal Government Workforce.” Mogulescu and her fellow panelists discussed the Department of Government Efficiency’s impact on government operations, calling on the field to support current and future public servants in this critical moment.
On Saturday afternoon, the Volcker Alliance's research partners, Jerry Zhao from Zhejiang University and Camila Fonseca-Sarmiento from the University of Minnesota, shared current findings from the Deferred Infrastructure Maintenance Project as a part of the “Budgetary Issues across Levels of Governments” panel. The project is focused on assessing the deferred infrastructure maintenance needs across all 50 states and will include in-depth case studies of ten. Fonseca-Sarmiento walked the audience through the concept of deferred maintenance, the project's background and research methodology, and initial findings. The presentation, “Assessing and Reporting Deferred Maintenance Needs,” can be found here.
