 Well, by this point in the program, I feel enlightened. I feel edified. I feel entertained. I feel enhanced. And after lunch, I feel pa-ful. Hopefully it made me stronger, thus I'm pa-fortified. I have asked that we have some remarks from our national folks, and they are seated at our table here on my right. I've asked them to speak about their views of civic engagement and perhaps even make some remarks based on what they've heard today. So I've asked President Paul Danzik to be our first presenter, followed by past President Janisle Chance, and the always reliable Executive Director, William Shields, Jr. Dr. Danzik. Thanks, Dr. Hall. I love your formalities on the East Coast. We're pretty casual in California. So thanks, Michael, for providing the opportunity for us to come out here again and help celebrate the 10th anniversary of this forum. Dean, I want to thank you for your support of Public Administration and Public Service, the NPA programs. And as we think about the role that we do, certainly our society wouldn't be what it is without all of our involvement, and that's both on the academic side and the practitioner side. So thank you, Dean, for creating that forum and space for us. The American Society for Public Administration has been around for a couple years, since 1939. It's really the hallmark organization when we think about public service. And we tackled it through two main ways. It's thinking about the academic side, so what is it, those best practices from the university standpoint as we understand public service, public administration, public management, public policy. And it's coming from the practitioner side of how we understand it in practice. And where those two fuels emerge is where we find the role of ASPA. It has huge challenges in front of us as we think about the work that we do in the scope that we have. When ASPA was started in Chicago way back when, the focus was very much on the U.S. experience. And that has since expanded to our international presence as well, thinking about relationships that we have with other organizations that are on an international scale within our own host countries or regions to promote the work that we do within public service. The mission of ASPA is to advance excellence in public service. And we take that serious every day as we think about the work that we do. We're guided by four core values that help understand the work that we do, performance and accountability, professionalism, ethics, and social equity. And I'm not sure when those values were first identified in a very formal context, but they're true today as they ever have been, particularly as we understand the work that's happening at the local level through our international relations and every step in between. When we think about public service, we often think about specific roles that people feel. But public service really goes beyond that. It's what we bring to the table as we think about where we stand. My specialty focuses on leadership, particularly leadership within public sectors. What we know within the leadership world is that there are certain characteristics that make good leaders good leaders. And there's characters that make great leaders great leaders. What's different within public service is the idea of values and recognizing those values that we bring as individuals to advance society. And when we talk about advanced society, it's not just advancing society for the people that voted for us or for the citizens are identified within our communities. It's really thinking about from the holistic standpoint of everyone that our public services serve and how we go about doing that. Sometimes it's clearer than other times. And right now, I feel like there's a lot of things happening on the federal side that's impacting what's happening at the local level that's blurring some of those lines for us. What we have to do is bring understanding to where we are and how we understand those modern complexities. And during this morning's presentation, what I really took out of it and what was surfacing for me was thinking about the local experience of what happens within the community and the impacts that we can make on the ground level. My hometown, my new hometown, is a tiny city within California called Sutter Creek. It's one of the old gold mining towns still in the corporate city with 2,500 people. If I think about my experience within Sutter Creek, just opposed to my work within Los Angeles County, it's going from one extreme to another because my whole city could fill into one block of LA County. As we think about the number of people that we serve, the challenges that we face are still real. So when I think about public health, for example, I work with a person who's very involved with the measles epidemic right now that's happening within Los Angeles County. He was on call during a train that we were giving and just made clear that he needed to keep on stepping out. Because it was tackling that very complex issue within Los Angeles County of how do we protect the people that we serve. I think about other challenges that we face locally. We have a local challenge in Sutter Creek right now of thinking about street lights. We just had a bridge replaced on Main Street. And part of the design of the bridge was to put in a new bridge and incorporate these new street lights, which are kind of like the old fashioned gas lamp type of street lights. Well, they bought 10 of them to put it around where the bridge is. Well, there's another five that are also on Main Street just a few steps down that they kept like those old school ones from the 70s that are very aluminum type feel, but they won't replace them. And it's not a matter of funding. They won't replace them because there's some naysayers in the community that says, well, we already have those wired for these garlands that we put up at Christmas time. So we can't possibly replace that. My reason for bringing up that story is those things happen all the time. As we learned this morning, if we follow those naysayers, you just can start spinning our wheels. And not thinking about the big picture of if we had all of downtown with the same type of gas light lamps, how cool would that look? As we think about this old town from the 1850s when it was first established and thinking about that history that we have with the gold mining community. But yet we're stuck in this limbo phase right now saying, well, we can do it. We just won't do it. And the reason why we don't do this is because we create an excuse for ourselves to saying, well, when Christmas comes along, we can't hang in the garlands. Well, we can hang it from the new gas lamp lights, right? So it's being able to think boldly as we move forward. A lot of our work focuses on innovation and understanding what does innovation mean to me and how do I go about doing it. Part of it is understanding different perspectives. As Serena showed that yarn bombing, the first thought that popped into my mind is, who's going to clean it up? Of course you do. So I'm definitely one of those people. My wife, when we have the hand would say, oh, look how cozy those trees look. It just softens up the park. And look, it's keeping the trees warm. It's different perspectives, right? So as we think about things like the yarn bombing that we experience this morning and thinking about what does public art mean, it's a reminder for us to think about the perspectives that we bring and the biases that we undertake. I often think back to the metaphor of the dandelion. And you're starting to get a sense of my personality if I'm thinking about yarn on trees and who's cleaning it up. I like to have a very neat yard. And part of that is nice green grass. So my first approach is to kill all the dandelions, right? I don't want those dandelions in my yard. They're just a weed that pop up. That is until I had kids. And my kids see dandelions in a totally different way than I do. When they start popping out versus the color, right, being able to see that bright yellow dispatches. And then it turns into the seeds. And they have so much fun using them to blow the seeds around, which adds to my anxiety. And now here's more seeds, hence more dandelions. But to them, it's how exciting is it to have a dandelion growing up in the yard and now be able to see it through different lines. As we think about the work that we do, we have to think about perspective taking and the work that we undertake. And understanding that our perspective is just one data point for those of you that are geeking out on the academic side, it's one perspective. And as we start to collect other perspectives that are also happening, there's not necessarily one right answer and there's not necessarily one wrong answer as we continue to move forward. When you look up the principles of democracy, so small D, democratic principles, there's some debate within the policy side of the world on what that actually means. How do we understand limited government, for example? How do we understand checks and balances? How do we understand what federalism means? It's no more complex today than it probably has been in history of really understanding what it means for us in the time that we're experiencing and giving the social environment that we have. There is one common underlying theme, though, and that's the sense of the rule of law. And how is it that we understand how we govern ourselves and what is it that we have within our own ability to shape and influence what rule of law means not yesterday, but what rule of law means today. The professor of mine, Chet Newland, who's one of the backbones of Aspa, he's 89 years old and going as strong now as he ever has. He's one of these amazing people that understands local and international dabbles within state, but he's really the bookend scholar within our field. He talks about the search, and I often fall back on the two searches that he talks about, the search for reasonableness and the search for human dignity under a rule of law. And to me, those two searches help bring understanding to whatever complexity I face, whether it's in the work that I do at the university level or the work that I do within our communities as I think about the work that my wife does as a city council member and now within the judicial branch, or thinking about things that I'm experiencing with my kids within the public school districts, where it's not the end that we're after, but it's understanding the search and how do I understand what's positive that's happening right now that we continue to find leverage points to make better tomorrow. And as those searches that interplay between understanding today and planning for the future, that really makes the work that we do really exciting. Just want to thank you again, congratulate all the work that the Rhode Island chapter has done in advancing this and recognizing that it's, the ASPA stands for those of all of us that are in public service. And some of you in the room are members of ASPA. If you're not, talk to one of us and we'll be happy to share with you more about what ASPA does in our mission. But it's really all of our responsibility, regardless of whether you are affiliated with a professional association or university or having an official title within our local communities. It's all of our responsibility to continue to advance the work that we're doing when we're talking about public service. I want to thank you and congratulate the presenters this morning. We're charged with, what was it about? Do it, do it scared as a big message. And I couldn't tell if you were nervous or not, but you all knocked it out of the park this morning and the paper presentations were equally impressive. So congratulate all the students at a high school and master's level for the great work that you're doing and congratulations on the event today. Thank you. Thank you. Paul brings up a very important point, particularly regarding his tenure as a president. He has international responsibilities as well as coming to Rhode Island. And he does so without being paid. And you can see why he's president. He's well-reasoned, he's thoughtful and he reaches out. And that is also true of his colleague, former president Janice Lachint. Thank you. Okay, so now I'm going to break something, but you know, this is the peril of being short. So I apologize for that. But first of all, let me thank the folks at Roger Williams and this really impressive program for the invitations. I'm very fortunate, as Dr. Hall said. I've been here several times and I love it. And I love it for a couple of reasons. First of all, I learn something every time I'm here. I've been very fortunate. I've had a career that has taken me to the highest levels of government. I work for President Clinton as a member of his cabinet. And then I switched over to work in nonprofits. And I've seen a lot. But I come here and I wish I could think of a net forward. I think Dr. Hall took them all. But, you know, I learned something from all of you. I learned something this morning from these really impressive presentations. I always learned something from the posters. So I want to congratulate everybody for putting this together and keeping a focus on what's so important to all of us. And that really shapes our future, our family's future, and this country's future. So thanks to all of you for that. Lee asked me to talk about science. Okay, good. No one got up and walked out. That's good. Because now I work for a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of some 60,000 earth and space scientists. And I got to tell you, you know, scientists, when I said that, you probably got an image in your head, right? Like a geek with really thick glasses and, you know, looking into microscopes and telescopes. Well, that is them and the large part. But let me tell you what's happened over the last several years to scientists. And I am going to tie this into what you all have been talking about today. Don't worry. But let me tell you, they do research. They do incredible research. They think about how to predict earthquakes, how to predict natural disasters, extreme weather, how to save lives, earthquakes, volcanoes. I mean, it's just amazing what they do. So they start at the core of the earth and then they expand into the oceans. You know, they're trying to figure out what to do with that big, giant mass of plastic waste that's floating around in the Pacific Ocean and really killing the ocean. I mean, it is killing a Pacific Ocean. Then they get into space, right? These are the people who, you know, brought us the photos of Hubble, the photo last couple of weeks of the black hole. Whoever thought we'd have a picture of that, whoever knew what it was. Anyway, you know, it's just remarkable what they do and they're actually looking for life on other planets. So, you know, these aren't people who are used to getting out and trying to influence policy or anything. But a few years ago, and possibly before some of our high school students were even born, you kind of started hearing off in the distance that the United States really didn't land a man on the moon. That it was some sort of video editing and, you know, Photoshop and everything. That it just wasn't real. So, you hear it and you think, okay, there's a handful of people who think that. You know, then you started hearing religious organizations with an incredible amount of credibility say, we don't want our high schools to teach about evolution. We don't want to hear them talk about the silence of how the Earth was created because we all know God did it in seven days. Okay, if you want to believe that, that's fine. You know, so you started hearing this drumbeat that science just wasn't relevant anymore. Then here comes cable news networks sort of amplifying all of this. Social media. I mean, you can find anything on social media, right? So any kind of conspiracy theory. And then I'm going to say it. I'm going to say his name. President Trump gets elected. And all of a sudden he says to his scientists that work in the federal government, the people who predict our weather, the people who map our geology, the people who created GPS, the people who created the internet. He says to them, I'm no longer funding anything that has to do with climate change because it's not real. Okay, then you start, you know, this just goes on and on. I have talked with high ranking government officials who have changed the names of their program to take climate out of the name, to take the environment out of the name so that they can continue getting their funding. So how does this all tie into what we're doing here today? So let me tell you what happened at that point. That was a real wake up call where scientists in the United States and around the world started saying we better figure out how to get involved in civic activity. We better learn how to communicate with our fellow citizens in a way that they can understand. We better be ready to make our case to members of Congress, but not only there, but at local levels as well because all of these policies were trickling down to the state and local level. So it became urgent and really compelling for all of them to get this skill. And the thing that they have learned that they've passed on to their colleagues and to other members of the scientific community is that you don't have to be prepared to testify before Congress. What you have to be able to do is take a little bit of an action whenever you can, sign a petition, join the local school board, go to a PTA meeting, and speak up for what you believe in. And that's what I want to leave you with today. Sometimes we look at civic engagement and we think, oh, I don't want to run for office. I don't have time. I know a lot of you have families to raise your bills to pay at full-time jobs and you're preparing, high school students are preparing for a career and a life. You've got bills. Do a little something every week, every day if you can. All of you have your noses in your phones all the time. Tell the truth. It's true, right? So there's plenty of things you can do online. Retweet something that's credible. Retweet something that will help your local community. I went into the poster session and I saw presentations about organizations that are making a real impact on Rhode Island and the country and the world. Go to one of their meetings. Help them out. They need a volunteer to stop envelopes or bring a coffee cake to a meeting. Do that. Do whatever you can and make it a part of your life. Make it a habit so that you don't ever, ever let it go. So that's what my view, that's what I hope you will do. I hope you'll stay on this path of civic engagement and public service. We need you. Thank you. You can also see why Janice was president in the past. I think it's notable to point out that she is now in the third sector, the non-profit sector. Then that's part of ASPA too in public administration, public service. So let's keep that in mind. I think it's probably also notable. Correct me if I'm wrong, Janice, but you lead an organization as a woman which is full of men, predominantly men, right? All right, ladies. Follow our example. And now I'd like to invite to the podium Mr. Shields. Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon. It's always a bit of a worry to speak following lunch, but eyes are open, so I think we're in good shape. First of all, Dr. Hall, thank you as always for your hospitality. It's always great to come back to my home state, a state that I continue to love very much. As all of you know, it's a small state. We're very selective about who we let in. But it's also equally wonderful to be part of this conference, especially in its 10th year. Every year that I've been fortunate to be here, the presentations get more and more compelling, and I think they become more and more action-oriented. And I certainly think the two presentations we had this morning from the Secretary of State and the City Manager certainly fit that category. As well, the presentations and the poster presentations out in the other room earlier today, just really, really impressive. And I think it gives a lot of hope for those of us who want to ensure a public service of the future that really has the public at the forefront of its mission. And that's what I'd like to speak just a couple of minutes on today. Every year, the Harvard University Kennedy Schools Institute of Politics comes out with a survey in April. So the most recent one came out just about three weeks ago. And the survey measures youth, youth defined as 30 years of age or younger. Youth's public opinions on politics and civic engagement. And if you happen to have seen the survey results come out this year, they were in the paper and on TV, the top line, what you kind of saw in the first paragraph, give cause for some concern. 64% of the youth surveyed said that they did not trust the federal government or they did not trust the federal government very much in its activities. 66% felt that way about state government. Same percentage for local government. So you see those results and you say to yourself, we have a young generation. We have people in the back of the room. We have the people in the front of the room who are looking skeptically and cynically at government. What wasn't in those newspaper articles or in the news reports was what they, what else they had to say about public service. 70% of those surveyed said that community service was indeed an honorable thing to do. Only 39% believed that people like me don't have any say about what government does, which says that 61% believe they do. I think what we have, we in the public sector need to really do is redefine what public service is about. That it extends beyond federal, state, and local government and if you apply and pursue a career in those sector, in that sector, God bless you, I wish you well and you'll have a very fulfilling career based on the many people I speak with who are in them. But the fact of the matter is we have to define the third sector, the non-profit sector and in some cases the for-profit sector on those initiatives that are dedicated to the public good. Earlier today the Secretary of State really made a point of saying that your work matters, those of you who are in the public service or the high school students who showed up in her office a few weeks ago, that their say mattered, what they had to say mattered. When Serena spoke, she said, know your why. What I would say to you is identify your way. Identify your way in making a difference in public service. You know, as I said, Rhode Island is a very small state but it has a very outsized presence in Asper, including a number of the people who are in this room today. They have found their way or identified their way at least in part through Asper. I see Deputy Chief Labonte, who in addition of being a Founders Fellow about three years ago, four years ago, is on one of our standing committees, our ethics committee, which is designed to educate our membership and those interested in ethics about what being an ethical public service, servant means. Ms. Polino, last month or about two months ago at our annual conference, accepted the Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Award on behalf of the Rhode Island Judiciary. We as an organization, we're very, very proud to recognize her as well as the judiciary for its efforts in support of ensuring a workforce that is representative of the public it serves. We have people like Dr. Hall, who served several years on our National Council. Chris Pierce, who just completed his term as a student representative on our National Council in our organization, to represent the voices of the student population, which is roughly one third of our total membership. In these ways, and in many, many others, including their full-time jobs, they are identifying their way to make a difference. And so what I would just say, and it kind of goes and builds on what Janice said just a few minutes ago, sort through the real fake news, sort through the noise, and sort through a lot of the cynicism and skepticism you see to realize that there is, among young Americans, a real desire to make a change. Look for creative and unique ways to do it. You know, the same survey where the respondents were very, very skeptical of their governmental institutions. One of the places they said they trusted very much were their academic institutions. Look at Roger Williams as a place to be that home for you to help you identify your way, whether it's your professors, your advisors, your fellow students, the alums who are still here coming to a conference like this. That is why we love all of our chapter events, and there are many of them this month. I think we have at least 15 or 20 chapter events that are going on across this country to celebrate Public Service Recognition Week. Well, we should be recognizing Public Service every week of the year, but this month we are recognizing it, because a lot of chapters do it beyond just one week. They do it to recognize work that matters. And I think that this chapter, as well as Roger Williams University, is very uniquely positioned, not only to celebrate the work you do, but to really help you identify your way forward. So on behalf of the staff at the National Office in Washington, D.C., it's always a good time to get out of Washington, D.C., so that's another reason I'm happy to be here. I want to congratulate all of you and wish you well on your journey and know that we at the National Office stand ready to help you in any way we possibly can. So thank you very much. Thank you, Bill. When Mr. Shields took over ASPA in 2013, was it? 14. Only seemed like 2013. We had some problems financially. We had a cultural problem also. Mr. Shields changed all that. I can make a phone call to ASPA and he's returning it. Somebody's on the other end of the phone to answer my questions. And we owe all that to Bill Shields. So Mr. Shields, thank you. As the Secretary of State mentioned this morning, the Toman and Shea High School students are the only students in the nation who get to be members of ASPA. And so I'd like to call forward their teachers and have the students on a bit of alert because we're going to induct them into ASPA. And if I could request President Danzig and Mr. Shields to come forward, they're not very well organized. So what I'm going to ask is that the two teachers call each of the students' names who are eligible for admission and then walk past Mr. Shields and President Danzig and you will receive your pen for your ASPA membership. Good afternoon. At this time could J. Lee Martinez come up please? Denisha Angel, Gabriela Lopez, Kira Almato, Emily Debona, and Selena Baldera. Dominic Magcutt, Asia Kryla Roderick, Stephanie Long, Denisha Lomba, Priscilla D.A. Fonseca, Cassie Mercia, Ashley Morse, Geraldine So, and last but not least, the never-forgotten Cheyenne Medina. Mr. Pierce, are you taking the pictures? Okay. Would you mind closing, ladies and gentlemen, and then Mr. Shields and... Guys, move over a little bit this side. Thank you, sir. I'd like to ask Ms. Lee, Rochelle, Mr. Sousa, and Mr. Wilk to stay just a moment because these folks work with the students all year long. Ms. Lee and I go in once a month or so, and they are there every day, and it is largely because of their work that we have the program success that we do. And so we want to recognize your contributions with a considerable gift. And thank you. Thank you, Dr. Olson. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Olson. And we don't let Mr. Shields ever leave without a gift also. During last year's program, the theme was social justice, and the high school students did poster presentations, one of which was popular music, social justice and popular music. And so one of the students asked me, could we do a rap song? And I said, yeah, knock yourself out. I didn't say knock yourself out. Then, long about February, I asked, you know, what's the update on the song? And they said, oh, we're not going to do it. So I voiced my disappointment in class, and a young woman came forward and said, I'll do it. And she knocked our socks off. In fact, I think it was President Danzik who said, she's the poet laureate of ESPA. So ladies and gentlemen, help me welcome this year's poet laureate. The same one is last. Barbara Fleur. This is a bilingual poem. Please follow along. Blancos, negros, soziaticos y latinos, todos son todas las comunidades. Ayúrate con buena salud. Help yourself to truly good health. Formulaic in the least, it's a duty to your community that doesn't take self. Because lifestyle choices ravage the beast of ignorance. Empower each of us to meet milestones and become more aware as wisdom prevails. Let's talk healthcare. Universally it's a right, but vulnerable groups are discriminated against. On-site at first sight and disparities exist despite efforts to ensure that even under duress marginalized populations can still get the best. Information prevention, treatment, and disease control with respect. Vaccination screenings and HIV tests should not be demeaning, meaning no matter the gender, the creed, the color. Accessibility requires a broader approach. Availability must stretch beyond borders instilled by man. Take a stand and build from within. Because good health is the foundation to win. It allows a greater contribution to the economy. A nation enhanced by socio-economic equality. Universality is the key to the creation of policy. Internationally and in these United States, we the people must make the decisions to create the life we want, so it starts. White, black, Asian and Latino, all in all those communities, our health, our responsibility.