MILDRED WARNER, Cornell University
I am pleased to be invited to stand for election to the APPAM Policy Council. As a relative newcomer to APPAM, I am excited about the potential for dialogue across practitioners, policy makers and academics. It is that dialogue that makes the APPAM conferences so special. I publish widely in planning, economic development and public administration fields and enjoy the multi-disciplinary nature of APPAM. My research explores the issues of privatization, devolution and economic development. I am especially interested in local government service delivery and new economic development models for addressing human services. While I am an academic, my position has a strong extension orientation. I consult widely on economic development policy, local government and social service issues at the local, state and national levels. I co-direct the national Linking Economic Development and Child Care project in collaboration with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Alliance for Early Education Finance and Smart Start National Technical Assistance Center. In the local government arena I have worked closely with the International City County Management Association, National League of Cities, National Association of Counties and public sector unions such as AFSCME and CSEA. I was a visiting scholar with the Economic Policy Institute in 2005. I also work internationally, mostly in advanced industrialized countries (Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada), on comparative studies of policies regarding privatization, decentralization and child care. I am Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. Before that I served as Associate Director for nine years of Cornell’s Community and Rural Development Institute where policy makers, community development practitioners and academics come together to explore new approaches to community development. Prior to coming to Cornell in 1988, I served as a program officer with the Ford Foundation in their rural development division. My Ph.D. in Development Sociology, and my Masters in Agricultural Economics are from Cornell University, and my BA in History is from Oberlin College.