TN-ASPA’s fall symposium in 2012 – our 27th annual event – will take place on Thursday, December 13, 2012 with a full day of programming at One Century Place Conference Center, Nashville, TN. NASBA CPE credits will be available, and continental breakfast and awards luncheon will be included. Pricing will be as follows: ASPA Member $70 | Non-member $80 | Student $40. Prices go up by $10 after Dec. 1, so it pays to register early! We will announce registration soon, with an online option available. Also, new this year will be a poster session, with anticipated participation by practitioners, academics and students…stay tuned for the call for posters! View more logistic details at the main Symposium page.
The Executive Council is building an excellent line-up on the theme, “Using data to improve public service quality.” All sectors – private, public, or nonprofit – are affected by the ubiquity of data in the wake of the information technology revolution, and the need to use this resource wisely to improve service development, targeting, and delivery. Our two keynote addresses, from Dr. Susan Ludington and Jamie Woodson, J.D., fit in with this theme, in two distinct but vital policy areas: health and education.
Susan M. Ludington, Ph.D., CNM, FAAN, is Carl W. and Margaret Davis Walter Professor of Pediatric Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. She will present a “Case Study in Quality Improvement for the Kentucky State Department of Health.” Dr. Ludington is an internationally known expert in standards of care for infants. Dr. Ludington earned her Bachelors of Science in Cell Biology from University of California at Santa Barbara and her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from University of California San Francisco. She also earned her Masters of Science with a major in Nursing from University of California at San Francisco, and completed her Ph.D. in Nursing and in Child Development and Psychology from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX in 1975 and in 1979 became a Certified Nurse Midwife. In 1980 Dr. Ludington established the Infant Development Education Association of America after studying the effects of early sensory stimulation on newborn development. She became known for her pioneering work in black and white visual stimulation for newborns and her book “How to Have A Smarter Baby” based on her infant stimulation research at UCLA is still available at any bookstore, 27 years after first publication. Dr. Ludington was the first United States researcher funded by the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of Kangaroo Care on infant development. As a result of her research program, Kangaroo Care has become the gold standard for family centered care and developmental care of infants and is now recommended for all newborns by the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics. To share her research findings with consumers she wrote “Kangaroo Care: The Best You Can Do for Your Preterm Infant” in 1993 and it is still available through Amazon.com. Dr. Ludington’s infant stimulation research earned her the Lifetime Achievement Award in Research from the Midwest Nursing Research Society, the national Excellence in Research Award from the Association for Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nursing, the Audrey Hepburn Award for Contributions to International Infant Health from Sigma Theta Tau International and was an inaugural inductee to the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2010. She continues her research and teaching at Case Western Reserve University Bolton School of Nursing.
Jamie Woodson, President and CEO of SCORE (State Collaborative on Reforming Education) will deliver a keynote address on “The State of Education in Tennessee.” She has been a leading figure in spearheading Tennessee’s education reform efforts. Prior to joining SCORE, Ms. Woodson served for over twelve years in the Tennessee General Assembly in both the House and Senate (1999-2011). As Chairman of the Senate Education Committee and later as Senate Speaker Pro Tempore, she was a key leader in Tennessee’s First to the Top Act, the largest piece of education reform legislation since 1992. In addition, Ms. Woodson sponsored the overhaul of Tennessee’s K-12 education funding formula and led the effort to reform Tennessee’s public charter school laws. She serves on numerous statewide boards including the First to the Top Advisory Council and the Tennessee Business Roundtable. Ms. Woodson received a Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. She was selected as “Torchbearer” which is the highest honor an undergraduate may receive from the University. She attended public schools in Tennessee.
In addition to our keynote addresses, TN-ASPA will offer four panel discussions on a variety of relevant topics featuring practitioners and academics with diverse expertise:
- Data-driven: Information Technology from top to bottom
- Empowering communities through the use of information, data and research
- Leveraging data for performance excellence: the Baldrige perspective
- Big data, little data: driving quality and efficiency in the nonprofit world
The American Society for Public Administration Tennessee Chapter 