Campus Update

(December 5, 2006)

Straussman, Wyckoff, Nathan Named to Spitzer's Transition Team

Jeffrey Straussman, James Wyckoff, and Richard Nathan have been named to the transition team of Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer.

Straussman, dean of the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, was named to the Labor and Workforce Development Policy Advisory Committee. Wyckoff, professor of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Economics, was named to the Education Policy Team. Nathan, co-director of the Rockefeller Institute and a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, was named to the Government Reform Policy Team.

Straussman joined the University at Albany earlier this year from Syracuse University, where he served as chair of the Department of Public Administration as well as associate dean.

Wyckoff's specialization is state and local public economics and the economics of education. He joined the University at Albany in 1986, where he served as acting dean of the Graduate School of Public Affairs from 1998-2000, and chair of the Department of Public Administration and Policy from 1996-1998.

Nathan has written and edited books on the implementation of domestic public programs in the United States and on American Federalism. He served in the federal government as assistant director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, deputy undersecretary for welfare reform of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and director of domestic policy for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission).