Donald Moynihan, director of the UW-Madison’s LaFollette School of Public Affairs, announced via Twitter Tuesday that he will be leaving this coming fall to join the faculty of Georgetown University.
Moynihan — who has been with the university for 13 years — is an expert in public management who has researched issues like performance, budgeting, administrative burdens, election administration and employee behavior. Moynihan will join Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
Moynihan said that while he will miss the La Follette School, he knows the faculty “will continue to make the La Follette School the heart of the Wisconsin Idea.”
“The departure is certainly bittersweet,” Moynihan said in a statement. “I have loved being able to teach classes that allow our wonderful students to pursue the Wisconsin Idea by working with public and non-profit organizations.”
Pamela Herd, a professor of public affairs and sociology, is also departing for Georgetown’s McCourt School. Herd’s work focuses on aging, policy, health and inequality.
In a statement, interim dean of the McCourt School Michael A. Bailey said he is “thrilled” to welcome the two professors to Georgetown.
“They are both first-rate scholars who will add an extraordinary level of expertise, research productivity, and teaching excellence in public management and social policy to McCourt,” Bailey said. “Hiring them keeps McCourt on our trajectory of rising prominence and achievement in policy.”
The UW-Madison news release said the College of Letters & Science intends to ensure that the La Follette School remains a top program in the field of public policy, adding that a process is in place to select a new director.
The university plans to have a new director in place this summer.
