UNC-CH MPA students' capstone projects

NCACC Deputy Director Patrice Roesler serves on capstone committees for students in the Master of Public Administration program at UNC-Chapel Hill. All students in the MPA Program are required during their second year to complete a capstone project that draws on the cumulative lessons of their graduate experience. The project taps their knowledge, analytic abilities, writing and presentation skills, and the insights they have acquired through study, observation, and opportunities for direct involvement in the practice of public administration.

Following are the executive summaries of Roesler's students' papers and links to their full reports. All papers are in Portable Document Format (PDF):

Are the Counties Planning for their Workforce Future? (Paper | Appendix A)
The State of Workforce and Succession Planning in North Carolina Counties
By Douglas T. Paris Jr.
North Carolina counties are facing a brain drain. A large percent of the Baby Boomer generation will be eligible to retire within a few years and there will not be enough of Generation X and Y employees, especially those in public service, to fill these positions. The solution to this problem is workforce and succession planning. This paper seeks to understand if and how workforce and succession planning are being used by North Carolina counties. The Capstone finds that a small minority of counties engage in workforce and succession planning. Further it offers several practical recommendations to ease the transition between the Baby Boomer and younger generations.

Selected capstone papers are also available on the School of Government's Web site at www.mpa.unc.edu/applicants/capstone.html.