ASU’s ‘Institutionalizing Opportunity’ wins seventh annual George V. Voinovich Public Innovation Challenge

The winner of the seventh annual George V. Voinovich Public Innovation Challenge is Dr. Shannon Portillo of Arizona State University. Portillo was named as the winner at the 2023 NASPAA Annual Conference in Pittsburgh.

The challenge, co-sponsored by the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service at Ohio University and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), invited all NASPAA member institutions to pitch their programs and strategies that demonstrate innovative approaches to applied learning or executive education by enhancing students’ education and understanding of their field, addressing unmet needs or improving programmatic effectiveness. This year, in keeping with NASPAA’s 2023 theme, the challenge focused on strategies for measuring and communicating impact.

A panel of expert judges found the enhanced opportunities Portillo’s program seeks to provide to marginalized students was the most creative and effective of the year.

Portillo is a professor and director of the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions and the School of Public Affairs (SPA) at Arizona State University.

Second-place winner is Dr. Agatha Caraballo from the Maurice A. Ferré Institute for Civic Leadership and the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University (FIU). Caraballo presented on the institute’s mission to promote civic leadership and engagement, resilient community infrastructure and social justice through academic, research and community programs.

Institutionalizing Opportunity: Enhancing Pathways to Professional Development and Mentorship for Minoritized Students

Portillo’s project, “Institutionalizing Opportunity: Enhancing Pathways to Professional Development and Mentorship for Minoritized Students” seeks to break down barriers in career readiness for minority students by providing access to mentorship, networking events, co-curricular opportunities, internship preparation and more.

Learning from firsthand observations of students struggling to meaningfully engage in these experiences, this new project will foster more inclusive opportunity structures by focusing on procedural justice in how it serves students and intentionally centering their unique experiences and perspectives.

The Voinovich School awarded ASU’s initiatives the first-place prize of $10,000 to allow the program to make an impact in the community it will serve. 

“This award recognizes the importance of the work that our faculty and staff put into breaking down structural inequalities with first-generation college students and students of color as they prepare for careers in public service,” Portillo said. “The investment in our program will help us sustain our mentorship programs, networking events, and co-curricular career development activities. We are thankful to the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service and NASPAA for continuing to invest in innovations in our field.”

Voinovich School MPA Director Jason Jolley connected Portillo’s pitch to the challenge’s inspiration rooted in Senator Voinovich’s innovative approach to public service.

“The School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University has developed a model program for growing the next generation of public servants,” Jolley said. “Their program represents George Voinovich’s spirit of investing in people to help them reach their highest potential.”

Past winners include:

• The Civic Leadership Academy, a program of the Center for Effective Government in the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. The academy is a six-month leadership development program intended to invest deeply in the city’s civic infrastructure and to address the leadership gap in the public sector.
• The NextGen Leadership Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where aspiring leaders learn specific techniques regarding collaboration and leadership through hands-on projects.
• The O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and the University of Miami for the "COVID-19 Executive Orders Project," a tool to examine and analyze pandemic-related executive orders adopted at state levels and present them in a dashboard for comparison.
• The University of Maryland’s Do Good Campus, which seeks to make social impact education a core element of all students' experiences, from orientation to graduation. Schools across campus partner to develop social impact courses, and students compete in a year-long Do Good Campus competition.
• The University of Kansas’ Pathways to Public Service, which provides community college students with a seamless transition to a KU bachelor’s program through a combination of academic and financial coaching, social meet-ups, networking events and leadership opportunities. 
• The University of Montana’s Robotic MPA Access, which enables online students to fully participate in on-site classes via robot, including participating in live discussions, engaging with classmates, and moving around the room.