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Exploring Opportunities for Small and Disadvantaged Businesses in Public Sector Contracting: Insights from Set-Aside Programs
Speakers
Ben Brunjes pic

Benjamin M. Brunjes

Assistant Professor, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington.

Benjamin M. Brunjes is a public management specialist whose academic research is focused on managerial complexity, including networks, contracts, and grants. These issues have gained widespread attention over the past few decades. Under the rationale that more competition lowers costs and deters corruption, most research of these mechanisms occurs within a business context. Little work on public sector implications has been done to this point. Ultimately, Ben aims to provide government with research and information that improves how to use these tools so that managers can improve accountability, equity, and efficiency.

Ben holds a B.A. in American Politics from the University of Virginia (2005), a Graduate Certificate in Public Health Information Systems and Informatics from the University of Maryland (2010), an MPA from the University of Georgia (2012), and a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Georgia.

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Evelyn Rodriguez-Plesa

Assistant Professor of Public Administration, North Carolina Central University

Dr. Evelyn Rodriguez-Plesa is an assistant professor of Public Administration at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Her research interests include public management, policy analysis, government contracting, socio-economic equity, and local government administration. Her research focus is inspired by and draws from 10 years of practitioner experience in local government and serving in the U.S. Army Reserves.

She currently serves as the faculty advisor for the International City/County Management Association Student Chapter at NCCU. She is also the media coordinator, immediate past chair, and a founding member of ASPA’s Section on Procurement and Contract Management. Additionally, she serves as the president-elect of ASPA’s South Florida Chapter.

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Matthew Potoski

Professor of Corporate Environmental Management, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara

Matthew Potoski is Professor of Corporate Environmental Management at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara. He teaches courses on corporate environmental management, and his research focuses on management, voluntary environmental programs, and public policy. He co-authored The Voluntary Environmentalists (Cambridge, 2006) and was co-editor of Voluntary Programs (MIT, 2009). Professor Potoski is currently co-editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and the International Public Management Journal. He received the ISU LAS Early and Midcareer Awards for Achievement in Research.