Professor Catherine Althaus has taken up the new professorial position of ANZSOG Chair of Public Service Leadership and Reform at the University of New South Wales in Canberra.
Prof. Althaus will retain her existing roles at ANZSOG (Deputy Dean Teaching and Learning and co-director of the Executive Fellows Program) and will continue to teach across a range of ANZSOG’s programs.
The ANZSOG Chair of Public Service Leadership and Reform is an exciting commitment by ANZSOG and the Public Service Research Group (PSRG), based at UNSW Canberra, to focus attention on specific opportunities posed by modern service delivery and crisis-response agendas. PSRG works with public service organisations and practitioners to produce new insights into issues relating to policy implementation.
“Too often we focus on failure and the so-called inevitability of an implementation gap between good policy and great delivery”, said PSRG Director, Professor Helen Dickinson.
“At PSRG, we don’t accept this assumption. We turn this premise on its head and operate on the belief that implementation can be done well and we help governments get it right.”
“This new ANZSOG-UNSW Canberra Chair brings thoughtful focus and fantastic energy to highlighting the role of implementation as a key feature of reform and leadership across Australia, New Zealand and the Indo-Pacific region.”
Professor Althaus said she was excited to be working alongside talented and dedicated people whose primary focus was on improving implementation and service delivery in the public sector.
“Now, more than ever, good public administration demands specialist attention to the implementation settings of policymaking. Achieving the best of local solutions and personalised policymaking, often within rapid response windows, helps mark out success for broader policy goals and adds rigor to evaluation and accountability objectives that sit behind our systems of governance,” said Professor Althaus.
ANZSOG Dean and CEO Professor Ken Smith congratulated Professor Althaus on this significant promotion and acknowledged the important contribution she has made at ANZSOG and the University of Melbourne over the last four years.
He said the appointment would strengthen the development of teaching and research into public administration in Australia and New Zealand, and use Professor Althaus’ wide experience of working with practitioners and academics domestically and globally.
“We are delighted to announce that Professor Althaus will fill this important new ANZSOG-funded position, which will be based at UNSW Canberra,” Professor Smith said.
“Catherine will bring a high level of professionalism, experience and enthusiasm to a position which will shape teaching and research into public administration.”
Professor Althaus began the new position on 30 March 2020.