Greater Phoenix Forward - January 22, 2009
Maricopa County has experienced remarkable population growth for decades, and will continue to do so. But while expanding metro areas tend to pay close attention to physical infrastructure - diligently budgeting for roads, sewers, schools, and the like - there is often a relative lack of attention to meeting the future demands for human services.
Greater Phoenix Forward, a report by Arizona State University's College of Public Programs and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, aims to help fill that gap. It offers community and policy leaders and human services practitioners the latest data and new perspectives for understanding the Valley's human services infrastructure and a "big picture" of future needs. The authors hope that this information can serve to support proactive community dialogue around significant human-services infrastructure issues facing Maricopa County and will ultimately provide a foundation for the strategies and plans to bring the community together for a new future where all people are empowered to live healthy, productive lives of dignity, contribution and self reliance.
Our Speakers:
Debra Friedman is University Vice President and Dean of the College of Public Programs at ASU. As Vice President, she provides academic leadership for the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus. As Dean, she presides over a College which serves 2,890 students in more than 35 academic programs. She comes to ASU from the University of Washington where she served as associate dean of undergraduate education and associate provost for academic planning. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles and a book, and has won two distinguished teaching awards. She was a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a visiting scholar at both the Australian National University and the Russell Sage Foundation.
Robert Ashcraft is director of the Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation, which provides a range of research, education and outreach activities designed to build nonprofit capacity in the region. Robert is an Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management at Arizona State University on the Downtown Phoenix campus. Since 1984 he has also served as executive director of American Humanics at ASU, a program that recruits, educates, and places undergraduate students into service at nonprofit organizations.