IPA director shares evening spotlight with former U.S. Representative and former Gov. Mike Castle

On June 13, 2011, Common Cause honored two long-time Delaware public servants-Dr. Jerome R. Lewis and The Honorable Michael N. Castle-at its annual Good Government Awards dinner. The evening program took place at the Christiana Hilton in Newark, Del. Lewis received the Public Service Achievement Award, and Castle garnered the Russell Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Public Service Achievement Award honors individuals who “by force of imagination, initiative, and perseverance have made outstanding contributions to the public interest in the areas of government performance and integrity.”

Introducing Lewis was IPA’s Dr. Jeffrey A. Raffel, Charles P. Messick Professor of Public Administration in the School of Public Policy & Administration and president of Common Cause Delaware.

“Jerome Lewis has built several institutions in our state which have supported these Common Cause values of public participation and serving the common good and public administration more generally,” Raffel said. “For those of you not familiar with academic jargon, public administration refers to the organization and implementation of government policies and programs.”

Raffel added, “Jerome Lewis is ‘Dr. Public Administration’ in Delaware, an entrepreneurial builder of an alphabet soup of public administration institutions, a man who knows how to get things done, who leads and supports the institutions he helped to create, and an educator of the highest order, mentor to hundreds of students, public officials, and faculty, including me.”

Widely recognized for his contributions to the policy, planning and management needs of various partners throughout the state, Lewis joined the University faculty in 1969 and, four years later, founded the Institute for Public Administration, a research and public service center that has impacted public policy throughout the state and region for more than four decades.

Raffel said of Lewis, “Under Dr. Lewis’s leadership, IPA has forged a strong track record of engaging graduate and undergraduate students in research and technical assistance projects on topics in fields such as water resources, transportation, education, women’s leadership, conflict resolution, planning and economic development, and democracy-that is, just about every issue critical to Delaware in the last four decades.”

Lewis was honored for creating the Legislative Fellows Program, a flagship internship began in 1982 that links the research needs of the state legislature with University of Delaware students, who work directly with legislators on complex public policy issues.

Among the hundreds of students who have participated in this 30-year-old program, as well as other IPA programs, are many who have gone on to distinguish themselves in elected or appointed office in federal, state, and local governments and in the private sector.

In attendance were many of the current Legislative Fellows, several of Lewis’s colleagues from IPA and the School of Public Policy & Administration, and College of Arts & Sciences Dean George Watson.

Lewis was recognized for 40 years of public service by both the Delaware House and Senate in 2009. In 2004 he was one of the first two recipients of the Ratledge Family Award for Delaware Public Service, which recognizes the contributions of UD community members who exemplify excellence in public service to Delaware’s citizens. In 1998 he received the National Association of School of Public Affairs & Administration’s Elmer B. Staats Public Service Career Award. This award recognizes faculty who inspire students to pursue public service careers and encourage student interest and participation.

Castle, who was introduced by the Delaware Chamber of Commerce’s John Taylor, was honored for his career of service to Delawareans as an elected official-as Deputy Attorney General, state legislator, Lieutenant Governor, two-term Governor, and nine-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The $100-a-plate dinner supported the Common Cause Educational Foundation.