On Friday, March 22nd UConn’s School of Public Policy (SPP) inducted 55 students into Pi Alpha Alpha (PAA). PAA serves as the National Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration. Below is the program from the evening’s festivities.
2023-2024 PAA Board Members
President—Paula Norato, MPA ‘22
Vice President—Jessica Seabrook, MPP ‘18
Treasurer—Beverne Cordner, MPA ‘22
Secretary—Mekaila (Carey) Wilhelm, MPA ‘23
Schedule of Events
Master of Ceremony Welcome
Paula Norato, MPA ‘22
President, Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society, CT Chapter
Public Policy Welcome
Renzo de la Riva Agüero, Pi Alpha Alpha Faculty Advisor
Keynote Introduction
Mohamad Alkadry, Director, UConn SPP
Keynote Speaker
Arunan Arulampalam
Mayor, Hartford, CT
Pi Alpha Alpha Induction
Paula Norato
Business Meeting & New Officer Induction
Closing Remarks
Renzo de la Riva Agüero, Pi Alpha Alpha Faculty Advisor
2024 Pi Alpha Alpha Inductees
| Kader Akpinar Daniel M. Baker Deborah R. Battit Kemrodge Alexander Bell Nicholas F. Benvenuto Sheylian Berrios-Hernandez Rachel A. Boward Katie Breslin Katherine J. Connors Brighten B. Critchfield Nicholas Dally Anna Bella R. D’Amico Brendon J. Dukett Taylor J. Fenerty Nicholas Stephen Hall Karen Bleakley Hasterok Trevor E. Hoffman Victoria F. Hummel Victoria Jaskaran |
Samantha J. King Edmund Klein Aaron Prescott Knight Bridget M. Koestner Elena F. Lofgren Emily Lucke Wilisha Malla Sudiksha E. Mallick Nicholas V. Marinelli Amealia Maynard Kereema McDonald Abigail McVerry Emily R. Menard Annemarie Menna Sylvia Carolina Murray Chelsea L. Osei Kevin M. Perreault Andrew Pixley Jessica Power |
Ludwig S. Pulaski Shurovi Rahman Kallysia Hope Raymond Taylor L. Reed Dontaé E. Richards Manuel A. Rivera Adriana Sanchez-Dominicci Nicole Sanclemente Mercy Sarpong Kellie Ann Sartoris Trevor J. Schantz Jacob T. Sondik Shaina K. Stamp Umme Samura Tasnim Carrie M. Titolo Brianna S. Vig Grace E. Vino |
Paula Norato, MPA ‘22
Major Donor & Communications Officer
Phillips Brooks House
Paula Norato is a proud UConn alum, receiving her Master of Public Administration (MPA) with the UConn School of Public Policy in 2022, and her BS in Molecular and Cell Biology in 2020 at Storrs.
Her development and fundraising journey started with the donor events team at UConn, which led her to some internships at Johns Hopkins University. Paula moved on to work as a Development Officer with the Newton Free Library while simultaneously working as a Development Assistant with the Alumni Affairs and Development office at Harvard for the Major Gifts team. She now works as the Major Gifts and Communications Officer for the Phillips Brooks House Association at Harvard, managing frontline fundraising and heading communications strategy for the organization. Aside from her passion for fundraising to support students and public service programs, Paula discovered her love for mentoring students as a graduate student at UConn, working with the living and learning community, Innovation House
Professor Renzo de la Riva Agüero
Assistant Professor, PAA Faculty Advisor
UConn School of Public Policy
Renzo is an Assistant Professor of Public Management at the University of Connecticut School of Public Policy. He received his Public Policy Ph.D. at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Department of Political Science at Indiana University – Bloomington. His work engages with research on local administrative capacity, community based CSOs, collaborative governance, and environmental sustainability. His public administration and management research assesses how varying local governance conditions in the Global South may explain performance differences between more and less complex services. He is also the recipient of the NASPAA 2021 Staats Emerging Scholars Award. Previously, he was a public servant in the Peruvian public sector, a consultant at the World Bank in Washington, DC, and public sector manager at Deloitte Peru. He has a B.A. in Political Science from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and a Master of Public Policy from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.
Keynote Speaker
Arunan Arulampalam
Mayor, City of Hartford
Mayor Arulampalam is a father, husband, attorney, former nonprofit executive, and is committed to strengthening our neighborhoods and building a Hartford that works for everyone.
The son of Sri Lankan refugees, Mayor Arulampalam was born in Zimbabwe. He made a home and eventually a family in Hartford soon after graduate school. Prior to being elected mayor, Mayor Arulampalam served as the CEO of the Hartford Land Bank, where he developed a first-in-the-nation program to train Hartford residents to become local developers and tackle blight in Hartford. The Land Bank takes on the city’s vacant and blighted properties and, with the help of Hartford developers, fixes them up to encourage investment in our neighborhoods across the city.
Mayor Arulampalam also served in the Lamont Administration as Deputy Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection where he went after a notorious Connecticut slumlord and fought for consumer rights and small businesses. Before then, he was a lawyer downtown at the firm of Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C. Mayor Arulampalam also served on the Board of the Hartford Public Library, the House of Bread, and on the Hartford Redevelopment Authority. He earned his B.A. in International Studies from Emory University and his J.D. from Quinnipiac University School of Law.
Mayor Arulampalam lives in the Frog Hollow neighborhood in a formerly vacant and blighted house with his wife and five small kids. Mayor Arulampalam’s wife, Liza, is the Senior Minister of the First Church of Christ (Center Church) in Hartford.
Pi Alpha Alpha Oath
I pledge my support for the intellectual and professional advancement of the art and science of public administration and
public affairs.
I shall honor and respect the virtues and values of public service and those who serve.
I shall uphold the eternal need for education that imbues public administrators with traditions of democratic governance.
Moreover, as a member of Pi Alpha Alpha, I shall uphold the highest ethical standards applying to public service and will endeavor to encourage and engage in meaningful interaction with other members.