Tennyson

Sharon Tennyson, professor of policy analysis and management, will become director of the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) July 1.

Tennyson, a CIPA core faculty member, succeeds Norman Uphoff, professor emeritus of government and international agriculture and the institute’s acting director since 2010. Her appointment coincides with CIPA’s move from a freestanding academic unit into the College of Human Ecology, aligning its administrative and budgetary operations with the college.

“CIPA core faculty and staff are extremely dedicated to the mission of the program and have created a very successful program,” Tennyson said. “The institute’s move into Human Ecology creates many opportunities for enhancement – for example, in course offerings, student support services and outreach to alumni and the broader public policy community. I am excited to play an active role in these initiatives and to continue the program’s forward momentum.”

An economist who studies insurance law, financial institutions, consumer policy and regulation, Tennyson joined Cornell in 1998 from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was an assistant professor. She is editor of the Journal of Consumer Affairs and a senior research fellow at Indiana State University’s Networks Financial Institute.

“I am more than pleased that Sharon is willing to step in as I step down, as she understands CIPA well and fully supports its mission,” Uphoff said. “I feel confident that under her leadership and with the backing of Dean Alan Mathios and the rest of the College of Human Ecology, CIPA will continue to make gains in the quality and attractiveness of its program.”

CIPA offers a two-year Master of Public Administration degree, enrolling about 240 students per year, who are taught by 14 core faculty members and more than 100 affiliates. The program formed in 1946, originally through Cornell’s School of Business and Public Administration. Since 2010 Mathios, the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean, has served as Cornell’s lead dean for CIPA, guiding a board of oversight established by Provost Kent Fuchs.

By joining Human Ecology, Mathios said, CIPA will be better integrated with the Department of Policy Analysis and Management’s undergraduate and graduate programs, including the Sloan Program in Health Administration.

“I am enthusiastic about a formal partnership between the college and CIPA,” Mathios said. “CIPA’s work is fully in keeping with Cornell’s mission as a land-grant university. The flexibility in course selection and access to faculty enjoyed by CIPA fellows reflects the same integrated learning experience that we foster in the college. I am glad to support CIPA as an administrative unit within the college as the program continues to thrive and grow at Cornell.”