PHILADELPHIA-- Christopher Patusky has been named executive director of the 67-year-old Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.

Patusky advances to the position after almost three years as deputy director of the Institute and director of several major funded projects totaling some $1.5 million.  His most recent grant of $250,000 from the Carnegie Corporation will support Fels students working with MSNBC at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia to monitor Election Day complaints about voting rights violations across the nation.

"Chris Patusky has made enormous contributions toward moving Fels from excellence to eminence," said Lawrence W. Sherman, the Albert M. Greenfield professor and director of the Fels Institute of Government.  "His repeated success at linking Fels students and classes to vital reforms in public agencies has greatly advanced the quality of leadership education at Fels."

As executive director, Patusky will be responsible for the Institute's operations and finances, including student recruitment and admissions, grant and contract development, alumni relations and public-sector outreach.  He will also manage the Fels Government Research Service, which partners government agencies with Fels Institute faculty and students on projects designed to improve government performance.  These projects include performance-based foster care management for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, the Pennsylvania Leadership Academy for the Governor and Legislature of the Commonwealth, SCHOOLSTAT for performance measurement in the School District of Philadelphia and the Carnegie Corporation projects on Voting Reform.  

During Patusky's tenure as deputy director, the Fels Institute added new certificates in Public Finance and in Nonprofit Administration, doubled the number of applications to the full-time Master of Government Administration program and increased the full-time MGA class by 50 percent.  In addition, the Fels Government Research Service, launched in 2001, grew to include partnerships with government agencies in England, Sweden, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and elsewhere.

Patusky received his B.A. from Northwestern University in 1985, his J.D. from Harvard in 1988 and his M.G.A. from the Fels Institute, where he graduated first in his class and received the Public Financial Management Award in 2002.