Torrey Androski
Research Associate
The National Academy of Public Administration,
Washington, D.C.

Torrey has an insider’s vantage point in Washington: In a layer beneath the harangue and hyperbole of elected officials debating in the media limelight, she works with public service professionals applying brain power, goodwill and hard work to the crucial activities of government. They are dealing with myriad issues, from water quality, fish stocks and transportation safety to the off-shoring of service jobs, or cleanup from weapons production. Torrey is a research associate at The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). Established in 1967 and chartered by Congress, the Academy is trusted government-wide to be objective and to find practical, innovative solutions by bringing the best thinking and experience to bear on governmental problems. It is a coalition of highly respected top policy makers and management leaders who tackle the most critical, timely and challenging problems facing the government.

The Academy staff works with a network of 600 fellows to respond to requests for help from federal agencies, Congress, state and local governments, academia and foundations. The fellows are current and former Cabinet officers, members of Congress, governors, mayors, state legislators, diplomats, business executives, local public managers, foundation executives and scholars. They assemble as project panels to bring the right expertise to challenges various groups have raised. For instance, the Academy was asked to improve the collaboration of stakeholders searching for water-quality improvements in the Chesapeake Bay. State and local officials, the Environmental Protection Agency, fishermen, agricultural specialists, scientists—all stakeholders—needed help in working together. “It’s hard, getting a large and disparate group like this to agree on policy,” says Torrey. “People’s livelihoods are at risk, as are the destiny of businesses, as is the environment, given the long-term impact of certain chemicals. The fellows sit down with them, and with their expertise they help them make progress.

“When I was at Milton, I heard Cornell West [then a professor at Harvard, now a professor of religion at Princeton] speak,” says Torrey, “and realized that it was on us to be leaders and problem solvers. It struck me that I have opportunities, and I have to take them.” With a law degree in her mind’s eye at that time, she majored in sociology at Kenyon with a concentration in law and society. “I took courses in college that I never would have taken without the preparation I had at Milton.”

A semester in Washington “turned me on to what was happening in government,” she recalls. She worked for the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which establishes sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimums for courts. Her task was “to evaluate the efficiency of sentencing disparities related to crack cocaine and powder cocaine.” The project combined her statistical background with interests in social justice issues and the law. “We developed real data that had real impact. Admittedly, it took until November 2007, but it worked.”

This interdisciplinary effort is typical of the National Academy’s work and part of what makes working there so great. “It’s exactly what Milton faculty did—bring things together, help you make the connections, expect you to think critically.”

Her experience led her back to graduate school where she earned a master’s in public administration from American University. “What I do at the Academy is public-sector management consulting,” she says.

Torrey’s main project now involves convincing typically non-techie government leaders to embrace today’s collaborative technologies as part of project processes. Because today’s generation, and those to follow, use these techniques and modes of communication to get work done (and because they expect to be part of any dialogue on public issues), shifting the paradigm to include collaborative technologies—like wikis—has already shown results. Getting the fellows all “in the room”—that is, online working together—improves the speed, efficiency and quality of the work. As Jennifer Dorn, Academy president and CEO has written, “we…are convinced that collaborative technology has the potential to transform government in America, to tap into the expertise of people outside the hierarchy of any single agency or department, to make government more transparent, and to open the door to a broader array of experts focused on solving a particular problem or to citizens who want to contribute to making government work better.”

“When you read about what a project like this entails,” Torrey says, “you think it’s impossible; but it really does happen. When you think about the work that USAID does, for instance, the collaborative technology piece could really help, because of the potential of getting people together (who are not physically proximate) to help raise money and to make the money raised work to achieve the goals.

“I love working on projects like this,” Torrey says, “where you can see the transformation and the impact.”

CDE

The Web site of The National Academy of Public Administration, www.napawash.org, was a source for some information in this profile.

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