Truman School of Government and Public Affairs

After a career of over 20 years with MU, Wayne Mayfield, PhD, Associate Director of Research at the Institute of Public Policy (IPP), Harry S Truman School of Government and Public Affairs, will be retiring January 1, 2025. After graduating from Grinnell College with a BA in Spanish, he started with MU at the Missouri Testing and Evaluation Services where he worked on the Missouri Mastery and Achievement Tests, the first state-developed school assessments in Missouri.

Dr. Rudy Hernandez awarded 2024 Jack Miller Teaching Excellence Award in Higher Education (Junior Scholar). 

The Jack Miller Teaching Excellence Award recognizes exceptional teaching in civic education at both the college and K-12 levels. The award is given annually by the Jack Miller Center to honor educators who excel in engaging students with America’s founding principles and history.

Long known for an underdeveloped public transit system, Michael Gawlick is among the Kansas City leaders trying to reverse that narrative.

With a clear post-graduate career goal of international development and education through non-profits, Maria Eduarda Olimpio Lopes searched for the best graduate schools in the US to give her experience and opportunities to enhance her abilities. Lopes found the Masters of Public Affairs program at Truman to be the perfect fit due to its flexibility of focus areas on both public policy and nonprofit management.

Dr. Lael Keiser Awarded Prestigious John Gaus Award for Contributions to Public Administration and Political Science

Columbia, MO - Dr. Lael Keiser, a distinguished professor of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, has been honored with the 2024 John Gaus Award. This prestigious accolade, presented by the American Political Science Association (APSA), recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of public administration and political science.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Drury Cooper, Dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri, announced that Lael Keiser, professor of public policy and administration, has been reappointed director of the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs at MU, effective Sept. 1.  Dr. Lael Keiser has been reappointed as the Director of the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs for a third three-year term.    

TSGPA professor David Switzer co-authored the book, The Profits of Distrust: Citizen Consumers, Drinking Water and the Crisis of Confidence in American Government, and it has been selected for the Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize given for the best book on environmental politics and policy published in the past three years by the Science, Technology, Energy Section of the American Political Science Association. 

Our faculty regularly produce research that help us understand and contextualize voting patterns and habits.   Jake Haselswerdt, Assoicate Professor in the Truman School, along with his co-authors, recently published some new research into how a personal crisis impacts voter turnout.  

Truman School Students Named Critical Language Scholar and Alternate.  

Scholar: Madison Arenaz

• Freshman studying journalism and political science from Piggott, Arkansas.
• Language: Russian

“I'm most excited about practicing Russian language in a more immersive environment. It's one thing to study a language, but to be able to live alongside native speakers is a really rare experience, and I'm so grateful for it.”

Truman School professor, Dr. Peverill Squire, shared some insights and perspective on the initiative petition reform being considered in the Missouri State Legislature.   Hear his thoughts here: 

IP reform could give Missouri's rural voters more power | State News | komu.com