{"id":78527,"date":"2026-08-04T14:44:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T21:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=78527"},"modified":"2026-08-04T14:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T21:54:07","slug":"featured-spotlight-naus-inaugural-high-country-public-service-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/featured-spotlight-naus-inaugural-high-country-public-service-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Featured Spotlight: NAU&#8217;s inaugural High Country Public Service Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"5\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">NAU welcomed more than 150 public service professionals, managers, and executive leaders from across Arizona for the inaugural High Country Public Service Academy (HCPSA), a first-of-its-kind professional development experience designed to strengthen leadership, innovation, and collaboration across the public sector. Hosted by NAU&#8217;s Master of Public Administration program in partnership with NAU Continuing Education and the School of Communication, the inaugural academy welcomed a number of Arizona leaders and public servants, including Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Arizona Board of Regent Steve Peru, Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett, Flagstaff City Manager Joanne Keene, Mesa City Manager Scott Butler, Phoenix Assistant City Manager Ginger Spencer and Sedona City Manager Anette Spickard, among other distinguished speakers from government, higher education and the nonprofit sector. <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sara Rinfret<\/span><\/b>, professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs,<span data-contrast=\"auto\"> led the event.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-78521 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2026\/08\/3865_public_service_academy_20260730.jpg\" alt=\"Ginger Spencer (Assistant City Manager, City of Phoenix), Paul Helford (NAU School of Communications Emeritus Faculty), Adrian Fontes (Arizona Secretary of State), Sara Rinfret (NAU Master of Public Administration Program Director, Professor, Politics &amp; International Affairs), Yvonne Luna (NAU Vice Provost for Academic &amp; Workforce Development), Eric Deschamps (NAU Director of Workforce Development), Nicole Lance (CEO, Lance Strategies &amp; Interim Public Management)\" width=\"617\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2026\/08\/3865_public_service_academy_20260730.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2026\/08\/3865_public_service_academy_20260730-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2026\/08\/3865_public_service_academy_20260730-768x435.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 617px) 100vw, 617px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Left to right: Ginger Spencer (Assistant City Manager, City of Phoenix), Paul Helford (NAU School of Communications Emeritus Faculty), Adrian Fontes (Arizona Secretary of State), Sara Rinfret (NAU Master of Public Administration Program Director, Professor, Politics &amp;amp; International Affairs), Yvonne Luna (NAU Vice Provost for Academic &amp;amp; Workforce Development), Eric Deschamps (NAU Director of Workforce Development), Nicole Lance (CEO, Lance Strategies &amp;amp; Interim Public Management)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"search-results-excerpt-link\" href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/featured-spotlight-naus-inaugural-high-country-public-service-academy\/\">NAU welcomed more than 150 public service professionals, managers, and executive leaders from across Arizona for the inaugural High Country Public Service Academy (HCPSA), a first-of-its-kind professional development experience designed to strengthen leadership, innovation, and collaboration across the public sector. Hosted by NAU&#8217;s Master of Public Administration program in partnership with NAU Continuing Education and&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78527"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78535,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78527\/revisions\/78535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}