The 2020 Conference of Minority Public Administrators (COMPA) was held in Atlanta, GA, Feb. 26-29, 2019. As a leading graduate program of Public Policy & Administration in the nation, PPAD faculty and students have been playing important roles in the conference. For example, for the 2020 COMPA Conference Planning Committee, Professor Frances Liddell (retired), Ms. Debra Monroe-Lax (alumnus, PhD in Dec., 2018), Professor Sylvester Murray, served as committee members. In addition, professor Gliria Billingsley serviced as president for 2016-17. The current COMPA president, professor Kristie Roberts-Lewis at Point University also has obtained her doctoral degree from PPAD. For the 2020 COMPA conference, professors Liddell, Murray, and Billingsley attended the conference. Ms. Lawren Long (PhD student) attended the conference, and gave her presentation (title: "Evaluating the impacts of the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010 on childhood obesity"). Ms. Long said, "I'm super thankful the COMPA this year. I know I missed out on some awesome speakers like Ambassador Andrew Young … got the opportunity to participate in Dr. Liddell’s Public Policy Student Symposium! Our team was called the Visionaries. I honestly wish I had come sooner for the sake of participating more than once. It was VERY engaging! " In addition, professor Moreland-Young (retired PPAD faculty), professor Tayla Thomas at Dept. of Urban Planning & Regional Planning, and Dr. Sam Mozee, Jr., Interim Dir for MS Urban Research Center) also atteded the academic event.
