Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Joseph Cerami
Joe Cerami grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and mainly studied engineering during high school and at West Point before beginning a career in the United States Army. West Point also provided his first exposure to the academic realm of national security and public affairs, and that has been the focus of his second career as a faculty member at the Bush School.
In the late 1970s, he earned a master's degree in government from the University of Texas, with a concentration in international relations and comparative politics, and went on to become an assistant professor of political science in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. While he was serving in his final Army assignments as director of International Security Studies and then as chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he studied for his doctorate in public administration from Penn State's School of Public Affairs. It was while studying at Penn State that Cerami began to focus on the linkages among security studies, defense policy, public leadership, and management.
When he retired from the United States Army in 2001, he and his family returned to Central Texas. At about the same time, the Bush School was establishing the Master's Program in International Affairs. Dr. Charles Hermann, the program's director, recognized the unique blend of educational and professional experience Cerami would bring to the program, and hired him as a lecturer to teach national security courses.
Cerami's multifaceted career in the military had included being a student and a teacher, as well as carrying out more traditional operational military assignments as a field artillery officer, war planner, and Army strategist.
Seeing an important role for leadership studies in the growth and success of the Bush School's graduate programs, former Dean Richard Chilcoat asked him to develop a formal leadership program in 2002. From the beginning, President George H. W. Bush had emphasized the importance of public service and leadership as key components of a Bush School education, and this new program was intended to reinforce the commitment to educating principled leaders for careers in government and public service. Working together, Dean Chilcoat and Dr. Cerami created the Public Service Leadership Program to ensure that students would learn about leadership through their core courses, experiential learning, and self-study. The program's evolution included the creation of the Dean's Certificate in Leadership, designed by the program's assistant director, Ms. Lindsey Pavelka. The Dean's Certificate offers recognition to students who pursue leadership development throughout their two years of graduate study.
As the founding director of the Bush School's Public Service Leadership Program, Cerami stresses that he and Pavelka continue to work with experts in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to find effective ways to provide student-centered leadership education and development. Over the next few years, they hope to enhance the program by adding a research component that will provide an opportunity for students to research various topics related to leadership.
Cerami points out that the effectiveness of the program will be evident in the next few years as Bush School graduates begin to reach the top ranks of their chosen professions. "We have been in existence for over ten years now, so our graduates should start to enter positions of middle and senior level leadership and management. When that happens, we will know that we are fulfilling President Bush and Dean Chilcoat's vision of educating principled leaders for public service."
For more information on Dr. Cerami's educational and work background see the following link: http://bush.tamu.edu/faculty/jcerami/
