David Folz, UT Knoxville professor of political science and public administration, is the recipient of this year’s Faculty Excellence Award from UT’s Institute for Public Service (IPS).
Each year IPS recognizes a faculty member who has worked with the institute or its agencies in the last year and has demonstrated a commitment to public service and excellence in teaching or consulting.
Folz, a faculty associate in the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, has contributed to the education of future local government managers and employees and to the improvement of government operations and governance in Tennessee cities. Through his teaching and working with students, he affords a challenging and professional commitment to their future in public service and contributes through his research to the benefit of local governments.
He has worked with Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) consultants and other government officials over the years, championing opportunities for students’ growth through state legislative internships, graduate student internships and post-graduate internships. His dedication has provided real world experience for future leaders in Tennessee and the U.S.
In addition to his teaching and guidance of students, Folz researches performance measurement initiatives, transportation and red light camera enforcement. Recently he has been working with MTAS on the Tennessee Municipal Benchmarking project and has incorporated these efforts into several publications. Most recently, he has been working on a project related to Tennessee fire mortality, studying causes for the high rate of fire deaths in our state.
For more information on IPS, visit http://www.ips.tennessee.edu/.