Awards

The Center for Accountability and Performance (CAP) Annual Awards for 2026

THE HARRY HATRY DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE AWARD

The Harry Hatry Distinguished Performance Management Practice Award is presented to an individual whose outstanding teaching, education, training, and consultation in performance management has made a significant contribution to the practice of public administration.  The award winner must have spent the primary part of his/her career in public service.  This award recognizes a person who has made outstanding contributions on a sustained basis rather than a single accomplishment.

* * * * * * * * * 

CAP is proud to announce the 2026 Harry Hatry Distinguished Performance Management Practice Award is awarded to David J. Bernstein, Ph.D.  Dr. Bernstein is a practitioner who has extensive experience in designing, managing, and conducting program evaluations, performance management, and strategic planning, as well as applying the principles associated with quantitative and qualitative research methods and project management. He authored or co-authored more than 50 technical papers, evaluations, and studies. He is active in both the American Society for Public Administration and the American Evaluation Association. He has also served as a teacher, mentor, role model, and advisor to the next generation of performance management professionals.

While Dr. Bernstein has held numerous positions throughout his professional career, some of the significant highlights include the following:

Montgomery County Government, MD (1988-2005), serving as a Senior Management and Budget Specialist, an Administrative Services Manager, and an Evaluation Specialist.

Governmental Accounting Standards Board (2000), where he led ground-breaking case studies on state and local uses, and effects of, performance measurement and management in budgeting, management, and reportingfunctions.

Westat (2005-2017), where he served as a Senior Study Director and led studies on Strategic Planning, Performance Management, and Evaluation. Clients Included Federally Funded Nonprofit Partnerships, State Agencies, and Federal Departments, including Education, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Energy.

The George Washington University (2024) where he served as an adjunct professor in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration

DJB Evaluation Consulting LLC (2017-Present) where he serves as CEO and Founder. He consults with the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) with a focus on performance measurement for inclusive transportation programs serving people with disabilities and older adults. He also coordinated the development of Pathway to Inclusion, a monitoring tool designed to measure the extent to which programs were inclusive of their target populations.

Dr. Kathryn Newcomer, the Director of the Trachtenberg School, George Washington University, endorsed his nomination:

“Throughout his career working in the federal government, Montgomery County, MD,WESTAT and on his own, Dave’s great collaboration and consensus building skills have made him an especially effective professional.  He has served as an effective knowledge broker, focusing on the generation and use of strong data to improve strategies and results.

In addition to his extensive evaluation knowledge and experience, I highly recommend Dave based on his dedication and commitment to his profession.  He is a kind and considerate man who shows great patience in his dealings with others.  Dave has demonstrated that he is a creative thought leader, and he has been a fantastic role model as an effective performance management professional.” 

David Bernstein earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration and Organizational Behavior and Development from George Washington University in 2000.  He received his MPA in Policy Analysis and Evaluation from George Washington University in 1983, and his BA in Political Science and History from Drew University in 1980.

THE JOSEPH WHOLEY DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

The Joseph Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award (Annual) – This award is presented for outstanding scholarship on performance in public and nonprofit organizations.  The author(s) must provide a significant contribution to advancing knowledge in a scholarly journal or book about the development, implementation, use or impact of performance management.[1]  Preference will be given to a scholarly work that is relevant to the broad public administration community and is of interest to both practitioners and academicians. (Updated August 5, 2021) 

* * * * * * * * *

CAP is proud to announce that the 2026 Joseph Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award will be presented to Ting Huang for the following article in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, “Women hold up the shattering sky? Performance feedback on multiple conflicting goals and women’s representation in top management teams in the public sector,” Ting Huang, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Volume 34, Issue 4, October 2024, Pages 515–531. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muae016.

The award committee solicited submissions in line with the Wholey Award criteria from the editors of nine major public administration journals regarding articles published within the dates of July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. It reviewed the submissions using the following criteria:

Award Committee:

  • Dr. Alexander Kroll, Florida International University
  • Dr. Poul Nielsen, Aarhus University
  • Dr. Tamara Dimitrijevska-Markoski, University of South Florida

The award committee concluded the following:

“We are very pleased to recognize the article ‘Women hold up the shattering sky’ with the Joseph Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award. The article engages with the important topic of how the selection of women into leadership positions often places them in precarious positions that sometimes set them up to fail, often labelled the “glass cliff.” It develops a performance feedback perspective with a focus on multiple potentially conflicting goals to examine this process in greater detail. It finds that women are more likely to be promoted into mayoral teams in Chinese local governments when the local government has experienced poor performance consistently across key goals, whereas male managers are more likely to be appointed at already well-performing organizations. 

The article offers a novel and nuanced contribution to the field of performance management and gender scholarship in public administration. It extends our knowledge of how performance feedback influences gender representation in top management teams and shapes leadership opportunities. It stands out due to its ability to use a sophisticated analysis of a unique data set (covering 276 Chinese municipal governments from 2010 to 2018 and capturing feedback on two conflicting objectives) to answer an important question. The study has critical implications in terms of illuminating processes, explicit or implicit, that shape leader selection in public administration practice. It does an exceptional job unpacking the role of organizational past performance in determining future appointments at the top-level.”

[1] The field of performance management includes performance measurement, strategic planning, program evaluation, strategic foresight, or the application of other evidence-based analytical tools.  It includes primarily organizational performance management and individual performance management to the extent that it contributes to organizational performance management.  For the purposes of this definition, it is not intended to include the cyclical individual performance reviews that are used in many human resources organizations. 

THE CAP ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP AWARD

The CAP Organizational Leadership Award, presented to an organization, recognizes outstanding applications of a systems approach to performance measurement that has resulted in a culture change, sustained improvements, and demonstrated positive effects on government performance and accountability.  The award recognizes an organization, rather than a person that has yielded outstanding results on a sustained basis.  The organization may be selected from all levels of public service organizations, including local, state, or federal government, as well as from international and public service nonprofit organizations.  Preference will be given to an organization whose results have been measured and whose impact has been documented in the literature or at conferences.

* * * * * * * * *

CAP is proud to announce that the recipient of the 2026 Organizational Leadership Award is the County of Multnomah, Multnomah County, Oregon, and its County Auditor’s Office.

Background:

The County of Multnomah County Auditor’s Office has demonstrated positive effects on government performance and accountability. In 2022, through a charter change, the office established an ombudsperson and ensured access to information for audits.  The role of the ombudsperson responds to public complaints about county services and practices and recommends action based on the specific issue, allowing for overall improvement in government services and operations.

Similarly, to achieve the goal of being more responsive to residents, the office established a community advisory committee.  The office has increased its community engagement and even with a small office, in 2024, they participated in 25 community events.  They write “It is important to everyone in our office that our work reflects community needs and concerns.  We focus our community engagement efforts on learning about the experiences of those most impacted by county programs to ensure we are focusing our audit and investigative resources appropriately. We also share with community members what we have learned and provide them with information they can use to help keep the county government accountable.”

Further, the Auditor’s office has had a “good government” hotline since 2007 to provide Multnomah County employees and the public at large with a method of reporting suspected fraud, abuse of position, and misuse of county resources.

Previously, the office integrated an equity lens, primarily focused on racial equity, into the office’s work and has ensured that community engagement processes are also used across every project the office takes on.  The Multnomah County Auditor’s Office has conducted numerous trainings with other auditors on how to conduct equity focused audits. They are considered a leader in this area among the audit community. 

Finally, the office conducts performance audits aimed at providing improvements to county programs and services.  The office won a national audit award in 2019 for its audit titled, Emergency Management: Eagle Creek Fire offers lessons to improve County readiness for future disasters.  This report from the Auditor’s Office of Multnomah County, OR presents a concise yet detailed look at Emergency Management’s role in coordinating the efforts of the county’s first responders.  Some of what makes this report exemplary is the way it was organized into easy-to-follow sections, preceded by a comprehensive table of contents and Reports Highlights section, making it easy to navigate through the 17-page report.  Photographs in the report give depth to the collaborative efforts utilized by the Emergency Management team and first responders, and a colorful map from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries serves to help readers visualize the impact and location of future natural disasters. While the Eagle Creek fire was a large incident, and fortunately, there were no lives lost, the audit uncovered other potential hazards that could threaten the County and then proactively makes recommendations on options to strengthen Emergency Management in advance of future disasters.

The mission and values that have been established by the Multnomah County Auditor’s Office are as follows:

Mission:

The mission of the Multnomah County Auditor’s Office is to promote accountable and equitable county government.  They independently examine county programs; receive and investigate reports of suspected fraud, waste, and abuse of position; and serve as an impartial resource to help people resolve issues with county programs.  Their purpose is to find out how well the county government is working, recommend improvements, and report that information to the public. 

Values:

Equity

  • Centering and elevating the voices of those most impacted
  • Identifying barriers and working to remove them
  • Dedicating ourselves to using a racial justice lens to guide all of our work

Accountability

  • Holding ourselves accountable to our mission, each other, and our community
  • Promoting responsible government through truth-telling
  • Sharing trustworthy information so people can understand and improve their government

Inclusion

  • Inclusively leading with race
  • Being responsive to our communities
  • Actively supporting people to participate

THE CAP EMERGING LEADERS AWARD OF EXCELLENCE WINNERS

The CAP Emerging Leaders Award of Excellence annually recognizes up to five early- to mid-career professionals in the field of performance management at the federal, state, or local levels.  These awards are presented at the CAP board meeting associated with the annual ASPA meeting.  This year’s Emerging Leaders Awards recognize 3 new recipients, who join 41 previous recipients of this award, which has been presented annually since 2016.

* * * * * * * * *

CAP is proud to announce that the following individuals are recipients of the CAP 2025 Emerging Leaders Award of Excellence:

Courtney Hall

Principal Data and Research Analyst, County of San Diego, CA

  • Courtney has dedicated her approximately14-year career to evaluation, spending many years specifically on education evaluations
  • Before joining San Diego County in 2024, Courtney worked for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, as a Project Manager for Impact Evaluation and then Director for Evaluation and Impact Assessment
  • Early in her career, she served as an Education Researcher at the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University after serving as the Senior Statistician and Evaluation Bureau Chief at the New Mexico Public Education Department and a Project Assistant at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research
  • Courtney has a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology – Quantitative Methodology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy and Mathematics from Brown University. 

Kylie Jackson

Director of Innovation and High Performance, City of Greeley, CO 

  • Kylie has dedicated her approximately 10-year career first to policy development and later to accountability and performance.  
  • Before joining the City of Greeley in 2025, Kylie worked for the City of Sugar Land, TX in many roles, including the Office of Performance and Accountability Manager and the Director of Data and Innovation. She also has served as an Internal Auditor Intern at the City of College Station. 
  • Kylie earned an MA Degree in Government and Public Service with a focus on Public Policy Analysis from Texas A&M University, in addition to a BA Degree in Political Science, Pre-Law, and Public Administration from Saint Francis University. 

Howard Waldie IV

Chief Innovation Officer, City of Myrtle Beach, SC

  • Howard has dedicated his approximately 10-year career to city management, later specializing in innovation and performance. 
  • Before joining the City of Myrtle Beach in 2022, Howard worked for the City of Virginia Beach, working his way up from an HR Administrative Assistant to an Assistant to the Deputy City Manager and finally a Strategy and Performance Analyst. Howard has also worked for the City of Norfolk, VA as an intern and Assistant to the Director of Parks and Recreation. 
  • Howard has an MPA Degree (with a focus on strategic planning and budgeting) from Rutgers University and a BA Degree in Political Science from Arizona State University.