The Best of Both Worlds: A Former Practitioner Transitions to Life as a Full-Time Academic

Public administration has traditionally been described as a field in which practitioners and academics work together to produce new and different ways to enhance government operations and to increase understanding of the administrative role within the public sector. Although there is a joint working relationship between academics and practitioners in public administration, some have raised the argument (or implied) that there is a clear and inherent separation between the two that is based on the difference between theory and practice. Most often, this separation occurs when practitioners are enrolled in public administration courses, where it is usually seen as the professor's job to clearly link theory and practice and to illustrate the importance and practical applicability of theory in the public-sector workplace. Within this context, the author is one of the many academicians who are fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in the public sector and to bring those experiences into my classroom.