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Awards & Recognition
Following are select awards and recognition our Public Policy and Administration community has received over the years.
Cristy Jensen Award
In 1989, Professor Emerita Cristy Jensen founded the graduate program in Public Policy and Administration as it is today. Dr. Jensen was the 2007 recipient of the prestigious John C. Livingston Award. Read the transcript or view her lecture.
Upon her retirement in 2007, the Department of Public Policy and Administration created the Distinguished Graduate Award in her honor. Affectionately known as the Cristy Jensen Award, MPPA students selected for this honor exhibited throughout their graduate careers the qualities Dr. Jensen valued most:
- academic achievement
- active involvement in the PPA community
- peer mentoring
- demonstrated leadership
- professionalism
Each Cristy Jensen Award recipient is selected at the end of a given academic year from those MPPA students who completed their culminating experience in that year.
| Year | Cristy Jensen Award Recipient |
|---|---|
| 2025-2026 | Luiz Torres, MPPA |
| 2023-2024 | Allison Kustic, MPPA |
| 2022-2023 | Justin Hurst, MPPA |
| 2021-2022 | Diana Dominguez, MPPA |
| 2020-2021 | Alexis Foley, MPPA |
| 2019-2020 | Alex McCreddin, MPPA |
| 2018-2019 | Amelia Gomez, MPPA |
| 2017-2018 | Erin Stumpf, MPPA |
| 2016-2017 | Kara Corches, MPPA |
| 2015-2016 | Ginger Hashimoto, MPPA co-awardee |
| 2015-2016 | Damien Mimnaugh, MPPA co-awardee |
| 2014-2015 | Terra Thorne, MPPA |
| 2013-2014 | Sergio Aguilar, MPPA |
| 2012-2013 | Katie Cardenas, MPPA co-awardee |
| 2012-2013 | Angela Marin, MPPA co-awardee |
| 2011-2012 | Eric Chisholm, MPPA co-awardee |
| 2011-2012 | Andrew Sturmfels, MPPA co-awardee |
| 2010-2011 | Eric Stern, MPPA |
| 2009-2010 | Joe Karkoski, MPPA co-awardee |
| 2009-2010 | Geoffrey Propheter, MPPA co-awardee |
| 2008-2009 | Lindsay Keyes, MPPA |
| 2007-2008 | Danell Brewster, MPPA |
| 2006-2007 | Jean-Marie McKinney, MPPA |
College Graduation with Distinction
The College of Social Science and Interdisciplinary Studies recognizes master's students who are graduating with distinction. To qualify for this honor a master's student must have an overall grade point average of at least 3.8 and have completed a culminating project that the faculty considers distinctive.
| Year | SSIS Graduation with Distinction Award Recipients |
|---|---|
| 2025-2026 | |
| Spring 2025 | Jason Hansen, MPPA co-awardee |
| Spring 2025 | Shoshana Levy, MPPA co-awardee |
| Fall 2024 | Jennifer Carter, MPPA |
| Spring 2024 | Robyn Gillum, MPPA co-awardee |
| Spring 2024 | Brandy Roberts, MPPA co-awardee |
| Fall 2023 | Ally Grubbs, MPPA |
| 2022-2023 | Sarah Vaira, MPPA |
| 2021-2022 | Michael Turgeon, MPPA |
| 2020-2021 | Nick Thomas, MPPA |
| 2020-2021 | Giselle Sanchez, MPPA |
| 2020-2021 | Nicole Cuellar, MPPA |
| 2020-2021 | Rachel Croopnick, MPPA |
| 2019-2020 | Justin Adelman, MPPA |
| 2017-2018 | Erin Stumpf, MPPA |
| 2017-2018 | Imaez Wahid, MPPA |
| 2016-2017 | Katrina Beedy, MPPA |
| 2016-2017 | Kara Corches, MPPA |
| 2016-2017 | Katerina Robinson, MPPA |
| 2015-2016 | Ginger Hashimoto, MPPA |
| 2015-2016 | Damien Mimnaugh, MPPA |
| 2013-2014 | Andrea Howard, MSULD |
| 2013-2014 | Arianna Smith, MPPA |
Student Research Competitions
PPA Student, Shoshana Levy, came in second place in the Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Session at the 2025 Student Research & Creative Activity Spring Symposium with her paper "The Role of NIMBYism in the Lack of Affordable Housing in California Cities"
PPA Student, Jason Hanson, placed second in Education at the 2025 CSU Student Research Competition at Cal Poly Humboldt and first place at the 2025 Student Research & Creative Activity Spring Symposium, under Education & Health & Human Services Graduate Session, with his paper "Mitigating the Pandemic Learning Loss: Differential Effects of California's K-12 Weighted Formula Aid on Student Performance"
Fall 2022 MPPA graduate, Michael Turgeon, won first place in the Social Science and Interdisciplinary category in a campus-wide Student Research and Creative Activity competition and the second place at the 2023 CSU Student Research Competition for his paper “The Effect of Local Pollution Exposure on Academic Achievement in California”
PPA Student, Horacio Corona Lira, won first prize in the Education section of the 2021 Student Research & Creative Activity Spring Symposium (Sacramento State), as well as "Best Graduate Paper" at the 46th Annual CSU, SSRIC Social Science Student Symposium, 2021.
MS/ULD student, Ryan Sharpe, won the 2018 Gloria Rummels Award for “paper demonstrating the best use of quantitative data” at the 2018 Social Science Research & Instructional Council research competition.
PPA student, Ginger Hashimoto, won the 2016 Gloria Rummels Award for “paper demonstrating the best use of quantitative data” at the 2016 Social Science Research & Instructional Council research competition
PPA student, Lucinda Winward, won the 2007 Gloria Rummels Award for “paper demonstrating the best use of quantitative data” at the 2007 Social Science Research & Instructional Council research competition
SSIS Dean's Award for Outstanding Graduate Student
- Karen McMillen, MPPA 2024
- Nicole Cropper, MPPA 2023
Distinguished Alumni Awards
Two MPPA Alumni were honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards in 2014.
- Keri Thomas, MPPA 2006
- James P. Mayer, MPPA 1992
John C. Livingston Annual Faculty Lecture Award 2016-2017
PPA Professor Ted Lascher is the recipient of the John C. Livingston Annual Faculty Lecture Award, 2016-2017. On Monday, February 20, 2017, Ted Lascher delivered the prestigious annual Livingston lecture. His lecture, entitled “Curbing the Inclination toward Populist Reform (And Why You Should Appreciate the Faculty Senate)”, addresses populist reform.
John C. Livingston Annual Faculty Lecture Award 2007
PPA Professor Cristy Jensen was the 2007 recipient of the prestigious John C. Livingston Award. Jensen delivered the lecture, titled, “Faculty as Academic Leaders: Our Students Are Counting on Us (Whether They Know It or Not),” Tuesday, Oct. 30. The lecture focused on faculty’s responsibility to set curriculum, despite attempts by industry, think tanks and government to usurp that responsibility.
Champions of Change, 2019
Sacramento State Doctorate in Educational Leadership
California Housing Forum
Professor Rob Wassmer participated in the California Housing Forum's second panel on October 5, 2016.
The second panel of the California Housing Forum addressed "Barriers to new housing in California. What makes California a unique place to build? What are the challenges to new construction in California cities and how might we learn from other states?"