The Federal Budgeting Career Legacy Award is presented annually by George Mason University to someone who over a career has made an important and lasting contribution to the federal government’s budget process and/or institutions, and who has demonstrated high personal integrity and dedication to public service.
The first award was given in 2015 to Alice Rivlin, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and later Director of the Office of Management & Budget.
The award is now named for the late Paul Posner, whose distinguished career in the federal service preceded his becoming a professor in what is now the Schar School of Policy and Government. It is supported by a grant to the university from alumni of the Bureau of the Budget.
Award Recipients
2023
Former Office of Management and Budget Executive Kathy Stack Receives 2023 Paul L. Posner Award
Kathy Stack, a 27-year veteran of the White House Office of Management and Budget, is the recipient of the 2023 Paul L. Posner Federal Budgeting Career Legacy Award.
The award, sponsored by the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and presented this year for the ninth time, recognizes those who over a career made an important and lasting contribution to the federal government’s budget process and institutions and demonstrated high personal integrity and dedication to public service.
The award was presented May 31 at the annual lunch of the Office of Management and Budget/Bureau of the Budget Alumni Association in Washington, D.C.
“Kathy Stack embodies the best of federal career service,” said Steve Redburn, a former senior OMB official who presented the award to Stack. “Over her career in the White House Office of Management and Budget, she used every opportunity to enlarge the role of budget analysts and bring to bear the best evidence available to inform wise policy decisions and more effective use of resources. Her many contributions show her unique ability to combine creativity and practicality in the service of better government performance.”
Having served for seven years as Deputy Associate Director for Education, Labor, and Income Maintenance programs, Stack culminated her 27-year federal career at OMB by launching and leading its first “evidence team,” working to strengthen federal agency capacity to use evidence, evaluation, data, and outcome-focused program designs to improve program effectiveness.
After retiring from federal service in 2015, Stack served for several years as vice president at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, where she helped federal, state, and local governments build capacity to use data and evidence to improve decision-making. As a Senior Fellow at the Yale Tobin Center for Economic Policy and an independent consultant, she continues to produce creative ideas for strengthening the use of data and evidence to improve the delivery of public services at all levels of government.
On receiving the Posner award, Stack stated, “What an incredible honor to receive this award. I owe every success in my OMB career to amazing partners across the institution who joined forces to earn the trust of OMB and White House policy officials and creatively use policy, budget, and management levers to drive taxpayer resources to better uses.”
The Posner award is named for the late Professor Paul L. Posner, who served as director of the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Master’s in Public Administration program at Mason. He was former managing director for strategic issues at the U.S. General Accountability Office for 14 years, where he worked for 30 years. He died in July, 2017, at age 70.
The annual award is made possible by a grant to Mason by alumni of the Bureau of the Budget, a group now merged with the Office of Management and Budget Alumni Association. It is administered by the Schar School’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise.
2022
2022 Paul L. Posner Federal Budgeting Career Legacy Award Winner Announced: Philip Joyce
Philip Joyce, senior associate dean and professor of public policy in the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, is the recipient of the 2022 Paul L. Posner Federal Budgeting Career Legacy Award. Joyce received the award at the spring lunch of alumni of the Office of Management & Budget and the Bureau of the Budget.
The award, presented for the eighth time, recognizes those who over a career have made an important and lasting contribution to the federal government’s budget process and institutions and demonstrated high personal integrity and dedication to the public service.
Presenting the award, former OMB and House Budget Committee chief economist Joe Minarik said, “Phil Joyce personifies the standards set for those receiving this award. He has had a distinguished career both as a budget practitioner and as a scholar and teacher of the federal budget process. He literally wrote the book on the Congressional Budget Office.”
The Posner award is named for the late Professor Paul L. Posner, who served as director of the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Master’s in Public Administration program at George Mason University. He was former managing director for strategic issues at the U.S. General Accounting Office for 14 years; he worked at GAO for 30 years. He died in July, 2017, at age 70.
The award was made possible by a grant to Mason by alumni of the Bureau of the Budget, a group now merged with the Office of Management and Budget Alumni Association. It is administered by the Schar School’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise.
Philip Joyce’s teaching and research interests include public budgeting, performance measurement, and intergovernmental relations. He is the author of The Congressional Budget Office: Honest Numbers, Power, and Policymaking (Georgetown University Press, 2011), and coauthor of two books—Government Performance: Why Management Matters (Johns Hopkins, 2003) and Public Budgeting Systems, 9th Edition (Jones and Bartlett, 2013). He is the author of more than 50 other publications (including book chapters and articles), appearing in outlets such as the Public Administration Review, Public Budgeting & Finance, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Administration and Society, and the Handbook of Government Budgeting. Joyce is a former editor of the journal Public Budgeting & Finance and a past president of the American Association for Budget and Program Analysts. Joyce has been on the faculty of The George Washington University, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and the University of Kentucky.
Joyce also has 12 years of public sector work experience, including four years with the Illinois Bureau of the Budget, three years with the Illinois Department of Corrections, and five years with the United States Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In 1992, he received the CBO Director’s Award for Distinguished Service. He received his PhD from the Maxwell School and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
2021
2020
2019
2018
The 2018 Paul Posner FEDERAL BUDGETING CAREER LEGACY AWARD was presented to RUDOLPH G. PENNER to recognize a career of important and lasting contributions to the budget process and institutions of the federal government. Rudolph Penner is pictured on the left in the picture below with Joseph Minarik.
2017
2016
2015
