October 13, 2010 — Eric Patashnik, a professor of public policy and associate dean of the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and a professor of politics in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Like the other national academies, the National Academy of Public Administration was chartered by Congress, in this case to provide independent, nonpartisan recommendations on public management, governance, policy and operational challenges to government agencies, Congress and private foundations. 

Patashnik joins 680 top public management and organizational leaders from academia, government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector.

The formal induction will occur in Washington in November.

Patashnik is an expert on the politics of health care. His latest book is "Reforms at Risk: What Happens After Major Policy Changes Are Enacted," which received the academy's 2009 Louis Brownlow Book Award. His two other books are "Promoting the General Welfare: New Perspectives on Government Performance" (co-edited with Yale University professor Alan S. Gerber) and "Putting Trust in the U.S. Budget: Federal Trust Funds and the Politics of Commitment."

His current major research project, with Gerber, explores the politics of evidence-based medicine and is funded by major grants from the Robert Wood Johnson and Smith Richardson foundations.

Other U.Va. faculty members who are academy fellows include Matthew Holden, the Henry L. and Grace M. Doherty Professor Emeritus of Politics, and four faculty of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service: James Colvard, John Nalbandian, Robert E. Matson and Robert J. O'Neill Jr. (a former president of the National Academy of Public Administration.)