Joel R. Whitehead, MPA ‘90
Rear Admiral, United States Coast Guard

Commander, Eighth Coast Guard District, New Orleans, Louisiana

Distinguished Alumnus Award in Public Administration & Policy

Rear Adm. Joel Whitehead is presently serving as Commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District and Commander of Task Force 189.8, headquartered in New Orleans.  As District Commander, Rear Adm. Whitehead is responsible for U.S. Coast Guard operations covering 26 states, more than 1,200 miles of coastline and 10,300 miles of inland waterways from Florida to Mexico and including the entire navigable lengths of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee River systems.  Prior to his current assignment, Rear Admiral Whitehead was Assistant Commandant for Governmental and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.  Earlier assignments included: Chief of Staff and second in command of the Eighth Coast Guard District in New Orleans; Commanding Officer of Marine Safety Office, Boston/Captain of the Port of Boston; and Chief of Strategic Planning for the U.S. Coast Guard, where his team developed the Coast Guard’s strategic vision, Coast Guard 2020.  Other tours of duty have included Program Reviewer in the Office of the Chief of Staff in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for program oversight and budget development for almost one-third of the Coast Guard’s operating budget. Earlier in his career he was marine safety advisor to the Federal On-Scene Coordinator during the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  He served as Executive Officer of Marine Safety Office, Albany, N.Y., where he was Alternate Captain of the Port during the first “Superfund” cleanup in the nation’s history.

Rear Admiral Whitehead graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in History and Government. He holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the University at Albany, SUNY, and he was a National Security Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also completed Seminar XXI, a year-long Washington, D.C., based program in foreign politics and international relations sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Christa Nyman Christakis, MPP ‘03
Director, Quality and Research Initiatives, Healthcare Association of New York State

Rockefeller College Young Alumni Award

Ms. Christa Nyman Christakis is the Director of Quality and Research Initiatives at the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) where she is responsible for developing HANYS’ position on new or proposed quality-related accreditation, regulatory and legislative initiatives.  She works in collaboration with HANYS members and advocates on their behalf with policy leaders, regulators, and accrediting organizations.  Prior to joining HANYS earlier in 2007, she spent five years with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) District II/NY, rising to the position of Director of Government Affairs.  While with ACOG, her accomplishments included developing a white paper on Universal Maternity Care in New York State, securing funding for ACOG’s Safe Motherhood Initiative in the New York State budget, and passing legislation for the prevention of cervical cancer.

Ms. Christakis is the vice chairperson of Community Cradle, which provides health programs and services to women and families in the Capital Region.  She is a member of the boards of Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood and the Women’s Leadership Center at Alfred University. She has a Master of Arts in Public Affairs and Policy from Rockefeller College and a Bachelor of Arts from Alfred University.  During her graduate work, she was selected as a Women and Public Policy Fellow by the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society at Rockefeller College and served as president of the Public Affairs Student Association.

Carol D. Young, Ph.D.
Director of Continuing Education, School of Public Health, University at Albany (retired)

Associate Clinical Professor, Health Policy, Management and Behavior

Distinguished Extended Learning Leadership Award of Excellence

For the past twelve years until her retirement in July 2007, Professor Carol Young served as Director of Continuing Education at the University at Albany School of Public Health. Under her leadership, the program grew from a one-woman office to a flourishing network of partnerships delivering satellite broadcasts, web-based training and live workshops to over 270,000 public health professionals in all 50 states and 10 countries annually. In retirement she has returned to her roots as an educator co-teaching an undergraduate course “From Cholera to Cancer.” A consistent thread in Carol Young’s career is a love of learning and of building new programs and partnerships to make learning accessible. She began at Mohawk Valley Community College where she established a program for women returning to college and opened a day care center. She experienced continuing education first-hand returning to Cornell for a doctorate in education. At the University of Maine at Augusta, she established Community Programs offering everything from computer workshops to ballroom dancing for a community with few continuing education opportunities. Returning to her home state, she worked in labor-management programs to promote workplace literacy – highlighted by a train-the-trainer program to help 17,000 truck drivers pass the Commercial Driver’s License exam.  In retirement her next goal is to become a certified Yoga instructor to serve her own generation in re-learning to stretch and breathe.

Paul J. Castellani, Ph.D.
Public Service Professor, Rockefeller College, University at Albany

Rockefeller College Distinguished Service Award

Paul Castellani has been a Public Service Professor at Rockefeller College since 1994 and has taught courses in public administration, political science, and health policy at the college since 1978. For more than 35 years he worked in a variety of research and management positions in New York State government, retiring in 2001 from the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities as Director of Upstate Operations and Program Research. He was responsible for oversight and liaison among state regional offices and hundreds of private agencies and local governments delivering services to people with disabilities. He directed research teams that developed key components of rate-setting formulas, analyzed the effectiveness of services, studied the implementation of programs, and examined the financing, organization and administration of services. He is the author of two books and several articles and chapters on health and disability policy. He has been a consultant to states, national organizations, and the federal government on organizational change and policy and program development. He has also been a consultant on these issues in the United Kingdom and Sweden. 

In Spring 2008, Paul Castellani will be a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Central European University in Budapest where he will teach a course in Public Administration and Management. He will also work with colleagues at CEU on curriculum development and representatives of public and private agencies on the administration and management of health and disability services.  Paul Castellani graduated from LeMoyne College and holds a Ph.D.in Political Science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University.