For over 55 years, Dr. Enid Beaumont has been an exemplar of distinguished public service and professional endeavors. Dr. Beaumont served for 12 years as executive director of the Academy of State and Local Government, the umbrella public policy organization for the major national public affairs organization. Since retirement, she has continued to work in leadership roles to promote public service, professionalism and to support public administration organizations including ASPA and NAPA.
She is shown here after having received the Nesta M. Gallas Award for Exemplary Professional Service in the Public Sector at ASPA’s 2019 National Conference. A former ASPA National President and NAPA Board member, Dr. Beaumont has also received NAPA’s George Graham Award for Exceptional Service to the Academy.
Elected as a Fellow in 1982, Dr. Beaumont has served on numerous Board Committees, Standing Panels, and special panels, such as the Human Resources Accreditation Panel (2003) and the Volker Commission Pay for Performance Forum. She has also chaired the Standing Panels on the Federal System and on International Issues. Her international involvement has included serving as senior management advisor and chief of party for the Central Government Project of the Republic of Macedonia (1996-1998), as well as being a member of the Iraq Curriculum Development Review (2009).
Dr. Beaumont is particularly well known for having developed a group of programs open to Federal senior executives on issues of importance and research for the Academy. Available at the NAPA offices, these had NAPA Fellows as the primary faculty. Over 1,000 senior governmental executives from many departments participated. She also undertook the educational and developmental aspects of the then-new Presidential Management Intern Program, working with OPM. Some 750 interns were included during the years of this project.
Always eager to provide mentoring and to recognize excellence, she was an executive member of the National Public Service awards for three years. She also served as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and George Mason University.
The Academy team recently heard from Dr. Beaumont herself:
- Reflecting on your career, is there a highlight, a greatest accomplishment or a funny story you’d like to share?
I’ve been so exceptionally lucky throughout my career. I had the honor of spending part of my career with the Academy as well as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). My work as a Director at the Academy for State and Local Government initiatives was particularly rewarding. At that time, this department was the research arm for the Big Seven, and it was wonderful in terms of the relationship among local, state, and federal government. I also worked to improve the dialogue across federal, state, and local agencies and filed amicus briefs in the Supreme Court. It’s because of experiences like this that I recommend public service to everyone.
- Where are you now? How do you like to spend your time?
I still live in Washington, DC, but now in a retirement community. I try to keep up with our society and I’m very concerned about this particular administration because of its possible impact on the younger people joining government. I fear there may be a recruitment problem for the public sector. There are a lot of pressures on people to join the business side because there is so much belief that it is more productive and lucrative – all of which is probably not true. Our young people are being misled.
- Looking at the present and into the future, what do you think a public administration “Grand Challenge” is or might be?
Describing the thrill of the public sector, the responsibility, and the authority, and that people can have fantastic careers. We struggle to help them make those choices.
