This course will provide profiles of key public servants who became agents of change during important points in American history. Class sessions will include: The Public Service Covenant, taking the oath to serve: the Muckrakers, David Graham Phillips, Ida Tarbell: the Reformers, Harvey Washington Wiley, Judge Frank Johnson; the Activists, Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin; Keeping the Union Together, Thaddeus Stevens and General James
Longstreet; The Future of Public Service in the wake of the 2024 Election. The course will utilize lecture/discussion formats and documentaries and other films to examine the stories of these American heroes we should all know better.

Michael M. Stahl served for 40 years in the executive and legislative branches of state and federal government. For most of his career, he served in various senior management positions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D. C. He served for 18 years as an Adjunct Faculty member at George Mason University’s Master’s in
Public Administration program, teaching courses on program planning and implementation. He has taught four courses for OLLI/UVA (on the events of 1968, the life of Robert F Kennedy, and profiles in public leadership). In July 2022, Michael published The Promise of Public service (Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group), and he is working on his second book about profiles in public service. He is the recipient of the U. S. government’s Presidential Rank Award for meritorious service (2002) and for Distinguished Service (2008), and EPA’s Distinguished Career Service Award (2015). He holds a Master’s in Public Administration (1980) from the
University of Missouri.