Staci M. Zavattaro is Professor of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida. Jessica E. Sowa is Professor in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. Alexander C. Henderson is Associate Professor in the School of Management at Marist College. Lauren Hamilton Edwards is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

"Grounded in the experiences and knowledge of public servants, Portraits of Public Service provides concrete examples of why people choose public service and exactly what the job of public servants entails. This is key for not only our primary student body, but it also serves as an important example of a methodology that needs to be adopted more broadly in the field: storytelling and narrative inquiry."— Norma M. Riccucci, author of Critical Race Theory: Exploring its Application to Public Administration"This is an excellent book for introduction to public administration at the graduate level and would also be appropriate for an undergraduate course directed at college seniors. Public administration is a vast field; this book reveals how big that tent really is. By reframing all of these occupations as public servants, the essays within this volume offer a way to connect the many disparate jobs performed by public administrators in a very thoughtful and powerful way."— Domonic A. Bearfield, coauthor of The Myth of Bureaucratic Neutrality: An Examination of Merit and Representation

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: Stories as Knowledge CreationStaci M. Zavattaro, Jessica E. Sowa, Alexander C. Henderson, and Lauren Hamilton EdwardsSECTION 1: BALANCING ACTS 1. Navigating Between the State and the Community: Stories from Community Health WorkersGabriela Lotta and Juliana Rocha Miranda2. Under the Radar: Stories from Government MeteorologistsKelly A. Stevens3. Revisiting Librarians as Public ServantsAlicia Schatteman4. Teachers and Their Monitors: Negotiating Disciplinary Regimes in PakistanMoiz Abdul Majid and Sameen A. Mohsin AliSECTION 2: LIFE AND DEATH PRESSURE 5. (In)visible and (Mis)understood: The Public Service Work of American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreters during EmergenciesStephanie Dolamore and Geoffrey Whitebread6. Unseen but Irreplaceable: The Role of Air Traffic ControllersSean A. McCandless7. Serving in Silence: The Emergency ManagerKyle R. OverlySECTION 3: POSSIBLY MISUNDERSTOOD ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 8. When Silence Is Golden: Stories from an Elections OfficeAmanda D. Clark9. Public Defenders as Constitutional Pariahs, Surrogate Deviants, and Emotional LaborersAdam Croft10. New York City Property Tax Assessment: Public Employees Serving in SilenceMichael J. Fouassier11. Affordable Housing and Homelessness Policy ProfessionalsMaren B. TrochmannSECTION 4: UNEXPECTED REALMS OF DEMOCRACY 12. Making in the Invisible Visible: The Photographers and Videographers in Public ServiceMaja Husar Holmes13. Arts and Cultural Management During the Pandemic: Introducing the Observant ServantSarah Berry, Dutch Reutter, Judith L. Millesen, and Maren B. Trochmann14. Inconspicuously Indispensable for India: The Untold Stories of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) Nandhini Rangarajan, Aroon P. Manoharan, and Bianca Ortiz-Wythe15. Multiple Mandates, Competing Goals, and the Challenges of Working in Combined Environmental Agencies in the United StatesJoyAnna S. HopperConclusion: A Path Forward for the FieldStaci M. Zavattaro, Jessica E. Sowa, Alexander C. Henderson, and Lauren Hamilton EdwardsList of ContributorsIndex