Bonnie Peterson – författare

Don & Bonnie Peterson were both born with cerebral palsy; at a time when little was known about this condition. Don spent the first 14 years of his life in and out of hospitals undergoing surgeries the medical profession thought "might" correct his deformities. Bonnie progressed through the public school system with her own set of challenges since public education for the disabled was not a common occurrence during the 50s and 60s. Don and Bonnie both went on to college. A mutual friend insisted they meet each other and two years later they were married. Don worked as a tax examiner for I.R.S. for 30 years and Bonnie started a secretarial service to help with the family income. They raised two fine boys and now enjoy the blessings of 9 grandchildren. Even though cerebral palsy is not a progressive condition, Don''s physical condition deteriorate over the last 15-20 years of his life till by the time he passed away (December 2011) he was unable to do anything for himself; he was fed through a feeding tube, was on oxygen 24 hours a day and had a tracheotomy for suctioning. Bonnie did most all of Don''s care up until about a year before his death when the 24/7 schedule became more than any one person could do. But together they climbed and conquered every mountain.

COVID-19, Public Management, and Survival of East European Democracies centers initially on the development of democracy in fourteen states of Eastern Europe, with an emphasis on the distinction between the seven Baltic and East Central European states in the north and the seven Balkan states in the south. Examination of key events of the political history of the two regions reveals that a participant political culture as the anchor of democracy was more developed in the north than in the south. Important measures of democracy as well as election results during the 2020-22 period of the COVID-19 outbreak demonstrate and reinforce the same distinctions between the two regions. Further, this detailed study of public administration problems such as corruption, accountability, trust, and the number of deaths from COVID-19 also disclose that such problems characterized both regions but were more pronounced in the southern states. In addition, the rise of populism and authoritarianism injected severe challenges in the midst of administrative preoccupation with the many harmful effects of the virus.

Both the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine became major crises for public managers in the Visegrad 4 states of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.  Each of those states responded in different ways to the two crises, based on their ideologies and levels of capabilities.   Of course, the two crises themselves were very different in terms of their impact on the public and the set of public managers that needed to make critical decisions.  This work proposes that there are three stages in crisis management, and that theoretical perspective will lay the groundwork for analysis of the four states.  Those stages include Risk Assessment, Risk Management, and Risk Communication. Taken together, they offer a portrayal of the Resilience of each state in terms of both public management and the general public.