Speaker: Earl Ryan, Director CRC
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Earl Ryan was born in Michigan and received degrees in political science from the University of Michigan and Wayne State University (MA, 1968).
He began work with the Citizens Research Council in 1967 in Lansing, going on to work for the State of Michigan as a program evaluation analyst from 1970 to 1977. He returned to the CRC in 1977 and became Research Director in 1979.
He was President of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana from 1984-1987, finally returning to the CRC in 1994 after 7 1/2 years as the first President of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute in Indianapolis.
In 1991, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Graduate Program in Public Administration at WSU. His involvement with the MPA program has been long-lasting and comprehensive.
These are a few of his remarks at the time of his stepping down. (His entire remarks can be read in the Spring 2009 MPA newsletter - page 6).
"Political pendulums swing slowly; so slowly that, at any given time, they may appear not to be moving at all. However, from the vantage point of a four-decade career in governmental research, most of it with the Citizens Research Council 9CRC) of Michigan, I have been fortunate inn having had a front row seat during one full swing of the pendulum and perhaps the beginning of its return journey. Regardless of the prevailing ideology, CRC has always pushed efficient, accountable, equitable government."