Description:

PANEL | CANNABIS, CASINO GAMBLING, AND CASH: BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS AND BEYOND. This panel will discuss the implications of state and city policies on cannabis and casino gambling. How do these policies affect city and state budgets? How do the policies impact residents beyond the budget? Three experts will join the ASPA Chicago Chapter to discuss this important topic.

Speakers include:

MOLLIE FOUST: Mollie Foust is a practitioner with over 15 years of expertise in systems change, implementation, policy, education, and international development. She was a key advisor within the IL Governor's Office on adult-use cannabis policy and led the team that managed the initial budget and implementation. Prior to the IL Governor's Office, Mollie managed national teams on government innovations at the Harvard Government Performance Lab, including a group of Fellows in the Rauner administration during the budget impasse and medical-cannabis legalization. Mollie began her career as a social entrepreneur, developing the Flower City Soccer League in Rochester, NY, and has worked at the World Bank, International Budget Partnership, and led research teams in South Sudan and Kenya. Foust is a native Illinoisan and lives in Chicago with her husband and one-year-old.

AMANDA KASS: Amanda Kass (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor at the School of School of Public Service at DePaul University. She is an interdisciplinary scholar who holds a PhD in Urban Planning and Policy, a MA in Geography and BA in Geography and International Studies. Her research interests include public finance, public pensions, housing markets, and urban governance, particularly at the local scale. Her current project, supported by the Joyce Foundation, focuses on the American Rescue Plan Act's State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund program, which delivered $350 billion in emergency aid to U.S. states, cities, counties, towns and villages. Her work has been published in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Progress in Human Geography and Urban Affairs Review. She has appeared in various media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and WTTW's Chicago Tonight. Prior to joining the faculty at DePaul she was the associate director of the Government Finance Research Center in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).

ANDY CROSBY: Dr. Andy Crosby is Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Master of Public Policy and Administration program at Northwestern University. He teaches a wide variety of courses, including Research Methods, Elements of Public Finance and Budgeting, Statistics for Research, Scope and Theory of Public Policy, and Intergovernmental Relations. His research interests include public and nonprofit financial management and intergovernmental relations. Before joining the MPPA faculty, he served as an assistant professor of public administration at Pace University in New York City. His scholarly work has appeared in Public Budgeting and Finance, the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting, Financial Management, Tobacco Control, and other journals. Crosby is also the past president of the American Society for Public Administration New York Metropolitan Chapter. He completed his PhD in public administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago with concentrations in financial management and survey methods.

Registration for this event closes on Tuesday, October 11th at 2:30pm CT. For any questions regarding this event and to register, please contact Alison Farajpanahi, Academic Events Coordinator: spsgradevents@northwestern.edu