The UNM School of Public Administration (SPA) has a new face in the director's chair. 

Bruce J. Perlman recently took over as director of SPA. Given the local, state and national attention SPA has received in recent years, Perlman is eager to continue fostering the school’s growing reputation.

“You won’t find a better program, not just in New Mexico, but in the nation,” Perlman said.

Perlman received his Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School in 1980. After his initial appointment at the University of Southern California, he joined the University of New Mexico School of Public Administration as an Assistant Professor in 1982.

While at UNM he has been a Senior Fulbright Lecturer, Presidential Lecturer and held the Hatch Chair in Law and Public Policy. Currently, he is Regents’ Professor and Director of the School of Public Administration and has been twice Director of the School and Associate Director of the Office of International Technical Cooperation. Perlman is the author of more than 50 academic journal articles and publications and two books, one in English and one in Spanish.

In addition to his academic career, while on leave from UNM he has served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the City of Albuquerque and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of New Mexico. He has held posts and consulted widely on government affairs both in the U.S. and abroad for organizations ranging from the U.S. Congress and Agency for International Development to the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. He is the former editor of the State and Local Government Review’s Governance Matters Section and the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Affairs Education.