Steven Ballard given new UMaine position

ORONO — Steven C. Ballard, director of the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy at the University of Maine, on Aug. 1 was named interim director of the University of Maine System-Maine State Government Partnership Program by Robert L. Woodbury, university chancellor, and Gov. John McKernan.

Ballard succeeds Nathaniel H. Bowditch, former commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, who became director on April 1, 1989. The Partnership Program was established in 1987 as a foundation-sponsored pilot effort headed by Harlan A. Philippi.

Woodbury described Ballard’s appointment as an opportunity to enhance the Smith Center and strengthen relationships with state government.

McKernan said that Ballard had worked hard on the Smith Center and he anticipated working with Ballard to ensure cooperation between the university and government.

A conference was sponsored during the last year where a research agenda for Maine from work and family to international relations was begun.

The Maine Research Fund also was created to provide one-year grants to university-government teams in topics such as contamination of homeowners’ wells and development of a geographic information system for Casco Bay.

Ballard said that the goal would be to develop the best relationship between state government and the university and commented that Maine has the capability to be a national leader in such relations.

Ballard joined the university in 1989 as head of the Center for Policy Studies, renamed in honor of former Sen. Smith. He had been director of the Science and Public Policy Program at the University of Oklahoma.