{"id":12005,"date":"2014-05-02T05:01:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T10:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=12005"},"modified":"2015-11-12T08:01:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:01:38","slug":"a-career-turning-point-fueled-the-fire-for-an-mpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/a-career-turning-point-fueled-the-fire-for-an-mpa\/","title":{"rendered":"A career turning point fueled the fire for an MPA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
Aaron Lipski<\/dt>\n
Degree: <\/strong>Master of Public Administration<\/dd>\n
Hometown:<\/strong> Milwaukee<\/dd>\n
It\u2019s a fact: <\/strong>He co-chaired the American Lung Association\u2019s annual \u201cFight for Air Climb\u201d fundraiser in Milwaukee this year. Like a lot of local firefighters, he has participated in this event for the last six years, completing the challenge of climbing 94 flights of stairs in the US Bank Center.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

A fourth-generation firefighter, Aaron Lipski loves the profession he has practiced for 17 years with the Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD).<\/p>\n

But in any career, change will come. For Lipski it came in the form of a promotion that involved administrative and managerial duties that were new to him as he took charge of the division responsible for MFD\u2019s fleet, facilities and supply purchasing.<\/p>\n

Lipski, Deputy Chief of the Firefighting Division, suddenly had to tackle the tasks necessary to run a business, only his domain is in the public sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cOvernight I was put in charge of handling multimillion-dollar budgets,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI needed help just to be able to speak the language with comptrollers and administrators at the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using the resourcefulness found at the heart of firefighter training and the work ethic instilled by his family, Lipski began searching for the help that would allow him to thrive in his new role. He found it in the Master of Public Administration (MPA) joint degree program offered by the UWM College of Letters & Science<\/a> and the Lubar School of Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went looking for such a degree program out of sheer necessity,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve never had anything that I needed so immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remembers sitting in a class taught by Associate Professor John Bohte and listening to the lesson on municipal budgets and finance. \u201cDr. Bohte was showing us how to do something that had been frustrating me that very day at work,\u201d says Lipski. \u201cI took all the handouts from class with me to work the following day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had this experience over and over again during the process of getting this degree,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was uncanny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relatively few UWM students finishing their bachelor\u2019s degrees are aware of the MPA, says Bohte, but the timing is right for finding jobs in the field. Local governments are looking for talented people as baby boomers in the workforce retire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of students coming into the program directly after finishing their undergraduate degrees have found good-paying jobs as budget\/management analysts and assistant village managers throughout southeastern Wisconsin,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A degree of his own<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lipski was a child witness to his father and grandfather\u2019s stream of profession-related injuries, so he at first rejected the idea of a fire-fighting career. And his elders did not push him.<\/p>\n

Instead, Lipski was expected to go to college, and he initially enrolled at UWM after high school. But a casual visit to an information session at his father\u2019s fire house sparked a change of heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, it was like someone had turned on a light switch. I\u2019ve been \u2018all in\u2019 ever since,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His parents, however, continued to encourage him to finish his bachelor\u2019s degree in communications, which he did in 2001. The master\u2019s degree, as Lipski views it, was his own professional rescue unit.<\/p>\n

In addition to skills like accounting, procurement and union relations, Lipski learned the less obvious aspects of public administration \u2013 for example, handling the politics that frequently figure into public policy.<\/p>\n

But he also discovered his own role. In preparing budget documents for the Milwaukee Common Council to consider, he says, it isn\u2019t enough just to put the numbers in front of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve realized that the department fits into a bigger picture \u2013 one of a large collection of governmental agencies,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have to make that work for us. Trust is such a huge factor in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fourth-generation firefighter, Aaron Lipski loves the profession he has practiced for 17 years with the Milwaukee Fire Department <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":836,"featured_media":12064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[122,124],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-12005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-campus-community","section-students"],"yoast_head":"\nA career turning point fueled the fire for an MPA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A fourth-generation firefighter, Aaron Lipski loves the profession he has practiced for 17 years with the Milwaukee Fire Department\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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