Profile for James Szymalak
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James Szymalak
Assistant Professor
Political Science Public Admin
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
James Szymalak
Assistant Professor
Political Science Public Admin
Specialty area(s)
Public Law & Administration, Public Personnel Management, Ethics, Religion in Government, and Military Law & Administration
I also direct the Legal Studies Minor and serve as a pre-law advisor
Current courses at UWL
POL 221: American Legal System
PUB 210: Contemporary Issues in Government
PUB 340: Public Personnel Law & Administration
I also serve as the faculty advisor to the UWL Pre-Law Society
Education
PhD in Public Policy, George Mason University School of Policy, Government & International Affairs
JD, Albany Law School of Union University
MBA in Management & Organizations, R.H. Smith School of Business, Univ. of Maryland
BS in Finance, Siena College
Admitted to practice in New York and before the U.S, Supreme Court
Career
Teaching history
FYS 100: Campus Speech
FYS 100: Intellectual Property
PUB 210: Intro to Public Administration
PUB 340: Public Personnel Management
PUB 346: Ethics in Government
POL 221: American Legal System
POL 326: Mock Trial I
POL 329: Mock Trial II
PUB 399: Government Contracting & Fiscal Law
PUB 440 Court Decisions Impacting Public Admin.
PUB 453: Nonprofit Management
PUB 450: Internships
POL 498: Honors Research in Politics and Government
Professional history
Prior to joining UWL, I served as a senior Pentagon personnel policy legal advisor within the Department of the Army. During this tenure, I advised upon equal employment & civil rights policy, general civil service policy, and was responsible for civilian attorney management covering more than 1,400 attorneys. I have also served as an Army Judge Advocate focused upon civilian personnel management advising and litigation.
Research and publishing
James N. Szymalak, Expanding Public Employee Religious Accommodation and Its Threat to Administrative Legitimacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
— Broadens the current post-Obergefell discussion of employee religious accommodation to consider the third-party impacts on public administration
— Illuminates the myriad legal and supervisory challenges of implementing expanded religion accommodation obligations for public employees
— Serves as a warning to legislators and policy advocates seeking to enlarge religious accommodation rights
Kudos
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