Merle’s MPAL capstone made public safety policy faster and safer 

Merle Vaessin didn’t come to public administration through a traditional path. After earning a bachelor’s degree in art and technology, she worked her way up through The  Ohio State University’s public safety division, from student security officer to dispatcher to Dispatch Supervisor for Ohio State’s Secondary Public Safety Answering Point, putting her squarely in the middle of a problem that academic theory alone couldn’t fix. 

Finding an asynchronous master’s program built for shift work 

Vaessin’s road to Ohio State’s Master of Public Administration and Leadership (MPAL) program started with the Criminal Justice Administration Graduate Certificate, starting before she even knew she’d be promoted to supervisor. The timing turned out to matter. As her division began the multi-year transition toward becoming a real-time crime center and developing a new drone program it created an enormous amount of policy work which she found herself increasingly drawn to, even before she had a formal path toward it. 

When it came time to choose a master program, logistics ruled out the traditional options. “At the time, I was working night shift, and I had been on night shift for a long time,” Vaessin says. “In-person classes were difficult to try to structure my life around when I’m working from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. as a shift worker. The MPAL program gave a lot of flexibility in being an asynchronous master’s program, and honestly, for me, it was just the most realistic option.” 

She had one real hesitation: ADHD, and how it would affect her ability to meet the organizational demands of fully asynchronous coursework. Her advisor pushed back. 

“She was like, no, I think with Ohio State’s assistance, I think you could complete the MPAL program,” Vaessin recalls. The structure of the program ended up surprising her. “The way that it was organized and structured was so well done that I didn’t need to use any additional assistance,” Vaessin says. “The work was very manageable, and while I still had a couple of all-nighters, it was doable.” 

What happens when policy becomes a bottleneck 

Vaessin’s Capstone course tackled a problem that was anything but theoretical; her division’s policy development process had quietly broken down when it was increasingly critical to get it right. 

“We found our policy development process was lacking,” she says. After surveying people across the division, she identified core issues such as a lack of clearly defined roles, no clear expectations of who was responsible for what, and no effective pathway for collaborating with other divisions in public safety. 

The consequences were tangible. “There had been times where one division would put out a policy or a special order and it would either conflict with ours or ours would end up conflicting with theirs,” she explains. “It really just slowed down the process to a grinding halt. A policy that could have normally taken two weeks could end up taking three months.” 

As her division works toward becoming a real-time crime center, handling live camera feeds, sensitive data, and eventually drone operations, the cost of a slow or fragmented policy process is ultimately about safety. 

“We care about safety, and effective policies and procedures help protect everybody’s safety,” Vaessin says. “It helps protect the safety of the people who are inside the comm center from liability. It helps protect the community against data leaks and privacy violations.” A rushed or sluggish process threatens that mission either way: “If your policy process is dragging to a crawl, you’re not going to get the policies out by the time they are needed.” 

What is a masters in public administration good for? 

Getting from problem to solution required skills Vaessin credits directly to her MPAL coursework, particularly her negotiations class. “I’ve been learning a lot in terms of how to pitch these arguments with our higher-ups on why it’s so important to implement these changes,” she says. “The MPAL program really helped me find that language and organize it into a usable document.” 

Strategic analysis tools were just as critical, despite being entirely new territory for her. “Future analysis has been very helpful in showing exactly why it could be helpful right now and how it could help us in the future,” she says. “That’s not something I’d had a lot of experience using beforehand.” She points to specific frameworks, including SWOT analysis and 20-year outlooks, as central to that shift. “That’s the kind of thing that really helped me support these arguments with our director and with some of the people from the Police division.” 

For her Capstone, Vaessin built a full management plan to fix the policy process. 

“I created a policy development program that standardized our policy template. It provided a clear hierarchical structure for approval of our policies, and I made sure to include OSU’s Police Department for interdivisional collaboration,” she says. The plan also introduced a new training schedule and a 20-year scenario-planning analysis, applying foresight techniques to anticipate both reactive and proactive solutions as the division’s needs evolve. 

The shift in her own thinking has stuck with her. The MPAL curriculum provided tools and skillsets to solve everyday challenges. “It’s one thing to say we have a problem, hey, fix it. And another to be like, we have a problem, here’s how we fix it,” she says. 

Results are already taking shape 

As Vaessin finishes her final MPAL course, the impact of her Capstone is already visible. Her division has begun implementing a policy management software platform to support the new process. Important policies are moving through development faster than before. Conversations between divisions have opened up, with each group gaining clearer visibility into the others’ expectations and responsibilities. 

“There’s been a lot of forward momentum with our policy development process, which has been really heartening to see,” Vaessin says. 

Advice for the next MPAL student 

Vaessin’s biggest surprise in the program wasn’t the workload, it was the people. “We’ve got people who worked with Disney, people in the medical field, people working with Medicaid, people who work overseas,” she says. “You’ve got such a wide breadth of people coming in, all sharing their experience and allowing you to learn from them.” 

Her practical advice for incoming students centers on pacing, something she learned firsthand while balancing night shifts, a transition into leadership, and a major division-wide initiative all at once. 

“You don’t have to take all of your classes at once. It’s okay to take one class a semester if that’s what works with your lifestyle and the work you’re doing,” she says. “You’ll learn a lot more if you take it at the pace that’s best for you. Don’t be afraid to look into tuition assistance initiatives provided by your workplace. Find what works for you, and work with your advisor. You’ll be surprised how much they can do to assist you with that.”