1976- Nesta Gallas, First Female President of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)

1976- Nesta Gallas, First Female President of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)

Widely published and a mentor for many women and men, Nesta M. Gallas was active in professional organizations throughout her career. She was elected to membership as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in1973.  She was the first woman president of the American Society for Public Administration, 1976-77, and she received its Cushman Award for outstanding achievement in advancing the practice of public administration. Nesta co-authored with Edward Gallas and Ernest Friesen the seminal textbook on court management, Managing the Courts. 
 
She was born in Herne Bay, England, on 29 August 1917, the second daughter of William Pring Williams and Katherine Tardrew.  Nesta moved to California with her family in 1923. They settled in Santa Monica. She entered college at the age of fifteen and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with honors from UCLA in 1938.  While at UCLA she was the May Day Queen and played the cello in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and chamber music at the Biltmore Hotel.
 
Following graduation, Nesta worked for the Los Angeles County Civil Service from 1938 to 1942 where she met her future husband, Edward Gallas.  Edward and Nesta married in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1943.  Following Edward's service in the Navy during the War, they moved first to Northern California and then with two sons to Honolulu where she worked for the Civil Service Commission and had two daughters. 
 
From 1953 to 1958, Nesta was the first female Personnel Director for the City and County of Honolulu.  The family than moved to Los Angeles where she studied for and received a Master’s and Doctorate in Public Administration at the University of Southern California in 1967 and served on the faculty.
 
Following relocation to New York City, Nesta worked at the United Nations as a Public Administration Officer.  From 1968 to 1986 she was a professor at City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal  Justice, where she was also the Dean of Graduate Studies. She became Professor Emeritus in 1986. She died in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on August 11, 2012.

PA Times

2012

https://patimes.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/NestaGallas.jpg

Source: Nesta Gallas. (n.d.). PA TIMES Online. Retrieved October 12, 2012, from http://bit.ly/Rmq9my

PA Times

PA Times

Medium: Photograph

English

Figures

Nesta Gallas, ASPA, Women, Public Administration, LA, NYC, United Nations

Historic