Renaming the CAPPA Case Competition Gold Medal to Shepherd Prize for best presentation
The Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) is pleased to announce a significant change in the nomenclature of our Gold Medal Award in its annual Case competition. From now on, this prestigious award will now be known as the Shepherd Prize for Best Presentation, recognizing the role played by Robert Shepherd’s as the National Organizer of the case competition for the past decade.
This initiative serves to honor the outstanding contributions of Robert Shepherd, Professor and Graduate Supervisor (Public Policy and Program Evaluation) at Carleton University. Professor Shepherd’s decade-long dedication to the CAPPA Case Competition has been instrumental in fostering a culture of analytical rigor and effective communication among our participants.
The Shepherd Prize will continue to uphold the high standards set by its predecessor, celebrating those who demonstrate exceptional commitment to the development of the field of Public Administration in Canada. The case competition was conceived in 2011 by the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy under the leadership of Dr. Ken Rasmussen and Andrew Graham at Queen’s University. The idea was to expand the very successful case competition held by both Saskatchewan university programs in public policy and public administration to a larger number of schools across the country. This led to the first national competition held in 2012. Between 2012 and 2014, the competition was organized under the capable leadership of Andrew Graham, then in 2015 Robert Shepherd was added as joint national organizer along with Andrew Graham when the competition was held at the University of Ottawa. In 2016, the competition was under the full leadership of Robert Shepherd, and the competition continued to be organized in-person until the 2020 competition when because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was moved to the current online format. This was considerable work, but this move to virtual meant that more schools could participate, including several smaller programs. It has remained a virtual/online competition since then.
For several years, the competition attracted an average of 10 schools, particularly for the in-person format. However, this number improved when the competition went online, attracting an average of 12 participating schools. The 2025 competition attracted a full slate of 14 teams – the most that could be accommodated. In fact, there was a wait list for the competition. This indicates that the competition has grown in popularity over the years and has become a regularized part of the CAPPA calendar of activities, and many schools have incorporated case studies into their core curriculum. The competition has been well-supported by a dedicated group of sponsors, coaches, and school faculty members and this is testament to a high quality competition organizing committee over the years as well as a solid case study that merits a national event.
Robert Shepherd has been the guiding and stable proponent of the competition for 10 of its 14 years. We anticipate that the Shepherd Prize will inspire a new generation of public administration scholars and practitioners to strive for excellence in both their research and their ability to convey ideas compellingly.