Stanley Vanagunas studied economics, history and government at several Midwestern universities (Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan State). He was an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the University of Arizona from 1975-1982. In 1983 he joined Arkansas State University from which he retired in January of 2001 as a Professor of Public Administration, Emeritus. He can be reached at 520-743-0210 or via the internet at vanagunas @msn.com.

Prior to entering academics, Stanley worked for industry as well as government. Over the years, he has authored publications dealing with various issues in the administration of justice and of government generally. In the spring of 1989, just as Lithuania was about to re-declare its independence and begin the unraveling of the Soviet empire, he was a Fulbright Lecturer assigned to the Law Faculty of Vilnius University. He returned five years later to now the Republic of Lithuania, again on a Fulbright, and for a semester taught courses dealing with public finance and public administration in the college of economics of Vilnius University.

One of Stanley's main scholarly interests during the past decade has been the transformation of the formerly communist regimes to democratic, market-based political economics. He speaks Lithuanian fluently, periodically visits Lithuania, and uses Lithuania's experience to derive general principles which help explain the problems and issues associated with this historic transformation of Eastern Europe. Here are several of his articles dealing with this theme:

" Civil Service Reform in the Baltics," Comparative Civil Service Systems: Central and Eastern Europe, T. Verheijen and A. Kotchegura (eds.), Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1999, pp. 213-234.

" The Influence of the Nomenklatura on Post-Soviet Administration," The International Journal of Public Administration, vol. 18, no. 12, pp. 1815-1839, 1995.

" Budgeting During the Great Transformation," Public Budgeting and Finance, vol. 15, pp. 84-95, spring 1995.