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Four professional public administrators returned to their alma mater to serve as role models, offer guidelines and cautions about working in highly political environments, and pose hypothetical case studies drawn from their own and others' experiences in such a setting. Counseling that the gravity and complexity of ethical dilemmas increase as one’s career advances, they suggest that the tensions between politics and policy figure among the more serious sources of ethical challenges facing professionals in the public sphere. While proposing that the professional’s duty in part is to empower elected officials to make the right decision with the best information and most useful tools, they note that some frustration is unavoidable in this complex environment; there are no easy answers because the issues themselves are not easy and perspectives about what is right and important vary. Centering on the duty of serving the public interest, their cases focus upon mixed allegiances, clashing loyalties, multiple perspectives, truthfulness and candor, privileged treatment, the appearance of impropriety, and accountability

Sadegül Akbaba-Altun, PhD, EdD, is currently an associate professor of Educational Administration at Baskent University, Faculty of Education in Turkey. Dr. Akbaba-Altun's educational background includes a BSc in Guidance and Counseling and an MSc in Educational Administration and Supervision, both from METU; a PhD in Institute of Social Sciences with an emphasis on Educational Administration and Supervision from Ankara University; and an EdD in Curriculum and Instruction with the emphasis on Elementary Education from the University of Cincinnati. Her research areas include Chaos Theory, Leadership, Integrating Computer Technologies Into Education, and Supervision.