Board of Directors

PMRA is pleased to announce the following changes in leadership:

Professor Lael Keiser will serve as our next VP and president elect. Professors Sebawit Bishu, Jason Coupet, Asmus Olsen, and Bill Resh will serve as our new Board members, 2023-2027. Please see their profiles below.

We’d also like to thank the board members rolling off after this year’s PMRC:

Lael Keiser, University of Missouri – 2019-2023
Sonia Ospina, New York University – 2019-2023
Ellen Rubin, SUNY Albany – 2019-2023
Craig Thomas, University of Washington – 2019-2023

Vice President

Lael Keiser is professor and director of the Harry S Truman School of Government and Public Affairs. Her research and teaching focuses on the policy implementation and the administration of public programs. She serves on the editorial boards of Public Administration Review and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Keiser received the Midwest Political Science Association’s Herbert Simon Award for significant contribution to the study of bureaucracy and the American Society for Public Administration’s Rita Mae Kelly Award for distinguished research on women’s issues. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration and an elected member of the Governing Board for the Public Management Research Association.

New Board Members

Sebawit Bishu is Assistant Professor of Public Management at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington Seattle. Her scholarly work is influenced by her lived experience in Ethiopia and the United States, leading her to think about public management in comparative contexts. She uses research to inform public management theory and practice on ways to improve (1) equal opportunity within government, (2) government-public interaction, and (3) equitable public service delivery. Recently, Bishu completed research for the United Nations to promote women’s leadership opportunities in the global south. Sebawit currently serves on JPART, PAR and ROPPA editorial boards. She is passionate about creating platforms to support diverse junior scholars grapple with pressing public management problems and would be pleased to promote such platforms by serving on the PMRA board of directors.

Jason Coupet is an Associate Professor of Public Management and Policy in the Andrew Young School for Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Jason’s Ph.D. is in Strategic Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research interests include strategic management, Data Envelopment Analysis, performance measurement, organizational economics, management science applications in the public sector, and the political economy of organizations. His research has appeared in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, Business Strategy the Environment, Journal of Technology Transfer, and Nonprofit Management Leadership, among others. His work has been funded by the Sloan Foundation, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. His work has been covered by The Washington Post, The Conversation, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and Nonprofit Management and Leadership

Asmus Leth Olsen serves as Professor with special responsibilities in Public Administration in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has been active in renewing the ties between the field of public administration and the neighboring disciplines of political science, economics, and psychology. He has taken part in multiple PMRA-sponsored writing and pre-conferences for junior scholars with the aim of improving the rigor and relevance of the next generation of public administration research. He believes public administration has a key role to play as an integrator of theories and methods across the social sciences.

William (Bill) Resh is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, where he holds the C. C. Crawford Professorship in Management and Performance and is the Director of the Civic Leadership Education and Research (CLEAR) Initiative. Bill is also the Editor of the Journal of Behavioral Public Administration. His work has garnered several awards across public administration, management, and political science. Among them, his book Rethinking the Administrative Presidency won the American Political Science Association’s 2019 Herbert Simon Award for its lasting contribution to the study of public administration

Current Board (Through July 1, 2023)

President:	Leisha DeHart-Davis, University of North Carolina
Vice-President:	Rob Christensen, Brigham Young University
Director of the Secretariat and Treasurer:	Rosemary O’Leary, University of Kansas
Past-President:	Richard Walker, City University of Hong Kong
Board Members:	Khaldoun AbouAssi, American University Kim Isett, University of Delaware Sebastian Jilke, Georgetown University Lael Keiser, University of Missouri Tina Nabatchi, Syracuse University Janine O’Flynn, University of Melbourne (Australia) and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Sonia Ospina, New York University Ellen Rubin, SUNY Albany Craig Thomas, University of Washington Ex officio Mary Feeney, Arizona State University Financial advisors: Justin Marlowe, University of Chicago Tima Moldogoziev, Pennsylvania State University

The PMRA Board

Board members serve 4-year terms and may not serve two consecutive terms. The PMRA Board meets in person at least once every two years, and that meeting takes place at the Public Management Research Conference. Board members should expect to have committee and decision making responsibilities throughout their term, which will be determined by the goals and priorities of the President (as well as the PMRA By-laws).