Congratulations to our recently promoted faculty: Russell Hassan to professor, Lauren Jones to associate professor and Stephanie Moulton to professor and faculty director for research.
Emeriti Faculty Charles Adams’ research, “Peak-Load Pricing With Quality-Differentiated Demand,” was published in The American Economist. Adams’ research focuses specifically on highway tolls and how social planners can determine ideal levels of traffic and tolls.
Assistant Professor Erynn Beaton was elected to serve as the chair of the dissertation award committee for the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division. She also gave a talk, “Critical Qualitative Research: Radical & Post-Structural Feminism and the Quest for Gendered Justice,” at Ohio State’s QualLab Lunch autumn series.
Professor Jeff Bielicki has co-authored two recent publications on energy, environment and policy issues. The first, in Environmental Science & Technology, is an investigation of the environmental and human health consequences of different strategies that China could implement in response to energy insecurity with natural gas. The second, in Energy Conversion and Management, is an investigation of isolating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and using it to simultaneously generate electricity from geothermal heat and store energy to “firm” fluctuations in variable wind and solar generation. In addition, in December he gave two different presentations on his work developing scenarios of how food, energy and water systems in the U.S. Great Lakes Region may evolve over the next two decades. The first, at the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium Annual Meeting, was about the interaction of teaming with external stakeholders, interdisciplinary scholarship, and group dynamics in the scenario development process. The second, at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, highlighted pathways specifically for the evolution of energy using a combination of participatory stakeholder elicitation and U.S. Department of Energy Data.
Stephanie Casey Pierce, a post-doctoral scholar with the Kirwan Institute and the Glenn College, is a researcher on a project to develop an Opportunity Policy Portal for central Ohio. The project, which involves the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the Knowlton School of Architecture, received a $54,000 grant from the Ohio State Bar Association Foundation’s Racial Justice Initiative. The long-term goal of the project is to address race-based exclusionary practices in Columbus neighborhood and community development.
Associate Professor Jill Clark hosts an annual Ohio Food Policy Summit with the Ohio Food Policy Network, of which she is a steering committee member. Attendees in 2021 dove into the network’s policy agenda, engaging with local, state and national food system leaders and partners on topics including federal funding opportunities for local and regional food systems, food access and education, and local food equity strategies. This year’s speakers included U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; Ohio Rep. Juanita Brent, D-Cleveland; and Stacy Malkan, co-founder and managing editor of U.S. Right to Know. Clark moderated a discussion on the farm bill and building resilient local food systems.
University Libraries announced that Kay K. Clopton is the new Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian. She will serve as liaison to the departments of History, Philosophy and Anthropology and will support portions of the Glenn College. Carly Dearborn, who had been serving as interim librarian, will continue as public policy archivist.
Associate Professor Noah Dormady’s research, exploring “Informational Determinants of Large-area Hurricane Evacuations,” was published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and showed that the most numerate officials were almost twice as likely as less numerate ones to provide additional evacuation times to their coastal communities. Less numerate ones, on the other hand, gave their communities less advance warning, and when they finally did issue evacuations, over-evacuated tens of thousands more people.
Assistant Professor Jennifer Garner created a new course, “Food Insecurity and Food Assistance Programming and Policy in the U.S.,” to inspire students to explore approaches to resolving food insecurity in their full complexity.
Associate Professor Amanda Girth was selected for an Acquisition Innovation Research Center (AIRC) Incubator award. Her proposal, “Systemic Factors Influencing Risk Aversion: Diagnosing Behaviors and Tailoring Interventions for Lasting Transformation,” was one of eight to receive an award, which is intended to improve the practice of U.S. Department of Defense acquisition. In addition, she was named an Adjunct Fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Defense Industrial Initiatives Group. This is a two-year, non-resident appointment that builds upon Girth's collaboration with CSIS in federal acquisition research. CSIS reserves the designation of Adjunct Fellow for a limited number of senior experts and policymakers with distinct knowledge and experience on issues of significant importance to the center.
Professor Russell Hassan has been appointed to serve as the Ambassador Milton A. and Roslyn Z. Wolf Chair in the Glenn College. The chair was established through philanthropic support from the Wolfs. Milton Wolf grew up in Ohio, received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Ohio State and Case Western Reserve University, and served as ambassador to Austria from 1977 to 1980 under President Jimmy Carter after a successful career in investment banking and real estate development. He was a long-time supporter of Sen. John Glenn and chaired several of Glenn’s campaigns for the U.S. Senate. The intent of the Wolf Chair is to promote research and teaching on international and comparative public policy and management issues.
Professor Ned Hill participated in a panel, “What an ‘Inclusive’ Recovery Looks Like in the Midwest, and Why It Matters to All of Us,” for the Federal Reserve Bank’s 2021 Policy Conference on an Inclusive Recovery (from COVID-19). This meeting was sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland as well as six other regional Federal Reserve Banks. The Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank president, Loretta Mester, moderated the panel in which Hill took part. Other panelists included Matt Dunne, Center for Rural Innovation; Ron Ferguson, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; Crystal German, Prosperity Labs; and Diane Swonk, Grant Thornton LLP.
Senior Associate Dean and Professor John Horack has been elected an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). AIAA Associate Fellows are individuals of distinction who have made notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.
Emeriti Faculty Doug Jones represented the Glenn College at the 2022 American Economics Association Annual Meeting as chair of a two-hour virtual session, welcoming participants from across the country and introducing the four panelists invited to present their research.
Associate Professor Lauren Jones’ research was cited in a letter written to House and Senate leadership advocating for making the Child Tax Credit expansion permanent. She signed the letter along with 400 economists. In addition, she discussed her research about how household income and tax policies affect child well-being at a research forum at Ohio State’s Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy.
Assistant Professor Megan LePere-Schloop and Rebecca Nesbit, a faculty member at the University of Georgia, won the 2021 Felice Davidson Perlmutter Award for their paper “The Nexus of Public Administration and Nonprofit Studies: An Empirical Mapping of Research Topics and Knowledge Integration.” The award from the Theory, Issues, Boundaries Section of Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, ARNOVA, recognizes current research that represents strong promise for contribution to our knowledge of theory, issues and/or boundaries.
Professor Stephanie Moulton, faculty director for research, is collaborating with the Mortgage Bankers Association and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency to lead an initiative to reduce the racial homeownership gap in central Ohio. In addition, she has been named a co-editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. She will be responsible for paper submissions in the areas of housing and consumer finance policy, program implementation and evaluation, and public and nonprofit management. Moulton and Stephanie Casey Pierce, postdoctoral scholar, are among authors of “Does Temporary Mortgage Assistance for Unemployed Homeowners Reduce Longer-Term Mortgage Default? An Analysis of the Hardest Hit Fund Program“ in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. They examine the mid-term loan performance outcomes of unemployed homeowners who received HHF assistance in Ohio and in three other HHF states. They found that receipt of HHF assistance leads to a 40% reduction in the probability of mortgage default and foreclosure through four years following assistance.
Associate Dean for Faculty and Professor Jos Raadschelders published “Ethics education in the study of public administration: Anchoring to civility, civics, social justice, and understanding government in democracy“ in the Journal of Public Affairs Education. The article argues that teaching ethics should not only be included in higher education or public administration programs but also anchored in a thoughtful K-12 curriculum that relates ethics to issues of civility, civics, social justice and understanding the position and role of government in democratic political systems. His essay “Rising to Ostrom’s challenge: an invitation to walk on the bright side of public governance and public service,” published in Policy Design and Practice journal, calls for a program of research devoted to uncovering the factors and mechanisms that enable high performing public policies and public service delivery mechanisms; procedurally and distributively fair processes of tackling societal conflicts; and robust and resilient ways of coping with threats and risks. Raadschelders also published two reviews: “An Innovation Overlooked, Yet Vital: The Institutional Arrangements of Democracy in Thought and Practice,” a review of “Arguing with Zombies. Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future,” Paul Krugman’s collection of newspaper columns published between 2004 and 2019, in The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal. And “Saving Democracy from Rent-Seeking Economic and Political Behavior,” a review of Robert F. Durant’s book, “Building the Compensatory State: An Intellectual History and Theory of American Administrative Reform,” was published in Public Administration Review.
Adjunct Professor Bill Shkurti received the university’s Distinguished Service Award at last summer’s commencement ceremony. After 22 years at the university, Shkurti retired in 2010 as senior vice president for business and finance, having worked closely with five presidents and provosts. His tenure was set during a period of extraordinary growth for the university despite frequent, almost constant financial difficulties, including declining state support, increased regulation, a new budget model and a change in undergraduate admissions. Shkurti is recognized for his commitment to the highest values of the university, including full transparency; inclusion of faculty, staff and student governance; and as a “guardian of virtue and decency.” As one award nominator wrote: “His ability to solve complex fiscal problems came to seem almost magical.”
Associate Professor Wendy Smooth is one of eight members appointed to the national advisory board of the Kamala Harris Project, an academic consortium of scholars in U.S. politics, history and public policy who will study the term of the United States’ first woman vice president. The project, based at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for Leadership by Women of Color, is a collective of academics who will track all aspects of Harris’s vice presidency.
Associate Professor Caroline Wagner and Eminence Fellow Mac Lang, a senior, presented the results of their research on China's vaccine diplomacy at an international workshop on “Optimizing Vaccine Strategies” sponsored by the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in the United Kingdom.
Emeriti Faculty Charles Wise published “Accountability in Collaborative Federal Programs — Multidimensional and Multilevel Performance Measures Needed: The Case of Wildland Fire Prevention,” in the American Review of Public Administration. The analysis reveals barriers and suggests solutions to develop a performance management approach with accountability.
Associate Professor Wendy Xu, a faculty member in the Ohio State College of Public Health, has been appointed as a courtesy faculty member in the Glenn College. Xu is an expert on health care for vulnerable populations and on health policy.