Jamie Levine Daniel, PhD

Jamie Levine Daniel is an assistant professor of nonprofit management at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She earned her doctorate in public policy and management from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.

I spent many hours in the PhD computer lab with Akheil Singla, Lisa Frazier and Kristin Harlow. One of those times, Akheil and I commandeered a computer cart with a big screen so we could stream the World Cup. Sharing offices with colleagues, first Ketra Rice, then the fishbowl with Adam Eckerd, Blair Russell and Roy Heidelberg, created opportunities for informal learning and collaboration. Other memories include Dr. Moulton’s open door as I worked to complete my thesis and the support of Dean Brown and my committee.

I focus on the relationship between nonprofit resource acquisition and service delivery, examining what nonprofits need to deliver on their mission, and how the acquisition of these resources impacts what the organizations actually do. To answer the central question regarding the relationship between resource acquisition and service delivery, I theorize about and improve practice for two aspects: an internal focus on resources, capacity and organizational identity and an external focus on the public-nonprofit intersection. This cross-sector work focuses on the intersection of nonprofits and public policy, with specific focus on the dyadic relationship between policy actors who set a policy agenda and nonprofit organizations who act as front-line implementers. My future work in this area includes the relationship between revenue sources, factors affecting individual donor behavior, and sector and cross-sector level trends in both a national and cross-national context. 

In addition to my nonprofit research, I also take a meta-level approach to thinking about how we research and to examining where our biases can unintentionally (re)produce hierarchical and exclusionary violence. I published an article on how to talk about antisemitism in MPA classrooms that gives instructors tools for addressing antisemitism and other forms of othering. My work in progress includes a paper that examines the impact of the plantation on the nonprofit sector (written with a student as an outgrowth of a class assignment) and one that proposes building checks into the research process to help mitigate unconscious bias.

I have been associated with the Glenn College since I first started taking classes during my MBA studies. The exponential growth over the past 15 years has been astounding, so imagining the Glenn College in 50 years is an exciting thought exercise. In order for the college to continue its trajectory, it needs to continue to focus on its community – students, faculty and staff – while fostering connections and being responsive to the needs of both internal and community stakeholders.