Public Impact Research Network organizers gathered at a workshop in fall 2025.
A new national university alliance aims to ensure that academic research directly benefits the taxpayers and communities funding it.
The John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University is proud to join the Public Impact Research (PIR) Network, a collaboration of 15 public research universities working together to help research make a greater difference in people’s lives and communities.
As part of its participation in the network, the Glenn College is pleased to announce its inaugural Public Impact Research Fellows and Emerging Fellows.
The Public Impact Research Fellowship recognizes scholars whose research exemplifies the highest aspirations of public impact research: methodological strength, practical relevance, ethical partnership and a commitment to addressing persistent public challenges. The inaugural class includes both established scholars with a track record of conducting public impact research, as well as emerging fellows who are doctoral students with a demonstrated commitment to public impact research.
“Our inaugural Fellows and Emerging Fellows represent exemplar scholars who are committed to serving the public good through their research,” said Acting Dean Stephanie Moulton. “As a college of public affairs within a larger land-grant university ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned to serve our state and local communities through our research activities. The Public Impact Research Network provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity to learn from our peers and collaborate to expand our capacity to conduct research that creates value for our communities.”
During the two-year fellowship, the 63 Fellows will share resources, tools and tactics to advance the public impact of their own research while also building the institutional capacity of their home universities. The network’s activities will kick off at the Public Impact Research Workshop hosted in September at The Ohio State University.
Glenn College Public Impact Research Fellows
Jessica Collura, Senior Research Associate
Collura’s research at the Ohio Education Research Center in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs focuses on engaging young people in local settings to promote the healthy development of youth and communities.
Robin Engel, Senior Research Scientist
Engel partners with police agencies and communities to engage in research designed to make police-citizen encounters safer, reduce harm and promote best practices through academic-practitioner partnerships that translate and integrate research into practice.
Jim Landers, Professional Practice Associate Professor, Enarson Chair
Landers, a public budgeting and finance expert and former state fiscal director, has research interests in state and local taxation and state and local economic development programs and policy.
Megan LePere-Schloop, Associate Professor
LePere-Schloop, a social scientist, researches and teaches public and nonprofit management. Her current research streams seek to map nonprofit change using organizational language and AI, understand how people experience and seek to address challenges to equity and justice in public and nonprofit organizations, and analyze journal article content to understand public affairs research and impact.
Ashley Orr, Assistant Professor
Orr’s research and teaching apply economic models to social and economic problems, considering how public policy might intervene to address market failures, reduce poverty and inequality, and support workers, families, children and communities in Ohio and across the country. She has collaborated with nonprofit organizations in northeast Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania on research projects, studying worker retention, job search and job training programs.
Tasha Perdue, Assistant Professor
Perdue is a former mental health case manager and epidemiologist who also worked on human trafficking issues. Her research contextualizes drug use and elucidates ways that inequities in national and state criminal justice responses to drug crises perpetuate trajectories of risk and drug use, demonstrating the essential relationship of public health and criminal justice policy.
Victor St. John, Assistant Professor
St. John’s research, informed by his professional background in the field of corrections, criminology and criminal justice, centers on the direct and indirect impact of criminal justice systems on the public and areas that can be strengthened. He focuses on the structural and systemic factors that perpetuate social disparities within criminal justice contexts and intersecting policy and administration areas.
Long Tran, Assistant Professor
Tran, who has had research and consulting experience at many local nonprofits and international development organizations, has a primary research focus on nonprofit studies and a secondary interest in public management, exploring how to improve inter-organizational arrangements and individual citizen engagement in the collaborative pursuit of public interests.
Glenn College Public Impact Research Emerging Fellows
Brandon Frye, Doctoral Candidate
Frye’s research agenda primarily focuses on the urban policy space, especially questions related to housing or community resource building. He is also interested in how modern technological developments shift organizational dynamics and response to public values.
Thomas’ research interests center on agrifood system policy and governance, with a particular emphasis on procedural equity in agrifood policy processes. She is interested in understanding how food producers can play a central role in shaping strong local and regional food systems while critically examining the barriers to their civic engagement associated with the growing consolidation of the agrifood system and the economic pressures of farming.
About the Public Impact Research Network
The Public Impact Research Network is a national initiative bringing together 15 public research universities across the country. Formed to accelerate research that directly benefits state and local communities, the PIR Network connects scholars across schools of public affairs at public research institutions.
Schools of public affairs are well suited to lead this effort because they study how policy is developed and implemented; prepare future public leaders, practitioners and policymakers; and partner with communities to address societal challenges. By bringing public affairs scholars together across institutions, the network seeks to strengthen the capacity of public research universities to produce, support and recognize research that measurably improves public programs, policies and civic outcomes.
The Public Impact Research Fellowship is a signature component of this national effort. Fellows are recognized for research that reflects methodological rigor, practical relevance, ethical partnership and a commitment to addressing persistent public challenges.