Faculty highlights and research

Looking for the latest highlights about our faculty? Check out our social media sites:

Facebook: ASU Public Affairs
Bluesky: @asupubaffairs.bsky.social 
Instagram: @ASUPublicAffairs 

LinkedIn: ASU School of Public Affairs 

• Lily Hsueh has a forthcoming book, Corporations at Climate Crossroads: Multilevel Governance, Public Policy, and Global Climate Action (MIT Press, September 2025). MIT Press has selected the book for a fully funded, open access edition alongside print and ebook editions. In April, Hsueh gave a prerelease book talk at Europe’s Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). For a recording of Hsueh’s talk
• Maribel Guerrero was one of the distinguished keynote speakers at the closing plenary session, "Knowledge for Regional Transformation," during the 2025 RSA Annual Conference, held from May 6th to 9th at the Universidade do Porto in Portugal.
• Together with ASU colleague Petar Jevtic and doctoral student Cody Delos Santos, Melanie Gall co-authored a new paper on the effects of natural hazards on spatio-temporal patterns of violent crime in the United States. Employing regression discontinuity design principles, swaths of linear regression models across different time scales were fitted, yielding nearly 120 statistically significant coefficients. The findings reveal correlations between certain natural hazard types and changes in crime rates. Read here
• Chris Herbst was an invited panelist at the recent opening summit of the Y1 (Year One) Initiative, a new ASU-wide effort focused on advancing innovation, equity, and policy during the early childhood years.
• New editorial piece in Ars Technica by Mary Feeney titled "Editorial: Censoring the scientific enterprise, one grant at a time Recent grant terminations are a symptom of a widespread attack on science." View here.
• Sian Mughan and Akheil Singla's paper "Competition or Cooperation? The Case of Revenue From Traffic Citations" has been published in Public Budgeting and Finance. View here.
• Don Siegel presented “A Roadmap to Fulfilling the Economic Potential of Technology Transfer in the Life Sciences and Biomedicine in Arizona” to Phoenix’s Medical Device Manufacturing Consortium (MDM2).  MDM2 is an EDA-funded public-private partnership, led by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC), which is developing a regional strategy to leverage AI and machine learning technologies in smart medical device manufacturing.
• Science Competes: Informing Policy in a Time of Distrust, Fracture, and Chaos, by  Barry Bozeman, has been published. MIT Press.
• At the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) annual conference in Denver, CO, Spiro Maroulis presented an overview of his recently published chapter in the Handbook of Education Policy Research, co-authored with Ken Frank and Qinyun Lin, titled “Causal Inferences From Observational Studies in Education Policy: Toward Pragmatic Social Science.” The second edition of the Handbook offers a comprehensive collection of education policy research from the field’s top experts, addressing a wide range of policy and contextual issues in early childhood, K–12, and postsecondary education that have received extensive empirical attention over the past 15 years. Learn more about the Handbook here.
• Mary Feeney wrote for Can We Still Govern: "I oversaw rigorous review of NSF." Read here
• Bhaven Sampat, was featured in SmartBrief: NIH funding cuts threaten foundational drug development work.
• Sarah Porter, director, Kyl Center for Water Policy and Kathryn Sorensen, director of research, Kyl Center for Water Policy and professor of practice, School of Public Affairs, were featured: Is Phoenix sustainable? Experts tell SEJ conference region plans for heat, drought: Arizona Republic; and Chandler general plan speakers focus on housing, water: Chandler Independent.
• Maribel Guerrero and Don Siegel's article. titled “Assessing the Impact of the Pandemic on Digital Spin-offs at Universities: Theory and Evidence from the United Kingdom,” was accepted at Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (IF 5.4, FT 50). This paper, which was co-authored with David Audretsch of Indiana University, demonstrates how the resources and capabilities of universities enabled these digital enterprises to respond effectively to demand and supply challenges arising from draconian pandemic restrictions (e.g., full lockdowns, partial lockdowns, and “re-openings”)
• Together with Yao Zhou (Embry Riddle) and Christopher Emrich (UCF), Melanie Gall has a new publication on the spatio-temporal patterns of damage from storm-related hazards in the contiguous U.S. This study correlates a thirty-year series of annual damage with hazard frequency to determine if changes in damage correspond with shifts in physical hazards. Key findings indicate significant damage clusters over the Great Plains and the Lower Mississippi River Valley. The Lower Mississippi River Valley has seen increased damage from wind, tornadoes, and lightning, and the Plains have shifted from elongated damage hot spots to smaller, clustered hot spots. Click Here
• Alvaro Hofflinger was interviewed by Maggie Fox (One Health Trust) about his paper "Breathing dirty air, struggling in school" published in the journal Population and Environment. Click Here
• Mary Feeney was quoted in a recent article in MotherJones about changes in NSF priorities. Article title "Government Cancels Disinformation Grants in Disinformation-Filled Statement" Click Here
• Elisa Jayne Bienenstock with colleagues from CISA, Mary Fulton and students just published a new paper on AI Detection: Hyatt, J. P. K., Bienenstock, E. J., Firetto, C. M., Woods, E. R., & Comus, R. C. (2025). Using aggregated AI detector outcomes to eliminate false-positives in STEM-student writing. Advances in Physiology Education.  View Here 
• Together with colleagues from the National Institute of Environmental Health, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the University of Central Florida, Melanie Gall published an article on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors associated with residential natural hazard risk in Science of the Total Environment (IF: 8.2). The research team found that residing in areas prone to disasters is associated with higher prevalence of key cardiovascular disease risk factors. Click Here
• Don Siegel presented his forthcoming co-authored paper (with Maribel Guerrero) in Academy of Management Perspectives (IF 7.2), titled “Pro-Social Technology Transfer and Academic Entrepreneurship: Lessons Learned and New Directions,” in the Strategy & Entrepreneurship Originators seminar in the Stony Brook University College of Business.  
• Roni Fraser, along with colleagues from the University of Delaware, published their article “Including the Maternal and Infant Needs in Preparedness and Sheltering: A Case Study of Hurricanes Ida and Ian” in the Journal of Emergency Management’s Special Issue “Leave Nobody Behind: Emergency Management in a More Inclusive Way.” View Here
• Annus Azhar has been selected to receive the Best Article Award for Public Administration Quarterly (Volume 48, 2024). This award recognizes the article: "Service Delivery During Crises: The Effects of Organizational Capacity, Collaboration, and Public Service Motivation on Organizational Resilience." The award was jointly presented by the editors of Public Administration Quarterly and the Section on Professional and Organizational Development (SPOD) of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA).  Read here
• Don Siegel and Siri Terjesen of Florida Atlantic University published an essay, titled “Hands Off Private Equity" in the Epoch Times.  In this essay, they argue against regulation of private equity (PE), based on empirical evidence that PE transactions lead to improvements in productivity and enhanced innovation and knowledge spillovers. 
• Chris Herbst was selected to serve on a National Academy of Sciences panel that will investigate the economics of early childhood education. Among the panel’s tasks are to examine the market structure for early education services in the U.S. and to document the data infrastructure that researchers and policymakers rely on to understand the market. The panel will prepare a report summarizing its findings, which the Academies aims to publish in the spring of 2026.
• Sian Mughan, Akheil Singla and Susan Miller received a $560,000 grant from Arnold Ventures to conduct a field experiment with Tempe Municipal Court.
• Maribel Guerrero gave a keynote on "Assessing the Impact of University Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Managerial and Policy Implications" at the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Research Winter School in Bilbao alongside an incredible lineup of distinguished scholars in the field: Erik Stam, Jonathan Levie, Niels Bosma, Christina Theodoraki, Didier Chabaud, and Grégory GUENEAU, PhD.
• Maribel Guerrero has co-authored the global report entitled "GEM 2024/2025 Global Report: Entrepreneurship Reality Check." Click Here
• Chris Herbst's research on the impact of immigration policy on the childcare market (co-authored with Umair Ali and Jessica Brown) was featured in a recent article from Vox. Click Here
• Yushim Kim helps bring global student simulation competition fully online Click Here
• Spiro Maroulis and his colleagues recently released new versions of the konfound package for statistical sensitivity analysis in R (1.0.2) and in Stata. The konfound package enables researchers to quantify the answer to questions like: "How much bias would need to be present to change my conclusion?" or "How robust is my finding to potential unmeasured variables?" Click here
• Sang Eun Lee has published a new paper in Public Personnel Management entitled "Gender, empowerment, and performance in U.S. federal agencies: The role of women's leadership representation. Click here
• Maribel Guerrero and Don Siegel have been selected as Ecosystems Futures Fellows for their project funded by the Lemelson Foundation, titled "Increasing Engagement of Minority Students in Technology Transfer and Academic Entrepreneurship. Click Here
• New Publication by Monica Gaughan - Polar Plasticity: Impact of COVID-19 on the US Polar Research Community. Click here
• Akheil Singla and colleagues Drs. Carolyn Abott and Matthew Incantalupo were recently awarded the inaugural GovFi Prize by the Government Finance Officers Association. The prize is for their peer-reviewed research “Informing Voters About Public Finance Evidence from a Survey Experiment” published in Public Finance Journal. Click Here
• Sang Eun Lee's paper, entitled "Gender, Empowerment, and Performance in U.S. Federal Agencies: The Role of Women's Leadership Representation, "is published in Public Personal Management. Click Here
• Elisa Jayne Bienenstock and Skaidra Smith-Heisters' new book "Economyths about Work, Value, and Success in America" has been published by Edward Elgar Press. Click Here
• Spiro Maroulis, Ulrich Jensen, former doctoral student Youngjae Won, and colleagues recently published a paper entitled “More Random Than Not? A Review of the Logic of Inference in Experimental Public Administration.” The paper, published in the Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, analyzes the primary findings from every experimental study published in JPART from 1991 to 2020.  By investigating both the original studies and how their findings were interpreted in subsequent citations, the paper finds that many conclusions from experimental studies are not rooted in randomization—an observation that raises important questions about knowledge development in the field. 
• Sang Eun Lee and PhD candidate Youngjae Kim’s paper entitled “Flexibility stigma, supervisory support, and the use of flexible work arrangements in the public sector: Distinguishing flextime and flexplace” is published in International Review of Public Administration. https://doi.org/10.1080/12294659.2024.2416273
• Karen Mossberger and co-authors are featured in The Conversation:  Local governments are using AI without clear rules of policies, and the public has no idea 
• Thom Reilly and Jacqueline Salit are featured in The Conversation: In 2024, independent voters grew their share of the vote, split their tickets and expanded their influence (picked up by UPI and 26 Gannett newspapers in 15 states, including The Arizona Republic)
• Daniel Schugurensky delivered the closing keynote address at the international conference 'Posibilidades y compromisos educativos frente a la fragilización de la democracia', held at the Universidad de Chile. 
• Elisa Bienenstock and Skaidra Smith-Heisters, with coauthors from UC Riverside and UT Austin published "Geoforensic Palynology Search Models and Human-Mediated Secondary Pollen Deposition" in THE PROFESSIONAL GEOGRAPHER. 
• Alvaro Hofflinger had this study, Breathing dirty air, struggling in school: The case of air pollution and Student Learning in Chile recently published in the journal Population and Environment, which examines the link between air pollution and children's academic performance.
• Nicole Mayberry's newest book titled, "Creolizing Marcuse" has now been published. Part of the Creolizing the Cannon series, this work reimagines Herbert Marcuse’s ideas through the voices and perspectives of 12 distinct chapters and a foreword by Dr. Jane Anna Gordon. This edited volume is a call for decolonial, feminist, anti-racist, and queer scholars to breathe new life into Marcuse’s ideas, transforming them into evolving, practical tools for today’s struggles. It challenges us—as theorists, activists, and scholar-activists—not to stand still, but to remain dynamic in our pursuit of social justice.
• PhD candidates Jieun Kim and Youngjae Won published a paper with Yushim Kim, and Elizabeth Corley, titled "Preferring Local over Non-Local Parks? Green Space Visit Patterns by Urban Residents in Desert Cities, Arizona" in the Landscape and Urban Planning (IF 7.9). The journal is “ranked 1st internationally among all UrbanStudies, and Urban Studies and Planning journals, and among the top 5% all Geography, Ecology, and Environmental Science journals.” The paper investigates whether residents in urban neighborhoods use nearby green spaces more frequently than distant ones to fully enjoy health benefits and discusses the implications of study findings for green space equity. (January 3, 2025)
• Craig Calhoun and Charles Taylor. "Can Empowered Citizens Save Democracy?" The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville 45, no. 2 (2024): 212-219. 
• Craig Calhoun contributed the forward and a chapter titled “Herbert Marcuse and America’s Cultural Revolution” to the book, The Marcusean Mind (Routledge, 2024). 
• ASU News article about research being done in the school by Shannon Portillo, Kenja Hassan, Susan Miller and PhD student Andrew Bertucci: School of Public Affairs surveys thousands of Arizona lawyers, other legal professionals for state bar. 
• Nicole K. Mayberry's latest journal article, "I, Robot and the Breadcrumbs of Anti-Blackness," has been published in Somatechnics: Journal of Bodies – Technology – Power! In this article, she analyzes the 2004 film I, Robot, examining the racialization of technology and introducing the concept of "technological progress framing." This concept investigates how the belief in technology's rapid advancements is often framed as a solution to racial disparities. However, as she argues, such narratives frequently repurpose post-racial perspectives to further anti-Black rhetoric and agendas.
• Sian Mughan, Anthony Howell and Akheil Singla have published a short piece in the Austaxpolicy Blog, run by the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. The piece summarizes an article recently published in the Journal of Economic Geography. 
• Sian Mughan and Mary Feeney have published a paper titled "Policing, Technology, and Public Values: A Public Administration Research Agenda" in Perspectives on Public Management and Governance.
• New publication from Ivan Lee: Open government data and self-efficacy: The empirical evidence of micro foundation via survey experiments. Government Information Quarterly, 41(4), 101975. 
•  
• Thom Reilly was featured in the Washington Journal speaking about talked about Arizona’s political makeup, it's history and his research on Gen Z voters.
• Sarah Basset has a new article out titled,"4 Tools for Sharing Extreme Heat Risk Information".
• Yushim Kim's eBook Green Gentrification and Environmental Injustice has been published.
• Roni Fraser published the paper “Business Continuity as Self-Efficacy: Augmenting Existing Business Continuity Practice” in the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters (IJMED), with several co-authors (Univ. of Delaware).
• Ulrich Jensen published a new article in The Leadership Quarterly together with colleagues from Lithuania and Switzerland entitled "Charisma is a Costly Signal." The article shows that intelligence is a strong correlate of charisma signaling and that one's ability to be charismatic does not depend on one's personality.
• James E. Wright II (CO-PI) was awarded $413, 280 by the Clean Slate Initiative for a project that titled "Does Expungement of Drug Possession Convictions Reduce Recidivism Risk?"
• Brian Gerber is featured in ASU News: "As ASU students travel to Europe to learn officials’ approaches to major emergencies, climate change, sustainability." Read more here. 
• Jiho Kim published an article with Nick Oesterling and Graham Ambrose at the International Journal of the Commons. The article systematically reviews prior research that performs institutional analysis using computational methods.