Faculty highlights and research

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• 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
• Melanie Gall published a new paper in "npj natural hazards" (Nature portfolio journal) entitled "Multivariate compound events drive historical floods and associated losses along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts". 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
• Mary Feeney was quoted in this Feb18 NPR article "National Science Foundation fires roughly 10% of its workforce". 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
• Melanie Gall co-authored a new paper that investigates the connection between natural hazard risk and mental health effects. Results suggest that living in areas prone to natural disasters is one factor associated with poor mental health status. Click Here
• Chris Herbst's paper entitled "Secure Communities as immigration enforcement: How secure is the childcare market?" (with Umair Ali and Jessica Brown; published in the Journal of Public Economics), which studies the impact of interior immigration enforcement policy on the child care market, has recently received coverage in numerous public policy blogs (e.g., at the Cato Institute, Brookings Institution, and Center for Law and Social Policy) as well as in press outlets like The Hechinger Report, The Guardian, New Republic, and Barron's.
• 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. 
• Melanie Gall has a new co-authored publication out on the topic of food insecurity, "The New Vulnerable: Changing Contexts of Food Insecurity in the United States." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00139157.2024.2419318 
• 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
• Mary Feeney was quoted by NPR in response to National Science Foundation freeze. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/31/nx-s1-5282162/scientists-grants-frozen-trump-executive-actions-dei-deia
• 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. 
• New publication from Mary Feeney, Federica Fusi, and Ignacio Pezo: Which data should be publicly accessible? Dispatches from public managers, Government Information Quarterly, 42(1) 102008, ISSN 0740-624X.
• Álvaro 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.
• Professors Maribel Guerrero (PI) and Don Siegel (Co-PI) have secured a second grant from VentureWell for $35,000. VentureWell, which is funded by the Lemelson Foundation and has strong connections to several federal agencies, is a higher education network that focuses on invention and academic entrepreneurship. Our project is titled “Increasing Engagement of Minority Students in Technology Transfer and Academic Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University.” We will identify and address gaps/barriers that minority students encounter, in terms of their participation in our university’s STEM innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. We also seek to promote technology transfer as a viable career option for minority students. 
• 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.
• Roni Fraser received silver recognition for her academic research poster entitled "Unveiling the Mental Health Dynamics of Disaster Volunteering: Exploring Stress and Depression Among U.S. Volunteers" at the International Association of Emergency Managers 72nd Annual Conference in late November 2024.
• 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. 
• A new paper from Debananda Misra & Mary Feeney draws from work of our colleagues, Derrick Andersen, Mike Crow, and Barry Bozeman - Misra, D., & Feeney, M. K. (2024). Organizational Design and Public Outcomes Among New Universities in Developing Countries. International Journal of Public Administration, 1–16. 
• Elisa Jayne Bienenstock with collaborators from the RESIDENT TEAM, a collaboration that included ASU, Boston Fusion Inc., the University of Florida, UC Riverside, and Jake Nelson (now at Auburn) published “An Optimization Approach for Biosurveillance in Wastewater Networks” in IISE Transactions. This research was funded by a DARPA Defense Science Office STTR to develop method to measure urban resilience to exogenous shocks.
• 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.
• Spiro Maroulis and former Center for Technology, Data, and Society Center postdoctoral fellow Catalina Canals recently published a paper about the impact of market-based reforms in education on the strength and sustainability of public schools. The paper, published in the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, helps disentangle the hypothesized explanations for the decline in public school enrollment in Chile between 2004 and 2016 and presents related implications for strengthening public school enrollment. (Nov 19, 2024) https://www.jasss.org/27/4/2.html
• New article by Sian Mughan and PhD candidate Dallin Overstreet: Mughan, S., & Overstreet, D. (2024). Can Local Government Mergers Reduce Costs When Capital Expenditures Are Low? Evidence from Court Mergers. Urban Affairs Review, 60(3), 892-922. https://doi.org/10.1177/10780874231209908
• Chris Herbst was a panelist at a three-day meeting on the Economics of Child Care hosted by the Buffett Early Childhood Institute. The goal of the meeting was to solicit research and policy advice from leading economists, with the goal of producing a consensus statement that will be circulated to advocates and policymakers when drafting childcare legislation during the next Congress. 
• 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. 
• Chris Herbst's new working paper entitled "The Declining Relative Quality of the Child Care Workforce" was featured in some recent press coverage of the child care workforce, including at Vox and The Hetchinger Report.
• The following faculty have been recognized among the top 2% for their respective fields in terms of career impact in an analysis published by Elsevier Data Repository by John P.A. Ioannidis: Barry Bozeman; Craig Calhoun; Maryann Feldman; Bhaven Sampat; Donald Siegel; Eric Welch.
• Chris Herbst’s research on the Lanham Act of 1940—legislation that created and funded the only universal childcare program in U.S. history—was highlighted in a recent Econ Focus article published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2024/q4_economic_history
• Maribel Guerrero, Donald Siegel, and Maryann Feldman had an article titled “Assessing the Impact of University Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Managerial and Policy Implications,” accepted for publication in Academy of Management Perspectives (IF 7.2). The article is based on an online symposium we hosted, which was supported by the Institute for Humane Studies, the Madden Center for Value Creation at Florida Atlantic University, and ASU’s Global Center for Technology Transfer. 
• Thom Reilly was featured in the Washington Journalspeaking about talked about Arizona’s political makeup, it's history and his research on Gen Z voters.
• Nicole K. Mayberry's newest book, "The Marcusean Mind" has officially been published as of October 29th. This is an interdisciplinary text featuring 39 chapters from contributors in over 15 countries and includes a forward by ASU's Craig Calhoun.
• Sarah Bassett's paper, "HeatReady Neighborhoods: A Planning Rubric for Extreme Heat," co-authored with Melissa Guardaro, Augie Gastelum, Ryan Winkle, Mary Muñoz Encinas, Jennifer Vanos, and David Hondula, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Planning Association. This study developed a set of comprehensive performance metrics to assess urban heat preparedness.
• Shannon Portillo was recently featured in a podcast titled,"Creating a Better Understanding of the Election System with Shannon Portillo". The full podcast link can be found here. 
• 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.
• Annus Azhar has published four articles this year, three appearing in Public Administration Quarterly and one in Social Indicators Research. The titles of these articles are: “Budgeting System and Economic Development Outcomes,” “Service Delivery during Crisis: The Impact of Organizational Capacity and Public Service Motivation on Governments’ Resilience,” “Collaboration, Capacity, and Cross-Sector Governance: An Analysis of the Adoption of Sustainable Technologies,” and “Poverty Dynamics: How Well Do Pakistan’s Provinces Compare?” He received a Teaching Innovation Award from the HAITC and the AI Innovation Challenge awarded by Arizona State University. Additionally, he was selected for an editorial position with Public Integrity.
• Margaretha Bentley was interviewed for the Canadian radio show "A Little More Conversation with Ben O'Hara-Byrne" about Taylor Swift's recent endorsement of Vice President Harris.
• 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).
• Yushim Kim's co-authored book, Green Gentrification and Environmental Justice: A Complexity Approach to Policy, will be available on October 16, 2024. (Amazon). In the book, Jieun Kim, a doctoral candidate, contributed a chapter, “Condition Clusters in Green Gentrification,” which demonstrates an innovative use of qualitative comparative analysis to examine green gentrification in Chicago.
• 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.
• Ulrich Jensen’s article “Combating COVID-19 with charisma: Evidence on governor speeches in the United States” was a finalist for best paper of 2023 in the Leadership Quarterly.
• Thom Reilly was featured in 12 News: Early voting is a big trend in recent elections; here's what it means for campaigns 
• 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. 
• Spiro Maroulis was featured in ASU News for his role empowering students to create MobileHealthConnect App, an app meant to address homelessness through innovative app development. Read more here.
• David Swindell was featured in Wallet Hub in a recent article on Best and Worst Run Cities in America in 2024. To read more select the link here.