Professor of Economics & Public Policy

A headshot of Michael Ash.

In addition to the School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics, Ash is affiliated with the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), where he collaborates on the Corporate Toxics Information Project and uses EPA data to track the exposure of communities to pollution hazards (findings from which appeared in a paper he coauthored, Justice in the Air).

A headshot of Michael Ash.

Professor Emeritx of Economics

A headshot of M.V. Lee Badgett.

M. V. Lee Badgett is professor emeritx of economics and served as director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration (now the School of Public Policy) from 2007-16. She was also a faculty codirector of the Center for Employment Equity at UMass Amherst and a distinguished scholar at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at UCLA’s School of Law. Her most recent book, The Economic Case for LGBT Equality: How Fairness and Equality Benefit Us All, was published in 2020 by Beacon.

A headshot of M.V. Lee Badgett.

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Policy Undergraduate Program Director

A headshot of Brenda Bushouse.

Brenda K. Bushouse’s research program has two intersecting foci: The first is a lasting interest in the realm of activity that is neither market nor state. She researches the politics of nonprofit organizations in the policy process (see “Leveraging Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research to Inform Public Policy” and “The intermediary roles of foundations in the policy process: building coalitions of interest”). She is intrigued by the work of people and organizations who work to fulfill a social mission and is particularly interested in utilizing institutional analysis (see “Governance

A headshot of Brenda Bushouse.

Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy

A headshot of Henry Chang.

Henry Chang has been a federal employee for over 25 years in various management and analyst positions for several agencies including the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Executive Office of the President and the Peace Corps headquarters office.

A headshot of Henry Chang.

Senior Research Fellow

A headshot of Srinivas Chokkakula.

Dr. Chokkakula focuses on Water Conflicts and Governance at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, where he leads the Transboundary Rivers, Ecologies, and Development studies (TREADs) programme. His research and policy interests lie primarily in water sector, focusing on transboundary/interstate water conflicts and governance. His interests extend to federalism and politics of infrastructure development - including dams, smart cities, and rural roads. Dr. Chokkakula is currently a Member of the Drafting Committee of India’s National Water Policy.

A headshot of Srinivas Chokkakula.

Assistant Professor of Public Policy

A headshot of Bridgette Davis.

Bridgette Davis is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, the founding director of the Equitable Transitions to Adulthood (ETA) Lab, and a faculty affiliate of both the Center for College Student Success (CCSS) and Center for Justice Law & Societies (CJLS). Davis also serves as a faculty affiliate in the Center for Equitable Family & Community Well-Being at the University of Michigan. Davis’ research interests include anti-poverty policy implementation and the role of nonprofit organizations in the reproduction of social inequality—particularly during the transition to

A headshot of Bridgette Davis.

Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair in Public Policy

A headshot of Shanthie D`Souza.

Dr. Shanthie Mariet D’Souza is the Founder and president of Mantraya, an independent research forum that seeks to make constructive contributions in the realm of strategy, innovations, and alternatives. She is also a visiting faculty at the Naval War College, Goa; a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, Washington D.C.; a Research Fellow at WeltTrends-Institut für Internationale Politik, Potsdam; an International Advisor at the Nordic Counter Terrorism Network, Helsinki; a Member of Board of Studies, School of International & Area Studies, Goa University; an Editorial board

A headshot of Shanthie D`Souza.

Distinguished Professor and Director, School of Public Policy

A headshot of Jane Fountain.

Fountain's current research is focused on institutions and digitalization, specifically on cross-boundary and emergent institutional arrangements. She has worked with and coauthored with graduate students in the areas of institutional development and governance related to technological change in information and communications.

A headshot of Jane Fountain.

Director of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science

Associate Professor of Public Policy

Justin Gross headshot

Justin Gross is an associate professor of Political Science and the Director of the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science program. His research interests include U.S. and comparative ideologies, political communication in mass and social media, public opinion, and the intersection of identity and political beliefs. He works on methodological problems in measurement, text analysis, and network analysis, and is especially interested in methods that put statistical and computational tools to use in service of our ability to achieve rich qualitative insights.

Justin Gross headshot

Professor of Anthropology & Public Policy

A headshot of Krista Harper.

Krista Harper, professor of anthropology, is a cultural anthropologist with specializations in Europe (Hungary and Portugal), urban environmental and social movements, and qualitative research methods.

A headshot of Krista Harper.

Professor of Public Policy

John Hird.

Hird was the founding director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration (now the School of Public Policy) and the master’s program in public policy and administration from 1998 to 2006. He served as dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences from 2014 until 2021. He was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution from 1987-89 and an economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1988-89.

John Hird.

Lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science

Lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science

Assistant Professor of Public Policy

A headshot of Brittany Houston.

Brittany Houston is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy. Her research interests include organizational management, trust, social equity, technology equity, and representative bureaucracy within the criminal justice system.

A headshot of Brittany Houston.

Research Fellow

A headshot of Sarah Hutton.

Sarah Hutton (she/her/ella) is an experienced academic research librarian, educator, and data analyst with a specialisation in open education, governance frameworks, organizational theory, and strategic planning. She is a seasoned educator in experiential learning methods, making and makerspaces, and teacher training; she also has experience in competency standards development and credentialing in maker literacies and makerspace training programmes. Sarah is certified in LGBTQIA+ Foundations and Allyship, and is an expert in the application of Universal Design for Learning Principles (UDL) to

A headshot of Sarah Hutton.

Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy

A headshot of John Kamensky.

John Kamensky lectures on performance management at the School of Public Policy, University of Massachusetts-Amherst He is also an Emeritus Senior Fellow with the IBM Center for The Business of Government in Washington, DC, which sponsors independent research by academics and nonprofits on management challenges facing government leaders.

A headshot of John Kamensky.

Assistant Professor of Public Policy

A headshot of Juniper Katz.

Juniper Katz is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy and a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs, where her thesis, “The Effect of Policy Implementation on Public Values,” received the Best Dissertation Award. Katz has a M.S. in resource management and administration from Antioch University New England.

A headshot of Juniper Katz.

Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy

Robert LaRussa, with others in the background.

Mr. LaRussa teaches an SPP graduate seminar titled Navigating Washington: The people, policies and politics that go into making international trade policy. He is a Washington DC-based international trade and national-security attorney and former journalist. He spent the past two decades representing clients in international trade and national security matters, including those related to national security reviews of foreign investments in the United States.

Robert LaRussa, with others in the background.

Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy

A headshot of Eric Lesser.

Eric Lesser is a senior counsel at WilmerHale, a leading global law firm. Previously, Lesser was a four-term member of the Massachusetts State Senate, an Obama White House aide, and a Democratic candidate for Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor.

A headshot of Eric Lesser.

Professor Public Policy and Education

A headshot of Kathryn McDermott.

McDermott conducts research on how federal, state, and local education policy affects educational equity. In 2015, she coedited a special issue of the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, on the fifty-year history of how the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act has changed US public education. Her work on state policy has focused on the connections among accountability, standardized testing, and equity. It has been published in multiple journals and in the 2011 book High Stakes Reform: The Politics of Educational Accountability.

A headshot of Kathryn McDermott.

Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies & Public Policy

A headshot of David Mednicoff.

David Mednicoff is associate professor of Middle Eastern studies and public policy and chair of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. A lawyer and political scientist, he has a broad background in law, global politics, and Arab societies. His research focuses on connections between legal and political ideas and institutions at the national and transnational levels, particularly as these relate to current policy issues in the Middle East. One of these projects, on the meanings and political implications of the rule of law in Gulf Arab

A headshot of David Mednicoff.

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Director of Graduate Studies

Thaddeus Miller.

Thaddeus Miller is associate professor at the School of Public Policy. His work focuses on interdisciplinary research collaborations and research-community partnerships to advance urban sustainability and resilience, from the local to the international level.

Thaddeus Miller.

Provost Professor and Roy J. Zuckerberg Endowed Leadership Chair, Sociology & Public Policy

A headshot of Joya Misra.

Joya Misra's research interests include inequality; race, gender, and class; work and labor; political sociology; welfare states, and research methods. Her research on work-family policies uses a cross-national perspective, with a focus on ways that social policies can entrench or mediate existing inequalities.

A headshot of Joya Misra.

Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy

Boris Morozov.

Dr. Morozov’s teaching and research interests include Public Administration, Public Budgeting, Finance, Investments, Portfolio Management, Public and Not-for-Profit Strategic Planning and Management, and Comparative Budgeting and Financial Management.

Boris Morozov.

Associate Professor of Economics & Public Policy

A headshot of Lenore Palladino.

Palladino’s research focuses on the political economy of corporations and finance. She has also written on financial transaction taxes, employee ownership, the macroeconomic effect of investing in the care economy, and the rise of fintech.

A headshot of Lenore Palladino.

Lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science

 

Rosemary Pang headshot

M. Rosemary Pang is a lecturer in the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science (DACSS) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She teaches courses in Intro to R, survey analysis, and text analysis.

Rosemary Pang headshot

Dean, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Public Policy

R. Karl Rethemeyer.

Rethemeyer’s research centers on the structure, management and effect of social networks, as well as social network methodology, with particular reference to policy networks, clinical health networks and network systems. His research has appeared in leading journals. He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

R. Karl Rethemeyer.

Professor of Public Policy

A headshot of Alasdair Roberts.

Professor Roberts writes extensively on problems of governance and public policy. His most recent book, Superstates: Empires of the Twenty-First Century, was published by Polity Books in 2023. His previous book, Strategies for Governing: Reinventing Public Administration for a Dangerous Century, was published by Cornell University Press in 2019, and received the best book award from the ASPA Section on Public Administration Research. Eight earlier books have received four book awards.

A headshot of Alasdair Roberts.

Director of Public Interest Technology (PIT) Programs and Lecturer

Carolina Rossini

Carolina is the Director of Public Interest Technology (PIT) Programs at the UMass PIT Initiative and a Lecturer. Besides teaching and conducting research, Carolina is leading the development of a graduate course on PIT.

Carolina Rossini

Assistant Professor of Sociology & Public Policy

A headshot of Brian Sargent.

Professor Sargent's research interests include race and racism, economic sociology, comparative and historical methods, the politics of governmental reform, and urban sociology. He is working on a book manuscript that analyzes the Federal Reserve's efforts to implement the Community Reinvestment Act and the Truth in Lending Act.

A headshot of Brian Sargent.

Professor of Practice, Public Policy

A headshot of Elizabeth Schmidt.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Schmidt is a professor of practice, specializing in nonprofits, social enterprises, and solutions-based policy analysis. She currently teaches two graduate school courses, Nonprofit Law and Management and Social and Environmental Enterprises, and two undergraduate courses, Making a Difference: Policies and Strategies for Successful Social Change and Catalyzing Change: Creating and Operating a Nonprofit.

A headshot of Elizabeth Schmidt.

Professor of Environmental Conservation & Public Policy

A headshot of Charles Schweik.

Schweik’s active research programs and projects include: Cofounding World Librarians, which provides open educational resources to remote and offline schools and libraries in Malawi and Kenya; Codirecting UMassAir, a cross-campus UMass group that focuses on the use of unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) to support environmental policy and management; "Developing More Effective Caps Metrics for Assessing Ecological Integrity of Salt Marshes," funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. The research team is collecting large sets of temporal and multispectral imagery of approximately ten salt

A headshot of Charles Schweik.

Assistant Professor of Public Policy & Economics

Gregor Semieniuk

Gregor Semieniuk is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics. His research focuses on the energy and resource requirements of global economic growth and on the political economy of rapid, policy-induced structural change that is required for the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Gregor Semieniuk

Associate Professor of Public Policy and History; Director of Faculty Research, Institute for Social Science Research

Elizabeth Sharrow

Sharrow’s research interests are in the politics and history of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the politics of gender and race in US politics, the politics of the family, and the politics of college athletics. They are co-author of Equality Unfulfilled: How Title IX’s Policy Design Undermines Change to College Sport (Cambridge University Press). Their scholarship has been published in many scholarly forums. Her work has also been featured by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and has received multiple awards.

Elizabeth Sharrow

Assistant Professor of Public Policy

A headshot of Kelsey Shoub.

Kelsey Shoub is an assistant professor at the School of Public Policy. Her research examines two broad questions: How do descriptive identities (e.g., race and gender) of officials and civilians intersect with context and policy to shape outcomes; and How does language relate to policy and perceptions of politics? To explore these questions, she collects and analyzes large data sets using statistical and machine learning techniques, which she complements with experimental methods.

A headshot of Kelsey Shoub.

Lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science

Eunkyung Song headshot

Eunkyung Song is a lecturer in the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science (DACSS) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She teaches Text as Data, Social Networks, and Research Design.

Eunkyung earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University and is currently researching Relational Sociology, Text as Data, Social Networks, Social Movements, Cultural Sociology, Digital Sociology, Law and Society, Diversity and Inequality, HIV/AIDS activism, and Korean Studies.

Eunkyung Song headshot

Lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science

Carey Stapleton headshot

Carey E. Stapleton is a lecturer in the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science (DACSS) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He teaches courses in Survey Research and Survey Experiments.

Carey earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Colorado-Boulder, with his research interests including Political Psychology, Emotions, Emotional Contagion, and Political Polling Innovation. He has served as a political pollster during multiple election years.

Carey Stapleton headshot

Assistant Professor of Economics & Public Policy

A headshot of Marta Vicarelli.

Marta Vicarelli's research focuses on the risks and the socioeconomic impacts of climate variability and climate change; the economics of disaster risk-reduction based on the use of ecosystems; the economics of sustainable architecture, energy-efficient infrastructure, and green urbanism; and renewable energy.

A headshot of Marta Vicarelli.

Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy

A headshot of Peter Vickery.

Peter is a graduate of Oxford University (Jesus College), the University of the West of England, Boston University School of Law, and the Center for Public Policy & Administration at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a former member of the Governor’s Council (the elected body that reviews the Massachusetts governor’s nominations to the state courts) and of the State Ballot Law Commission. Peter is admitted to practice in the state courts of Massachusetts as well as the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts. His practice

A headshot of Peter Vickery.

Assistant Professor of Public Policy

photo of Viviana Wu

Viviana Chiu Sik Wu is an assistant professor at the School of Public Policy. Using mixed methods and computational approaches, she studies the roles and capacities of nonprofit, philanthropic, and grassroots organizations to advance public problem solving online and offline. Her research interests include philanthropy and nonprofit management, inequality and place-based disadvantage, connective action on social media, computational methods, and text as data.

photo of Viviana Wu

Lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science

Omer Yalcin headshot

Omer Yalcin is a Lecturer/Faculty Fellow in Data Analytics and Computational Social Science. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Social Data Analytics from the Pennsylvania State University

Omer Yalcin headshot

Lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Sciences

Erico Yu

Erico Yu is a lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Sciences.

Erico Yu

Associate Professor of Public Policy, Communication, and Information and Computer Sciences

A headshot of Ethan Zuckerman.

Ethan Zuckerman is an associate professor of public policy, communication, and information, as well as director of the UMass Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, focused on reimagining the internet as a tool for civic engagement.

A headshot of Ethan Zuckerman.

Admissions Counselor

Tess Bartman.
Tess Bartman.

Director of Operations

A headshot of Sally Fitz.
A headshot of Sally Fitz.

Distinguished Professor and Director, School of Public Policy

A headshot of Jane Fountain.

Fountain's current research is focused on institutions and digitalization, specifically on cross-boundary and emergent institutional arrangements. She has worked with and coauthored with graduate students in the areas of institutional development and governance related to technological change in information and communications.

A headshot of Jane Fountain.

Director of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science

Associate Professor of Public Policy

Justin Gross headshot

Justin Gross is an associate professor of Political Science and the Director of the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science program. His research interests include U.S. and comparative ideologies, political communication in mass and social media, public opinion, and the intersection of identity and political beliefs. He works on methodological problems in measurement, text analysis, and network analysis, and is especially interested in methods that put statistical and computational tools to use in service of our ability to achieve rich qualitative insights.

Justin Gross headshot

Associate Director of Recruitment

A headshot of Michael Marr.

Michael oversees the recruitment and admissions process at the School of Public Policy.

A headshot of Michael Marr.

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Director of Graduate Studies

Thaddeus Miller.

Thaddeus Miller is associate professor at the School of Public Policy. His work focuses on interdisciplinary research collaborations and research-community partnerships to advance urban sustainability and resilience, from the local to the international level.

Thaddeus Miller.

Associate Director of Graduate Student Services

Marcie Muehlke.
Marcie Muehlke.

Director of Undergraduate Advising

A headshot of Faith Nussbaum.

Faith Nussbaum oversees the administration of many aspects of SPP's undergraduate program and coordinates the advising for undergraduates.

A headshot of Faith Nussbaum.

Associate Director of Finance and Administration

Two children walking across the bridge over the UMass Campus Pond.
Two children walking across the bridge over the UMass Campus Pond.

Executive Director

A headshot of Crystal Paul.
A headshot of Crystal Paul.

Assistant Professor of Public Policy

A headshot of Kelsey Shoub.

Kelsey Shoub is an assistant professor at the School of Public Policy. Her research examines two broad questions: How do descriptive identities (e.g., race and gender) of officials and civilians intersect with context and policy to shape outcomes; and How does language relate to policy and perceptions of politics? To explore these questions, she collects and analyzes large data sets using statistical and machine learning techniques, which she complements with experimental methods.

A headshot of Kelsey Shoub.

Scheduling and Administrative Coordinator

A headshot of Justin Smith.
A headshot of Justin Smith.

Assistant Director of Graduate Student Services

A headshot of Emily White.
A headshot of Emily White.