School of Public Affairs and Administration

School of Public Affairs and Administration
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5440 USA
(269) 387-8932

Research by Faculty

The faculty in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Western Michigan University are engaged in research dealing with a variety of topics including leadership, ethics, intergovernmental relations, student learning preferences, evaluation, public policy, and comparative public administration. Below is the list of ongoing research and recent publications of the public administration faculty members. Click on the individual faculty members name to view more information on their directory pages.

Dr. Vickie Edwards' research interests include nonprofit management, strategic planning and action, civic engagement, democratic governance, volunteerism, and organizational behavior. Her current research focuses on informal volunteerism and pro-social civic behaviors in socioeconomically depressed and minority communities. She has evaluated programs in the fields of education and health care and served as a consultant to various public and nonprofit organizations. Her recent publications include:

  • Kleinschmit, S. W. & Edwards, V. L. (2017). Examining the Ethics of Governmental-Organized Nongovernmental Organizations (CONCOGs). Public Integrity, 19(5), 529-46.

Dr. Matthew S. Mingus' research focuses on comparative public administration and particularly multilevel systems of governance, the changing nature of borders and national sovereignty, and democratic reform. He has extensive international experience in China, Iraq, and Canada. He was a foreign expert professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, a Senior Governance Advisor in Iraq for the U.S. Department of State, and the inaugural Fulbright Research Chair at the University of Ottawa’s Centre on Governance. Some recent research includes:

  • Larson, S. and Mingus, M. S. (pending). “Comparative Political-Bureaucratic Response to Pandemics: LGBTQIA+ Populations and Three Pandemics in the U.S.” in Wallace, S., ed., LGBTQIA+ Communities, Pandemics and Policy Responses: Connecting the Dots, Routledge.
  • Mingus, M. S. (2024). Corporations as “The New Governance.” Book Review of Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian, The Privatization of Everything. How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back, Public Administration Review, 84(2), 375-376.
  • Wijayanti, N. and Mingus, M. S. (2022). Decentralization and Citizen Perceptions of Prosperity in Indonesia, AKRUAL: Jurnal Akuntansi, 14(1), 80-94.
  • Corder, J. K., Mingus, M. S., and Blinova, D. (2020). Factors Motivating the Timing of COVID-19 Shelter in Place Orders by U.S. Governors, Policy Design and Practice, 3(3), 334-349.
  • Mingus M. S. & Zhu, J. (2017). The Big questions of Chinese Public Management Research, Administration & Society, 49(6), 775-97.

Dr. Daniela Schröter's research interests include evaluation theory, methodology, practice, and capacity building with a special emphasis on social and organizational change in nonprofit contexts. She is currently working on three grants: The Value of 360-Degree Assessment in Higher Education (sponsored by WMU, 2024), Center for Excellence and Research in Public Service Incubator Grant (sponsored by WMU, 2024), and the Evaluation of the ISU S.M.A.R.T. Space SIP Grant (sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, 2018 – 24). Her research agenda centers on practitioner-oriented classification of old and novel evaluation models, models for systemwide sustainability evaluation, and research on evaluation models for organizational training and development. Her recent publications include: