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 the Fulbright Research Chair at the University of Ottawa’s Centre on Governance, where he studied Canadian democratic and electoral reform efforts at the national and provincial levels. This systemic reform continues to be an area of research interest in multiple countries. His recent publications include:
- Mingus, M. S. and Zhu, J. (2018). Increasing Citizen Access and Local Government Responsiveness in Yichang, China. International Public Management Journal, 21(3), 369-391.
- Mingus M. S. & Jing, Z. (2017). The Big questions of Chinese Public Management Research. Administration & Society, 49(6), 775-97
Dr. Vincent Reitano's research interests include public budgeting and finance, public policy, and statistical methodology. His research also draws from his consultation and applied research experience focusing on budgetary and financial challenges facing a variety of cities and school districts across the United States. His recent publications include:
Reitano, V., Jones, P., & Johnson, B. (2021). Civic Engagement in the Budget Process. Journal of Government Financial Management, 70(1), 28-29.
Buerger, C., Sandel, R.M., Reitano, V., Lofton, M.L., & Jones, P. (2021). Extending Difference-in-Differences Frameworks to Granger Equations: Evidence from Cutback Management during Three Recessions. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 34(6), 688-705.
Jones, P., Greer, R., & Reitano, V. (2021). Anchoring Votes: School District Performance Ratings and Bond Referenda. Public Finance and Management, 20(2), 182-213.
Jones, P., Reitano, V., Butler, J.S., & Greer, R. (2021). Going Beyond Parametric Regression in Public Management Research. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 34(6), 630-650.
Reitano, V. (2020). Small Local Government Revenue Forecasting. In D. Williams & T. Calabrese (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Government Budget Forecasting (pp. 241-256). Palgrave Macmillan.
Reitano, V. (2020). Government and Nonprofit Personnel. In D. Williams & T. Calabrese (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Government Budget Forecasting (pp. 361-376). Palgrave Macmillan.
Reitano, V., Jones, P., Barrett, N., & Fowles, J. (2020). Forecast Bias and Capital Reserves Accumulation. In D. Williams & T. Calabrese (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Government Budget Forecasting (pp. 377-396). Palgrave Macmillan.
Jones, P., Rakow, C. & Reitano, V. (2020). School District Enrollment Projections and Budget Forecasting. In D. Williams & T. Calabrese (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Government Budget Forecasting (pp. 303-323). Palgrave Macmillan.
Dr. Daniela Schroeter’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 two grants: a study of evaluation competencies in public administration (from WMU) and an evaluation of Indiana State University’s Accelerating College Completion through Math Mindset Program (from the U.S. Department of Education). Her recent publications include:
- Schröter, D. (2019). The Joint Committee Standards for Educational Evaluation’s Program Evaluation Standards. In Hense, J., Böttcher, W., Meyer, W., & Kalman, M. (Eds.) Standards der Evaluation in unterschiedlichen Handlungsfeldern Einheitliche Qualitätsansprüche trotz heterogener Praxis? (p. 237-245). Muenster, Germany: Waxmann Verlag.
- Ozeki, S., Coryn, C. L., & Schroeter, D. (2019). Evaluation Logic in Practice: Findings from Two Empirical Investigations of American Evaluation Association Members. Evaluation and Program Planning, 76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2019.101681.
- Coryn, C. L. S., Becho, L. W., Westine, C. D., Mateu, P. F., Abu-Obaid, R. N., Hobson, K. A., Schröter, D., Dodds, E. L., Vo, A. T., & Ramlow, M. (2019). Material incentives and other potential factors associated with response rates to Internet surveys of American Evaluation Association members: Findings from a randomized experiment. American Journal of Evaluation. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214018818371.
- Coryn, C. L., Wilson, L., Westine, C., Hobson, K., Ozeki, S., Fiekowsky, E., … Schroeter, D. (2017). A decade of research on evaluation: A systematic review of research on evaluation published between 2005 and 2014. American Journal of Evaluation, 38(3), 329–347.
- Coryn, C. L., Ozeki, S., Wilson, L. N., Greenman, G. D., Schroeter, D. C., Hobson, K. A., … Vo, A. T. (2016). Does research on evaluation matter? Findings from a survey of American Evaluation Association members and prominent evaluation theorists and scholars. American Journal of Evaluation, 37(2), 159–173.