Donald F. Kettl
Professor and Academic Director, LBJ Washington Center
Education
- Ph.D., Yale University, Political Science
- M.Phil., Political Science, Yale University
- M.A., Political Science, Yale University
- B.A., Scholar of the House, Yale University
Research Areas
- Finance, Management and Leadership
- Policy Process and Institutions
Teaching Areas
- Finance, Management and Leadership (including non-profits)
- Policy Process and Institutions
Donald F. Kettl was professor and former dean in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Volcker Alliance, the Brookings Institution and the Partnership for Public Service.
Kettl has authored or edited numerous books, including Can Governments Earn Our Trust? (2017); Little Bites of Big Data for Public Policy (2017); The Politics of the Administrative Process (7th edition, 2017), Escaping Jurassic Government: Restoring America’s Lost Commitment to Competence (2016), System under Stress: The Challenge to 21st Century American Democracy Homeland Security and American Politics (2014), The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them (2008), and The Global Public Management Revolution (2005).
He has received three lifetime achievement awards: the American Political Science Association’s John Gaus Award, the Warner W. Stockberger Achievement Award of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources, and the Donald C. Stone Award of the American Society for Public Administration.
Kettl has twice won the Louis Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration for The Transformation of Governance (2002); and System under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics (2005). His book, Escaping Jurassic Government: How to Recover America’s Lost Commitment to Competence, won the 2016 award for book of the year from the American Society for Public Administration.
Kettl has consulted for government organizations at all levels, including most recently the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He has appeared frequently in national and international media. He is chaired two gubernatorial blue-ribbon commissions for the Wisconsin state government, one on campaign finance reform and the other on government structure and finance.
Core to the LBJ School's mission is "getting it done" — developing solutions to policy problems through scholarship and public discourse. Every year, faculty and students take on research that melds the theoretical and the practical, exploring the world through hands-on field work and data analysis to address issues critical to the health of American democracy and global society. Innovation Bound celebrates the impact, quality and range of the published works of our distinguished scholars.
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"'Medicare for All' is already a flashpoint in the 2020 presidential campaign. But as big as this fight will be, an even bigger issue lurks in its shadow. The health insurance that Americans pay for and receive is a function of where they live, and that could become even more true in the months and years ahead," writes Don Kettl, LBJ professor and academic director of the LBJ Washington Center.
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In this episode of "Policy on Purpose," guest host Don Kettl, LBJ professor and academic director of the LBJ Washington Center, talks with former Mayland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and Robert Shea of Grant Thornton about how data-driven decision making can change the way governments serve people.
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