Donald Moynihan

Irish-American political scientist

Donald Moynihan

Born|

Ireland

Spouse| Pamela Herd
Academic background
Education| BA, public administration, University of Limerick
MA, PhD, public administration, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Thesis| Pursuing rationality in public management: managing for results in U.S. State governments (2002)
Academic work
Institutions| Georgetown University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Texas A&M University

Donald P. Moynihan is an Irish-American political scientist. He is the McCourt Chair at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, having previously worked at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison) and Texas A&M University. While at UW–Madison, his book The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform was named best book by the Academy of Management's Public and Nonprofit Division and received the Herbert Simon award from the American Political Science Association.

## Early life and education

[edit]

Moynihan completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in public administration at the University of Limerick (1997) and his master's (1998) and Ph.D. (2002) in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.[1]

## Career

[edit]

Upon completing his formal education, Moynihan became an assistant professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University from 2003 until 2005.[2] While there, he received the 2004 Paul Volcker Endowment Junior Scholar Research Grant from the American Political Science Association‘s Public Administration Section for his work "What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Performance? A Content Analysis of Legislative Discussion of Performance Information."[3] Following this, he accepted a similar position at the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs within the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[2]

During his early years at UW–Madison, Moynihan published various books including The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform, which won the Best Book Award from the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management.[4] It also received the Herbert Simon award from the American Political Science Association, which honors the book with the most significant influence in public administration scholarship in the last three to five years.[5] In the same year, Moynihan launched the Performance Information Project "to bring together contemporary empirical research on how public services use performance data."[6] He was also one of four faculty members chosen to establish a partnership between the Department of Political Science and the Elections Division of the state's Government Accountability Board.[7] As a result of his academic achievements, Moynihan was one of the youngest members elected to be a Fellow of the United States National Academy of Public Administration[6] and served as a member of the Policy Council of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.[8]

By 2014, Moynihan's work was recognized as being among the most influential to be published by the journal Public Administration Review. His works were The Role of Organizations in Fostering Public Service Motivation and Pulling the Levers: Transformational Leadership, Public Service Motivation, and Mission Valence.[9] He was later appointed the La Follette School's Jerry and Mary Cotter Faculty Fellow[10] and received the David N. Kershaw Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.[11]

Prior to the 2016 United States presidential election, Moynihan co-authored a paper titled Election Laws, Mobilization, and Turnout: The Unintended Consequences of Electoral Reform, which focused on the effects of election laws to make voting more convenient and increase turnout. The paper won the State Politics and Policy Best Journal Article Award from the American Political Science Association.[12] His research on federal agencies' use of performance management data was referenced in President Barack Obama's proposed U.S. budget for 2016 and 2017. After presenting his research on public sector performance to policymakers at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), he received the Leon D. Epstein Distinguished Faculty Research Award from the University of Wisconsin–Madison's College of Letters & Science.[13]

Moynihan left UW–Madison in 2018 to join the faculty of Georgetown University with his wife Pamela Herd as the inaugural McCourt Chair at the McCourt School of Public Policy.[14] From 2018 until 2020, Moynihan was a Visiting Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government and an academic visitor at Nuffield College, Oxford.[15]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Donald Moynihan". lafollette.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
2. ^ a b "Curriculum Vitae Donald P. Moynihan" (PDF). lafollette.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
3. ^ Faster, Karen (11 July 2008). "Professor wins political science research prize". news.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
4. ^ "Moynihan wins best book award". lafollette.wisc.edu. 17 July 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
5. ^ Kuran, Simon (20 June 2012). "Moynihan wins national book award". ls.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
6. ^ a b Kuran, Simon (18 October 2011). "Moynihan elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration". ls.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
7. ^ Kuran, Simon (22 July 2009). "Political Science teams up with Gov't Accountability Board". ls.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
8. ^ "Moynihan recognized for leadership, scholarship". lafollette.wisc.edu. 28 January 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
9. ^ "Journal names 2 Moynihan articles as most influential". lafollette.wisc.edu. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
10. ^ "Moynihan wins faculty fellowship". lafollette.wisc.edu. 18 April 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
11. ^ Kuran, Simon (4 November 2014). "La Follette's Moynihan wins public policy analysis, management award". ls.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
12. ^ "Election turnout research wins national award". lafollette.wisc.edu. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
13. ^ "University honors Moynihan with research award". lafollette.wisc.edu. 25 April 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
14. ^ Schneider, Pat (20 March 2018). "UW's LaFollette School director Don Moynihan, researcher Pamela Herd headed to Georgetown". The Capital Times. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
15. ^ "DONALD MOYNIHAN VISITING PROFESSOR 2018-2021". bsg.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 May 2021.

## External links

[edit]

* Donald Moynihan publications indexed by Google Scholar

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* Norway
* Germany
* Israel
* United States
* Netherlands

Academics|

* Google Scholar

Other|

* IdRef