- Phone:
- (812) 856-0828
- Email:
- aruther@iu.edu
- Research areas:
- Governance and Public Law
- Public Management
- Areas of Interest:
- Public administration
- K-12 and higher education policy
- Race, equity, and representation
SPEA 425
Education
- Ph.D., Texas A&M University
- MPA, University of Oklahoma
- B.A. and B.B.A., University of Oklahoma
Courses
- Management of Public Problems and Solutions
- Public Management
- Managing Workforce Diversity in Public Organizations
- Research Design and Methods in Public Affairs
Biography
Amanda Rutherford joined O'Neill as an assistant professor in 2015 after earning her Ph.D. in political science from Texas A&M University. She current serves as the chair of the Governance and Management faculty group. Professor Rutherford’s central research interests include political control and performance accountability, bureaucratic careers and executive decision-making, and issues of race, equity, and representation in the bureaucracy. Much of her research is conducted in the context of K-12 and higher education. Most recently, Rutherford received funding to study the role of School Resource Officers in public schools, the effects of vacancies in U.S. federal agencies on employee job satisfaction, and the structure and effectiveness of the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council.
Her work has been published in various journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Public Administration Review, and Public Administration. Her most recent book, Race and Public Administration, was published by Routledge in 2020. Rutherford has won numerous honors and awards including the O’Neill School’s Graduate Teaching Award (2019, 2021) and Leader for the Greater Good Award (2017), the Donald A. Gatzke Dissertation Award (2017), and an Emerging Education Policy Scholar (2020).
In November 2023, Rutherford, along with students Nya Anthony and Lillian Rogers, published the report U.S. School-based Law Enforcement with support from the IU Racial Justice Research Fund.
Highlights
- Trustees Teaching Award, 2022
- Graduate Teaching Award, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, 2019 and 2021
- Emerging Education Policy Scholars, Thomas B. Fordham Institute and American Enterprise Institute, 2020
- Prominent Public Affairs Scholar Award, Ph.D. Student Assocation, School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado-Denver, 2019
- Leader for the Greater Good Award, Graduate Student Choice Awards, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, 2018
- Donald A. Gatzke Dissertation Award for "Politics, Perceptions, and Performance in Higher Education, 2017
- George W. Kunze Endowed Graduate Fellowship for Outstanding Graduating Ph.D. Student, Texas A&M University, 2015
- Scholar Award Dissertation Fellowship, P.E.O. International, 2014-15
- Paul A. Volcker Endowment for Public Service Research and Education, Junior Scholar Research Grant, 2014
In the News
- “Erasing Equity Gaps with State Funding” – Inside Higher Ed, July 7, 2020
- “New Study Examines City-County Council” – WFYI Indianapolis, March 11, 2020
Selected Works
- “Compared to Whom? Social and Historical Reference Points and Performance Appraisals by Managers, Students, and the General Public,” (with T. Rabovsky and M. Darnley), Journal of Behavioral Public Administration (2021)
- Race and Public Administration, (Ed. with K. J. Meier), Routledge (2020)
- “Will the Tide Lift All Boats? Examining the Equity Effects of Performance Funding Policies in US Higher Education,” (with N. Favero), Research in Higher Education (2020)
- “Understanding Vacancy Time: A Theoretical Framework Informed by Cross-sector Comparison,” (with J.L. Mumpower, R.A. Bello Gomez, and M. Griffin), Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, (2018)
- Comparative Public Management: Why National, Environmental, and Organizational Context Matters, (Ed. with K. J. Meier, C.N. Avellaneda), Georgetown University Press (2017)
- The Politics of African American Education: Representation, Partisanship and Educational Equity, (with K. J. Meier), Cambridge University Press (2017)
- “Voting Rights for Whom?: Examining the Effects of the Voting Rights Acts on Latino Political Incorporation,” (with M. Marschall), American Journal of Political Science (2016)
- “Dynamic Pie: A Strategy for Modeling Trade-offs in Compositional Variables over Time,” (with A. Philips and G. D. Whitten), American Journal of Political Science (2016)
- “Management Goals in a Performance Driven System: Theory and Empirical Tests in Higher Education,” (with K. J. Meier), Public Administration (2015)
- “Evaluating Impacts of Performance Funding Policies on Student Outcomes,” (with T. Rabovsky), The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (2014)