r. Julia Melkers’ research addresses capacity development, collaboration patterns, social networks and related outcomes of science, and issues around career development and mentoring in STEM fields with a special focus on women and underrepresented minorities. She is currently principal investigator a major (>$1M) NSF-funded project to examine the characteristics and role of social and research networks for academic scientists and engineers (“Empirical Research: Breaking through the Reputational Ceiling: Professional Networks as a Determinant of Advancement, Mobility, and Career Outcomes for Women and Minorities in STEM” --Grant # DRL-0910191: 2009-2012) and (“Women in Science and Engineering: Network Access, Participation, and Career Outcomes”-- Grant #REC-052964: 2006-2009) . (For more information on these projects, please visit: http://netwise.gatech.edu)
She is an elected member of two national boards: the Policy Council of the Association for Public Policy and Management, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPP). She has also served in AAAS external advisory boards to the Maine and Kentucky NSF EPSCoR programs, and the Delaware NIH INBRE program.
Dr. Melkers has extensive program evaluation experience, both within the context of science, as well as regarding other public programs. Each of these evaluations uses a multi-methodological approach and integrates social network methods to track the development and knowledge exchange in collaborative interactions. She is currently an external evaluator in a number of multi-year evaluations of NSF Centers and initiatives, including the:
- Center for Learning in Formal and Informal Environments (LIFE);
- Alaska NSF EPSCoR Phase III Initiative: Resilience and Vulnerability in a Rapidly Changing North: The Integration of Physical, Biological and Social Processes;
- Kentucky-Montana NSF EPSCoR Collaborative Research Grant: Cyberinfrastructure for a Virtual Observatory and Ecological Informatics System (VOEIS);
- Maine NSF EPSCoR Sustainability Solutions Initiative;
- Georgia Tech-Purdue University grant: VIP Program - Integrating Undergraduate Design Projects and Graduate Research; and the
- NSF-ERC Mid-America Earthquake Center (MAE) (evaluation is completed).
In addition to this work, Dr. Melkers has conducted performance-related work for the governments of Mexico and Latvia, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Research Council, HUD, the States of Alaska, Georgia, Rhode Island and Maine, the City of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Urban League.
Dr. Melkers joined the Public Policy faculty in 2007. She previously was on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Georgia State University, and the University of Alaska. She earned her PhD in Public Administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 1993. She is co-editor of The New Generation of R&D Evaluation Methods: A Cross-National Review of Performance Measurement, to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing. Her publications may be found in journals such as Review of Policy Research, Public Administration Review, Urban Studies Review, Policy Studies Journal, Public Budgeting and Finance, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Journal of Technology Transfer and Evaluation and Program Planning. Dr. Melkers also serves on the editorial boards of Research Evaluation, Evaluation and Program Planning, State and Local Government Review and Economic Development Quarterly.
|
