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Trevor L. Brown

Associate Professor and

Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Research

350C Page Hall

1810 College Road

The Ohio State University

Columbus, OH 43210-1336

Phone: 614-292-4533

Email: brown.2296@osu.edu

 

 

Background

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

Trevor L. Brown is an Associate Professor at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University in Columbus.  Trevor also serves as the Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Research.  Trevor received a Joint Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Science from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) and the Department of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington.  Prior to his position in the Glenn School, Trevor served as the U.S. project manager of the Parliamentary Development Project (PDP), a foreign aid organization that provides technical assistance on democratic practices to the national parliament of Ukraine. He currently serves as PDP’s Associate Project Executive.   Trevor’s primary research on government contracting and contract management has been the basis for reports for the IBM Center for the Business of Government, the Pew Center on the States, and the U.S. Navy.  Trevor’s work has been cited by the Office of Management and Budget.  Trevor has given testimony on the Small Business Administration's contracting programs to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business and been quoted in various media outlets like Salon.com and the New York Times.

 

 
 
 
 
Research

 

Trevor has two primary research interests, one on government contracting and contract management, the other on democratization and institutional development.

 

Government Contracting and Contract Management

Trevor’s research on contracting examines why governments decide to make some goods and services and buy others.  When governments do opt to buy rather than make, Trevor’s research examines what steps governments take to manage the relationship in effort to contracting’s promised outcomes.  Much of Trevor’s work on contracting has been done in collaboration with Matthew Potoski and David Van Slyke of Syracuse University.  Most recently Trevor, Matt and Dave have undertaken an extensive study of contracting and contract management within the U.S. Coast Guard for the acquisition of the Deepwater Program, an upgrade of the Coast Guard’s air and sea assets and the information technology that connects them.  This research has been funded by the IBM Center for the Business of Government and the U.S. Navy.  Trevor, Matt and Dave are finishing up a book on the program.

 

Selected Papers on Government Contracting and Contract Management

Contracting for Complex Products (with Matt Potoski and David Van Slyke)

Managing Public Service Contracts: Aligning Values, Institutions, and Markets (with Matt Potoski and David Van Slyke)

Contracting for Management: Assessing Management Capacity under Alternative Service Delivery Arrangements (with Matt Potoski)

Transaction Costs and Contracting: The Practitioner Perspective (with Matt Potoski)

Contract-Management Capacity in Municipal and County Governments (with Matt Potoski)

 

Democratization and Institutional Development

Trevor’s second research focus examines how nations transitioning to democracy organize their political institutions. In collaboration with Charles Wise of the Glenn School, Trevor has analyzed the transition to democracy and the development of democratic political institutions in Ukraine, including the national Parliament, the constitutional court, and the intergovernmental system.  Trevor has also undertaken research on democratization issues in South Africa.   

 

Selected Papers in Democratization and Institutional Development

Constitutional Courts and Legislative-Executive Relations: The Case of Ukraine (with Charles Wise)

Elite Attitudes and Democratic Stability: Analyzing Legislators' Attitudes towards the Separation of Powers in Ukraine (with Vladimir Pigenko and Charles Wise)

Building Civic Infrastructure: Implementing Community Partnership Grant Programs in South Africa (with Charles Adams and Michael Bell)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Teaching

 

Trevor teaches doctoral, masters and undergraduate level courses on public management, organizational theory, and democratic development.

 

PUBAFRS 880 – Doctoral Seminar in Public Management

This course provides a survey of the research areas in public management.  The assignments are structured to prepare students for the Ph.D. qualifying exam in the Glenn School.  In particular, this syllabus serves as a reading list for much of the material that will be the subject of the public management exam.  In addition, the assignments will help students develop critical thinking and writing skills.

 

PUBAFRS 809 - Policy/Management Capstone II

This course provides students who have completed PPM 808 - Policy/Management Capstone I an opportunity to enhance their ability to communicate complex analytical information to a variety of audiences.  Students will have an opportunity to practice: writing a news release, interviewing, making a PowerPoint presentation, and providing testimony.

 

PUBAFRS 200 – Intro to Public Affairs

This course provides you with an introduction to public affairs, the interconnection between policy making and the governance of the organizations, networks, citizen groups, and individuals that tackle public problems.  We examine public affairs through the lens of the various organizations – public, private and nonprofit – that operate in the public sector.  In this course you will learn about how these different kinds of organizations work independently, collaboratively, and sometime in competition to address public problems.  We focus on how policy-making institutions and processes, government, private and non-profit organizations, and citizens interact to produce policies and implement programs that tackle public problems.

 

PUBAFRS 812 – Strategy for Public Organizations

This course provides students with a strategic perspective on the management and leadership of public sector organizations.  The course adopts the viewpoint of an upper level manager – an individual charged with diagnosing complex situations and resolving them in ways that enhance organizational performance.  The course focuses on how upper level managers can position their organization to achieve desired program outcomes through standard strategic management techniques (e.g. the balanced scorecard, strategy maps, logic models).  

 

PUBAFRS 810 - Managing Public Organizations

This course is designed to enable students to diagnosis problems and identify strategies to improve the performance and operation of public sector organizations. Through the course, students will acquire or hone some of the skills needed to be a successful manager in a rapidly changing public sector.  The course builds from the traditional strategic planning approach of identifying “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats” to examine the current “state of the art” in strategic management reform in the public sector.  The primary means through which students will come to understand public sector strategic management will be through case analysis.

 

PUBAFRS 880.06 - Organizational Theory

  This course provides a survey of the major perspectives in organizational theory.  While organizational theory is too broad to completely cover in a one-quarter course, through overview chapters and some of the classics of the field the course covers much of the diversity of organizational theory perspectives.  The course also identifies several of the "big questions" in public management.  The course readings also include empirical applications of the theories to highlight different methodological approaches to researching organizations.

 

PUBAFRS/IS 670 – Rebuilding Failed and Weak States

This course tackles the question of how to design policies and programs to rebuild failed and weak states into functioning, if not vibrant, democracies.  In particular, this class examines the programmatic efforts of one of the primary development organs – the U.S. Agency for International Development – in three settings: Ukraine, Rwanda and Iraq.