Julia Melkers
Julia Melkers is Associate Professor of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Melkers' work addresses collaboration and outcomes in STEM fields and the use and development of performance measures in public organizations, with a special emphasis on publicly-funded science and technology-based institutions. Both her academic and applied research has been well recognized nationally and internationally. Her current funded work addresses the outcomes of science, and issues around scientific collaboration, career development and mentoring of junior faculty, doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows. She is currently co-principal investigator on a major NSF-funded project to examine the characteristics and role of social and research networks for academic scientists and engineers (“Women in Science and Engineering: Network Access, Participation, and Career Outcomes”-- Grant #REC-0529642). She is also co-principal investigator on two multi-year evaluation projects of NSF-funded research centers -- the Mid-America Earthquake Center (MAE) and the Center for Learning in Formal and Informal Environments (LIFE). Other funded research has included, among others, projects funded by the National Science Foundation "Science and Technology-Based Economic Development Programs in the States: A Study of Evaluation Efforts"); the American Association for the Advancement of Science ("Research Competitiveness in EPSCoR States: Information Needs of Legislators and University Researchers"); and the Sloan Foundation ("Using Performance Measurement in State and Local Governments").
In addition to this work, Dr. Melkers has conducted performance measurement-related work for the governments of Mexico and Latvia, the National Research Council, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the states of Georgia, Maine, Rhode Island and Alaska, the City of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Urban League. She has conducted performance measurement and strategic planning training for publicly-funded science and technology programs in the US, Europe and Mexico. Most recently, Dr. Melkers worked with CONACyT, Mexico’s federal R&D finding agency to develop an outcome assessment model for all of its funding mechanisms, including the development of human resources/research capacity. In other work, Dr. Melkers co-authored the R&D evaluation plan for the State of Maine in order for state agencies to comply with recent state performance measurement legislation. She currently serves on multi-year AAAS advisory boards to the Kentucky and Maine EPSCoR programs. Together with colleagues, she is currently writing a book on R&D evaluation methods, The New Generation of R&D Evaluation Methods: A Cross-National Review of Performance Measurement, to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing in 2007. Her publications may be found in journals such as 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. She received her B.A. in Political Science (1985) and Masters in Public Administration (1988) from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, and her PhD in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University (1993).
A detailed curriculum vita for Dr. Melkers can be found here.
Dr. Melkers can be contacted at jmelkers@gatech.edu
