Janine is Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy

I have been Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National Univeristy since January 2023. Prior to that I was Professor of Public Management at the University of Melbourne, and also undertook an extended secondment to the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. Across research, education, and engagement, my interests are in better understanding how government works and working with leaders across the public sector to improve governmental outcomes.  

My research focuses on public management and in particular on public sector reform and the nature of relationships. Across my career, this has involved working on topics such as the design and implementation of large-scale reform programs, the creation and evolution of public service markets, public value creation, experiments with collaboration and joined-up government, and the design of performance management systems. More recently my work has focused on positive public administration to understand how government succeeds (rather than fails), and the intersection of morality and public management in areas of extreme policy complexity. My collaborative research projects have received several academic awards including: best articles in Public Administration Review and Review of Public Personnel Administration; best book award at the Academy of Management; and several best paper awards at Academy of Management. 

You can find my most recent books here: Pathways to Positive Public Administration (2024 with Patrick Lucas, Tina Nabatchi, and Paul 't Hart) and Research Handbook on Public Management and COVID-19 (2024 with Helen Dickinson, Sophie Yates, and Catherine Smith). For a full list of my publications you can acess my CV here. 

From 2022-2024, I was an Associate Editor at Public Management Review and previously I was an editor of the Australian Journal of Public Administration (2015-2021). I am currently a member of several editorial boards for journals from across the world:  Public Administration; Public Management Review; International Journal of Public Administration Policy Design and Practice;  Journal of Public Affairs Education;  Global Public Policy and Governance;  Halduskultuur: The Estonian Journal of Administrative Culture and Digital Governance. Previously I was on the editorial boards of: Public Administration Review; Journal of Management & Organization, Teaching Public Administration, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration and Canadian Journal of Public Administration. 

My teaching focuses on management issues in the public sector and the challenges faced by contemporary leaders. I have worked extensively with experienced professionals from across the world in both executive education and postgraduate programs and have been recognised for teaching excellence through various college, university and national level awards. I have provided exert advice to policy makers and public managers in many parts of the world including in Australia, Chile, Bhutan, New Zealand,  United States of America, Vietnam, Canada, China and Singapore.

Since 2021 I have been on the Board of Directors for the Public Management Research Association and between 2012-2018 I was an elected member of the executive board of the International Research Society for Public Management. In 2022 I was appointed to the Australian Capital Territory Institute of Public Administration Australia Council, and have represented the ACT on the National Council of the Institute of Public Administraton Australia since 2024.  

In 2022 I was elected as a fellow of the (US) National Academy of Public Administration and in 2013 I was appointed a fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia. In 2022, I was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Victorian Public Sector Commission. Previously was a member of the Advisory Board for the  Australian Public Service Centre for Leadership and Learning  (2018-2020) and a member of the Infrastructure Victoria Expert Panel on the Role of Infrastructure in Addressing Regional Disadvantage (2019-2020). Since 2021 I have been a member of the Centre for Public Impact Australia and New Zealand Research Committee, and now co-chair the Research Committee. 

In 2019, I co-authored a major research paper on commissioning and contracting to inform the work of the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service. You can read the paper here: 2030 and Beyond: Getting the Work of Government Done.  In 2020, I joined a network of practitioners and academics attached to the Agile Government Center, sponsored by the United States National Academy of Public Administration and the IBM Center for the Business of Government.  

PhD (Melbourne)

Bachelor of Commerce (Hons. First Class, Melbourne)