Rosemary O'Leary is Emerita Distinguished Professor at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and Emerita Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on public management, collaboration, conflict resolution, environmental and natural resources management, and public law. O'Leary is most acknowledged for her scholarship exploring dissent in public organizations by career public servants who disobey the wishes of their superiors in order to do the right thing. She is also acknowledged for her research on catalyzing creative collaboration to improve public service and the impact of court decisions on government policies, people, and organizations. In 2021, the Academy of Management section on public and nonprofit management chose the 3rd edition of her book, "The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerrilla Government" (CQ Press 2021) as the winner of the Best Book in Public Management Award. This book explores the phenomenon of "guerrilla government," where career public servants clandestinely resist policies and decisions they find unethical, ineffective, or unjust as is happening in the federal government in the United States today. O’Leary analyzes the ethical dilemmas these public servants face, the motivations behind their actions, and the implications for governance, accountability, and democratic integrity. She also provides strategies for public managers to constructively engage with dissenters to foster ethical and effective government.
Career O'Leary was the Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professor of Public Administration at the University of Kansas from 2013 to 2023, following a 24 year career at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University (Phanstiel Distinguished Chair in Strategic Management and Leadership) and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Bloomington (Professor). Today she continues to teach and consult on "ethical dissent for public servants". She has won 13 national awards for her research and 2 international awards for her research, including 4 best book awards. She is the winner of 11 teaching awards, two of them national. She is also the only person to win four Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) awards for Best Dissertation, Excellence in Teaching, Distinguished Research, and Excellence in Doctoral Education. O’Leary has worked in Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, India, Nepal, and the US. She was President of the Public Management Research Association, 2017-2019. In 2019, the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) established the annual "Rosemary O'Leary Prize for Outstanding Scholarship on Women in Public Administration."
Selected Awards and Honors In 2021, O'Leary won the Duncombe Award for outstanding mentoring of PhD students given by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA). In 2017, she was awarded three lifetime achievement honors: The Provan Award for outstanding contributions to empirical theory given by the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division, the Frederickson Award for lifetime achievement and continuous contributions to public management research over an extended career given by the Public Management Research Association, and the Routledge Award for “outstanding contribution to public management research” given by the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM). In 2016 O'Leary won the John Gaus Award for a “lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration” given by the American Political Science Association. In 2014, she was the recipient of the Dwight Waldo Award for “distinguished contributions to the professional literature of public administration and in recognition of a distinguished career as author, educator, and public administrator”, given by the American Society for Public Administration. In 2014, an article she and her co-authors, Lisa Blomgren Bingham Amsler and Tina Nabatchi, had written nine years earlier was selected as “One of 75 Most Influential Articles since 1940” published in Public Administration Review. The article was "The New Governance: Practices and Processes for Stakeholder and Citizen Participation in the Work of Government" PAR 65(5), 547-558 (2005). This article also is in the top one percent of most-cited articles in public affairs in the past 30 years. In 2007, O'Leary won the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for “excellence in public administration research, teaching, and service to the broader community” given jointly by the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. O'Leary was the 2004 recipient of the Distinguished Research Award "for published work that has had a substantial impact on the thought and understanding of public administration", given jointly by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration and the American Society for Public Administration In 2004 and 2005, O'Leary served as a member of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration's Return to Flight (RTF) Task Group assembled in response to the Columbia space shuttle accident. In 2005 O'Leary was awarded the NASA Public Service Medal for “distinguished leadership, dedication and commitment” for her work on that Task Group. In 1998, O'Leary was elected a Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). NAPA is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-partisan organization that provides independent research and studies to advance the field of public administration. It is chartered by Congress and aims to improve government performance by offering solutions to significant challenges faced by governments at all levels.
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