Heather Getha-Taylor
- Professor, School of Public Affairs & Administration
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Education —
Research —
My research focuses on the public sector workforce, with special emphasis on the changing dimensions of public work, including enhanced expectations for boundary-spanning collaboration. I explore, for instance, the ways in which collaborators work to develop trust, illustrate collaborative competencies and adapt leadership styles and practices. Connected to this, I also work on leadership training and development projects, including those that consider the design, evaluation and impact of these programs. Exploring the connection between theory and practice is important to me and I seek to understand ways in which established frameworks and assumptions influence, or are influenced by, contemporary realities. My current work, for instance, reflects a tension between enduring values and emerging priorities, which is a unifying theme across projects.
Research interests:
- Public and nonprofit management
- Collaboration
- Human resource management
- Public service leadership
Teaching —
I teach undergraduate and graduate students from multiple campuses (Lawrence, Edwards and Leavenworth). I believe in engaged scholarship and the premise that teaching and research should inform and reinforce one another. I strive to help students become evidence-based managers who can effectively use theory and empirical research to address practical challenges. Further, I work to design course components that connect with contemporary themes and audiences outside the classroom. I seek to engage students with different learning styles in meaningful ways by utilizing a variety of teaching approaches. Finally, I value reflective practice and encourage students to thoughtfully apply course lessons to their own professional development during their academic journey and beyond.
Teaching interests:
- Public and nonprofit management
- Collaboration
- Human resource management
- Public service leadership
Service —
I serve the KU School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA), the University of Kansas and the broader academic and practitioner communities in a number of ways. Within SPAA, I've served on a variety of departmental committees and also in leadership roles, including chairing the nonprofit curriculum task force, coordinating SPAA learner outcomes assessments and serving as undergraduate program coordinator. At the university level, I have served as a faculty fellow for the Center for Civic and Social Responsibility and as a faculty ambassador for the Center for Teaching Excellence. For the academic community, I serve as a reviewer for a variety of scholarly journals and am a member of the editorial boards of Public Integrity and Review of Public Personnel Administration. I currently serve as editor-in-chief of Public Personnel Management. I engage with the broader public administration community through engaged scholarship projects, consultation and association presentations.