Brian Ohl

Brian Ohl is adjunct public administration and international affairs professor, teaching public budgeting, among other topics. He received the 2022 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University for excellence in teaching executive education students. Ohl is a Ph.D. candidate in public administration at the Maxwell School and has an M.P.A. from Cornell University. 

Ohl served as the assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget for New York City and also worked as director of programs for an environmental nonprofit. As the assistant director of the infrastructure task force, he had the opportunity to work on many of the city’s major environmental policy initiatives, including PlaNYC, the city’s sustainability plan. In that role, he oversaw a combined $3.2 billion in agency operating budgets and $20.8 billion in capital programs.

Ohl’s research focuses on management, collaborative governance, and public budgeting. In his dissertation, he developed a new concept, goal potential, and related strategic management framework, aimed at advancing public value goals such as sustainability in organizational goal hierarchies. He is also working on several collaborative governance projects with his advisor, Professor Tina Nabatchi and other colleagues related to the atlas of collaboration (https://atlasofcollaboration.org). Ohl’s public budgeting research is focused on strategic management approaches to advancing environmental policy via budgetary processes and creating coherence across goal systems.