Catherine Gerard concludes 15 years of leadership at PARCC
After serving as its director or co-director since 2005, Catherine
Gerard has stepped down from her leadership role at the Maxwell School’s renowned
Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC),
effective July 1, 2020. Gerard
will continue as an adjunct professor of public administration and associate
director for the Executive Education Programs at Maxwell, and also continue her
work as co-director of the Collaborative
Governance Initiative at PARCC.
PARCC is a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary research center that
advances theory, practice, and education in the fields of conflict and
collaboration. Founded in 1986 by Louis Kriesberg, Maxwell Professor Emeritus
of Social Conflict Studies, PARCC was among the first centers of its kind and
remains among the most influential. PARCC is known for its breakthrough work in
conflict transformation and identity conflicts in the international arena, as
well as research in collaborative governance, environmental conflict, and
advocacy and social movements.
Under Gerard’s leadership, PARCC expanded
its global footprint and signifianctly grew its research, teaching and training
portfolio, particularly in the area of online education. It launched the
Collaborative Governance Initiative to conduct research and training programs
on public management and changed the name of the center — from the Program for
the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts — to better reflect the new focus. It
established E-PARCC, the first on-line collection of peer-reviewed cases and
simulations for the teaching of collaborative governance and collaborative
development. It expanded its Certificate of Advanced Study in Conflict and Collaboration to include online and hybrid options, making it more accessible to a
wider number of students. Gerard helped develop PARCC’s visiting fellows
program, with particular focus on Chinese scholars engaged in collaborative
work, and expanded PARCC’s international impact through practice and research
grants in Central America, Africa, and the Middle East.
Importantly, Gerard’s efforts
resulted in three edited volumes of interdisciplinary scholarship on the
frontiers of conflict, the relationship between conflict and collaboration, and
new approaches to transforming intractable conflicts. She is co-editor
of Overcoming Intractable Conflicts: New Approaches to Constructive
Transformations (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and co-author of
"Understanding the Link Between Collaboration and Better or Worse
Relations: The View from Public Administration,” in Conflict and
Collaboration: For Better or Worse (Routledge, 2018), of which she is
a co-editor.
"Catherine personifies the Maxwell
spirit of connecting interdisciplinary scholarship to public service skills and
capabilities; and through her leadership, PARCC's reach and reputation as a top
research center has expanded in myriad ways and left indelible marks on the
intellectual landscape of the conflict and collaboration community,” says David
M. Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School. “A consummate citizen and
professional, Catherine is always willing to lean in, listen, and support
others through her engagement and commitment to the School and University. I am
grateful to Catherine for her service and am pleased that she will remain an
active partner in helping the School achieve its mission.”
New PARCC Director Named
Succeeding Catherine Gerard as
PARCC’s new director is Tina Nabatchi, a long-time PARCC associate who also
co-directs PARCC’s Collaborative Governance Initiative with Gerard.
Nabatchi, who joined the Maxwell
School in 2007, is the Joseph A. Strasser Endowed Professor in Public
Administration and a member of the faculty of Public Administration and
International Affairs. She previously had been research coordinator for the
Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute at Indiana University-Bloomington, where
she consulted on alternative dispute resolution in several U.S. federal agencies.
Her current research centers on collaborative governance and public engagement.
Among many other projects, she worked on the federal government’s Open
Government National Action Plans and a World Bank online course about citizen engagement
(delivered to tens of thousands of participants around the world). She also has
extensive scholarly involvement in Participedia, an online repository of
democratic and participatory innovations around the world.
Nabatchi is a well-regarded researcher
and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration — one of
the highest indicators of esteem in her field. She is co-author of Collaborative Governance Regimes, with
Kirk Emerson (Georgetown University Press, 2015), which won the 2017 Sharon M.
Pickett Award from the Association for Conflict Resolution. She is also lead
editor of Democracy in Motion: Evaluating
the Practice and Impact of Deliberative Civic Engagement (Oxford University
Press, 2012) and co-author of Public
Participation for 21st Century Democracy, with Matt Leighninger
(Jossey-Bass, 2015). She is the author of several award-winning articles,
including ones on citizenship and collaborative governance that won the 2010
Best Article Award from American Review
of Public Administration and the 2015 best article award from Public Performance and Management Review.
Her article on stakeholder and citizen participation in the work of government
was named one of the 75 most influential articles in the history of Public Administration Review.
07/30/20