Executive Board

Prof. Richard Callahan

Prof. Richard Callahan

Richard is a Professor at the University of San Francisco, with a joint faculty appointment in both the School of Nursing and Health Professions and the School of Management, as well as Co-Director of the USF MPH program in Sacramento. He is a Principal in the consulting firm of TAP International. He is Editor In Chief of the International Journal of Public Leadership.

His presentations, research, teaching, and consulting focus on strategies and leadership behaviors that are effective in complex, demanding, and dynamic environments in the public and nonprofit sectors. He has taught, designed and delivered leadership training programs for elected and appointed officials in state and local government for the past 20 years.

Current projects

  • National Academy of Public Administration, Expert Advisory Panel, three members for National Association of Counties funded study of CARES Act funding of county governments COVID-19 response.
  • National Academy of Public Administration, Co-Chair, 17-member panel for NAPA study of Intergovernmental Dimensions of COVID-19 response.
  • National Academy of Public Administration, Expert Advisory Panel, five members, for funded study of the US Department of Energy’s technology transfer program.

He is an elected Fellow the National Academy of Public Administration, a nonprofit academy chartered by Congress for the past 50 years to advise on complex public governance challenges. He has published more than 40 peer review articles, journal articles, book chapters, and reports.

He has been a lead consultant for the Milbank Memorial Fund foundation’s national Emerging Leaders Program for state health policy legislators and executive staff from over 20 states since 2016. He directed the Sierra Health Foundation Leadership Program for 15 years.

He was the Keynote Speaker for Vietnam Symposium on Leadership and Policy-2019, the Visiting Scholar 2017-2018 for the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento. He was a visiting researcher at Oxford University, 2016. He delivered the Keynote address for the U.S. Air Force 2009 annual Academy Academic Award Ceremony. He was a Fulbright Specialist Program Fellow in 2011 for Istanbul Aydin University, Turkey

He was co-designer of the University of Southern California’s Executive Master of Leadership degree.  Since 2000, He has designed and delivered leadership programs across a range of government and health policy organizations, including the National Conference of State Legislatures, California State Government Leadership Institute, and the California Institute of Mental Health.

His publications include editing and writing chapters in the book, Public Health Leadership: Strategies for Innovation in Population Health and Social Determinants and in Great Policy Successes published by Oxford University Press.

His publications include editing and writing chapters in the book, Public Health Leadership: Strategies for Innovation in Population Health and Social Determinants and in Great Policy Successes.

He has been published in journals including Public Administration Review, American Review of Public Administration, Chinese Review of Publication, The National Civic Review, Government Finance Officers Association Journal, Public Management Review, Public Manager and Journal of Interdisciplinary Sciences.

He is a graduate of Georgetown University, attended Tenri University in Japan, and has a master degree and doctorate degree from the University of Southern California.

Prof. Jean Hartley

Prof. Jean Hartley

Jean is a Professor of Public Leadership at The Open University. She is also Academic Director of the Open University Centre for Policing Research and Learning, which is The Open University’s collaboration with 22 UK police forces (2/3 of the UK policing workforce) to create and use knowledge to improve policing for the public good.

Jean researches and teaches in the field of public leadership and management, across a range of public services including police, local government, health, prisons, and civil service.  Her work on leadership includes the value, use, and skills of leadership with political astuteness for public servants, the dual leadership of senior public servants working with politicians in local and central government; leadership development for local, devolved and national elected politicians, and for public managers; leadership to create public value, leadership in healthcare, local government and policing, and leadership in societies with conflict and protracted crisis.  She is also interested in innovation and organizational change in public services, and on how networks can spread learning and innovation.  She has written seven books and numerous articles on leadership, innovation in governance and public services, organizational change, and public value.     She authored the MOOC on “An introduction to public leadership”.

Jean is a Fellow of the British Academy of Management and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.  She was a member of the Berwick Advisory Group which advised the Secretary of State for Health in July 2013 on improving patient safety in healthcare, including leadership, following the Francis Report.  She was a member of the Sunningdale Institute of the (then) National School of Government.  In 2019 Jean was awarded the British Academy of Management Medal for outstanding research and in 2020 the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Research Society on Public Management.  She has been a Visiting Professor at the Australian and New Zealand School of Government, and for five years was a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  In her spare time, Jean is a Trustee of Friends of Ibba Girls School, which is supporting girls’ education in South Sudan.

Dr. Ben Kuipers

Dr. Ben Kuipers

Director of the Leiden Leadership Centre and Associate Professor at Leiden University (NL)

In his research and teaching, Ben focuses on public leadership, teamwork, and change in the public sector. The connection between science and practice plays an important role in his work. Next to his academic position, he is a partner at Verbetervermogen – Organization Development, and editor in chief of the Holland Management Review.

Prof. Karin Lasthuizen

Prof. Karin Lasthuizen

Karin is the inaugural Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership at the Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand).

The Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership was established in November 2016 to provide insight that can improve ethical leadership practices in business and government and help mitigate the ethical risks that can lead to organisational failures.

Her research and consultancy work focus on ethical leadership and ethics management in public and private sector organisations and she specialises in methodology for research into organisational unethical behaviours (OUB) such as corruption and fraud. She has numerous publications in national and international journals and books, and she offers a free online course (MOOC) “Ethical Leadership in a Changing World” via the EdX platform to professionals and students worldwide.

She is co-founder of the international academic research network on public and political leadership (PUPOL) and she is Chair of the Ethics Committee of Transparency International New Zealand.

She studied Political Science at the Radboud University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands). In 2001 she joined the VU University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, where she obtained her PhD in Social Sciences in 2008 with the dissertation Leading to Integrity on leadership and integrity violations within the police. In 2011 she was awarded the VU/FSW Jenny Gierveld Fellowship for talented female scholars. Before she moved to Wellington in 2016, Karin also worked part time as a City Councillor for the Dutch Labour party (PvdA) in her home city Arnhem.

Dr. Rudolf Metz

Dr. Rudolf Metz

Rudolf is a political scientist, whose research interest focuses on studying political and democratic leadership. He gained his Ph.D. in political sciences from the Corvinus University of Budapest in 2019. His post-doctoral research tries to explore populist and charismatic leadership from followers’ perspective.

He is a research fellow of the Institute for Political Sciences in the Centre for Social Sciences (Hungary) and a lecturer at the Corvinus University of Budapest presenting courses on political leadership and governance. He was visiting lecturer at Leopold-Franzens-Universität, Innsbruck Austria.

Dr. Alessandro Sancino

Dr. Alessandro Sancino

Alessandro Sancino is Associate Professor at The Open University (UK) and at the University of Milan-Bicocca (IT). He has published his works in top journals in the fields of public administration, management, and urban studies. He is a member of the Executive Board of PUPOL (Public and Political Leadership Network) and of the RSA (Regional Studies Association) Publications Committee. His research has been funded by several institutions, such as The College of Policing in the UK, the UK Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the Netherland Institute of Government, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR). His research has been also used by prominent institutions, such as for example the London Metropolitan Police, the Resilience, Protection & Intelligence Team of the UK Government, and the Italian Association of Municipalities. He is co-editor of Public Policy & Administration and a member of the editorial board of Public Administration Review and International Journal of Public Leadership.

Academic Network Public and Political Leadership