Heather Getha-Taylor
- Professor
- School of Public Affairs & Administration
Contact Info
Lawrence
Personal Links
Biography —
Heather Getha-Taylor is a Professor in the KU School of Public Affairs and Administration. Her research, teaching, and service interests focus on public and nonprofit management topics including human resource management, collaboration, and leadership. Her Ph.D. is from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.
Research —
My research focuses on the public service workforce, with emphasis on changing dimensions of public work, including enhanced expectations for collaboration and leadership. Exploring the connection between theory and practice is important to me and I seek to understand how conceptual frameworks and theoretical assumptions influence, or are influenced by, contemporary realities. I have authored or coauthored over 70 journal articles, book chapters, and practical reports. For my first research project (as a graduate student), I examined the representation (or lack thereof) of women in the federal government's Senior Executive Service. Unfortunately, this topic remains salient over twenty years later: my current book project examines persistent gender inequity in public service leadership.
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 scholarly resources 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 SPAA intellectual life committee. At the university level, I 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 served as Editor-in-Chief of Public Personnel Management from 2019-2023. I partner with and contribute to the broader public administration community through engaged scholarship projects, consultation, and association presentations.