Master of Public Policy

Alison Johnston is a recent graduate of the London School of Economics where she did research on European Political Economy.  She completed her undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Washington and is excited to be back in the Pacific Northwest.  Dr. Johnston has published research related to welfare state reconfiguration, wage inflation in the EU, and the cost of higher education funded through loans. You can see that paper, “Interest Subsidies on Student Loans: A Better Class of Drain” at http://cee.lse.ac.uk/cee%20dps/ceedp114.pdf. As one of the Provost Initiative hires in the School of Public Policy, Dr. Johnston’s home will be in the Political Science program and she will be teaching courses for Economics (Public Economics), Political Science (Politics of Western Europe and other topics in comparative politics), and Sociology (Analytic Methods).  Alison enjoys running and sports, looks forward to cycling in Corvallis, and describes herself as an avid cook (although she claims that some question the quality….)  We are excited to welcome this interdisciplinary scholar and teacher to the new School of Public Policy and to OSU.  

Jennifer Sykes joins us as an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy.  In 2011, she earned her PhD in Social Policy & Sociology from Harvard University, where she studied as a fellow in the Multidisciplinary program in Poverty & Inequality at the Harvard Kennedy School.  She also holds a Master’s degree in Social Policy from the University of York in the UK.  Dr. Sykes’ research focuses on the well-being of low-income families.  She has published in the area of child and family welfare and is currently examining the impacts of tax policy on parenting.  As one of the new hires in the School of Public Policy, Dr. Sykes’ home will be in the Sociology program and she will be teaching courses for Sociology (Sociology of the Family) and a core Political Science course in the graduate program (Policy Theory).  We are excited to welcome this interdisciplinary scholar and teacher to the new School of Public Policy and to OSU.

Todd Pugatch received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan in 2011, with an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.  Dr. Pugatch is currently working on questions related to youth unemployment in South Africa, and the effect of Mexican immigration on labor markets in the US.  His scholarly interests and expertise spans labor markets, education, and migration in developing countries, and will be of great interest to the increasing number of students in the School of Public Policy working on international issues.  Dr. Pugatch’s home will be in the Economics program and he will be developing and teaching courses for the program as well as the International concentration in the policy graduate program.   Dr. Pugatch enjoys playing recreational sports, especially softball, and his mood is excessively affected by the fortunes of his hometown Boston Red Sox. We are excited to welcome this interdisciplinary scholar and teacher to the new School of Public Policy and to OSU.

Brett Burkhardt recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in sociology.  He did his undergraduate work at Linfield College in McMinnville and is excited to be returning to the Pacific Northwest.  Dr. Burkhardt is currently researching the growth of private prisons and jails in the United States.  His previous work addressed felons' post-prison labor market opportunities and states' policies regarding ex-felons' voting rights, as well as an experimental pilot program aimed at increasing child support payments among non-custodial parents.  Dr. Burkhardt’s home will be in the Sociology program and he will be developing courses to support a new concentration in both Sociology and the Policy Graduate program related to law and crime policy.  He enjoys skiing, biking, gardening, and playing ultimate frisbee.  We are excited to welcome this interdisciplinary scholar and teacher to the new School of Public Policy and to OSU.

Mark Fermanich completed his M.A. in Public Administration and his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  He earned an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where he graduated cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  Dr. Fermanich has conducted policy research and evaluation at the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the University of Colorado Denver and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the areas of education policy, finance, and reform.  He has advised and provided technical assistance to state and local education policymakers and has taught graduate courses at the University of Colorado Denver, Sonoma State University and the University of California Davis.  He has numerous journal articles in the Journal of Education Finance as well as other education policy journals.  Dr. Fermanich will be teaching courses in Education Policy (Teacher Education) and Educational Finance (Community College Leadership).