Center Faculty + Staff Members

Kevin Gerdes, PNLC Director

Kevin served as Commander at Company, Battalion, and Brigade levels with the MN National Guard, and helped establish Minnesota's "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon" program to support soldiers returning from active duty. He is finishing his PhD in Leadership Studies at the Univ. of St. Thomas. Kevin is responsible for the PNLC's overall operations and program management, will teach courses in the MPA degree program, and is developing a new certificate program for mid-career leadership professionals.

John Bryson, McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs

Bryson studies leadership, strategic management, and the design of organizational and community change processes. He has published a dozen books and more than 90 scholarly articles and book chapters. He has received a number of scholarly awards for his work and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Barbara Crosby, Associate Professor

Crosby teaches seminars and workshops on leadership and public policy, leadership assessment, women in leadership, and organizational leadership. She is the author of Leadership for Global Citizenship and co-author (with John Bryson) of Leadership for the Common Good.

Jay Kiedrowski, Senior Fellow

Kiedrowski brings more than 30 years of experience from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. His work focuses on public finance, organizational development, performance management, and leadership.

Kathryn Quick, Assistant Professor

Quick’s research focuses on how managers in public and nonprofit organizations create opportunities for communities to address public issues together. She does ethnographic research in communities where such managers have been particularly successful in building platforms for ongoing civic engagement and leadership.

Jodi Sandfort, Chair, Leadership and Management Area, and Associate Professor

Sandfort’s work focuses on improving the implementation of social policies, particularly those supporting low-income children and families. As a result, she studies the networks of public, private, and philanthropic organizations that develop and deliver social programs. Her current research and practice include examinations of nonprofit organizational finances, strategic philanthropic investment, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness within human service organizations.

Joe Soss, Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service and Professor

Soss is a leading scholar of politics, inequality, and social policy in the United States. His research and teaching focus on the politics of policy organization and governance, particularly as they relate to socially marginal groups. Soss studies how policy designs and implementation processes shape democratic citizenship and function as key sites for the politics of race, class, and gender.

Melissa Middleton Stone, Gross Family Professor of Nonprofit Management and Associate Professor

Stone’s teaching and research focus on governance of nonprofit organizations and cross-sector partnerships as policy implementation tools. Stone coauthored (with Francie Ostrower) "Governance: Research Trends, Gaps, and Future Prospects” in the 2nd edition of The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook (Yale University Press, 2006). Stone sits on the editorial board of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly and the advisory board of Nonprofit Management and Leadership. In 2008, she received a University Award for Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education.

Zhirong (Jerry) Zhao, Assistant Professor

Zhao’s research focuses on public budgeting and finance, in particular how local governments and nonprofit agencies manage to generate sufficient revenue under constraints, how the financial structure of these organizations affects their management and performance, and how they interact—vertically or horizontally—in budgetary and service decision making.