Biography

Yuan (Daniel) Cheng is an Associate Professor and McKnight Presidential Fellow at the University of Minnesota. Professor Cheng will take a sabbatical leave in Spring 2025 and serve as a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford Gradel Institute of Charity and a visiting professor at the School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University.

Professor Cheng's research focuses on a range of theoretical and managerial questions at the nexus of governance, government-nonprofit relationships, co-production, and the distributional and performance implications of cross-sector collaboration. He is particularly interested in how government agencies, nonprofits, and citizens interact in joint public service provision, and the performance implications of alternative service provision mechanisms. In close collaboration with governmental and community organizations, Dr. Cheng is embarking on new research directions to examine the implementation of evidence-based practices in government, the policy impacts of academic research, and how to design more inclusive public sector grant-making programs.

Professor Cheng has received many awards and recognitions for his work, including the ARNOVA Best Conference Paper Award, the Felice Davidson Perlmutter Best Paper Award, The ARNOVA Emerging Scholars Award, and the E-PARCC Best Collaborative Public Management Teaching Simulation Award. His Public Administration Review article on the changing role of nonprofits in public service provision is listed as the Highly Cited Public Administration Review Article and Web of Science Core Collection Highly Cited Paper. His work has been supported by the Ostrom Research Award, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs Faculty Interactive Research Program, the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy Research Fund, and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Education

PhD in Public Affairs (Indiana University, 2017)

MA in Philanthropic Studies (Indiana University, 2013)

BS in Environmental Science (Zhejiang University, 2010)