Amanda Rutherford

Amanda Rutherford serves as Associate Professor at Indiana University's Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where she joined in 2015 and currently chairs the Governance and Management faculty group. Her interdisciplinary work bridges public administration, political science, and education policy with a critical focus on racial equity.

Her educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Political Science from Texas A&M University
• MPA from the University of Oklahoma
• B.A. and B.B.A. from the University of Oklahoma

Professor Rutherford's research centers on political control and performance accountability, bureaucratic careers, and race, equity, and representation in public institutions, primarily within K-12 and higher education contexts. Her scholarship reveals how racial disparities permeate policy implementation, particularly in education governance and public safety systems. She examines executive decision-making through frameworks of historical and social reference points, demonstrating how bureaucratic perceptions shape equity outcomes.

Her publication trajectory shows increasing emphasis on race-conscious public administration, evolving from early work on performance management in education to her seminal 2020 edited volume Race and Public Administration. Recent articles integrate behavioral perspectives with structural analysis, particularly regarding School Resource Officers and federal agency vacancies, indicating a methodological shift toward mixed-methods field studies.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Trustees Teaching Award (2022)
• Back-to-back O’Neill Graduate Teaching Awards (2019, 2021)
• Emerging Education Policy Scholar designation (2020)
• Distinguished dissertation and fellowship awards from Texas A&M and P.E.O. International

Professor Rutherford actively mentors students like Nya Anthony and Lillian Rogers (co-authors on her 2023 IU Racial Justice Research Fund report), and secures substantial grants including studies on School Resource Officers, federal agency vacancies, and Indianapolis city-county governance. As Governance and Management faculty group chair, she leads collaborative research examining bureaucratic representation across education, policing, and health policy domains.