Brenda Bushouse

Brenda K. Bushouse is a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and serves as the Undergraduate Program Director. She is affiliated with the School of Public Policy and Department of Political Science.

• PhD in Public Policy from Indiana University
• MPA in Political Science from Syracuse University

Research Focus: Bushouse’s work bridges nonprofit governance and child policy. She explores institutional structures of nonprofit organizations, particularly their role in the policy process, using frameworks like the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) and Institutional Grammar. Her projects examine how nonprofit governance affects open-source software incubators and comparative state nonprofit laws. Additionally, she investigates why governments under-invest in child-focused policies, spanning domains like child labor, health, abuse, and early education.

Scientific Contributions: Bushouse co-leads NSF-funded projects on open-source software governance and institutional grammar analysis. Her book Universal Preschool: Policy Change, Stability, and the Pew Charitable Trusts (2009) won the Virginia Hodgkinson Research Prize. She is currently working on a historical analysis of philanthropy’s role in U.S. child policy advocacy from 1900-2015.

• Scientific Awards:
  • Virginia Hodgkinson Research Prize
  • Ian Axford Fellowship in Public Policy
  • Learning Sciences Exchange Fellowship (2020-2022)

Advising & Collaborations: Bushouse collaborates with scholars like Brent Never (UMKC) and Rob Christensen (BYU) and contributes to interdisciplinary networks such as the Institutional Grammar Research Institute. She serves on the board of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), co-chairing its 2018-2019 conferences and committees.