Claire Dunning

Claire Dunning is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds affiliations with the Do Good Institute, the Institute for Public Leadership (IPL), and the History Department. With a PhD in History from Harvard University and an AB in History and Public Policy from Dartmouth College, her research focuses on 20th-century U.S. history, particularly the interplay between poverty, inequality, governance, and nonprofit organizations in urban contexts. Her book Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An Urban History of Inequality and the American State (2022) examines how nonprofits and policymakers addressed urban poverty while inadvertently perpetuating inequality. Her current project explores post-1968 philanthropic support for fair housing.

Her academic journey includes a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and prior work at a community foundation. Her research interests span nonprofit dynamics, urban policy, and the historical role of philanthropy in addressing systemic racial and economic disparities.

Key publications include analyses of Boston’s nonprofit-led urban development, critiques of neoliberalism’s impact on the nonprofit sector, and studies on civic engagement in urban renewal. She emphasizes the need for policy reforms to address systemic inequalities, leveraging historical insights to inform contemporary social and urban challenges.