O'Neill School at IUPUI
801 W. Michigan Street
BS 4155
Indianapolis, IN
46202
Biography
Cullen C. Merritt joined the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI as an Assistant Professor in August 2014.
An organizational theorist by training, Dr. Merritt produces conceptually and theoretically innovative knowledge about the meaning and management of “publicness” across a variety of organizations integral to public service delivery, such as mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities, schools, and law enforcement agencies. His research appears in the American Review of Public Administration, Public Administration, Public Personnel Management, Punishment and Society, and Journal of Public Affairs Education, among other academic outlets.
In 2014, Dr. Merritt earned the American Political Science Association’s Paul Volcker Junior Scholar Research Grant Award; he was selected based on his “potential to shed light on important public administration questions,” “scholarly and methodological rigor,” and “promise for advancing practice and theory development.”
Dr. Merritt teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at the O’Neill School, including Introduction to Public Affairs, Public Management, and Governing and Leading in a Global Society. He was a 2018 recipient of the Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award based on O’Neill faculty selection, earned the O’Neill School’s 2018 Favorite Professor of Undergraduate Programs Award based on student nominations, and has been recognized as an IUPUI Athletics Favorite Professor in 2015 and 2019.
Dr. Merritt has applied his scholarly expertise to make service-related contributions to the O’Neill School, IUPUI, the public administration discipline, and the community. Most recently, he has served as faculty advisor for the O’Neill School’s Honors Program, president-elect of the IUPUI Honors College Advisory Council, and Co-Principal Investigator of a contract with the City-County Council of Indianapolis and Marion County to evaluate its effectiveness as a governing body. For his service, Dr. Merritt received the 2019 Advocate of the Dream Award from the IUPUI Black Student Union for using his professional role on and off campus to serve students and members of the BSU.
Education
- Ph.D., Public Administration, University of Kansas, 2014
- M.P.A., University of Kansas, 2012
- B.A., Political Science, Texas A&M University, 2009
Professional Experience
- Center for Organization, Research, and Design (CORD) Fellow, Arizona State University, 2014-present
Highlights
- Favorite Professor of Undergraduate Programs, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs (2020, 2018)
- Advocate of the Dream Award, IUPUI Black Student Union (2019)
- Trustees’ Teaching Award, Indiana University (2018)
- Keynote Speaker, IUPUI Honors College Emerging Leaders Workshop (2018)
- IUPUI Athletics Favorite Professor (2015, 2019)
- Paul A. Volcker Junior Scholar Research Award, American Political Science Association (2014)
Selected Intellectual Contributions
- “Do Personnel with Lived Experience Cultivate Public Values? Insights and Lessons from Mental Health Care Managers” Healthcare Management Forum (Forthcoming)
- “What Makes an Organization Public? Managers’ Perceptions in the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment System” American Review of Public Administration (2019)
- “The Civic Dimension of School Voucher Programs” (with S. Kennedy and M. Farnworth) Public Integrity (2018)
- “The Cost of Saving Money: Public Service Motivation, Private Security Contracting, and the Salience of Employment Status” (with S. Kennedy and M. Kienapple) Public Performance & Management Review (2018)
- “Formalization and Consistency Heighten Organizational Rule Following: Experimental and Survey Evidence” (with E. Borry, L. Dehart-Davis, W. Kaufmann, Z. Mohr, and L. Tummers) Public Administration (2018)
- “Antecedents to Managing Publicness: A Study of Professional and Cultural Socialization” (with M. Farnworth) The Handbook of American Public Administration, edited by Edmund C. Stazyk and H. George Frederickson. London: Edward Elgar (2018)
- “Developing Organizational Leaders to Manage Publicness: A Conceptual Framework” (with M. Farnworth and M. Kienapple) Journal of Public Affairs Education (2018)
- “Less is More? Publicness, Management Strategy, and Organizational Performance in Mental Health Treatment Facilities” (with K. Cordell and M. Farnworth) Public Administration Quarterly (2018)
- “What Individual and Organizational Competencies Facilitate Effective Collaboration? Findings from a Collaborative Governance Simulation” (with D. Kelley) Journal of Public Affairs Education (2018)
- “Good Governance, Political Experiences, and Public Support for Mandatory Sentencing: Evidence from a Progressive US State” (with J. Sundt and K. Schwaeble) Punishment and Society (2017)
- “Considering the Effects of Time on Leadership Development: A Local Government Training Evaluation” (with H. Getha-Taylor, J. Fowles, and C. Silvia) Public Personnel Management (2015)