Associate Professor of Practice in Public Leadership and Administration and Associate Faculty Director, Partnership for Innovation, Cross-Sector Collaboration, Leadership, and Organization
Dr. Rebecca Padot is Associate Faculty Director of the Partnership for Innovation, Cross-Sector Collaboration, Leadership, and Organization (PICCLO) and Associate Professor of Practice in Public Leadership and Administration at the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania. She received all three of her Ivy League graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (PhD in Political Science, MGA/MPA at the Fels Institute of Government, and MA in Political Science) and has held the titles of Bradley Fellow, Earhart Fellow, Fox Distinguished Graduate Fellow, Mumford Fellow, and PRRUCS Fellow. Prior to joining the PICCLO faculty leadership team, Dr. Padot was a tenured Associate Professor in government at another national university.
Routledge Press released Dr. Padot’s book, The Politics of Foster Care Administration in the United States (2015), and described it as “using examples from foster care systems in the states of Delaware, Michigan, New York, and Rhode Island, Rebecca Padot eloquently combines a rigorous methodology and theory work to expose the conditions under which foster care outcomes can be improved.”
Her research on foster care and other national public policy issues has resulted in multiple research presentation requests at The White House. Furthermore, the White House encouraged her to present on foster care at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and this resulted in representatives from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services traveling to the University of Pennsylvania to hear her research presentation/discussion on foster care and the opioid epidemic.
As a result, her foster care research has been requested by and presented to both Democrat (Obama) and Republican (Bush 43) administrations and national nonprofits. Her earlier research on mentoring at-risk youth has also resulted in policy presentations before The White House (2006) and the Vermont State Senate Education Committee (2006).
Her empirical research focuses on how to improve society via 1) a myriad of leadership practices and 2) the multitude of government partners working across government levels (local, state, federal, and international) and with affiliated relationships in the nonprofit and business sectors. Covering a range of topics including higher education, tax policy, safety policy, foster care administration, policies supporting disadvantaged populations, and nonprofit policy strategies, some of her publications are articles in the following journals: Journal of Nonprofit and Public Affairs, International Journal for Public Administration, and an American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) section journal.
Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the United States, she presented on criminal justice and foster care at the American Enterprise Institute Public Policy Research Think Tank in Washington, D.C. (#15 in the United States on 2019 Global Go To Think Tank Report). Working as a grant maker for The Pew Charitable Trusts, Dr. Padot was able to champion philanthropic performance measurement and return-on-investment community service. In practice, her community service has taken her to “foster” and mentor three inner-city siblings for two decades as well as serve as a volunteer social scientist with the nonprofit her husband founded serving disadvantaged youth. She has spoken to more than 200 audiences on topics ranging from leadership, philanthropy, public policy to civic engagement, and has conducted more than 3000 “elite interviews” (CEOs, politicians, celebrities) for major TV and radio markets (New York, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia), new media, and her award-winning national broadcast (satellite television).
Dr. Padot contributed her research and writing expertise many years ago to James Q. Wilson and John J. DiIulio Jr.’s Houghton Mifflin textbook American Government, which is now in its 17th edition. She also created the CQ Press college instructor’s manual for an edition of the public administration textbook The Politics of the Administrative Process by Donald F. Kettl and James Fesler. At the University of Pennsylvania, she was nominated for the Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students.
As a scholar, she strives to uphold the wise words of NYU politics professor Lawrence Mead: “I think political science should be what the ancients intended – a master science that helps government improve the human condition.”
