Kathy Newcomer, Ph.D.

Kathryn Newcomer is a professor in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University where she teaches graduate level courses on public and nonprofit program evaluation, and research design. She served as the Trachtenberg School director for over 12 years, until July 2019. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and currently serves on the Comptroller General’s Educators’ Advisory Panel. She served as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) (2013-2015 and 2016-2018), and as AEA president for 2017. She served as President of the Network of the Association of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) for 2006-2007. She routinely conducts research and training for federal and local government agencies and nonprofit organizations on performance measurement and program evaluation and has designed and conducted evaluations for many U.S. federal agencies and dozens of nonprofit organizations.

Dr. Newcomer was recently selected by the board of the American Society for Public Administration’s Center for Accountability and Performance to receive the 2021 Joseph Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award for her scholarly work and lifetime achievement in the areas of performance management, government accountability, and program evaluation.

Dr. Newcomer has published six books, including U.S. Inspectors General: Truth Tellers in Turbulent Times (2020 by Brookings), The Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation (4th edition 2015), and over 60 articles in journals including the Public Administration Review and the American Journal of Evaluation. She has received two Fulbright awards, one for Taiwan (1993) and one for Egypt (2001-04). She has lectured on performance measurement and public sector evaluation in Ukraine, Honduras, Canada, Australia, China, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, Costa Rica, Egypt, Taiwan, Colombia, Nicaragua, and the UK.

She has served on six committees of the National Academy of Sciences:

NRC Committee on Approaches for an Evaluation of the NIST/NRC Postdoctoral Research Associateships Program (2008);

NRC Review of United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellows Program (2008-09);

NRC Committee on Laboratory Security and Personnel Assurance Systems for Laboratories Conducting Research on Biological Select Agents and Toxins (2009-10);

NRC External Evaluation of National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (2010-12);

Review of Specialized Degree-Granting Graduate Programs of the Department of Defense in STEM and Management (2014-17);

Committee on Assessing the Minerva Research Initiative and the Contribution of Social Science to Addressing Security Concerns (2018-19).

She has received many awards for her teaching and service, including:  the Peter Vail Award for Excellence in Education,1995; The George Washington Award, 2000; The Elmer Staats Award for Achievement in Government Accountability, awarded by the National Capital Area Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration, 2008; the Peter Konwerski Award for Service, 2013; the Oscar and Shoshanna Trachtenberg Prize for Service, 2014; and the Duncombe Excellence in Doctoral Education Award awarded by NASPAA, 2016.

Dr. Newcomer earned a B.S. in secondary education and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Kansas, and her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Iowa.