Student Research

In the classroom and in the community, Mills MPP students develop their analytical skills while helping government and nonprofit organizations address important policy problems.

In the Local Politics, Planning, and Management graduate seminar, Mills MPP students are collaborating to help community groups participate in the City of Oakland's Zoning Update process.  Students are helping residents and business owners in the Laurel District to envision how their neighborhood might change and grow under different zoning scenarios.  Student work on this project was recently featured in the MacArthur Metro community newspaper.

Under faculty supervision, each Mills MPP student produces a Master's Policy Report (MPR), a professional paper that meets both the school's academic standards and the needs of a practitioner who acts as a client for the project. Recently completed MPRs include:

• Nadine Dixon, MPP '11.  Fost-Adopt Parents Needs Assessment. Client: Family Builders. Executive Summary.
• Lori Droste, MPP '11. Women in the Transportation Professional Services Industry. Client: Bay Area Chapter of Women's Transportation Seminar. Executive Summary.
• Paula Gruendling, MPP '11. Plug-in Electric Vehicle Smart Charging and Demand Response Programs.  Client: Energy Division of the California Public Utilities Commission. Executive Summary.
• Carla Hansen, MPP '11.  Initial Steps to a Specific Plan for the Laurel District. Client:  Laurel District Association. Executive Summary.
• Adrianna Hutchinson, MPP '11, Building Bridges:  Effective Program Services to Support Former Foster Youth in Community College. Client: Beyond Emancipation. Executive Summary.
• Hikari Iwabuchi, MPP '11. Providing Comprehensive Accessibility Information for Public Transportation.  Client: Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Executive Summary.
• Mejin Leechor, MPP '11. "There's Just One World": A Case Study of Intercultural Bridging in West Oakland.  Client: Seminary of the Street. Executive Summary.
• Anita Lopez, MPP '11. A Guide for Evaluating Restorative Justice in San Francisco Unified School District. Client: SFUSD Board of Education. Executive Summary.
• Cheryl Newman, MPP '11. An Interim Evaluation of the FOCUS Program. Client:  Association of Bay Area Governments.  Executive Summary.
• Erin Oglesby, MPP '11. Pre-Treatment Needs and Barriers of Native Americans Seeking Substance Abuse Recovery Programs. Client: Native American Health Center. Executive Summary.
• Sonya Rifkin, MPP '11.  Comparative Practices and Stakeholder Feedback for Mobile Food Vending Policies in Oakland. Client:  City of Oakland Planning Department.  Executive Summary. *
• Alycia Shada, MPP '11. Electronic Portfolio Implementation in the Metro Academies Program at San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco. Client: Community Health Works. Executive Summary.
• Sahar Shirazi, MPP '11. SMART Trains, Smart Planning: Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled for Residents of San Rafael through Land Use Policies. Client: City of San Rafael. Executive Summary.
• Mary Thomas, MPP '11. Measuring Equity in a City's Budget:  A Preliminary Analysis of Five Proposals to Reduce the Budget Deficit in Oakland. Client: East Bay Asian Youth Center. Executive Summary.

A list of MPR projects from previous years is available in the archive.  Complete reports are available upon request. The opinions expressed in the reports are those of the authors and not necessarily endorsed by the Mills Public Policy Program or the client organizations.  Asterisk (*) denotes Outstanding Thesis Award winners.

Faculty Research

Several members of the Mills faculty who teach public policy have conducted research that is typical of the work done in this field. Program Director Carol Chetkovich has studied the workings of affirmative action policy in the urban fire service, and her book on the subject is widely used by public managers trying to enhance diversity in uniformed services. Dr. Chetkovich has also produced several reports for federal and state government agencies in a number of social service areas, including childcare, healthcare, and services for people with disabilities. Her most recent work (with coauthor Frances Kunreuther of the Building Movement Project) is a book that explores the social-change work of small nonprofit organizations. This work is intended to inform nonprofit activists, funders, and researchers seeking to understand and support this sector.

Among their other work on organizational performance and reliability, Professor Paul Schulman and former program director Emery Roe recently have investigated California's restructuring of its electricity sector. Their findings are reported in High Reliability Management: Operating on the Edge (Stanford University Press, 2008).

Professor Siobhan Reilly has conducted a number of studies relating to family and child well-being, including work on welfare policy, child support, family structure and living arrangements, resource allocation within the family, and the risks of infant formula use. Her work has been supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and has significant implications for a number of social policies.

The challenge of interagency collaboration is the focus of one longitudinal, in-depth research project by Professor Dan Ryan. Studying community organizations working jointly on the problem of substance abuse, Dr. Ryan identified important factors constituting both obstacles and supports for cooperative work. Findings from this and other work have been used by foundations, local government agencies, and policy designers.

Among other Mills faculty, Professor Lorien Rice has reported on education and transportation policy for the Public Policy Institute of California, and Professor Mark Henderson contributed to strategic planning for the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.