I study how public organizations work to achieve intended goals or make a difference in people's lives. It is pretty broad but could be summarized into three focuses. First, public/quasi-public sector governance in the relationship of government with other institutions, legislatures, political appointees, quasi-public organizations, nonprofits, and private contractors. My doctoral dissertation was about how governments appoint chief executives of quasi-government agencies or as often called state-owned-enterprises. The interests about these in-between organizations (public and private) lead me to examine how they organize, reorganize, and terminate these organizations to claim credits or avoid blame, and how board compositions actually affect their performance. Studies in this category include Park (2013, POR), Park and Cho (2014, PPMR), Park (2013, IPMJ), Park (2018, POR), Park (2019, PPMR). Publication in Korean: Park and Kim (2010, 한국행정학보), Kim and Park (2012, 한국행정연구)

Second, I am constantly intrigued by minority issues and related concepts such as diversity, representation, equity, fairness, and justice. My first publication in English was about representative bureaucracy, focusing on the effect of gender representation of the Korean government since the early 1980s (ARPA, 2013). The theory of representative bureaucracy is fascinating to me because it touches upon the importance of the relationship between politics and government, the legislative branch and the executive branch, politicians and bureaucrats, and responsibility and efficiency/neutrality. Also interested in diverse factors at the individual and institutional levels that foster representation. My interests have been expanded from gender to other minority dimensions, race/ethnicity, immigration status, and hopefully to sexual orientation and disability status. Please see, Park (2013, ARPA), Park (2014, JPP), Park and Liang (2019, PPM), Park and Liang (2019, PAR), Park (2019, PPMR), Liang, Park, Zhao (2020, PAR). Publication in Korean: Park and Kim (2006, 한국행정학보)

The third stream of my research is about how government manages resources -- all types of resources such as personnel, financial, and organizational -- in different situations. Public managers' role, incentive, capacity, discretion that affects their influence, resilience, and willingness to make a difference is always of my keen interest. Please see, Park (2013, IPMJ), Park (2014, JPP), Park (2017, LGS), Park (2018, POR), Park (2019, PMR), Smith, Park, Liu (2019). Publication in Korean: Yeom, Park, Choi (2008, 한국행정연구)

I received her Ph.D. and MPA at Seoul National University and B.A. at Yonsei University in South Korea; did postdoc at the University of Southern California with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea. Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions at sangheepark@boisestate.edu.