Lauren Dula
Associate Professor
CCPA Public Administration and Policy
Background
Lauren Dula is an associate professor of public administration in the Department of Public Administration and Policy. She holds a PhD in public affairs from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research focuses on gender, equity, and power both in the nonprofit and public sectors. She combines traditional public administration themes, such as representative bureaucracy and theories of organizations and governance, with social theories from psychology and sociology in the study of nonprofits and the public sector.
Dula publishes in top nonprofit and public administration journals, including Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Public Administration Review.
Dula is a co-founder of the Equity Lab, investigating state and federal bureaucracies and the intersectional experiences of women of color regarding their levels of discretion, perceptions of discrimination, and perceptions of ethics. The Lab manages multiple undergraduate, MPA, and PhD students who focus on learning research skills and methods.
She and her co-author received the first Association of Fundraising Professionals Foundation鈥檚 Wilson C. 鈥淏ill鈥 Levis Research Grant for $10,000 in 2021 to fund an experimental survey project, which has produced many scholarly and popular articles. They received a second $10,000 grant in 2025 to fund a replication study following the COVID pandemic.
Education
- PhD, Indiana University, Bloomington
- MPA, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
- BA, University of Iowa, Iowa City
Research Interests
- Gender and racial intersectionality in nonprofit and public governance
- Philanthropy
Awards
- 2017 Associate Instructor Teaching Award