Rate My Professor David Berlan

Berlan’s research explores the role of ideas like mission, identity, culture, and goals in organizational change within voluntary organizations, especially those serving less advantaged groups. His interests include nonprofit management, international development, public administration and management, global public health, policy networks, philanthropy, volunteerism, and disaster governance. He leads a project surveying community responses to Hurricane Michael, measuring aid and recovery to inform disaster planning. His work has nearly 1,000 citations. Select publications are: “Holding health providers in developing countries accountable to consumers: a synthesis of relevant scholarship” (Health Policy and Planning, 2012); “A framework on the emergence and effectiveness of global health networks” (Health Policy and Planning, 2016); “The emergence and effectiveness of global health networks: findings and future research” (Health Policy and Planning, 2016); “Evaluation and evaluative rigor in the nonprofit sector” (Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 2016); “Understanding nonprofit missions as dynamic and interpretative conceptions” (Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 2018); and “Evaluation in nonprofit organizations: An empirical analysis” (Public Performance & Management Review, 2018). In 2025, he received the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy Faculty Research Award.