Mark Peterson, PhD

Professor and Department Chair
E-Mail: mark.peterson@washburn.eduCourses Taught:
PO106 Intro to American Government
PO107 State and Local Government
PO245 Intro to Public Administration
PO305 Public Policy
PO306 Urban-Metropolitan Government
PO308 Federalism and Public Policies
PO312 State and Local Economic Development
PO321 American Presidency
PO392 Urban and Regional Planning
PO393 Public Budgeting
PO401 Policy Evaluation Methods

Associate Professor Mark Peterson MPA, Ph.D. (U. of New Mexico, 1996) has been a member of the Washburn faculty since 1998 and plans on being part of the university community until his time or the money runs out.  He generally tries, with modest success, to be sufficiently entertaining in the classroom to keep students awake, and works, rather more successfully, to provide those students with good academic advising and support as they make choices regarding career paths and post-baccalaureate education.  He has even been known to encourage students to go to places like China, Spain and the United Kingdom to continue their schooling.  His research interests have focused most recently on how politicians and the public will address the fiscal realities of state and local government finance in the wake of the Great Recession.  His longer term interest is a political biography of Arthur Allen Fletcher (BA, ’50) who is often referred to as “the father of Affirmative Action.”