Kimberly L. Nelson
Senior Fellow

• Email:[email protected]
• Hometown:Chapel Hill, NC

Kimberly L. Nelson is a professor of public administration and government at the School of Government and Director of Faculty, Research, and Strategy for the Center for Public Leadership and Governance (CPLG).  Her expertise and research on local government management, form and structure, and corruption has been published in Public Administration Review, The American Review of Public Administration, State and Local Government Review, and other journals.

As a member of the Center for Public Leadership and Governance, she conducts training and provides advice on leadership and management topics to local governments. Nelson is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, co-editor of State and Local Government Review, and serves on the editorial boards of Public Administration Review and The American Review of Public Administration. She joined the School faculty in 2013 and was named Albert and Gladys Hall Coates Distinguished Term Associate Professor for 2017–2019. Nelson serves as the lead faculty member for the School’s Public Executive Leadership Academy.

Her accolades include receiving a Gregory J. Bielawski Illinois City/County Management Association Special Service Award for Service to the Profession (2022); being named the Albert and Gladys Coates Distinguished Term Associate Professor (2017); the  Distinguished Service Award, ASPA Section on Public Administration Research (2017); the School’s Diversity Impact Award (2016); and the Legacy Project Award for Promoting Gender Equity in Local Government, from the Illinois Legacy Project (2013).