Andrea Headley Receives 2026 David N. Kershaw Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Policy

Andrea M. Headley, associate professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, will receive the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize for her significant contributions to public policy and the field of safety and justice.

Headley, a 2017 Excellence, Equity, and Inclusion Fellow and former APPAM Policy Council member, will be recognized at the upcoming 2026 APPAM Fall Research Conference. As the 26th recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize, she will deliver the Kershaw Lecture during the conference.

The David N. Kershaw Award recognizes professionals under the age of 40 who have made significant contributions to the field of public policy analysis and management. Award recipients receive a cash prize. The award was named for David N. Kershaw, Mathematica’s first president, who helped guide the establishment of APPAM before his death from cancer at age 37. Created in his memory in 1983, Mathematica and APPAM jointly administer the award.

“Professor Headley is an exceptional scholar who has made contributions across public administration and policy, employing a broad range of methods and publishing in the best journals while also deeply engaged with front-line organizations and policymakers addressing challenging policy issues. The Kershaw award is a wonderful recognition of her outstanding contributions to both social science and policy,” said Maria Cancian, past APPAM President, professor and former dean at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.

Headley’s research examines how organizational, managerial, and individual factors shape policing and service delivery, with a focus on inequities and disparities. Her work has explored police-community relations, racial disparities in use-of-force encounters, body-worn cameras, police reform, citizen complaints, and gender norms in policing.

Her research has been published in journals including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Public Administration Review, The American Review of Public Administration, and Journal of Criminal Justice, and has been funded by the American Institutes for Research, the Department of Justice, the National Science Foundation, and the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.

The 2026 APPAM Fall Research Conference will take place November 5–7 in Boston, Massachusetts.