Rate My Professor David Mitchell

Dr. David Mitchell is an associate professor and the Master of Public Administration program director at the University of Central Florida School of Public Administration in the College of Community Innovation and Education. As a Social Science faculty member at UCF since 2014, he holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northern Illinois University, an MPA from the University of Kansas, and a BA in Political Science, History, and Geography from the University of Kansas. Prior to his current role, Mitchell served as a visiting assistant professor at Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indianapolis. His career also includes seven years of practitioner experience in city manager's offices in Kansas City, Missouri—where he began as a Cookingham Fellow in 2002—and Highland Park, Illinois. In these positions, he managed an organization-wide consolidation and reorganization effort, implemented an employee suggestion/gainsharing program, served as a budget analyst for most city departments, assisted in planning and implementing a 311 call center, acted as the organizational customer service ombudsman, coordinated the city special events program, produced city communication documents, staffed numerous citizen committees, and oversaw an organizational performance management program. His practitioner contributions were nationally recognized with the ICMA Community Health & Safety Excellence Award in 2011 and the National League of Cities Innovative Program Award in 2003.

Mitchell's research specializations encompass public strategy implementation, public budgeting reform and innovation, accountability in municipal collaborative service delivery networks, and the role of professional expertise in an age of populism. He has published in Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, Public Budgeting & Finance, Administration & Society, Public Performance & Management Review, Public Administration, State and Local Government Review, International Journal of Public Administration, Public Administration Quarterly, Journal of Emergency Management, Governance and Management Review, and Teaching Public Administration. Mitchell has received major awards including the UCF Teaching Incentive Program Award in 2020, College of Community Innovation and Education Excellence in Professional Service Award in 2020, College of Health Professions and Sciences Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award in 2018, and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Public and Environmental Affairs Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2014.