Katherine Willoughby

Katherine Willoughby has spent 35 years teaching, conducting research, and consulting about public management, budgeting and finance. She is an internationally recognized expert of legal foundations, uses and effects of public performance budgeting. Her 2001 book with Kurt Thurmaier (Northern Illinois University) examines budget- and policy-making of executive budget analysts in a sample of U.S. state governments. She served as grading team leader of budget and finance for the Government Performance Project, a national research effort of The Pew Charitable Trusts that examined management in the American states. Her 2014 book co-edited with Marilyn Rubin (Rutgers) assesses revenues, expenditures and debt of state governments. Her sole authored 2014 book, Public Budgeting in Context, examines budgeting at every level of government in the United States, with comparison among six other countries. Her book, Public Performance Budgeting: Principles and Practice, with Elaine Lu (CUNY), studies use of this budget reform by state juvenile justice agencies with performance budgeting law and won Best Book Award from the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management in 2022. She has an extensive background in consulting with numerous governments around the globe regarding public budgeting and management. Katherine and Jos Raadschelders (Ohio State University) were recently selected to serve as the next Editor-in-Chiefs of the ASPA’s premier journal, Public Administration Review.