Dan Honig joined Building State Capability as a Visiting Research Scholar in 2021 to write the RISE paper, “How Management Shapes Motivation & Improves Performance in Education.” He now serves as an Associate.
Dan is an associate professor of public policy at University College London’s School of Public Policy/Department of Political Science. His research focuses on the relationship between management practice, organizational structure, and performance in delivering welfare-improving services. He is currently (as of mid-2023) completing a book manuscript (under contract, Oxford University Press) entitled Mission Driven Bureaucrats, focused on how best to attract, retain, and cultivate mission motivated public servants worldwide.
From 2015-2021 Dan was an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and has also previously held visiting appointments at Thammasat University (Bangkok)’s Department of Economics, Leiden University (Netherlands’) Institute of Political Science, and the West Africa Research Center in Dakar. Outside the academy Dan was special assistant, then advisor, to successive Ministers of Finance (Liberia); ran a local nonprofit focused on helping post-conflict youth realize the power of their own ideas through agricultural entrepreneurship (East Timor); and has worked for a number of local and international NGOs. Dan’s lived, worked, and/or done research in Bangladesh, East Timor, India, Israel, Liberia, The Netherlands, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Thailand, the UK, and the USA. A proud Detroiter, Dan holds a BA from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), is a “Woo” (alum of Princeton’s SPIA, despite receiving no degree; exited to take employment with the Sirleaf administration in Liberia), and holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Dan’s a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development; a fellow of Johns Hopkins SAIS’ Foreign Policy Institute and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)’ MHRC; an SNF Agora Faculty Affiliate; a member of the Scholars Strategy Network; and on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Policy. Dan’s had the impact of his work recognized in a variety of fora, including lists of the 100 most influential academics in government and 50 most influential researchers shaping 21st century politicians.