Message from the Director, Richardson Dilworth

Hello, and thanks for visiting the website of Drexel’s Center for Public Policy (CPP). Here you will find information on the CPP’s research initiatives, and our Master of Science in Public Policy degree program. 

CPP research is defined by case-based institutional analysis. Our focus on case studies stems from a commitment to deeply descriptive analyses as a means toward evaluating government and nonprofit organizations and programs. For example, early in 2010, we sponsored, in conjunction with Drexel’s Earle Mack School of Law, a research initiative that produced case studies of each of the sixteen business improvement districts (BIDs) in Philadelphia (published collectively as Volume 3, Issue 1, of the Drexel Law Review). Read separately, each case study provides an in-depth examination and evaluation of a specific BID. Read together, the case studies describe a process of institutional evolution in city governance. In the future, we intend to sponsor research on city-state intergovernmental coordination and metropolitan governance, among other topics.

The focus on case analysis extends to the M.S. in Public Policy degree, in which students write a case study through nine 1-credit “Case Study Research” courses. The case study component allows our graduate students to delve into depth in a subject, in a way that is not possible in a traditional course. The case study program also provides students an opportunity to forge relationships with organizations outside Drexel.

Please feel free to contact me (rd43@drexel.edu) with any questions about the CPP or M.S. in Public Policy.

Sincerely, 

Richardson Dilworth
Director, Center for Public Policy