Rate My Professor David Suárez

David Suárez, Ph.D. from Stanford University, serves as the Colleen Willoughby Endowed Professor in Philanthropy & Civil Society and Associate Dean for Research at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington. His research centers on social sector organizations, including nonprofits and foundations, examining how management strategies influence organizational performance, the interplay between service provision and social change activities, and the effects of professionalization. Key areas of focus include cross-sector collaboration, advocacy, civic engagement, participatory grantmaking in foundations, public-nonprofit partnerships in national parks and schools, monitoring and evaluation practices in development NGOs, and the contributions of nonprofits to communities through projects like the Civic Life of Cities. Prior to academia, he worked as an elementary school teacher for dual-language learners in California and as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. He teaches courses on public management, organizational theory, philanthropy, and leadership in the nonprofit sector.

Suárez's scholarship has appeared in leading journals such as the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, American Review of Public Administration, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and Voluntas. Notable publications include the co-edited book Participatory Grantmaking in Philanthropy: How Democratizing Decision-Making Shifts Power to Communities (Georgetown University Press, 2025); 'The Publicness of Private Foundations: Internet Presence and Web-Based Accountability' (Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 2024); 'Organizational Practices for Community Integration in Five Global Cities' (Nature Cities, 2024); 'Conceptualizing Organizational Advocacy Across the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector' (Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 2023); and his highly cited article 'Collaboration and Professionalization: The Contours of Public Sector Funding for Nonprofit Organizations' (Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2011). His work has received support from the Ford Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Aspen Institute, Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Surdna Foundation. He has held editorial roles as Associate Editor of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory since 2019, and served on the editorial boards of Public Administration Review (2013-2018) and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (2020-), as well as on the Governing Board of the Association for Research on Nonprofits and Voluntary Action (2013-2019).