Assistant Professor Nicole Esparza has been appointed the new Director of Graduate Programs in Nonprofit Leadership and Management (MNLM) at the USC Price School of Public Policy, Dean Jack H. Knott announced.
Dr. Esparza conducts research on the influence of networks and collaborations on the performance, innovation and management in nonprofit organizations. She is interested in how social forces, including community, economic and civic relationships, affect the diffusion and growth of philanthropy and foundations. Her substantive policy focus has been on housing, homelessness and human services.
“She brings a valuable record of grants and teaching to the director position,” Dean Knott stated about Dr. Esparza, who has received major grants from the National Science Foundation and from the Kresge and Haynes Foundations. She is also an Associate Scholar at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. At the Price School, she has taught courses on public policy, public management, program evaluation and research design.
Prior to joining USC, Dr. Esparza was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at Harvard University. She earned her Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University and B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.