Catherine Burke

Emerita Associate Professor
Email: cburke@usc.edu

Expertise
Leadership and management theory, organizational design, organizational systems, public administration, innovative public transportation (Personal Automated Transit)

Biographical Sketch
Catherine Burke, Ph.D., researches organizational design, management theory, and systems, including the application of Stratified Systems Theory. Professor Burke has been instrumental in the USC’s metropolitan simulation program. She has contributed to the development of new approaches in organization and management systems with organizations in Australia, England, and the United States. These include a large public utility (Communications and Computing Services, Regulatory Policy and Affairs, and Public Affairs Departments), city and county governments, an international mining and manufacturing firm, an ISP (Internet Service Provider), and a regimental commander in the British Army. Professor Burke is also interested in the study of political and administrative roles, democratic theory and the role of the citizens, innovation, and urban government. She has been a panelist and consultant to the office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, and a member of the Los Angeles County Economy and Efficiency Commission. She was the elected President of the Advanced Transit Association for 2002. She is the author of Innovation and Public Policy: The Case of Personal Rapid Transit (D.C. Heath, 1979), and has had articles in The Handbook of Public Administration, State and Local Government, Annual Editions; Public Administration Quarterly; International Journal of Public Administration; the Proceedings of the Social Analytic Learning Society; and the New York Times.