School of Public Affairs Professor Anna A. Amirkhanyan has been selected to receive the Robert Cleary Award for Excellence in Public Affairs Research.

The annual $5,000 fellowship is named in honor of Robert Cleary, professor emeritus, who also was once interim president of American University. The award is given to a School of Public Affairs (SPA) faculty member for an exemplary research publication related to the non-profit sector.

"I am delighted to see Professor Amirkhanyan receive this recognition and support," said SPA Dean Barbara Romzek. "The fact that her research has appeared in the top journals in the field is testament to the high quality of her scholarship. The expanding role of nonprofits in the delivery of social services makes her high-quality research especially valuable for its ability to impact the world of practice as well as theory."

Amirkhanyan received the award for co-authoring, The Performance Puzzle: Understanding the Factors Influencing Alternative Dimensions and Views of Performance, which was published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (January 2014).

"It is an honor for me to receive an award that recognizes Professor Robert Cleary and his 36 years of dedicated service to the American University," Amirkhanyan said. "While I haven't had a chance to work with Professor Cleary, who retired in 2001, many of my colleagues remember Bob as a fantastic scholar and exceptional colleague."

"The fact that this is an anonymous gift from an SPA graduate makes this award particularly meaningful to me. It reflects SPA's continuous commitment not only to high-quality research but also to excellent teaching," she added.

Amirkhanyan's research and teaching focuses on public and nonprofit management, public sector reform, organizational performance, social policy, research methodology and intellectual history of public administration. Her articles have been published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory; Public Administration Review; the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management; the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly; the Journal of Public Management and Social Policy; and the International Journal of Public Administration.

Amirkhanyan received her Ph.D. in Public Administration from Syracuse University; M.S. in Nonprofit Management from New School University; and B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yerevan State University.

The Cleary Award was established through the support of an anonymous graduate of the School of Public Affairs. The gift honors Cleary's contributions to American University and its School of Public Affairs.

In his many years at AU, Cleary was a faculty member, interim president, provost and dean of SPA.