Founded in 2013, CORD’s mission has been to promote, support and conduct high impact, use-inspired organization design research. CORD has traditionally been focused on the context of knowledge and science-intensive social enterprises, and on transcending the boundaries between sectors, policies, institutions, organizations and individuals.
Barry Bozeman, Emeritus Professor at Arizona State University, and the founding Director of the Center for Organization Research and Design. Barry led CORD from 2013 to 2020. Through Barry’s leadership, CORD developed a global presence in the public management and science policy communities and became a hub for innovative and important research, engaging researchers from around the world and at all career stages.
Stu Bretschneider, Emeritus Professor at Arizona State University, succeeded Barry, leading CORD from 2020 to 2022. Navigating CORD through the COVID pandemic, Stu continued to build CORD’s strengths and visibility. He is also co-founder of ASU’s Sustainable Procurement Initiative (SPRI), which strengthened CORD’s tradition of community-based research, engaging the Arizona community through public management research.
Julia Melkers became Director of CORD in 2022, moving from Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy where she led the ROCS lab (Research on Careers in Science). Her research portfolio addresses scientific careers and outcomes of publicly-funded research investments on those careers and their institutions. Julia's work has been funded by the U.S. NSF, NIH and several foundations. She also has extensive experience of more than two decades in advising and evaluating large interdisciplinary scientific teams. As Director, she invited Ulrich Jensen to join as Associate Director and together they are growing the CORD community of scholars and research portfolio.
Ulrich Jensen is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs and serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Organizational Research and Design at Arizona State University. Ulrich specializes in public management and organization behavior. His research interests span issues of leadership, motivation, values and performance in public service. As CORD Associate Director, he leads the CORD Experimental Lab.