Diane Schmidt, PhD

Dr. Schmidt has been teaching for over 35 years in public policy and government.  She has been teaching in the Public Administration program at California State University, Chico since 1998.  Dr. Schmidt earned her doctorate in Political Science at Washington University, St. Louis and her master’s in Economics at University of Missouri, St. Louis.  She also earned a Certificate in European Studies at Tilburg University, The Netherlands.  Dr. Schmidt is a professional policy analyst and has worked as a community consultant in policy analysis and, most recently, in collaborative community management.  She specializes in evaluating community outreach programs.  In addition, Dr. Schmidt consults with communities as a facilitator for collaborative projects and teaches courses in collaborative management, public personnel policy, planning, and program evaluation.  In the past, she has worked on a variety of federal, state, local, and nonprofit grants and contracts as the Associate Director of the CSUC Survey Research Center.  Dr. Schmidt has published and/or presented her research on collaborative management, field administration, personnel, and labor policy in a variety of forums including the subfields of community development and public administration.  She is also the author of a widely recognized writing text entitled, Writing in Political Science.