Michael Overton (Ph.D., University of North Texas, 2015) is an assistant professor of political science where he uses his public sector experience to identify research topics that matter to government entities. His research focuses on the intersection of local government management and fiscal policy. He is particularly interested in topics involving local government fiscal health, economic development financing, transportation and local government competition. His research into these areas has been funded by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the North Central Texas Council of Governments and published in prominent public administration journals including The American Review of Public Administration, State and Local Government and Public Money and Management.
Over the brief tenure of his career, he has received prestigious awards for his scholarship. In 2015, he won the Toulouse Dissertation Award in Social Science for best social science dissertation at UNT. He was selected for the 2016 Lincoln Scholars Program hosted by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and recently, he was honored as a 2017 American Society of Public Administration Founders Fellow.
