Melissa Mathews
Dr. Melissa Mathews is an Associate Professor at the Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Long Beach. Her research, teaching, and service are informed by nearly 25 years of nonprofit and public sector experience, including executive leadership in nonprofit organizations and community organizing focused on civic engagement, community development, and policy advocacy.
Her scholarship centers on nonprofit governance, leadership development, civic engagement, and local governance, with attention to how nonprofit organizations and voluntary associations advance democratic practices. Her research has been published in Journal of Urban Affairs, VOLUNTAS, Journal of Public Affairs Education, Journal of Community Practice, and Human Resource Development International. Through community-engaged research partnerships with nonprofits, local governments, and civic organizations, she works to strengthen professional practice in the nonprofit and public sectors. She teaches courses on nonprofit management, government–community relations, civic engagement, and policy analysis.
Dr. Mathews holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in public affairs from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Mathews’s research contributes to and is informed by nonprofit theory and practice, civic engagement and local governance, and the voluntary sector and civil society. Her research examines the governance and management of nonprofit organizations with a focus on board-executive director dynamics, leadership development, and the role of neighborhood associations in civic engagement and local governance. She also studies the extent to which nonprofit organizations and voluntary associations enact governance processes that contribute to democratic practices. By examining governance and leadership across micro (individual and organizational), meso (community and municipal), and macro levels (sectoral and societal), she seeks to advance an understanding of how nonprofits and voluntary associations function as essential institutions of civil society.
Dr. Mathews has conducted studies on board-executive director relations, including interpersonal role conflicts and shared governance processes; emerging and early-career nonprofit leaders and their professional development needs; and neighborhood councils within the St. Paul (MN) District Council system, as well as neighborhood associations in Long Beach, CA. She primarily employs community-engaged and interpretive methods, while also drawing on mixed-methods and longitudinal approaches.
Her current research examines the role of civic courage and how neighborhood associations cultivate it through relational processes that shape participation in democratic governance. She is also investigating emerging and early-career nonprofit leader perspectives, with particular attention to career pathways and their leadership development needs.
Mathews, M. A. (2026) Fragile but essential: The limitations of neighborhood associations for civic engagement. Journal of Community Practice, 34(1), 67-86.
Mathews, M. A. (2025). Building the civic square for neighborhood associations as sites of local governance. International Journal of Economic Development, 18(1), 1-28.
Mathews, M. A. (2025) Dynamics of collaboration, cooperation, and conflict: How neighborhood associations perceive relations with city government in Long Beach. Journal of Urban Affairs.
Mathews, M. A. (2025). Integrating client-based service learning with a nonprofit distance-learning grants administration and management course. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 31(3), 263-273.
Mathews, M. A. (2023). Trees die from the top: A case study of conflict among the board, board chair, and executive director. Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, 13(2), 83-100.
Mathews, M. A. (2023). Toward an understanding of civic engagement capacities within a municipal civic participation system. The Social Science Journal, 60(3), 537-549.
Hahn, H., & Mathews, M. (2022). Learning behaviors as a linkage between organization-based self-esteem and in-role performance. Journal of Management & Organization, 28(5), 1100-1115.
Mathews, M. A. (2021). Understanding the roles and contributions of neighborhood organizations in civic governance. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 32(4), 821-829.
Mathews, M. A. (2021). Nothing about us without us: Community development as human resource development. Human Resource Development International, 24(4), 359-376.
Mathews, M. A. (2020). The embeddedness of nonprofit leadership in civic governance. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 31(1), 201-212.
Mathews, M. A. (2019). Betwixt and between the board chair and executive director: Dyadic leadership role perceptions within nonprofit organizations. Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, 9(3), 282-300.
Mathews, M. A. (2016). Ethics and stewardship in nonprofit organizational leadership. National Social Science Journal, 46(2), 61-68.
Outstanding Community Engagement Faculty Award, Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration (É«ÖÐÉ«), 2025
Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity Grant for Building the civic square: The potential of neighborhood associations in local governance, College of Health and Human Services (É«ÖÐÉ«), 2024-2025
Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity Grant for The roles and contributions of neighborhood associations within the City of Long Beach, College of Health and Human Services (É«ÖÐÉ«), 2021-2022
Recipient of Outstanding Dissertation Award ($500) conferred by the University Council for Workforce and Human Resource Education (nonprofit representing U.S. universities with graduate programs in workforce education and human resource development), 2018
