The Leonard D. White Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best doctoral dissertation in the field of public administration.
Citation from the Award Committee:
The research presented by Sarah Rozenblum in “Why Do Governments Ignore Their Own Experts? The Role of Scientific Advice in Covid-19 Vaccine Policy in France and the United States” addresses a timely and important question that is likely to continue to be relevant in the future. As the title suggests, the dissertation investigates why governments don’t rely on their experts and associated expertise in times of crisis? In other words, why build this capacity and invest in it over many years if of you aren’t going to use it? The empirical work is well done and intellectually rigorous and advances our theoretical understanding of questions of how government should seek guidance for policy decisions. Although the research is focused on only two countries, the lessons learned are applicable more broadly. In our opinion, the comparative nature of the work makes the findings valuable by drawing out important policy implications.
Sarah Denise Rozenblum is a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and a health policy consultant for the World Health Organization. She received a dual Ph.D. in Public Health and Political Science from the University of Michigan in August 2023. A comparative political scientist and public health scholar, she applies mixed methods to understand how governmental actors in high-income countries address significant health security challenges, such as pandemics, drug shortages, and environmental health crises.
Her dissertation examines the role of public institutions in facilitating or impeding the effective sharing of public health data and vaccine information during the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, she studies the regulation of new medical technologies, including medical devices, vaccines, and pharmaceuticals in various countries. More broadly, her work explores how elected officials and government institutions produce and make use of science.
Her scholarship has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Health Policy, the British Medical Journal, the Journal of Health Economics, Policy and Law, and the European Journal of Public Policy. A native of Paris, she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Political Science and Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and worked for the French Ministry of Health before earning her doctorate.
APSA thanks the committee members for their service: Dr. Kimberly L. Nelson (Chair) of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Janine O’Flynn of the Australian National University, and Dr. Patrick S. Roberts of Virginia Tech University.