The Frank J. Goodnow Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association to honor the outstanding contributions of individuals, groups and public and private organizations to both the development of the political science profession and the building of the American Political Science Association.
Citation from the Award Committee:
Steven Rathgeb Smith has had a distinguished career as a teacher, scholar, and active contributor to his professional communities, but it is his superb work as Executive Director of the American Political Science Association from 2013 to 2024 that made his selection as the 2025 recipient of the Frank J. Goodnow Award easy and obvious.
Managing such a large and complex organization of more than 11,000 members with such wide-ranging and diverse interests stretching across more than 100 countries would be challenging enough. But Steve did not manage the organization through business as usual, whatever that is. He has skillfully and deftly led it in cooperation with the active members of the Association, the changing leadership, and the staff in Washington, D.C. to make a real difference in the life and future of APSA. These past 11 years have been a challenging time, and Steve bears heavy responsibility for the success with which the Association navigated those challenges and recreated itself to sustain its goals and mission through the future.
Just a few of the highlights of his service include:
- Steve improved the financial health of the Association, including paying off the mortgage on our Washington headquarters.
- He led the staff and engaged the council in strategic planning for the Association, helping to set mission-driven priorities and goals for the future, and encouraging the updating of the Association’s goals, priorities, and procedures.
- With APSA President David Lake, he led the Association in governance reform that led to the updated by laws and updates in the structure of the Council and the engagement of Council members.
- He worked with the Ethics Committee to make sure our out-of-date Guide to Professional Ethics was seriously and thoughtfully updated and encouraged drawing more attention to issues of sexual harassment and the need for real solutions.
- He supported the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the profession and supported staff projects that sought to advance scholars from all backgrounds, professional interests, and scholarly approaches.
- He expanded the size of the annual meeting by increasing the number of panel slots and creating more opportunities for scholars to present.
- He encouraged the expansion of teaching and learning resources,
- He supported professional development and mentoring and participated on numerous professional development panels while he was Executive Director.
- He served on countless leadership boards, committees across the discipline, and within public administration. He convened a regular meeting with other political science association leaders to discuss common issues, challenges, and solution.
- He led the association, with the help of the staff, through the COVID pandemic.
As the three members of the Goodnow Award committee are personally aware, Steve navigated the Association through some very thorny challenges, drawing on his considerable personal and professional understanding of nonprofits, as well as his extraordinary patience, equanimity, discretion, thoughtfulness, commitment to the collective good, and his great listening skills. Each of us felt more confident in our own leadership tasks with Steve walking beside us, and each of us thoroughly enjoyed working with him. It was a personal and professional pleasure to select Steve Smith for this year’s Goodnow Award.
Steven Rathgeb Smith was the Executive Director of the American Political Science Association from 2013-2024. He is currently an adjunct professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. He has also taught at several other universities including the University of Washington where he was the Nancy Bell Evans Professor at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance and director of the Nancy Bell Evans Center for Nonprofits & Philanthropy. He is a past president of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and formerly editor of the association’s journal, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. He is also a past president of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR). He is the author of several books including Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting (with Michael Lipsky) and The Changing Dynamic of Government–Nonprofit Relationships: Advancing the Field(s) with co-author Kirsten A. Gronbjerg (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
APSA thanks the committee members for their service: Dr. Virginia Sapiro (Chair) of Boston University, Dr. Jennifer Hochschild of Harvard University, and Dr. Gary Segura of the University of California, Los Angeles