Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr. is a Professor of Public Affairs and Director of Public Affairs Programs in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and he also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Political Science. Previously, he was an assistant professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester.
A scholar of public administration and American political institutions, Hollibaugh studies how political control of the bureaucracy works in practice. His research covers three broad areas: (1) How presidents and the Senate select and confirm the appointees who lead federal agencies, (2) how appointees and career civil servants behave once in office, (3) and how individual traits such as personality and public service motivation shape who enters public service and how they respond to political pressure. His current work examines the causes and consequences of departures from the federal workforce, how federal employees experience agency politicization, and public and elite attitudes toward the governance of artificial intelligence in the United States and South Korea. Additionally, he co-leads the Federal Employee Exit Survey, conducted in partnership with the Volcker Alliance’s Accountability and Reform Research Consortium, as well as a long-running series of large-scale surveys of U.S. federal employees.
His articles have appeared in top journals public administration and political science journals, including Public Administration Review, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, the American Review of Public Administration, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, Political Science Research and Methods, Public Administration, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Public Policy. He is the coauthor of More than a Feeling: Personality, Polarization, and the Transformation of the U.S. Congress (University of Chicago Press, 2017). He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, the Journal of Politics, and Presidential Studies Quarterly.
Courses Taught
- PIA 1112 - Public Policy in a Polarized Era
- PIA 2020 - Administration of Public Affairs
- PIA 2022 - Quantitative Methods
- PIA 2023 - Intermediate Quantitative Methods
- PIA 2028 - Public Policy Analysis
- PIA 3005 - Field Seminar in Public Administration
- PhD Political Science, University of Rochester, 2012
- MA Political Science, University of Rochester, 2010
- BA Political Science and Applied Mathematics, University of California-San Diego, 2006
Education & Training
Hollibaugh, Gary E., Jr. and Matthew R. Miles. 2026. “Personality Traits and Agency Politicization: Neuroticism and Perceived Political Control in United States Federal Agencies.” American Review of Public Administration 56(4):368–385. doi: 10.1177/02750740261444334
Hassell, Hans J. G., Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr., and Matthew R. Miles. 2026. “Not Just Elections: Personality Traits and Ambition for Political Office.” Political Behavior 48(1):97–117. doi: 10.1007/s11109-025-10024-8
Hassell, Hans J. G., Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr., and Matthew R. Miles. 2025. “Seeking the Public Good: Public Service Motivation and Political Ambition.” Political Behavior 47(3):1087–1111. doi: 10.1007/s11109-024-09981-3
Hassell, Hans J. G., Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr., and Matthew R. Miles. 2025. “Does the Presence or Absence of Elections Remove Gender Differences in Ambition for Public Service?” British Journal of Political Science 55(e6):1–10. doi: 10.1017/S0007123424000449
Hollibaugh, Gary E., Jr. and George A. Krause. 2024. “Executive Appointee Reliability Under Separated Powers: Presidential Loyalty Among Leaders of U.S. Federal Agencies.” Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy 5(3):415–441. doi: 10.1561/113.00000107
Hollibaugh, Gary E., Jr. and Lawrence S. Rothenberg. 2024. “Agency Control through the Appointed Hierarchy: Presidential Politicization of Unilateral Appointees.” Journal of Public Policy 44(1):44–66. doi: 10.1017/S0143814X23000272
Hollibaugh, Gary E., Jr. and George A. Krause. 2023. “Legislative Responses to Shared Executive Authority: How Executive Branch Coordination Affects Congressional Budgetary Authority Under Separated Powers.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 53(3):334–353. doi: 10.1111/psq.12841
Bang, Insik and Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr. 2022. “Legislative Influence on Administrative Decisionmaking in Pennsylvania’s Abandoned and Orphan Well Plugging Program.” Public Administration 100(3):737–758. doi: 10.1111/padm.12764
Resh, William G., Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr., Patrick S. Roberts, and Matthew Dull. 2021. “Appointee Vacancies in US Executive Branch Agencies.” Journal of Public Policy 41(4):653–676. doi: 10.1017/S0143814X20000215
- Federal workforce and civil service politics
- Public management and bureaucratic behavior
- Political appointments and executive-legislative relations
- Personality, public service motivation, and political ambition
- Survey and experimental research methods
- AI governance and public opinion
