Madeleine Wright McNamara

Dr. Madeleine Wright McNamara joins the School of Professional Advancement with over 15 years of experience in the public sector and academic positions. Her research focuses on cross-sector collaboration, multiorganizational policy implementation, and environmental management. Much of this work culminated in the coauthored work Multiorganizational Arrangements for Watershed Protection: Better Together (2021: Routledge). Her research also appears in journals such as Public Works Management & Policy, the International Journal of Public Administration, Policy & Politics, and the Journal for Nonprofit Management, among others.

As a senior administrator with the U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans, Dr. McNamara oversaw the implementation of marine transportation and safety policies throughout the Mississippi River system and the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to the Florida Panhandle. She started her Coast Guard career as a Deck Watch Officer for a seagoing buoy tender homeported in Newport, Rhode Island and enjoyed exploring the New England coast while maintaining aids to navigation and supporting fisheries enforcement patrols.

She held appointments as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science with the University of New Orleans and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor with Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Dr. McNamara holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration and a Master of Business Administration from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Government.