Craig W Thomas
Biographic Data
| ID | 3707644 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Craig W Thomas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Craig W |
| FAMILY NAME | Thomas |
| SIGNATURE | THOMAS C W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Washington |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0530-8058 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 314 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Scientific Knowledge Brokering in Collaborative Environmental Partnerships
How Right Now/Qué Hacer Ahora: Findings from an evaluation of a national mental health and coping campaign amidst the Covid-19 pandemic
(HRN) is an award-winning, national campaign that provides emotional support to people disproportionately affected by COVID-19. We conducted a theory-based, culturally responsive evaluation to assess the campaign's effect on coping behaviors and resiliency between summer 2020 and spring 2021. We surveyed HRN's priority audiences (older adults/caregivers and those with preexisting health conditions, experiencing violence, or economic distress) in …
Producing Agreements and Innovations in Collaborative Governance
Collaborative governance initiatives often seek innovative solutions to longstanding policy dilemmas, as well as agreements on those solutions among longtime political adversaries. Producing both innovations and agreements in combination is difficult: the diversity among collaborators that enable innovations can complicate their attempts to reach agreements, while unifying factors that support agreements may diminish the prospects for innovation.…
Policy-Oriented Learning among National Forest Stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest: The Role of Science in Changing Beliefs about Forest Management Policy
We evaluate whether national forest stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States changed their beliefs about appropriate forest management practices and policies since adoption of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, and whether any belief changes were due to new scientific information. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 individuals with long-term involvement in national forest policy in the Pacific Northwest. Three…
What Motivates Local Sustainability Policy Action in China? The Case of Low-Carbon City Pilot Program
An increasing volume of literature has sought to identify factors that motivate cities to pursue sustainability and adopt climate policies. However, most empirical studies were done in Western countries, where relatively high local autonomy and low pressure on industrial growth create conditions for spontaneous policy innovations in sustainability. This paper uses China’s Low-Carbon City Pilot Program as a case to investigate motivations for loca…
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Prevalence of Stress and Worry, Mental Health Conditions, and Increased Substance Use Among Adults During the Covid-19 Pandemic — United States, April and May 2020
(1). Although reported prevalence estimates of certain mental disorders, substance use, or substance use disorders are not generally higher among racial and ethnic minority groups, persons in these groups are often less likely to receive treatment services (1). Persistent systemic social inequities and discrimination related to living conditions and work environments, which contribute to disparities in underlying medical conditions, can further c…
Trends in US Emergency Department Visits for Mental Health, Overdose, and Violence Outcomes Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic
These findings suggest that ED care seeking shifts during a pandemic, underscoring the need to integrate mental health, substance use, and violence screening and prevention services into response activities during public health crises.
How Collaborative Governance Practitioners Can Assess the Effectiveness of Collaborative Environmental Governance, While Also Evaluating Their Own Services
Collaborative governance applied to environmental issues is becoming more common, and evaluation of such efforts can provide useful information for multiple audiences. However, due to a variety of challenges, collaborative governance practitioners rarely evaluate the outcomes of collaboration and their contributions to these efforts. With these challenges in mind, the William D. Ruckelshaus Center designed an evaluation framework that can meet mu…
Small Area Estimates of Populations With Chronic Conditions for Community Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies
Objectives. To demonstrate a flexible and practical method to obtain near real-time estimates of the number of at-risk community-dwelling adults with a chronic condition in a defined area potentially affected by a public health emergency. Methods. We used small area estimation with survey responses from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System together with a geographic information system to predict the number of adults with chronic ob…
Convening for Consensus: Simulating Stakeholder Agreement in Collaborative Governance Processes Under Different Network Conditions
Public policymakers and managers use collaborative governance processes strategically to involve relevant stakeholders in developing plans, designing programs, and implementing policies. Although intuitive and normatively popular, such deliberative processes pose a tension between the prospective benefits of broader involvement (both instrumental benefits such as information and support for implementation and normative benefits related to represe…
Use of science in collaborative environmental management: Evidence from local watershed partnerships in the Puget Sound
Convening for Consensus: Simulating Stakeholder Agreement in Collaborative Governance Processes Under Different Network Conditions
Unpacking the Collaborative Toolbox: Why and When Do Public Managers Choose Collaborative Governance Strategies
The public policy and public management literatures together support a vibrant discussion of collaborative governance. Much of this scholarship takes a broad perspective focusing on questions such as what collaborative governance is; why collaborative governance emerges; or why individuals and organizations choose to participate in voluntary, nonbinding collaborative efforts. This paper focuses specifically on the role of public managers as leade…
Winners and Losers in the Ecology of Games: Network Position, Connectivity, and the Benefits of Collaborative Governance Regimes
Collaborative governance regimes (CGRs) are often viewed as a means to be more inclusive of diverse actors than other forms of governance. However, collaboration can also reinforce pre-existing power and resource dynamics instead of distributing resources and facilitating joint action. This article tests seven hypotheses concerning how the structural position of an actor within a policy network influences said actor's ability to access resources …
Defining and Assessing Quality Improvement Outcomes: A Framework for Public Health
We describe an evidence-based framework to define and assess the impact of quality improvement (QI) in public health. Developed to address programmatic and research-identified needs for articulating the value of public health QI in aggregate, this framework proposes a standardized set of measures to monitor and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public health programs and operations. We reviewed the scientific literature and analyzed QI …
The Value of the “System” in Public Health Services and Systems Research
The authors reflect on public health services and systems research (PHSSR). They suggest that in order to advance the field of public health services and systems research, challenges that are apparent within the research will need to be addressed. They argue that with a collaborative effort new, relevant and translatable PHSSR findings can be found that can be used to understand and address public health problems
Internal Validity: Process Tracing
In the previous chapter, the problem of internal validity was discussed from an experimental perspective. That is, the case study method was understood as an attempt to satisfy the methodological criteria that define a well-designed experiment. To the extent that a single case, or a small number of cases, exemplify a quasi-experimental design, the case study method is vindicated. However, few case studies are truly experimental, in the sense of h…
Public Management Research Association
Public Management Research Association
Public Management Research Association
Institutional Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation in U.S. National Parks and Forests
Jantarasami, L. C., J. J. Lawler, and C. W. Thomas. 2010. Institutional barriers to climate change adaptation in U.S. national parks and forests . Ecology and Society 15(4): 33. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03715-150433
Toward a Platinum Standard for Evidence‐Based Assessment by 2020
The authors argue for a scientifically rigorous, contextually valid, practically relevant, and stakeholder‐inclusive Platinum Standard for evidence‐based assessment to improve public administration and third‐party governance in the twenty‐first century. The Platinum Standard would encompass two contending gold standards. The first gold standard, based on experimental methods, counterfactuals, and average causal effects, is better known and more i…
Special Interest Capture of Regulatory Agencies: A Ten-Year Analysis of Voting Behavior on Regional Fishery Management Councils
This article tests capture theory by analyzing voting behavior on U.S. Regional Fishery Management Councils. Some seats on the councils are reserved for state and federal agency representatives; others, for political appointees. The political appointees primarily represent special interests (specifically, commercial and recreational fishing interests); a smaller number of appointees represent public interests. We use logistic regression to model …
Government Performance: Why Management Matters
What Do We Know and Need to Know about the Environmental Outcomes of Collaborative Management
Many tout the benefits of collaborative environmental management as an alternative to centralized planning and command and control regulation, but the excitement over collaborative processes has not been matched by evidence that these processes actually improve the environment. The most crucial question in collaborative environmental management remains unanswered and often unasked: To what extent does collaboration lead to improved environmental …
Unpacking the Collaborative Toolbox: Why and When Do Public Managers Choose Collaborative Governance Strategies
The public policy and public management literatures together support a vibrant discussion of collaborative governance. Much of this scholarship takes a broad perspective focusing on questions such as what collaborative governance is; why collaborative governance emerges; or why individuals and organizations choose to participate in voluntary, nonbinding collaborative efforts. This paper focuses specifically on the role of public managers as leade…
Winners and Losers in the Ecology of Games: Network Position, Connectivity, and the Benefits of Collaborative Governance Regimes
Collaborative governance regimes (CGRs) are often viewed as a means to be more inclusive of diverse actors than other forms of governance. However, collaboration can also reinforce pre-existing power and resource dynamics instead of distributing resources and facilitating joint action. This article tests seven hypotheses concerning how the structural position of an actor within a policy network influences said actor's ability to access resources …
Maintaining and Restoring Public Trust in Government Agencies and their Employees
The decline of public trust in government in the United States is well documented. We know comparatively little, however, about how to maintain or restore the public’s trust. This article attempts to advance our understanding of trust in government by addressing a relatively narrow question: How can we create, maintain, or restore public trust in government agencies and their employees? The article reviews several conceptions of trust and lays ou…
Convening for Consensus: Simulating Stakeholder Agreement in Collaborative Governance Processes Under Different Network Conditions
Public policymakers and managers use collaborative governance processes strategically to involve relevant stakeholders in developing plans, designing programs, and implementing policies. Although intuitive and normatively popular, such deliberative processes pose a tension between the prospective benefits of broader involvement (both instrumental benefits such as information and support for implementation and normative benefits related to represe…
Illusions of control, underestimations, and accuracy: A control heuristic explanation
The illusions of control area is reviewed, and 5 conditions that influence control judgments are identified: skill-related factors, success or failure emphasis, need for the outcome, mood, and the intrusion of reality. It is proposed that individuals use a control heuristic that includes perceptions of intentionality and connection. Judgments of intentionality are based on foreseeability, ability to produce the effect, and valence of the outcome.…
Regulatory Compliance and the Ethos of Quality Enhancement: Surprises in Nuclear Power Plant Operations1
The relationship of regulatees to regulators is expected to be characterized predominantly by either efforts to co-opt, to resist, or to comply minimally. The object of regulatees, it is assumed, is to reduce the strictures of regulatory constraints. This research monograph reports an unexpected relationship in which regulatory constraints have become incorporated within a broader ethos of quality enhancement and regulatee self-imposed processes …
Linking Public Agencies With Community‐Based Watershed Organizations: Lessons From California
Watershed organizations routinely seek to influence public agencies and sometimes also depend on them for financial and technical assistance. For some agencies this relationship is strained and problematic. Watershed organizations tend to develop closer working relationships with decentralized and locally responsive agencies, like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Centralized and unresponsive agencies, like the Forest Service, tend to be unrel…
Use of science in collaborative environmental management: Evidence from local watershed partnerships in the Puget Sound
Habitat Conservation Planning: Certainly Empowered, somewhat Deliberative, Questionably Democratic
Temperament and School Functioning during Early Adolescence
Individual differences in temperament have been shown to be important correlates of school success in young children; however, their significance during early adolescence has not been studied extensively. In this study, the relation between temperament assessed by parent report and a wide range of measures relating to school functioning was examined. Data were collected on over 100 Fullerton Longitudinal Study participants at their 10-, 11-, 12-,…
Reorganizing Public Organizations: Alternatives, Objectives, and Evidence1
The literature on public-sector reorganization is largely theoretical. Not only is empirical evidence relatively scant, it often contradicts theoretical claims. This article examines the extent of the disjunction between what we want and expect from reorganizations and the available evidence which might support these expectations. In doing so, it draws attention to the literature's emphasis on efficiency and control, rather than other values such…
What Motivates Local Sustainability Policy Action in China? The Case of Low-Carbon City Pilot Program
An increasing volume of literature has sought to identify factors that motivate cities to pursue sustainability and adopt climate policies. However, most empirical studies were done in Western countries, where relatively high local autonomy and low pressure on industrial growth create conditions for spontaneous policy innovations in sustainability. This paper uses China’s Low-Carbon City Pilot Program as a case to investigate motivations for loca…
How Collaborative Governance Practitioners Can Assess the Effectiveness of Collaborative Environmental Governance, While Also Evaluating Their Own Services
Collaborative governance applied to environmental issues is becoming more common, and evaluation of such efforts can provide useful information for multiple audiences. However, due to a variety of challenges, collaborative governance practitioners rarely evaluate the outcomes of collaboration and their contributions to these efforts. With these challenges in mind, the William D. Ruckelshaus Center designed an evaluation framework that can meet mu…
Institutional Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation in U.S. National Parks and Forests
Jantarasami, L. C., J. J. Lawler, and C. W. Thomas. 2010. Institutional barriers to climate change adaptation in U.S. national parks and forests . Ecology and Society 15(4): 33. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03715-150433
Special Interest Capture of Regulatory Agencies: A Ten-Year Analysis of Voting Behavior on Regional Fishery Management Councils
This article tests capture theory by analyzing voting behavior on U.S. Regional Fishery Management Councils. Some seats on the councils are reserved for state and federal agency representatives; others, for political appointees. The political appointees primarily represent special interests (specifically, commercial and recreational fishing interests); a smaller number of appointees represent public interests. We use logistic regression to model …
Using Remote Sensing to Evaluate Environmental Institutional Designs: A Habitat Conservation Planning Example
Objective. Satellite‐based remote‐sensing analysis is a beneficial, yet underused, tool for environmental policy, planning, and evaluation. We identify its benefits and costs to encourage social scientists to consider the use of remote sensing as a tool for planning and evaluating environmental institutions. Methods. We analyze two multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images to evaluate a habitat conservation plan (HCP) implemented pur…
Policy-Oriented Learning among National Forest Stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest: The Role of Science in Changing Beliefs about Forest Management Policy
We evaluate whether national forest stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States changed their beliefs about appropriate forest management practices and policies since adoption of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, and whether any belief changes were due to new scientific information. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 individuals with long-term involvement in national forest policy in the Pacific Northwest. Three…
Defining and Assessing Quality Improvement Outcomes: A Framework for Public Health
We describe an evidence-based framework to define and assess the impact of quality improvement (QI) in public health. Developed to address programmatic and research-identified needs for articulating the value of public health QI in aggregate, this framework proposes a standardized set of measures to monitor and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public health programs and operations. We reviewed the scientific literature and analyzed QI …
Government Performance: Why Management Matters
Reorganizing Public Organizations: Alternatives, Objectives, and Evidence1
The literature on public-sector reorganization is largely theoretical. Not only is empirical evidence relatively scant, it often contradicts theoretical claims. This article examines the extent of the disjunction between what we want and expect from reorganizations and the available evidence which might support these expectations. In doing so, it draws attention to the literature's emphasis on efficiency and control, rather than other values such…
Temperament and School Functioning during Early Adolescence
Individual differences in temperament have been shown to be important correlates of school success in young children; however, their significance during early adolescence has not been studied extensively. In this study, the relation between temperament assessed by parent report and a wide range of measures relating to school functioning was examined. Data were collected on over 100 Fullerton Longitudinal Study participants at their 10-, 11-, 12-,…
Regulatory Compliance and the Ethos of Quality Enhancement: Surprises in Nuclear Power Plant Operations1
The relationship of regulatees to regulators is expected to be characterized predominantly by either efforts to co-opt, to resist, or to comply minimally. The object of regulatees, it is assumed, is to reduce the strictures of regulatory constraints. This research monograph reports an unexpected relationship in which regulatory constraints have become incorporated within a broader ethos of quality enhancement and regulatee self-imposed processes …
Primary and Secondary Control Over Age‐Related Changes in Physical Appearance
Beliefs about appearance‐related changes due to aging were used to test the effects of perceived control and secondary control (acceptance) in a sample of 412 young, early‐middle‐age, and late‐middle‐age college‐educated adults. Mean difference in aging‐related appearance control and hypotheses regarding the adaptiveness of primary and secondary control were examined. Primary control over aging‐related appearance was lower in older adults and sec…
Maintaining and Restoring Public Trust in Government Agencies and their Employees
The decline of public trust in government in the United States is well documented. We know comparatively little, however, about how to maintain or restore the public’s trust. This article attempts to advance our understanding of trust in government by addressing a relatively narrow question: How can we create, maintain, or restore public trust in government agencies and their employees? The article reviews several conceptions of trust and lays ou…
Illusions of control, underestimations, and accuracy: A control heuristic explanation
The illusions of control area is reviewed, and 5 conditions that influence control judgments are identified: skill-related factors, success or failure emphasis, need for the outcome, mood, and the intrusion of reality. It is proposed that individuals use a control heuristic that includes perceptions of intentionality and connection. Judgments of intentionality are based on foreseeability, ability to produce the effect, and valence of the outcome.…
Linking Public Agencies With Community‐Based Watershed Organizations: Lessons From California
Watershed organizations routinely seek to influence public agencies and sometimes also depend on them for financial and technical assistance. For some agencies this relationship is strained and problematic. Watershed organizations tend to develop closer working relationships with decentralized and locally responsive agencies, like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Centralized and unresponsive agencies, like the Forest Service, tend to be unrel…
Habitat Conservation Planning: Certainly Empowered, somewhat Deliberative, Questionably Democratic
Bureaucratic Landscapes: Interagency Cooperation and the Preservation of Biodiversity
Political scientists have long been concerned about the tension between institutional fragmentation and policy coordination in the U.S. bureaucracy. The literature is rife with examples of agencies competing with each other or asserting their independence, while cooperation is relatively rare. This is of particular importance in policy areas such as biodiversity, where species, habitats, and ecosystems cross various agency jurisdictions. Bureaucr…
Using Remote Sensing to Evaluate Environmental Institutional Designs: A Habitat Conservation Planning Example
Objective. Satellite‐based remote‐sensing analysis is a beneficial, yet underused, tool for environmental policy, planning, and evaluation. We identify its benefits and costs to encourage social scientists to consider the use of remote sensing as a tool for planning and evaluating environmental institutions. Methods. We analyze two multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images to evaluate a habitat conservation plan (HCP) implemented pur…
The Making of Environmental Law
The Making of Environmental Law. By Richard J. Lazarus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 312p. $35.00. Richard Lazarus brings rich experience to this book. In the 1980s, he served as a litigator in the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and as an assistant to the solicitor general, in the Department of Justice. He has represented environmental groups and local, state, and federal governments in numerous cases before the Suprem…
Government Performance: Why Management Matters
What Do We Know and Need to Know about the Environmental Outcomes of Collaborative Management
Many tout the benefits of collaborative environmental management as an alternative to centralized planning and command and control regulation, but the excitement over collaborative processes has not been matched by evidence that these processes actually improve the environment. The most crucial question in collaborative environmental management remains unanswered and often unasked: To what extent does collaboration lead to improved environmental …
Public Management Research Association
Institutional Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation in U.S. National Parks and Forests
Jantarasami, L. C., J. J. Lawler, and C. W. Thomas. 2010. Institutional barriers to climate change adaptation in U.S. national parks and forests . Ecology and Society 15(4): 33. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03715-150433
Toward a Platinum Standard for Evidence‐Based Assessment by 2020
The authors argue for a scientifically rigorous, contextually valid, practically relevant, and stakeholder‐inclusive Platinum Standard for evidence‐based assessment to improve public administration and third‐party governance in the twenty‐first century. The Platinum Standard would encompass two contending gold standards. The first gold standard, based on experimental methods, counterfactuals, and average causal effects, is better known and more i…
Special Interest Capture of Regulatory Agencies: A Ten-Year Analysis of Voting Behavior on Regional Fishery Management Councils
This article tests capture theory by analyzing voting behavior on U.S. Regional Fishery Management Councils. Some seats on the councils are reserved for state and federal agency representatives; others, for political appointees. The political appointees primarily represent special interests (specifically, commercial and recreational fishing interests); a smaller number of appointees represent public interests. We use logistic regression to model …
Public Management Research Association
Public Management Research Association
Internal Validity: Process Tracing
In the previous chapter, the problem of internal validity was discussed from an experimental perspective. That is, the case study method was understood as an attempt to satisfy the methodological criteria that define a well-designed experiment. To the extent that a single case, or a small number of cases, exemplify a quasi-experimental design, the case study method is vindicated. However, few case studies are truly experimental, in the sense of h…
Defining and Assessing Quality Improvement Outcomes: A Framework for Public Health
We describe an evidence-based framework to define and assess the impact of quality improvement (QI) in public health. Developed to address programmatic and research-identified needs for articulating the value of public health QI in aggregate, this framework proposes a standardized set of measures to monitor and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public health programs and operations. We reviewed the scientific literature and analyzed QI …
The Value of the “System” in Public Health Services and Systems Research
The authors reflect on public health services and systems research (PHSSR). They suggest that in order to advance the field of public health services and systems research, challenges that are apparent within the research will need to be addressed. They argue that with a collaborative effort new, relevant and translatable PHSSR findings can be found that can be used to understand and address public health problems
Unpacking the Collaborative Toolbox: Why and When Do Public Managers Choose Collaborative Governance Strategies
The public policy and public management literatures together support a vibrant discussion of collaborative governance. Much of this scholarship takes a broad perspective focusing on questions such as what collaborative governance is; why collaborative governance emerges; or why individuals and organizations choose to participate in voluntary, nonbinding collaborative efforts. This paper focuses specifically on the role of public managers as leade…
Winners and Losers in the Ecology of Games: Network Position, Connectivity, and the Benefits of Collaborative Governance Regimes
Collaborative governance regimes (CGRs) are often viewed as a means to be more inclusive of diverse actors than other forms of governance. However, collaboration can also reinforce pre-existing power and resource dynamics instead of distributing resources and facilitating joint action. This article tests seven hypotheses concerning how the structural position of an actor within a policy network influences said actor's ability to access resources …
Use of science in collaborative environmental management: Evidence from local watershed partnerships in the Puget Sound
Political science (23 works) · Business (15 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (14 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Public relations (11 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Public Administration (10 works) · Corporate governance (9 works) · Economics (9 works) · Geography (9 works)