Rosemary O’Leary is Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs, Phanstiel Chair in Strategic Management and Leadership, and Director of the Collaborative Governance Initiative at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She is the former Co-Director of the Syracuse University Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC). O’Leary is also the Birkhead-Burkhead Professor of Teaching Excellence. Previously she was a professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University and a co-founder and co-director of the Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute.

O’Leary is the author or editor of 11 books and more than 100 articles on public management and public policy. She has won nine national research awards, including Best Book in Public and Nonprofit Management for 2000 (given by the Academy of Management), Best Book in Environmental Management and Policy for 2005 and 1999 (given by the American Society for Public Administration, ASPA), and the Mosher Award, which she won twice, for best article by an academician published in Public Administration Review.

From 2003 to 2005, O’Leary was a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Return to Flight Task Group, assembled in response to the Columbia space shuttle accident. In 2004, she also served as a member of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. O’Leary has worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and the International City/County Management Association. She has worked as an attorney and as an administrator in Kansas state government.