Keith Melville (PhD, sociology, Columbia University) 

Dr. Melville has been a member of the HOD faculty at Fielding Graduate University for 25 years.  A professional writer, policy analyst, and former senior Vice President of Public Agenda -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization based in New York City -- he is the author of more than 60 published reports, articles, and books.  A co-founder of the National Issues Forums, Dr. Melville was for 6 years executive editor of the issue books used nationally in the NIF network and elsewhere. 

His publications include trade books for general audiences (one of which was a Book-of-the-Month featured selection), college textbooks (one of which was a market-leading text for six years), and a series of reports about public issues and public opinion.  He has written about a wide variety of public issues, about citizen engagement in public life, and about PhD-level scholarly skills.  

In the Fielding program, Dr. Melville took the lead in creating the Doctoral Competency Seminar and a certificate program in Dialogue, Deliberation, and Public Engagement. 

He has also served in the White House (as senior writer of a presidential commission report), and has been a consultant to various foundations.  Dr. Melville is currently an Associate at the Kettering Foundation, which has offices in Dayton, Ohio, and in Washington, D.C.              

My bio

Dr. Keith Melville

School of Human Organization and Development

Fielding Graduate University

Keith Melville has a longstanding interest in and professional commitment to the scholar-practitioner model.  As a graduate student in sociology at Columbia University, he wrote his PhD dissertation about the challenge of bridging the gap between scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. Throughout his career, he has combined academic and professional work, particularly in the area of public policy and public engagement. 

For 17 years, he was at the Public Agenda Foundation in New York city, most of that time as Senior Vice President.  The work of the foundation focuses on developing new ways of assessing the public's views and promoting deeper public engagement.  As a social analyst and writer, he has worked at the White House (where he was a senior writer for a blue-ribbon Presidential Commission) and as a staff writer for the New York Academy of Sciences. He has written both trade books and college text books, and was executive editor of the National Issues Forums for 20 years, a nationwide effort that he helped to found in 1982. In all, he has written more than 70 books, reports, and published articles, many of which are about public issues.

In addition to his faculty position at Fielding, Keith Melville is currently an Associate at the Kettering Foundation.