John C. Ronquillo is a doctoral candidate in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. His primary research and teaching interests are in public and nonprofit management, cross-sector collaboration, social enterprise, organizational innovation and leadership. He will complete his dissertation under the direction of Dr. Hal G. Rainey; the topic focuses on the environmental and organizational drivers that influence and predict innovation behavior in public and nonprofit organizations.
His writings have appeared or will soon appear in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Public Administration Review, and in the edited volumes Handbook of Decision Making (chapter co-authored with Hal G. Rainey and Claudia N. Avellaneda) and Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations (forthcoming.) In 2009, John was a Summer PhD Fellow at the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas at Austin. Following his experience at the RGK Center, he participated in the first European Summer School on Social Economy hosted by the Forlì Campus Faculty of Economics of the University of Bologna in Italy. John currently serves as the Social Networking Coordinator for the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), and in 2009 was recognized with an Emerging Scholar Award by the same organization.
Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, he worked as the Policy and Research Analyst for the Arizona Association of Counties (AACo) in Phoenix, Arizona where he provided support to the Arizona County Attorneys’ and Sheriffs’ Association, Arizona Constables State Association, and also acted as interim director of the Arizona Constable Ethics Committee. As a registered lobbyist, he also spent a great deal of time at the Arizona State Legislature working with many individuals on policies concerning judicial, legal and law enforcement matters. Prior to joining AACo, John was part of a research and consulting team responsible for producing a major social impact assessment for Resolution Copper Mining. He has also held previous positions with the State of Arizona Government Information Technology Agency, the Salt River Project, the City of Chandler (AZ), and U.S. Congressman Ed Pastor. John also held the position of Director of Student Events for the 2004 Presidential Debate at Arizona State University.
John holds a Master of Public Administration from the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University and graduated cum laude with a baccalaureate degree in journalism and mass communication from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, also at ASU, with a minor in Italian. Following his love of languages, he also earned a certificate in Albanian from Universiteti i Tiranës in Tirana, Albania.
He is a seventh-generation native Arizonan–born in Safford, raised in St. Johns–and is married to the former Holli Jo Keel, a freelance writer. They currently reside in Athens, Georgia with their son, Rhys.
