Jenny M. Lewis

Jenny M Lewis is a political scientist, academic, and author. She is Professor Emerita (Policy & Society) in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She was previously a professor of Public Policy and the Academic Director of Scholarly and Social Research Impact in Chancellery Research & Enterprise at the University of Melbourne.

Lewis' research focuses on public policy, with a particular emphasis on governance, the policy-making process, policy networks, and the politics of performance measurement. She is the author of numerous publications, including Innovation in City Governments: Structures, Networks, and Leadership, Academic Governance: Disciplines and Policy, and Getting Welfare to Work: Street-Level Governance in Australia, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Lewis is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. She received a lifetime achievement award from the Australian Political Studies Association in 2025 and the Routledge lifetime achievement award from the International Research Society for Public Management in 2023. She is a past president of both of these associations, as well as a previous board member of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, Victoria. Lewis was also awarded the Pip Pattison research award by the Australian Network for Social Network Analysis in 2025. She serves on the board of several journals and is Editorial Strategy Advisor for the Australian Journal of Public Administration.

Education Lewis earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Statistics in 1981 from the University of Melbourne, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Recreation Planning in 1983 from the University of Canberra. She then received a Master of Environmental Studies in 1987, a Graduate Diploma in Public Policy in 1993, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1997, all from the University of Melbourne. In 1999, with Mark Considine she identified four distinct images of bureaucratic work, emphasizing the diversity in orientations among frontline bureaucrats towards these models. Additionally, she underscored the necessity for diversity and synthesis in network governance research, advocating for advanced methodologies to comprehensively analyse networks.

Public policy design and innovation Lewis' significant contributions to public policy and policy design have led to numerous insights. In particular, she emphasized three ideal-type design approaches—optimization, exploration, and co-creation—that characterize policy design. She also examined the influence of networks on health policy agendas, underscoring the crucial role of influence in shaping priorities and demonstrated the use of deliberate strategies to enhance the position of more peripheral issues within policy-making networks.

Lewis' research concerning public sector innovation has focussed on innovation capacity building inside governments and public administrations in Australia and in European cities. She has also investigated the emergence of innovation labs as novel avenues for policy making, stressing their influence on service design and shedding light on the evolution of the policymaking arena. Lewis investigated the rise of policy design labs with Michael McGann and Emma Blomkamp. Their work on the impact of design thinking in public sector innovation labs revealed its potential for reframing policy issues and generating innovative solutions, while also acknowledging the challenges posed by power and politics. She analysed the attributes and constraints of policy labs, unveiling supportive structures and processes that foster creative policy solutions.

Academic governance and research policy Another prominent aspect of Lewis's scholarship is research (or science) policy. She examined the impact of academic disciplines and national policy settings on research collaboration and research performance. Her work on this topic has included in depth examinations of the politics and consequences of performance measurement, academics' views on research funding systems in different nations, research collaboration in different disciplines, and the relationship between academics's perspectives on performance measurement systems and their academic productivity. She argued that the perceived impacts of different national systems relate to specific institutional contexts, but that individuals’ views from within the same context also vary based on their own values, leading individual professionals to interpret and react to them in different ways. Finally, she has contributed to understanding how performance measurement is being used as a tool for governing.

Health policy Lewis has also researched health policy and partnerships, in which she investigated the power dynamics within the medical profession in Victoria, Australia, highlighting the significant impact of medicine on health policy. In related research, she focused on research partnerships in health, using a network approach to assess partnership strengths, weaknesses, and individual importance. Additionally, she examined the policy environment for chronic disease management in rural and remote Indigenous communities, highlighting successful national and sub-national strategies while identifying areas for improvement in partnerships and workforce development.

Awards and honors 2025 - Pip Pattison Research Award, Australian Network for Social Network Analysis 2025 - Lifetime Achievement Award, Australian Political Studies Association 2023 – Routledge Lifetime Achievement Award, IRSPM 2020 – Fellowship, Academy of Social Sciences Australia 2019 - Christopher Pollitt award for best article in International Review of Administrative Sciences