Mary M. Lepper

Mary Milling Lepper (died June 1984) was an American political scientist and scholar of public administration. Her research focused on international relations and policymaking. She specialized in bridging academic research and governmental policy work, working both as a professor at a number of academic institutions and in leadership and public administration roles in US government institutions.

Life and career Lepper completed a PhD in 1966 at Florida State University, where her dissertation advisor was Marian Irish. In 1965 Lepper became a professor in the Department of Political Science in California State University, Fullerton, and in 1970 she moved to Colorado State University–Pueblo (then called the University of Southern Colorado). Lepper's dissertation, and the book she based on it, were some of the first analyses of how new types of novel policies get formulated.

Lepper was President of the western branch of the International Studies Association, and was an editor of the Western Political Quarterly. This was connected to equity concerns in her academic research; for example, she researched the history of sexism in decisions by the United States Supreme Court. Lepper was named an Outstanding Educator of America by Phi Kappa Phi in 1972. For a time after her death in June 1984, the Women's Caucus for Political Science awarded a Mary Milling Lepper Memorial Award in her honor.

Selected works Foreign Policy Formulation: A Case Study of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 (1971) "The Continuing Struggle for Equal Opportunity", The Phi Delta Kappan (1975) "The Status of Women in the United States, 1976: Still Looking for Justice and Equity", Public Administration Review (1976)