Daniel W. Williams

Daniel W. Williams has been at the School of Public Affairs since 1995. Prior to that he was the budget director of the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services.

Dr. Williams’ research focuses on the history of performance measurement. Performance measurement reflects the intersection of budgeting and research methods. Dr. Williams’ papers have appeared in Administrative Theory & Praxis and are scheduled to appear in Public Administration Review and Administration & Society. He has shown that early performance measurement practices are closely linked with the origins of the public administration discipline. His continued research in this area expands the scope of time examined and explores the link between performance measurement and the disciplinary objectives of the profession.

Dr. Williams also conducts research into technical forecasting along with Don Miller of Virginia Commonwealth University. Their “Level Adjusted Exponential Smoothing for Modeling Planned Discontinuities” appeared in the International Journal of Forecasting in 1999 and they have a forthcoming paper, “Shrinkage Estimators of Time Series Seasonal Factors and Their Effect on Forecasting Accuracy” in the same journal. Their continued research in estimation of seasonal factors for forecasting received considerable attention at the 2003 International Symposium on Forecasting.

Dr. Williams teaches a variety of courses including ethics, budgeting, research methods, program evaluation, and history of public administration. He provides occasional workshops and lectures in program evaluation, performance measurement and ethics. His students have received awards for papers completed on topics in ethics. He is a member of the New York Metropolitan Chapter Council of the American Society of Public Administration and a member of a variety of other professional and academic societies.