Biography

CV (pdf)

Michael J. Gaffney is the Associate Director of Extension and a faculty member in the Extension Community and Economic Development Program Unit (CED) at Washington State University.  Mike was appointed Associate Director in May, 2024, having previously served as Assistant Director of WSU Extension since December, 2015, and also having served for a time as Acting Director.  With a background in Political Science, Law and Public Policy, Mike has been connected with Extension for 25 years, and has long participated in community engagement and projects which provide applied research, technical assistance, and training services for governmental agencies, non-profits, and communities throughout the Northwest.  These activities have included projects related to Community-Oriented Policing, Collaborative Natural Resource Management, Ethics in Public Service, Emergency Management & Disaster Response, Social Capital/Community Capitals, and Resilience.

In addition to having taught Political Science, Public Administration, Paralegal Studies and Criminal Justice Classes at the college level, Mike has extensive experience providing training on topics which include Research Methods, Evaluation, Ethics, Alternative Dispute Resolution & Conflict Management, and Law Enforcement Winter Operations & Survival.  Mike’s research interests include Program Evaluation, Emergency Management & Response, Social Capital, Volunteerism, Crime Prevention, Disaster Preparedness, Research Methodology, Ethics, Biased Policing and Profiling, Democratization, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Community Oriented Policing, Conflict Management, Facilitation, and Citizen-Government relations.  Mike has an extensive history of externally funded project work, including grant funding from USDA, DOJ, DHS, the FCC, Commerce, Interior, and NSF, in addition to numerous contracts and state-funded projects.  Mike has peer reviewed publications on topics as diverse as social asset modelling, collaborative natural resource stewardship, government ethics, assessment of community collaborative potential, social capital, racial profiling and community-oriented policing.