MAAYAN DAVIDOVITZ
Hi there! I am Maayan Davidovitz, a scholar of public administration, public policy, and education policy. I am currently a Teaching Fellow in the Education Policy program at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University, where I teach graduate-level courses. Between April 2022 and October 2023, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. From October 2023 to 2026, I held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. My research focuses on street-level bureaucracy, representative bureaucracy, trust, policy implementation, educational leadership, and the role of public servants and educators in shaping policy processes. More broadly, I study how public organizations, frontline professionals, and educational institutions navigate complex policy environments and interact with the communities they serve. I received my Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy from the University of Haifa in 2021. In 2023, I was awarded the International Public Policy Association (IPPA) Early Career Research Award. In 2025, two of my articles received the IRSPM Rosemary O’Leary Award and the Management in Education Board Choice Award. I am the co-author of Trust at the Ground Level of Government: Its Role in the Work of Street-Level Bureaucrats, published by the State University of New York Press. My recent work has been published in journals including Public Administration Review, Public Administration, Public Management Review, Regulation & Governance, The American Review of Public Administration, Management in Education, and, Educational Management Administration & Leadership.
List of Publications
Books:
1. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2026). Trust at the Ground Level of Government: The Role of Trust in the Work of Street-Level Bureaucrats. The State University of New York (SUNY) Press. [book].
Peer Reviewed Articles in Scientific Journals:
1. Davidovitz, Maayan (in press). "Who Incurs the Risk? Trust as a Mechanism of Policy Enactment in Schools." Educational Management, Administration & Leadership. [article].
2. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cinamon Rachel, Gali (in press). "Negotiating Presence: The Dynamics of Passive Representation among Ultra-Orthodox Women in Public Organizations." Public Administration. [article].
3. Davidovitz, Maayan & Addi-Raccah, Audrey (in press). "A Street-Level Policy Entrepreneur’s Perspective for Bridging Public Policy and School Principalship." Management in Education. [article].
4. Davidovitz, Maayan & Schechter, Chen (in press). "Coping Under Fire: Street-Level School Leadership in Wartime." Educational Management Administration & Leadership. [article].
5. Davidovitz, Maayan & Schechter, Chen (2026). "Wartime Leadership as a Bridge Over Troubled Waters: A Representative Bureaucracy Perspective on Ethnically Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Schools." Public Administration, 101(4), 1587-1603.[article].
6. Cohen, Nissim., Davidovitz, Maayan., Lotta, Gabriella & Lazebnik, Teddy (2026). "Trust and Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Readiness for Emergencies." International Public Management Journal, 29 (1), 105-119. [article].
7. Davidovitz, Maayan (2025). "Vulnerability in frontline public service: Potential threats and implications for policy implementation." Public Management Review, 27 (10), 2447-2468. [article].
8. Zach, Sima., Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Rona (in press). "Comparative Perceptions of Sexual Harassment Among Athletes Across Different Competitive Levels." Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. [article].
9. Davidovitz, Maayan & Schechter, Chen (2026). "Agentic Leaders: School Principals as Street-Level Managers." Management in Education, 40(4), 287-295. *[best article winner of the 2025 Management in Education (MiE) ‘Board Choice’ Award]. [article].
10. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cinamon Rachel, Gali (2025). "Lack of Gender Representation in Academia: The Experiences of Female STEM Students." The American Review of Public Administration, 55 (1), 84-96. *[best article winner of 2025 IRSPM Rosemary O’Leary Award for excellent scholarship on women in public administration]. [article].
11. Davidovitz, Maayan & Shwartz-Ziv, Tamar (2024). "The Role of Organizational and Client Reactions in Understanding Representative Bureaucracy." The American Review of Public Administration, 54 (2), 151-162. [article].
12. Davidovitz, Maayan (2024). "How Street-Level Bureaucrats Exercise their Discretion to Encourage Clients' Political Participation: A Case Study of Israeli LGBTQ+ Teachers." Public Policy and Administration, 39 (1), 51-68. [article].
13. Edri-Peer, Ofek., Silveira, Mariana., Davidovitz, Maayan., Frisch-Aviram, Neomi., Shehade, Jamal., Diab, Hadeel., Golan-Nadir, Niva & Cohen, Nissim (2023). "Policy Entrepreneurship on the Street-Level: A Systematic Literature Review." European Policy Analysis, 9 (4), 356-378. [article].
14. Davidovitz, Maayan (2023). "Winds of Change: How Street-Level Bureaucrats Actively Represent Minority Clients by Influencing Majority Clients: The context of LGB Israeli Teachers." Public Administration, 101 (4), 1587-1603. [article].
15. Davidovitz, Maayan., Cardaun Sarah., Klenk Tanja & Cohen Nissim (2023). "How do Different Organizational Influences Lead Street-Level Workers to Move towards Clients? A Comparison of Care Services for the Elderly in Germany and Israel." Public Management Review, 25 (12), 2451-2468. [article].
16. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2023). "Politicians’ Involvement in Street-Level Policy Implementation: Implications for Social Equity." Public Policy and Administration, 38 (3) 309-328. [article].
17. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2023). “I Have Learned My Lesson”: How clients’ trust betrayals shape the future ways in which street-level bureaucrats cope with their clients." Public Administration, 101 (1), 335-351. [article].
18. Cohen, Nissim., Klenk Tanja., Davidovitz, Maayan & Cardaun Sarah (2023). "Varieties of Welfare Markets from a Street-Level Perspective: Comparing Long-term Care Services in Germany and Israel." Public Administration Review, 83 (2), 419-428. [article].
19. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2022). “Alone in the campaign: Distrust in regulators and the coping of front-line workers." Regulation & Governance, 16 (4), 1005-1021. [article] | [video abstract].
20. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2022). "Playing defence: the impact of trust on the coping mechanisms of street-level bureaucrats." Public Management Review, 24 (2), 279-300. [article].
21. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2022). "Which Clients Inspire or Reduce the Trust of Street-Level Bureaucrats?" Administration & Society, 54 (8), 1516-1541. [article].
22. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2022). "Speaking truth to power—How political rhetoric leads to a counter response of LGBTQ street-level bureaucrats." International Public Management Journal, 25 (2), 165-177. [article].
23. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2022). "Frontline social service as a battlefield: Insights from street-level bureaucrats' interactions with violent clients." Social Policy & Administration, 56 (1), 73-86. [article].
24. Davidovitz, Maayan., Cohen Nissim & Gofen Anat (2021). "Governmental Response to Crises and Its Implications for Street-Level Implementation: Policy Ambiguity, Risk, and Discretion during the COVID-19 Pandemic." Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 23 (1), 120-130. [article].
25. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2021). “Violence against social service providers and coping mechanisms at the frontline - The case of teachers and social workers." Social Security, 115, 41-65. [Hebrew]. [article].
Chapters in Scientific Books:
1. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (in press). “The Consequences of Political Involvement in Social Policy Implementation Processes in Israel on Social Equity”. In: Hillel Schmid & Yekoutiel Sabah (eds.). Leadership and Management in Social Services in Israel, Resling Publishing: Tel Aviv. [Hebrew]. [chapter].
Other Scientific Publications:
1. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2020). "The Impact of Trust on The Coping Mechanisms of Street-Level Bureaucrats." Working Paper no. 10 of the Center for Public Management and Policy (CPMP), The University of Haifa. [Hebrew]. [article].
2. Davidovitz, Maayan & Cohen, Nissim (2022) "Politicians' Involvement in Street-Level Implementation: Implications for Social Equity." Working Paper no. 18 of the Center for Public Management and Policy (CPMP), The University of Haifa. [Hebrew]. [article].
Awards, Grants and Honors
2025 - The 2025 Management in Education (MiE) ‘Board Choice’ Award for the best article: “Agentic leaders: School principals as
street-level managers” (with Chen Schechter).
2025 - The 2025 International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) Rosemary O’Leary Award for best article on Women and public administration for the article "Lack of Gender Representation in Academia: The Experiences of Female STEM Students" (with Rachel Gali Cinamon) [online link].
2024 - Research grant for the study of politics and society in Israel, The Institute for Liberty & Responsibility, Reichman University, Israel [online link].
2023 - The International Public Policy Association (IPPA) 2023 Early Career Research Award for a young scholar who has a record of single-authored publications that represents a major theoretical, methodological, and/or empirical contribution to the field of Public Policy and/or Public Administration [online link].
2023 - The Harry Bloomfield International Postdoctoral Scholarship for Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellows, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
2022 - The Israeli Planning and Budgeting Committee (Vatat) Scholarship for Outstanding Postdoctoral Researchers.
2022 - The 2021-2022 Dr. Nadir Tzur Award from the Israeli Political Science Association (ISPSA) for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis.
2021 - Scholarship for Excellence in Doctoral Studies, School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
2021 - Scholarship for Outstanding Doctoral Students of the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
2021 - Article Publication Grant, Graduate Studies Authority, University of Haifa, Israel.
2020 - American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) Founders’ Fellowship for Outstanding Students in the Field of Public
Service and Public Administration [online link].
2020 - Scholarship for Excellence for Ph.D. Students, School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
2020 - Scholarship for Articles in Ranked Journals for Ph.D. Students, the Head of the School of Political Sciences, University of
Haifa, Israel.
2018 - Scholarship for Excellence for Ph.D. Students, Graduate Studies Authority, University of Haifa, Israel.
June 2026 - The 6th Street-Level Bureaucracy Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark - Presenter (The Political Lives of Street-Level Bureaucrats Panel).
February 2026 - The 15th Annual ESPAnet Israel Conference (The Israel Council on Social Welfare), Ruppin Academic Center, Israel - Presenter (Bottom-Up Policy and Community Fragmentation Panel).
January 2026 - The Annual Conference of the Israeli Political Science Association 2026, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel - Presenter (Inclusion and Exclusion in Israeli Society Panel).
August 2025 - The Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) 2025, Denver, Colorado - Presenter (Paper presented in a symposium).
May 2024 - Conference on Policy Process Research (COPPR) 2024, Syracuse University, New York - Presenter (virtual) (Overcoming Challenges around Rules, Implementation, and Compliance Panel).
June 2023 - International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP6), Toronto, Canada - Invited, Presenter (Bureaucratic Dysfunctions Panel).
March 2023 - American Society of Public Administration’s (ASPA) 2023 Annual Conference, Virtual – Presenter.
January 2023 - Conference on Policy Process Research (COPPR) 2023, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado - Presenter (Policy Implementation Panel).
June 2022 - The International Workshop of Public Policy (IWPP3), Budapest, Hungary - Presenter and Discussant (Hybrid Panel - Street-level Bureaucracy in Weak Institutions).
October 2021 - Street-Level Bureaucrats in Times of Change (Virtual Workshop), University of Haifa, Israel - Organizer, Presenter and Chair.
September 2021 - The Annual Conference of the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) 2021, Online – Presenter.
July 2021 - The 26th International Political Science Association (IPSA) Virtual World Congress of Political Science – Presenter.
July 2021 - International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP5), Barcelona, Spain - Presenter (Virtual Panel - Gender public policies of the 21st century: advances and challenges).
July 2021 - International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP5), Barcelona, Spain – Presenter and Discussant (Virtual Panel - Street-level Bureaucracy in Weak Institutions).
February 2021 - Israeli Sociology Society’s 52nd Annual Conference, Sapir Academic College, Israel – Presenter.
June 2020 - American Society of Public Administration’s (ASPA) 2020 Digital Annual Conference – Invited, Presenter.
February 2020 - ESPAnet Israel 11th Annual Conference, Ashkelon Academic College, Israel – Presenter.
June 2019 - International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP4), Montréal, Canada – Presenter.
January 2019 - International Public Policy Association (IPPA) Winter School on Public Policy, Autrans, France – Presenter.
Selected Conference Participation
Academic Appointments and Teaching Experience
2026-Present - Teaching Fellow, School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Israel. Teaching five graduate-level courses (M.Ed.) in education policy, focusing on educational change, policy implementation, trust, representation and inclusion, and innovation and entrepreneurship in education.
2023-2025 - Adjunct Lecturer for the course "Introduction to Public Administration" (B.A.), Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Reichman University, Israel.
2023-2025 - Adjunct Lecturer for the course "Introduction to Public Administration" (LL.B.), Radzyner Law School, Reichman University, Israel.
2021-Present - Research Fellow at The Center for Public Management and Policy (CPMP), School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
2019-2021 - Teaching Assistant for the course “Setting Public Policy” (M.A.), School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
2018-2021 - Teaching Assistant for the course “Research Methods and Academic Writing in Political Sciences” (B.A.), School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
2018-2021 - Teaching Assistant for the course “Research Methods and Academic Writing in Political Sciences” (B.A. - Naval Officers Course), School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
2017-2021 - Teaching Assistant for the course “From Theory to Practice - Guided Project” (B.A.), Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel.
2017-2022 Research Team Member on the project “Street-Level Bureaucrats in A Choice-Based Social Services Environment: Comparing Germany and Israel”, the German Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF).
Peer Reviewer for Scientific Journals
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Public Management Review
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Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
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Public Administration Review
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Public Administration
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Policy Sciences
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Review of Public Personnel Administration
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Regulation & Governance
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Educational Management Administration & Leadership
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Public Performance & Management Review
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Administration & Society
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Public Personnel Management
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Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice
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Urban Affairs Review
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Governance
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Public Money & Management
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International Review of Administrative Sciences
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Perspectives on Public Management and Governance
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The British Journal of Social Work
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International Journal of Public Administration
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Journal of Homosexuality
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Australian Journal of Public Administration
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International Review of Public Policy
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European Policy Analysis
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Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research
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Educational Policy
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Social Policy & Administration
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Social Policy and Society
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International Journal of Public Administration
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Frontiers in Public Health
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Social Security
Education
Oct. 2023 - Oct. 2026 - Postdoctoral Studies, School of Education, The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Advisor: Prof. Rachel Gali Cinamon.
Apr. 2022 - Oct. 2023 - Postdoctoral Studies, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University.
Host: Prof. Erica Gabrielle Foldy.
2018-2021 - Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy, School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
Dissertation topic: “Trust and the Coping Mechanisms of Street-Level Bureaucrats.”
Advisor: Prof. Nissim Cohen.
2013-2017 - M.A. in Government with Thesis (Magna Cum Laude), the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Reichman University (the Interdisciplinary Center - IDC), Israel.
Thesis topic: “Policies Promoting Women in Sport in the United States, Britain & Israel: A Comparative Study Research of Public Policy Attributes.”
Advisor: Prof. Liza Ireni Saban.
2009-2013 - B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education) in Physical Education, the Zinman College for Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the Wingate Institute, Israel.
