Marty Jordan is an Assistant Professor (fixed-term) in Political Science at Michigan State University. His research broadly focuses on understanding policy processes and public administration within and across the U.S. states and localities. Marty’s current projects examine the diffusion of venue shopping across American states, the impact of tax incentives on spurring economic redevelopment in low-income communities, variation in state and county public defender programs, and differences in election administration following disaster events. Furthermore, with colleague Matt Grossmann, Marty has compiled the Correlates of State Policy Project, the most extensive data repository for more than 2,000 U.S. state public policy, political, economic, and social variables from 1900 – 2020.
Marty teaches undergraduate courses in American government, research methods, state and local politics, and public policy, and graduate courses in quantitative research methods, statistics, and probability. In addition, Marty is the director of the Department of Political Science’s prestigious Michigan Government Semester Program, an intensive internship program for MSU students at the Michigan State Capitol. He is also the Department’s internship coordinator. Beyond that, Marty has also helped lead MSU’s InnovateGov internship program in Detroit, where talented MSU students are partnered with different governmental and non-profit institutions to address some of the city’s most critical social problems.
Marty received his Ph.D. in political science from MSU in 2019, previously taught at Hope College in Holland, MI (2016-2017), and served as the managing editor of the American Journal of Political Science (2017-2018). He earned a B.A. in political science, Spanish, and mathematics from Hope College in 2004. Before earning his doctorate, Marty spent eight years in the non-profit and for-profit sectors, implementing community and economic development projects in El Salvador, advocating for human rights in Washington D.C., and managing sales for a Fortune Magazine ranked multinational corporation.