Mark Nepf
PhD Candidate
University of Washington
Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
mnepf@uw.edu
My research examines how organizational and spatial conditions shape meaningful participation in collaborative governance. I study Collaborative Platforms — organizations that facilitate sustained collaboration among public and private stakeholders — with a focus on how organizational capacity, institutional design, and local context shape who participates and how.
My dissertation uses the U.S. National Estuary Program to investigate how platform organizations coordinate stakeholders, distribute authority, mobilize resources, integrate diverse forms of knowledge, and adapt participation practices to the social, economic, geographic, and infrastructural conditions of the communities they serve. More broadly, my work connects collaborative governance, public administration, environmental policy, and environmental justice to understand how institutions can facilitate meaningful participation across diverse and uneven contexts.
Publications
A Spatial Analysis of Parks in King County, Washington: Identifying Access Disparities through Isochrone-Based Cluster Analysis
Case Studies in the Environment (2026)
Economic Valuation for Coastal Water Infrastructure Planning: Analysis of the Housing Market and Nutrient Pollution in Suffolk County, NY
Marine Resource Economics (2022)