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Michael Palmieri is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science who studies how employee owned companies can reduce economic inequality, create community wealth, and affect individual participation in civic and political activities outside the workplace. His dissertation tentatively titled, “The Politics of Employee Ownership: Individual and Organizational Dynamics” will use the US General Social Survey as well as an original dataset to explore how employee-owned companies affect the behavior of workers outside the workplace as well as how the ecosystem of nonprofit support organizations help explain how and where employee-owned businesses emerge. Michael’s work is deeply interdisciplinary and draws on literatures focused on political behavior, nonprofits, social movements, and community development. 

Michael is also a full-time staff member of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, an outreach center housed within the Kent State Political Science Department, where he serves as a Research Assistant and Special Projects. In that capacity he works with businesses owners looking to sell their company to their employees, provides education and training to existing employee-owned companies, and carries out research projects. In 2021 Michael received a Beyster Fellowship from the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University for his dissertation. Since 2018 Michael has taught courses at Kent State on Political Parties and Interest Groups and Urban Politics. He also developed and teaches a special topics course “Workplace Democracy”.