We are honored to announce the recipient of ABFM’s 2026 Aaron Wildavsky Award: Rebecca Hendrick, Professor of Public Administration, University of Illinois Chicago.
Established in 1993, this award recognizes lifetime achievement for work in public budgeting and financial management and honors the legacy of Dr. Aaron Wildavsky, a pioneering scholar in the fields of government budgeting, public policy, and policy analysis. Dr. Wildavsky is most remembered for his work on the theory and concept of budgetary incrementalism, which was often held in contrast to rational decision approaches to public management and policy outcomes.
Dr. Hendrick’s career is well represented in this summary shared by the Wildavsky Award Selection Committee:
“Professor Hendrick is widely recognized as the ‘Tsarina’ of the municipal fiscal health field. This honor recognizes your sustained scholarly excellence, theoretical innovation, and empirical rigor throughout a career spanning nearly 40 years. Your landmark book, Managing the Fiscal Metropolis, is celebrated for providing a ‘genuinely usable framework for understanding how local governments make financial and fiscal choices’ by revealing the complexity of local finance in its ‘messy glory.’ Beyond your scholarly achievements, this award honors your dedicated service to ABFM and your profound impact in the field as an outstanding mentor, with colleagues noting they have consistently ‘seen further by standing on the shoulders’ of your pioneering scholarship.”
Dr. Hendrick will be recognized as the latest recipient of ABFM’s Aaron Wildavsky Award during the Awards Luncheon at ABFM’s 2026 Annual Conference on Friday, September 25th, in Washington, DC. Click here for more information on the conference.