Janine O'Flynn has been Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National Univeristy since January 2023.Previously, she was Professor of Public Management at the University of Melbourne, and undertook an extended secondment to the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. Her work in research, education, and engagement focuses on understanding how government functions and collaborating with public sector leaders to improve governmental outcomes.

Professor O'Flynn's research focuses on public management, particularly on public sector reform and the nature of relationships. Her career has explored topics such as the design and implementation of large-scale reform programs, the creation and evolution of public service markets, public value creation, experiments with collaboration and joined-up government, and the design of performance management systems. Her recent work examines positive public administration to understand how government succeeds (rather than fails), and the intersection of morality and public management in areas of extreme policy complexity.Her collaborative research projects have received several academic awards including: best articles in Public Administration Review and Review of Public Personnel Administration; best book award at the Academy of Management; and several best paper awards at Academy of Management.

Her recent books include: Pathways to Positive Public Administration (2024 with Patrick Lucas, Tina Nabatchi, and Paul 't Hart) and Research Handbook on Public Management and COVID-19 (2024 with Helen Dickinson, Sophie Yates, and Catherine Smith).

From 2022-2024, she served as an Associate Editor at Public Management Review and previously I was an editor of the Australian Journal of Public Administration (2015-2021). She currently serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Public Administration; Public Management Review; International Journal of Public Administration Policy Design and Practice; Journal of Public Affairs Education; Global Public Policy and Governance; Halduskultuur: The Estonian Journal of Administrative Culture and Digital Governance. I She was previously on the editorial boards of: Public Administration Review; Journal of Management & Organization, Teaching Public Administration, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration and Canadian Journal of Public Administration.

Professor O'Flynn's teaching focuses on management issues in the public sector and the challenges faced by contemporary leaders. She has extensive experience working withprofessionals from across the world in both executive education and postgraduate programs andhas received recognition for teaching excellencecollege, university and national level She provided exert advice to policy makers and public managers in numerous countries, including Australia, Chile, Bhutan, New Zealand, United States of America, Vietnam, Canada, China and Singapore.

Since 2021, she has served on the Board of Directors for the Public Management Research Association. From 2012-2018 I she was an elected member of the executive board of the International Research Society for Public Management. In 2022 I she was appointed to the Australian Capital Territory Institute of Public Administration Australia Council, and have has represented the ACT on the National Council of the Institute of Public Administration Australia since 2024. 

In 2022, she was elected as a fellow of the (US) National Academy of Public Administration and in 2013, she was was appointed a fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia. In 2022, She was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Victorian Public Sector Commission. She previously served on the Advisory Board for the Australian Public Service Centre for Leadership and Learning (2018-2020) and the Infrastructure Victoria Expert Panel on the Role of Infrastructure in Addressing Regional Disadvantage (2019-2020). Since 2021 she been a member of the Centre for Public Impact Australia and New Zealand Research Committee, and now co-chair the Research Committee. 

In 2019, she co-authored a major research paper on commissioning and for the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service, "2030 and Beyond: Getting the Work of Government Done". In 2020, she joined a network of practitioners and academics attached to the Agile Government Center, sponsored by the United States National Academy of Public Administration and the IBM Center for the Business of Government.