Mary Kay Gugerty is a professor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, where she has taught since 2001. Her research interests focus on three areas: evaluation and impact measurement in the social sector; advocacy, accountability and voluntary regulation programs among nonprofit and NGOs; and agricultural and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa. Gugerty serves as the Co-Principal Investigator for the Evans School Policy Analysis Research Group (EPAR), which provides research and analysis to the Agricultural Development Initiative at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She is a faculty affiliate of the Center for the Evaluation of Global Action (CEGA) at University of California, Berkeley, and a network affiliate at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA).

Gugerty is the lead editor of Voluntary Regulation of Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organizations: An Accountability Club Framework, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010 and co-edited with Aseem Prakash. Gugerty's research on nonprofits and NGOs has also been published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Regulation and Governance, Public Administration and Development, and Policy Sciences.

Gugerty is the co-editor of a second volume, Advocacy Organizations and Collective Action, also with Aseem Prakash and published by Cambridge University Press.

Gugerty's research also explores issues in rural development and community development institutions in Africa. Current work examines agricultural household decision-making, women's participation in agricultural supply chains, and the determinants of smallholder agricultural productivity. Earlier work examines the impact of NGO funding on indigenous self-help groups, the impact of ethnic diversity on collective action, and the role of rotating savings and credit associations (roscas) in promoting rural savings. This research has been published in American Journal of Political Science, Economic Development and Cultural Change, and the Journal of Public Economics, among others.

At the Evans School, Gugerty serves as the senior faculty advisor for the Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and teaches courses on nonprofit and public management, program evaluation, performance measurement, international development management, and African development. She is the recipient of the 2005 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service.

Gugerty holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University and a MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. She also holds a BA in Political Science and Economics from Georgetown University.