Goals of the Program
The goal of the Future Leaders of Schools of Public Service (FLSPS) initiative is to create more racially and ethnically diverse leadership in schools of public service. The initiative advances this goal in four primary ways: Engage BIPOC faculty members who are interested in exploring academic leadership;
1. Cultivate a network of deans and directors of schools of public service who are committed to diversifying academic leadership and eager to support rising leaders;
2. Deliver programming that aims to demystify academic leadership and share strategies to progress in institutions of higher education;
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3. Champion the professional advancement of BIPOC colleagues by referring program participants to academic leadership opportunities and growing the BIPOC candidate pool.
Over the course of the 2024-25 academic year, participants will be exposed to various aspects of academic leadership and engage with a team of 26 mentors who are deans or directors of schools of public service. Please find a timeline of this year’s programming on the following page.
Future Leaders of Schools of Public Service
Future Leaders of Schools of Public Service
Mentors 2024-25
Matthew Auer, University of Georgia
Nisha Botchwey, University of Minnesota
Trevor Brown, The Ohio State University
Timothy Chapin, Florida State University
Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, University of Arkansas
Susan Gooden, Virginia Commonwealth University
Jill Gordon, Cleveland State University
Roger Hartley, University of Baltimore
Carla Koppell, Georgetown University
Halima Leak Francis, Tulane University
Siân Mooney, Indiana University
Rosemary O'Leary, University of Kansas
Malcolm Oliver, Thomas Edison State University
Shannon Portillo, Arizona State University
Sara Rinfret, Northern Arizona University
Jodi Sandfort, University of Washington
Carissa Slotterback, University of Pittsburgh
Ian Solomon, University of Virginia
Stacey Swearingen White, University of Illinois Chicago
Lois Takahashi, San Jose State University
Mary Tschirhart, George Washington University
David Van Slyke, Syracuse University
Thomas Vicino, Georgia State University
Celeste Watkins-Hayes, University of Michigan
Susan Webb Yackee, University of Wisconsin-Madison
David Wilson, University of California, Berkeley
Matthew Auer Program Co-chair
School of Public and International Affairs
University of Georgia
Matthew R. Auer is dean and arch professor of public and international affairs at the School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia (UGA). Prior to his appointment at UGA, Auer served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Prior to Bates, Auer was dean of the Hutton Honors College at Indiana University (IU) and professor of international environmental affairs at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU.
Auer has authored or co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on environmental, energy, and foreign aid policy. He has served in a variety of public policy roles at national and international levels. Auer was senior adviser to the US Forest Service from 2001 to 2006, and during that time was a member of the US delegation to the United Nations Forum on Forests and to the International Tropical Timber Council. Auer has implemented and evaluated energy and environmental aid programs on behalf of US federal agencies or other governments in, among other countries, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Georgia, Laos, Mexico, Poland, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Nisha Botchwey Program Co-chair
Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs
University of Minnesota
Nisha Botchwey, PhD, serves as the dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at University of Minnesota. Previously, Botchwey served as associate dean for academic programs at Georgia Tech Professional Education. In that role she was responsible for developing academic programs, overseeing all academic offerings and curriculum, and leading outreach and student affairs. She played a key role in leading Georgia Tech’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Botchwey’s research and teaching have been at the nexus of environmental and health policy and the built environment, with a special focus on youth engagement and health equity. Over her career, she has been awarded more than $16 million from leading agencies and foundations as principal investigator or coPI on more than thirty grant-funded projects. The impact of Botchwey’s public health and social justice work was recognized in 2021 with the prestigious Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning, and in 2016 by the White House Council on Women and Girls. Botchwey also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Planning Education and Research. 1 2
Trevor Brown
John Glenn College of Public Affairs
The Ohio State University
Trevor Brown serves as the dean of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and interim dean of the Max M. Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, where he has been a faculty member since 2001. He previously served as executive dean of the professional colleges and senior advisor to the provost at Ohio State. Additionally, he helped lead the Parliamentary Development Project, a US Agency for International Development-funded organization that provided technical assistance to the Ukrainian parliament from 19942013. Brown supports the field of public service education as the past president of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration. He also serves on Volcker Alliance’s Deans Summit Steering Committee, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Working Group on Building Democratic Citizens in Higher Education, and the GAO’s Educators Advisory Panel. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Brown’s research focuses on public-private partnerships and how governments organize to deliver goods and services to citizens. He teaches undergraduate, graduate professional, doctoral and executive education courses on managing and leading public sector organizations, public sector organizational strategy, organizational theory, and democratic transition.
Timothy Chapin
College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
Florida State University
Tim Chapin, PhD, is dean of the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy and a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University. During his time as dean, Chapin has overseen the creation of the unit’s first strategic plan and diversity action plan, invested heavily in college research infrastructure, and spearheaded the creation of new programs in public health, emergency management, and civics and civility. He has also served as interim co-editor for the Journal of the American Planning Association, served in various roles for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, and led university hiring efforts for several leadership positions.
Chapin’s research focuses upon assessing and analyzing the effectiveness of Florida’s growth management system and the role of sports facilities in the promotion of urban redevelopment. Deeply committed to translational research, he is a noted expert on land use and comprehensive planning, growth management, demographics, and urban redevelopment. His current research interests revolve around how Florida’s demographic trends will influence and shape development patterns in the Sunshine State.
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Victoria DeFrancesco Soto
Clinton School of Public Service
University of Arkansas
to, PhD, is dean of the Clinton School University of Arkansas and previously at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. She is also a political analyst for NBC News and Telemundo. DeFrancesco Soto is the first Latina dean at a presidential institution, and she was named one of the top 12 scholars in the country by Diverse magazine. She previously taught at Northwestern University and Rutgers University and received her PhD in political science from Duke University.
Her areas of expertise include civic engagement, women, immigration, Latinos, and political psychology. Underlying all of her research interests is the applicability of high-quality, rigorous research to on-the-ground policy realities. DeFrancesco Soto has spent over two decades bridging academic, practitioner, community, and media realms in her quest to cultivate public service engagement across our national landscape. An awardwinning professor, she is deeply passionate about the intersection of curricular and community-based learning and cultivating dynamic classroom environments that are responsive to our real-world context.
Susan Gooden
Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs
Virginia Commonwealth University
PhD, is dean and professor at the L. of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She is an internationally renowned scholar in the area of social equity. She has received numerous awards including a Fulbright Specialist Award, the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration, the Jewel Prestage Pioneer Award, and the Herbert Simon Best Book Award presented by the American Political Science Association.
Within the broader community, she serves on the executive boards of numerous nonprofit and public sector organizations. She is president of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), the world’s leading accreditor of master’s degree programs in public affairs, a past president of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and a fellow of the congressionally chartered National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). Within Virginia, her contributions include gubernatorial appointments to the boards of the Virginia Retirement System and the Virginia Community College System.
Jill Gordon
Levin College of Public Affairs and Education
Cleveland State University
Jill Gordon, Ph.D. serves as dean & professor at the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education at Cleveland State University. Previously, Gordon had a successful career at Virginia Commonwealth University where she held numerous leadership positions in the provost office as well as the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs including interim senior vice provost for faculty affairs, senior associate dean of faculty and academic affairs, and chair of the criminal justice program. She is credited for advancing equitable policies and practices and the advancement of women and people of color in the academy.
Her areas of expertise center on procedural and distributive justice and the importance of clear communication, policies, and practice especially about the examination of confined environments. Gordon’s research focus center on correctional employees and offenders’ attitudes toward environment and culture; emotional, social, and physical safety in the correctional environment; correctional program effectiveness, and correctional staff workforce perceptions. Gordon has vast experience in evaluation research covering both community and institutional corrections with most of this work being supported by federal, state or local funding.
Hartley
College of Public Affairs
University of Baltimore Roger
Roger Hartley has served as Dean of the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore since 2015. Like many University of Baltimore students, he is a first-generation college graduate. He received a BS in Public Affairs in 1991 from Indiana University’s O’Neil School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He went on to receive both his MA (1993) and Ph.D. in Political Science in 1999 from the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs.
Hartley is an award-winning teacher and an academic leader with a commitment to building and supporting public engagement work. Hartley’s published research spans the fields of law, courts, and public administration with an emphasis on policy, administration and intergovernmental work of the judicial branch. He is most passionate about the value of public service and helping to train the next generation of public and nonprofit leaders in an impact-focused educational environment.
Carla Koppell
Walsh School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
pp g and distinguished international affairs career. Prior to arriving at Georgetown, Koppell was a US Institute for Peace vice president, leading the Center for Applied Conflict Transformation. During the Obama Administration, Koppell was USAID chief strategy officer and senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment. In the Clinton Administration, she served as deputy assistant secretary for international affairs for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Outside of government, Koppell has directed the Institute for Inclusive Security, led the conflict prevention project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and worked for the food and agriculture organizations of the United Nations. Koppell is widely published and an experienced public speaker. She has worked in over 30 conflict zones and developing nations in every region of the world.
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Halima Leak Francis
John Lewis Public Administration Program, School of Professional Advancement Tulane University
, is a nationally accomplished educator, whose career has spanned more than 20 engthening capacity, sustainability, and equitable practices within nonprofits, philanthropy, and higher education administration. She joined Tulane School of Professional Advancement in 2019 to lead the development of the school’s public administration program. As the program’s founding director and professor of practice, she worked with school leadership and advisors to steer curriculum design, recruited a nationally accomplished faculty, and secured accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Under her leadership, the program exceeded launch expectations by tripling initial enrollment projections and was later named in honor of the late US Congressman John Lewis – reinforcing its role as a contemporary voice for advancing inclusive public service and community leadership.
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Leak Francis holds a BA in English from Hampton University, as well as an MA in sociology of education and a PhD in higher education administration from New York University. Leak Francis holds the Carnegie Corporation of NY professorship in Social Entrepreneurship at Tulane’s Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking.
Siân Mooney
Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
Siân Mooney became the fifth dean of the Indiana University
Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs on August 1, 2019. Her research interests lie in questions related to the use of natural resources and the environment. She is an economist that has worked for many years on topics related to water use in the western United States, endangered species and the impacts of climate change, and she has secured more than $4 million in external grant funding. Recently, she has become interested in the incentives that scientists face to address complex problems as part of multidisciplinary teams and the role of science information in decision-making.
Mooney, PhD, came to Indiana University from Arizona State University, where she served as associate dean for interdisciplinary programs and initiatives for the College of Public Service and Community Solutions and as a professor in the School of Public Affairs. At ASU, Mooney directed collegelevel graduate degree programs, oversaw curriculum, and facilitated the approval process for academic programs across the college. She also coordinated international programs including study abroad. 1 2
Rosemary O'Leary
School of Public Affairs and Administration
University of Kansas
the Edwin O. Stene distinguished University of Kansas. Previously she rsity, Bloomington (professor) and the Maxwell School of Syracuse University (inaugural Phanstiel distinguished professor of strategic management and leadership). O’Leary has been actively engaged in public policy formulation and public management from many different perspectives, including that of practitioner, analyst, scholar, teacher, consultant, and university administrator. She has led divisions, institutes, programs, and a school of public affairs. She remains attuned to and engaged in the particular problems and opportunities of higher education, especially in the social sciences. O’Leary was president of the Public Management Research Association 2017-2019. In 2019, the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) established the Rosemary O’Leary Prize for excellence in scholarship on women and public administration. In 2021, the Academy of Management chose the 3rd edition of her book, The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerrilla Government (CQ Press 2021) as the winner of the Best Book in Public Management Award. In 2021 she was awarded the Duncombe Award for outstanding mentoring of PhD students, given by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.
Malcolm Oliver
John S. Watson School of Public Service
Thomas Edison State University
Malcolm K. Oliver, Ph.D., serves as dean for the John S. Watson School of Public Service at Thomas Edison State University. The school enrolls over 450 adult learners in master’s, bachelor’s and associate degree programs delivered online and designed to support practitioners in the public and nonprofit sectors. Oliver previously served as Associate Dean at Excelsior University’s School of Graduate Studies, which enrolled over 2,000 nontraditional learners in 7 online master’s degree programs. Oliver has also served as Director for Master of Public Policy and Administration programs at California Lutheran University, National Louis University and at The College of New Rochelle. Prior to higher education, Oliver served public agencies in California and Texas as a city planner. Oliver is active in public service organizations, and currently serves on the National Council of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), the Executive Council of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), and as an ex-officio member of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration’s board (NJ-ASPA). Oliver holds a Ph.D. in Public and Urban Administration from the University of Texas, Arlington, and an MPA from Cal Poly Pomona.
School of Public Affairs
Arizona State University Shannon Portillo
Shannon Portillo serves as director and Lattie and Elva Coor Presidential Chair in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. Portillo’s scholarship explores how formal policies and rules and informal social norms shape the work of public organizations. She is specifically interested in how racism and sexism impact organizations and workers’ experiences historically and currently. Her work helps scholars and practitioners understand how inequities have been institutionalized in public organizations. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Women’s Foundation, Army Research Institute, and other entities. Her work has appeared in a broad array of academic and popular outlets. She has been recognized for her scholarship and service, recently being inducted into the National Academy of Public Administration, winning the Hobby Prize for Ethics, Leadership and Public Policy, and receiving the Steeples Service to Kansas Award. Her third book, The Myth of Bureaucratic Neutrality: An Examination of Merit and Representation (with co-authors Nicole Humphrey and Domonic Bearfield), was published with Routledge Press. Community service is a core value. Portillo served as Co-Chair of Governor Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice and was elected Chair of the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners.
Sara Rinfret
Department of Politics and International Affairs
Northern Arizona University
currently an associate vice provost for or of public administration at Northern Arizona University. She has more than a decade of higher education leadership experience serving in roles such as acting dean, associate dean, chair, and master of public administration director. Her scholarship is globally recognized in the areas of regulatory policy, environmental policy, women and government, public administration, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. To date, Rinfret has published nine books and more than forty-five peer reviewed articles, and several book chapters. Rinfret is an experienced leader, designing training and development for faculty, staff, and students focusing on areas such as emotional labor, performance measurement approaches, program evaluation, policy implementation, and holistic teaching evaluations. She is the recipient of the Fulbright Specialist Program in public administration and studied with scholars at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Rinfret holds an MPA from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs (Ohio State), and a PhD in political science from Northern Arizona University. Rinfret is committed to providing pathways of success for NAU’s faculty, staff, and students and appreciates working across disciplines to find solutions for higher education.
odi Sandfort
vans School of Public Policy and overnance niversity of Washington
Jodi Sandfort joined the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance as dean in January 2021. Sandfort’s scholarship focuses on improving the implementation of social policy, particularly those policies designed to support low-income children and their families. Her leadership uses participatory methods to activate others to address systemic biases that are reproduced through practices and processes.
Sandfort’s career has bridged academia and the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. She served as director at the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, managing an annual-giving portfolio of $20 million for the human services system in Minnesota. Sandfort was also a senior strategy consultant with the Bush Foundation, a senior fellow with the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and special assistant to the president of the University of Minnesota. She is deeply involved in the international Art of Hosting community, which has expertise in group facilitation and change processes.
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Sandfort earned a BA in history and women’s studies from Vassar College, as well as an MA in social work and a PhD in political science and social work from the University of Michigan.
Carissa Slotterback Program Co-chair
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs University of Pittsburgh
Carissa Slotterback, PhD, is dean and professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Since arriving at the University of Pittsburgh in October 2020, she has led major efforts in the school around diversity, equity, and inclusion; development and alumni engagement; research capacity building; and enhancing student experience. She is a widely published scholar in the areas of stakeholder and public engagement and decision-making related to environmental and land use policy and planning. She has a particular interest in how stakeholders perceive impacts and use information in making decisions, focusing on impact assessment and collaborative decision-making approaches. She has received funding for her research from organizations such as the US Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, and Minnesota Department of Transportation.
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Ian Solomon
Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy University of Virginia
essor of practice and dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where he leads a multidisciplinary faculty of scholars and practitioners who are committed to creating new knowledge, developing ethical effective leaders, and advancing solutions to humanity’s greatest policy challenges.
Trained as a lawyer, Solomon is a devoted student and teacher of both negotiation and conflict resolution. Over the course of his career, he has dedicated himself to improving the lives of people across the globe by integrating insights from his experiences in higher education, government, the private sector, and international organizations.
Originally from New York City, Solomon earned his BA from Harvard University and his JD from Yale Law School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has traveled and worked extensively in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Today, he lives with his family on the grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Stacey Swearingen White
College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs
University of Illinois Chicago
e is dean of the College of Urban airs (CUPPA) at UIC. She joined the oming from the University of Kansas (KU), where she began her career as an assistant professor of urban planning. At KU, she served as the chair of the Urban Planning Department, co-founder and director of academic programs for the KU Center for Sustainability, and associate director of the environmental studies program. Most recently, she served as director of the KU School of Public Affairs and Administration.
Swearingen White’s research focuses on sustainability innovation at the local level, including emphases on water quality and campus sustainability. She has also contributed to recent work on the role of emotions in planning. Her research and teaching interests reflect her interdisciplinary training. She received a BA in philosophy from Emory University, an MS in environmental studies from the University of Montana, and a PhD in land resources from the University of WisconsinMadison.
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Lois Takahashi
College of Social Sciences
San Jose State University
ssociate dean for Research and Faculty of Social Sciences at San Jose State
y j ng San Jose State, she was Houston Flournoy Professor of State Government at the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy, and Director of the USC Price School of Public Policy in Sacramento. She was president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. She had a long career at UCLA, where she was interim dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, associate dean for Research at the Luskin School, chair of the UCLA Department of Urban Planning, and director of the University of California Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Multicampus Research Program. Her research focuses on public and social service delivery to vulnerable populations in the US and in southeast Asian cities. Her research includes work on homelessness and HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles, community opposition toward social services in the US, social capital and health for vulnerable populations, and environmental governance in the US and southeast Asian cities. She received her PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California, a dual MS in Public Policy and Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, and an AB in Architecture from UC Berkeley.
g School of Public Public Administration hington University schirhart
Mary Tschirhart is the director of the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She is the Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Professor in Public Service. In addition to being the school director, she teaches the Dissertation Workshop seminar and the masters’ Capstone course, is creating an Environmental Ethics and Argumentation course, and is planning on teaching Managing Public Organizations. Before going to GW, she was on the faculty at SPEA at Indiana University, the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, Institute Director at North Carolina State University, and at the John Glenn College at The Ohio State University.
Prior to those positions, she ran a state-wide nonprofit organization related to arts and education. She has a BA in Philosophy, MBA in Arts Administration, and PhD in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. Her current research examines membership associations, volunteer and service programs, board governance, and a range of public-private collaborations. She currently serves on several boards and is the co-chair of the Nonprofit Education Section at NASPAA.
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avid Van Slyke
axwell School of Citizenship and blic Affairs racuse University
David M. Van Slyke is dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and the Louis A. Bantle chair in business-government policy. He is a tenured, full professor at the Maxwell School and a two-time recipient of the Birkhead-Burkhead Award and Professorship for Teaching Excellence. Van Slyke is a leading international expert on public-private partnerships, public sector contracting and contract management, public and nonprofit management, and policy implementation. He is a member of the Defense Business Board (2020, 2021-Present), a former director (2015-2021) and fellow (2010-Present) of the National Academy of Public Administration, and a member of the National Academy of Public Administration’s Expert Advisory team for the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security (2021-2022). He is actively engaged in the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) and co-chaired the 2021 annual conference, the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, and the University Leadership Council on Diversity and Inclusion in International Affairs Education. Van Slyke serves on the editorial boards of several top-ranked public affairs and nonprofit management journals including the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.
Thomas Vicino
Andrew Young School of Public Studies
Georgia State University
dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, where he is also a professor in the Urban Studies Institute. Previously, he held numerous administrative roles at Northeastern University, including as Associate Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Chair of the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Master of Public Administration Program.
Vicino brings a passion for inclusive excellence. His leadership focuses on advancing opportunities through interdisciplinary research, experiential education, innovative programs, global citizenship, and lifelong learning with a record of building collaborative partnerships and civic engagement. He weaves a deep commitment to building community and belonging throughout his work. Vicino has dedicated his career to advancing the next generation of scholars and service professionals. As the chief executive officer and chair of the Governing Board of the Urban Affairs Association, Vicino led the foremost international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers, and public service professionals. A first-generation college student, he holds a PhD and MPP from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as well as a BS from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.
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The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy University of Michigan
s the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of versity of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford and founding director of the school's Center for Racial Justice. Watkins-Hayes is also the Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, professor of sociology, and an Anti-Racism Collaborative research and community impact fellow.
She is an internationally-recognized scholar and expert widely credited for her research at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and human service institutions, with a special focus on HIV/AIDS; poverty; and race, class, and gender studies. Watkins-Hayes has published three books, numerous articles in journals and edited volumes, and pieces in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Chicago Magazine. She has been widely quoted in the popular press as a national expert on social inequality, HIV/AIDS, and societal safety nets.
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Watkins-Hayes holds a PhD and MA in sociology from Harvard University and a BA from Spelman College, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Celeste Watkins-Hayes
Susan Webb Yackee
La Follette School of Public Affairs
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Susan Webb Yackee is director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs and a Collins-Bascom professor of public affairs at UW-Madison. Her research and teaching interests include the US public policymaking process, public management, regulation, administrative law, and interest group politics. Yackee has published articles in a number of journals, including the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, British Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
Yackee received the 2019 Herbert A. Simon Career Contribution Award from the Midwest Public Administration Caucus. It is the highest award in the field of political science for the study of bureaucracy and public administration. She also received the Kellett Mid-Career Award for her research from UW-Madison in 2019. Yackee’s article “Clerks or Kings? Partisan Alignment and Delegation to the US Bureaucracy” (with Christine Palus) won the 2017 Beryl Radin Award for the best article published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory in the previous year.
Goldman School of Public Policy University of California, Berkeley David Wilson
David C. Wilson, PhD, was appointed dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP) at University of California, Berkeley in July 2021. Prior to leading GSPP, he spent 15 years at the University of Delaware, where he served as a professor of political science and psychology, and spent eight years as an associate dean for the social sciences, in the College of Arts and Sciences. In 2018, he led the creation of the Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy. Wilson is an expert in public opinion and political psychology. His research incorporates surveybased experiments to study political behavior and policy preference on highly contentious social issues. He is also the coauthor of Racial Resentment in the Political Mind (University of Chicago Press, 2022).
Prior to his time at University of Delaware, he worked as a senior researcher for the Gallup Polling Organization in Washington, DC. At Gallup, he led analytic consulting practice teams focused on employee engagement, performance measurement, and statistical reporting.
Future Leaders of Schools of Public Service
Participants 2024-25
Khaldoun AbouAssi, American University
Gloria Billingsley, Jackson State University
Sebawit Bishu, University of Washington
Jason Casellas, University of Houston
Grace Chikoto-Schultz, Cleveland State University
Erualdo Gonzalez, California State University, Fullerton
Al Gourrier, University of Baltimore
Crystal Hall, University of Washington
Madinah F. Hamidullah, Kennesaw State University
Marccus Hendricks, University of Maryland, College Park
Sera Linardi, University of Pittsburgh
Michelle Lofton, University of Georgia
Simone Martin-Howard, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Angel Molina, Arizona State University
Varisa Patraporn, California State University, Long Beach
Haifeng Qian, University of Iowa
Deden Rukmana, University of Texas at Arlington
Yu Shi, University of North Texas
Akheil Singla, Arizona State University
Tihara Sommers, Tulane University
Rui Sun, California State University, Dominguez Hills
Lang (Kate) Yang, George Washington University
Hongtao Yi, Florida State University
Pengju Zhang, Rutgers University, Newark
Khaldoun AbouAssi
School of Public Affairs
American University
Khaldoun AbouAssi is the provost associate professor at the Department of Public Administration & Policy. He holds a PhD in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University. AbouAssi’s primary research interest is in global governance, especially the governance of refugee camps, exploring different facets of public and nonprofit management, and delving into organizational capacity - broadly defined. He has published extensively on nonprofit and public management from a comparative perspective, examining organizational capacity, resources, and inter-organizational relations.
Department of Public Policy & Administration
Jackson State University
Gloria Billingsley is a native Mississippian. She earned the master’s in business administration and Ph.D. in Public Administration degrees from Jackson State University. She is a professor and Department Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Jackson State University. Billingsley has over 20 years of teaching experience in the discipline. She has served on the Commission for Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA) and also served as COPRA Chair. She has been actively engaged in leadership roles in ASPA, Conference of Minority Public Administrator and NASPAA. Her research interests include voting rights, gender, race and class issues, in social policy, minority participation in health research, and religion, public policy and crisis management.
Gloria Billingsley
Sebawit Bishu
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance
University of Washington
Sebawit G. Bishu is an associate professor of public management at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her scholarly work is influenced by her lived experience in Ethiopia and the United States, which has led her to think about public management in comparative contexts. Her research contributes to public management theory and practice by exploring ways to improve (1) equal opportunity within government, (2) government-public interaction, and (3) equitable public service delivery. Her work has informed the United Nations (UN) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on integrating women and racially and ethnically marginalized populations into government leadership roles and economic activities. She serves on JPART, PAR, ROPPA, and PAQ editorial boards.
Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs
Cleveland State University
Chikoto-Schultz is an Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management in the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy, an MPA degree (Nonprofit Management), and an Honors BA degree in Education. Her research interests include nonprofit financial health, nonprofit funding streams, disaster preparedness, and INGO/Civil Society Organizations/INGO-state relations, among other interests.
Grace Chikoto-Schultz
Erualdo Gonzalez
Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
California State University, Fullerton
fessor at the Department of Chicana and ia State University, Fullerton. He received his PhD in Urban and Regional Planning (2006) and Master of Social Ecology (2002) from the University of California, Irvine. He has a B.A. in Psychology and Chicano Studies (1997) from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He specializes in community development, gentrification, public policy, and planning in Mexican and immigrant communities.
González is the author of Latino City: Urban Planning, Politics, and the Grassroots (2017; Routledge) and co-editor of Gentrification, Displacement, and Alternative Futures (2022; Routledge). He has published ten peer-reviewed articles in leading urban affairs journals, including the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER), Environment and Planning A, and the Journal of Urban Affairs, as well as numerous book chapters and community research reports.
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González has served as chair of his department and participated in over 20 committees, including those in other departments and at the university level. His service-learning courses connect students with real-world policy advocacy. Currently, González is spearheading a Tech and Civic Scholars Program in collaboration with the Dean’s Office, guiding students towards careers in non-profit, philanthropic foundations, and public sectors.
Email: egonzalez@fullerton.edu
College of Public Affairs
University of Baltimore Al Gourrier
Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, educated at Xavier University of Louisiana and the University of Nevada Las Vegas Al Gourrier holds a BA in Finance, a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA), is a graduate of ABA’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Georgetown University, and holds a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Gourrier started a banking career in 1993. In November of 2005, he began the organization of a new State-Chartered FDIC Institution, 1st Commerce Bank, which he opened in October 2006. After a successful 19-year career, Gourrier left banking in January 2012 to pursue a career in academia and joined the faculty of the University of Baltimore in January 2016 as a Professor of Public Finance. In 2021, he took over as the director of Nonprofit Management and Social Entrepreneurship (MS Program) at the University of Baltimore.
Gourrier's scholarship in academia focuses on Community Banking and Finance, Social Equity, and Community Development through financial and economic representation by exploring decisions and structures impacting the economic health, housing, development, entrepreneurship, and well-being of urban communities. In February of 2021, Gourrier received a four-year designation as a Fulbright Specialist Program Scholar. Email: agourrier@ubalt.edu
Crystal Hall
Evans School of Public Policy and Governance University of Washington
Crystal Hall’s research sits at the intersection of public policy and behavioral science. This research has explored new ways of incorporating psychological insights into policy design and implementation. Her work has had a particular focus on financial decision making and economic opportunity for low-income families. She has a record of serving government agencies at the local, state, and federal level – including having served as a Fellow on the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team and the Federal Office of Evaluation Sciences at the General Services Administration. Hall also holds an appointment as an adjunct associate professor of Psychology in the University of Washington. In addition to her scholarly work, Professor Hall has provided guidance and training to community organizations, nonprofits, and government agencies seeking to implement tools from psychology and behavioral economics into the design and delivery of their programs and services. She holds a PhD and MA in Psychology from Princeton University. In addition, she holds a BS from Carnegie Mellon University in both Decision Science and Policy and Management.
Madinah F. Hamidullah
School of Government and International Affairs
Kennesaw State University
D is a professor and director of the Master (MPA) program at Kennesaw State University. She previously served as the director of undergraduate programs in Public and Nonprofit Administration in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University, Newark. She has a commitment and expertise in creating innovative and affordable pathways and pipelines to graduate education. Hamidullah has developed accelerated degree programs, and transitional pathway programs with county colleges and international universities. Her major research areas are public and nonprofit administration leadership and management, specifically how it applies to human resource management practices and policies. Most recently, she is developing a research focus on women’s organizations, and their collective impact in philanthropy, service, and professional development. Hamidullah has served on the National Executive Council for the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) and as a commissioner on the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Political Science and Master of Public Administration degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Public Administration from the University of Georgia.
Email: madinah.hamidullah@kennesaw.edu
Marccus Hendricks
School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
University of Maryland - College Park
Marccus D. Hendricks is an associate professor of Urban Studies and Planning and the Director of the Stormwater Infrastructure Resilience and Justice (SIRJ) Lab at the University of Maryland (UMD). His role by affiliation extends into the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health. Recently, Dr. Hendricks served in the Biden-Harris Administration as a Senior Advisor in the inaugural Office of Environmental Justice at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in the Executive Office of the President. To date, he has primarily worked to understand how social processes and development patterns create hazardous human-built environments, vulnerable infrastructure, and the risks and promising adaptation strategies related to, for example, urban stormwater management and flooding, industrial releases and explosions, and environmental contamination.
Hendricks has a TEDx talk titled “Citizen Participation in Rising Waters,” was selected as one of 50 emerging leaders or “Fixers” in the 2021 Grist 50, served on the U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), and is an author on the Social Systems and Justice chapter of the U.S. Fifth National Climate Assessment. He has a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Science and a Master of Public Health, both from Texas A&M University.
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Email: mdh1@umd.edu
Sera Linardi
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Sera Linardi is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs in the University of Pittsburgh, where she founded the Center for Analytical Approaches for Social Innovation (CAASI), an incubator of community-co-created social justice data projects. Her research consists of field and lab experiments to understand what it means to “do good.”
Currently, Dr. Sera Linardi is a 2024 Siegel Faculty Impact Fellow at Cornell Tech, a position she will hold through December 2024. Dr. Linardi’s primary focus while at Cornell is directing Equity and Access in Algorithm, Mechanism and Optimization (EAAMO), an organization for early career computational researchers that aims to integrate the perspectives of underserved groups into the core of algorithmic research. EAAMO has 2000 members in 150 institutions and 50 countries, and hosts the annual ACM EAAMO conference.
Michelle Lofton
School of Public and International Affairs
University of Georgia
Michelle L. Lofton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Georgia. Professor Lofton’s research interests broadly explore the intersection of public finance and public management by investigating financial tools and techniques to better inform management, strategy, and policy decisions. Much of her empirical research focuses on the two main research areas of government working capital management, in which public financial managers use differing managerial strategies and financial tools to sustain government operations, and public financial fiscal institutions, which regards the policies, rules and procedures that constrain government financial decision-making and the techniques used by financial managers in conjunction with these institutions to sustain government operations. With a passion for continual learning, Professor Lofton serves as a researcher engaged in expanding knowledge in public administration and persistently striving to educate others to be lifelong learners. Professor Lofton received a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Syracuse University, a Master of Public Administration from the University of Georgia, and a Bachelor of Science from Trinity University.
Simone Martin-Howard
Department of Public Management
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Simone Martin-Howard is Director of the Master of Public Administration - Public Policy and Administration specialization and an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Before her role as Director, Dr. Martin-Howard served as the Criminal Justice Management Program Coordinator at John Jay. She holds a Ph.D. in Global Affairs from Rutgers University-Newark, a Master of Public Administration and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from St. John’s University. While at the Maxwell School, Dr. Martin-Howard completed three Certificates of Advanced Graduate Study in Health Services Management and Policy; Conflict Resolution; and Security Studies. Simone’s multidisciplinary research interests primarily focus on the intersection of public health and criminal justice; maternal and child health; health and social equity; public administration and nonprofit service delivery; and correctional health. Dr. Martin-Howard’s work has appeared in Public Administration Review; the Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs; Crime & Delinquency; the Journal of Urban Health; the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration; Women & Criminal Justice; and the Journal of Public Management and Social Policy.
Email: smartin-howard@jjay.cuny.edu
School of Public Affairs
Arizona State University
Dr. Angel Luis Molina, Jr. is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. Dr. Molina obtained his PhD in Political Science from Texas A&M University with an emphasis on public policy and public administration, along with racial and ethnic politics. He holds a bachelors in Finance and an MS in Economics from the University of Texas at El Paso. His research engages with numerous questions pertaining to the politics of representation and inclusion in public sector governance. Dr. Molina has long been committed to creating more equitable and inclusive opportunity structures in higher education through leadership on numerous committees and others forms of community engagement. He recently served as the inaugural Dean Fellow of the ASU Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. Dr. Molina is a first-generation college graduate and proud product of El Paso, Texas.
Varisa Patraporn
College of Liberal Arts
California State University, Long Beach
R. Varisa Patraporn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Faculty Associate in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Her research interests include the economic/social mobility of communities of color and immigrants, community economic development, and community based organization practices and impact. Previously, she served as a funder, and program and financial analyst for the White House Office of Management and Budget, Los Angeles County on Children and Families, and the Department of Treasury Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. She holds an MPP and Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
Email: varisa.patraporn@csulb.edu
School of Planning and Public Affairs
University of Iowa
Haifeng Qian is Professor and Director of the School of Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Iowa. His research interests include entrepreneurship, innovation, and regional economic development. He has won several research awards from the Regional Studies Association, the Urban Affairs Association, and the Western Regional Science Association. Dr. Qian is an editor of Regional Studies, an editor of Small Business Economics, and an associate editor of Economic Development Quarterly. He was the Chair of the North American Regional Science Council. He additionally has been a consultant for the World Bank and OECD. Previously, Dr. Qian was an assistant professor at Cleveland State University and a visiting associate professor at MIT. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and a Master of Science in Management Science and Engineering from the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University.
Master of City and Regional Planning Program
University of Texas at Arlington
Deden Rukmana is the Director of the Master of City and Regional Planning program at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is currently a professor and the chairperson of the Department of Community and Regional Planning at Alabama A&M University. Prior to joining Alabama A&M University in August 2018, he taught at Savannah State University for twelve years and worked as a planning analyst with the Florida Department of Community Affairs. His research centers on homelessness, health disparities, and environmental justice in the U.S., and urbanization, housing, transportation and development challenges in Indonesian cities, particularly Jakarta. He has published over 40 articles and book chapters. He is also the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Planning Megacities in the Global South (2020) and a co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Urban Indonesia (2022). His research has been supported by some institutions, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Health. Many media have also cited his works, including the New York Times, and Public Radio International. He currently serves as the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN) secretary from 2022-2024.
Deden Rukmana
Department of Public Administration
University of North Texas
Dr. Kelly Yu Shi is an an Associate Professor and the PhD program coordinator in the Department of Public Administration at the University of North Texas. She received her Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University and doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research specialize in municipal fiscal policies, fiscal federalism, urban management, special district governance, fiscal emergency management, nonprofit finance and accounting, smart cities and information technology development. Dr. Shi has published in Public Administration Review, Public Budgeting and Finance, Urban Affairs Review, Public Finance Review, International Public Management Review, State and Local Government Review, International Journal of Public Administration. She is an executive committee member in the Association of Budgeting and Financial Management (ABFM)’s executive committee, and ABFM’s treasurer. Dr. Shi is the associate editor for International Journal of Public Administration.
School of Public Affairs
Arizona State University
Dr. Akheil Singla is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University, where he also serves as the Undergraduate Programs Director. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University, and a B.S. in Government Management and Business from Skidmore College. Dr. Singla's research focuses on public financial management, with a particular interest in the financial health of state and local governments. His work examines how these governments generate, manage, and use resources, and how these actions impact the delivery of public services. Dr. Singla is recognized for his scholarship on the measurement of government financial health, the financial distress of local governments, and the role of revenue-based policing. His research has been published in leading journals, including Public Administration Review, Urban Affairs Review, and Public Budgeting & Finance. Additionally, Dr. Singla is an Associate Editor at Public Administration Review and a Fellow of ASU's Center for Organization Research and Design.
Tihara Sommers
John Lewis Public Administration Program
Tulane University
Dr. Tihara Richardson Sommers is a Professor of Practice and Student Success Liaison at Tulane University in the John Lewis Public Administration Program. She is also a Bill Anderson Fund Alumni Fellow. The William “Bill” Anderson Fund was created to expand advanced studies in the field of Disaster & Hazard Research and Mitigation within minority communities. She holds a PhD from Old Dominion University. Tihara also holds an MPA from the University of Texas Arlington and an MPP from George Mason University. Tihara is a proud Rattler, who earned her B.S. in Journalism from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University. Her research areas include community resilience, healthcare policy, health equity, and long-term care facility response to natural disasters. Currently, she is examining nursing home facilities response to emergency preparedness regulations.
Email:
Rui Sun
School of Public Service and Justice
California State University, Dominguez Hills
Dr. Rui Sun is a Professor in the Department of Public Administration, Director of the Public Policy Institute, and Faculty Director of Assessment, Academic Affairs at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her research focuses on fiscal federalism, citizen engagement in local government budgeting, and fiscal health and sustainability of local governments. Her current research interests also include social media utilization in public and nonprofit sectors, and education policy and innovation. Dr. Sun plays leadership roles in professional organizations. She is the President of the Southern California Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and a member of the Student Engagement Committee of the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO). She was elected as President of the China-America Association for Public Affairs (CAAPA), 2022-2023, and currently serves as the Chair of the CAAPA Advisory Committee. Dr. Sun received her Ph.D. in Policy Studies from the University of Maryland and her MPA from Auburn University. She also holds an M.A. and a B.A. degree in International Relations from Peking University, China.
Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration
George Washington University Lang (Kate) Yang
Lang (Kate) Yang is an Associate Professor at the Trachtenberg School. Her research interest is in state and local government finances. Her recent publications examine how states address local government fiscal stress. Further, she examines the incentives and impediments to government financial reporting, disclosure, and transparency. Lastly, she studies education finances. She is fellow at the Office of Evaluation Sciences helping federal agencies build evidence through rigorous evaluation.
Hongtao Yi
Askew School of Public Administration and Policy
Florida State University
Dr. Hongtao Yi is a Professor and Askew Eminent Scholar Chair at Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University, where he also received his Ph.D. Prior to Joining FSU in 2023, he was a faculty member at the Glenn College, OSU. His research focuses on the intersection of public administration, public policy, and energy and environment, with a research agenda on the role of networks as a governance mechanism and an empirical approach. He was awarded the Theodore J Lowi Best Article Award from American Political Science Association (APSA) and Sam Overman Award from American Society of Public Administration (ASPA). He currently serves as Division Chair of the Section on Public Policy at APSA. He also served as Co-chair for the APPAM Conference Program Committee’s Natural Resource, Energy, and Environment sub-committee, founding chair of Chinese Policy Scholars Group at APPAM, and was on several executive councils of APSA and ASPA. He published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in public administration and policy journals, including PAR, JPART, PA, Governance, and PSJ, among others. His research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Starting January 2024, Professor Yi serves as Editor of Public Administration Review.
Email: h.yi@fsu.edu
Pengju Zhang
School of Public Affairs and Administration
ssociate Professor (with tenure) and the ograms in the School of Public Affairs and University, Newark. His expertise encompasses state and local public finance, local government studies, and education finance and policy. His work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including National Tax Journal, Education Finance and Policy, Public Finance Review, Public Budgeting and Finance, American Review of Public Administration, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, among others.
Dr. Zhang is a recipient of many prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Academic Excellence Award from New Jersey Chapter of ASPA, Best Paper Award from Midwest Public Affairs Conference, All-University Doctoral Prize from Syracuse University, and more. With profound appreciation for the global academic community’s recognition, Dr. Zhang currently serve as the president-elect of the China-America Association of Public Affairs.
Dr. Zhang embarked on his academic journey with a B.A. in Political Science from Sun Yat-sen University in 2008, followed by an MPA from the O'Neill School at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2011. He earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2016. Email: pengju.zhang@rutgers.edu
Rutgers University, Newark