Department of Public Administration Celebrates Recent Ph.D. Graduates

Despite a challenging year, the Ph.D. program in public administration has finished the 2020-21 academic year with several notable achievements. 

We congratulate our dedicated Ph.D. graduates who persevered to cross the finish line in the midst of the pandemic. Eight doctoral degrees were awarded to outstanding students, all of whom are now moving on to lead the field as professors, policy analysts and executives in the public or nonprofit sector. Thanks to the efforts of the faculty and staff in the department, students are quickly launched onto a path towards successful completion of the program. This year, the program achieved a record time-to-graduation with students successfully completing the program and placed in careers in an average of 4.28 years.     

The program emphasizes the importance of producing scholarly work to advance the field. Over the last three years, our doctoral students have produced 111 conference papers and presentations that were accepted and/or presented (some were not able to be presented due to COVID-19 restrictions). In that same period, doctoral students also produced 63 scholarly works; 50 of these were in peer-reviewed journals. This is a 52% percent increase in research productivity compared to the previous three-year assessment period.

The growing national reputation of the program is evident. This year, we celebrated a record number of applications to the doctoral program, highlighting the growing desire applicants have to contribute to the important work happening in the public sector. 

Please join us in celebrating our recent graduates on their current positions. We are very proud of their accomplishments and look forward to seeing great things from them as they take the knowledge they’ve gained here at NC State to tackle the defining challenges of the field. 

• Dr. Yuhao Ba, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
• Dr. Jessica Berrett, Assistant Professor University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 
• Dr. Xintong Chen, Assistant Professor, San Jose State University 
• Dr. Krystal Chojnacki, National Chief of Staff, The IR-4 Project, NC State University
• Dr. Winn Decker, Senior Policy Analyst, The Hunt Institute, NC 
• Dr. Annie Izod, Executive Director, NC Works Commission
• Dr. Katy Schwaeble, Visiting Assistant Professor, Centre College
• Dr. Sapna Varkey, Assistant Professor, University of Missouri, St. Louis