MIS Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Lada Kochtcheeva

Dr. Lada Kochtcheeva is a professor of political science (starting August 16) in the School of Public and International Affairs. She received her B.S. in ecology and nature management from the Russian University of Peoples’ Friendship. She graduated with a Master of Environmental Studies from the Evergreen State College. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Oregon.

Before coming to NC State in 2008, she worked as an assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. Her research speaks to the theories of governance, globalization, policy innovation, comparative public policy, government-society relations, environmental regulation and post-communist politics, especially Russian politics.

She has conducted research in the United States and abroad, including with the UNEP, state agencies, research institutes and think tanks. Working in the tradition of comparative politics and historical institutionalism makes visible and understandable the overarching contexts and interacting processes that shape and reshape politics and policymaking domestically and globally.

Dr. Kochtcheeva has published two books — Russian Politics and Response to Globalization and Comparative Environmental Regulation in the United States and Russia: Institutions, Flexible Instruments, and Governance. She’s also published various articles and chapters and presented at international, national, and local conferences and written multiple pieces on economic and political globalization, renewable energy adoption, and globalization and the environment, specifically in China, India, Brazil and Russia.

Currently, she is working on her third book, tentatively titled Innovation and Inertia in Russian Environmental Policy. She won a prestigious Robert H. Donaldson Award for the Best Paper in the Post-Communist Politics Section of the International Studies Association.

In the Department of Political Science, Dr. Kochtcheeva has been teaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate level on global and domestic environmental politics, law and policy, comparative politics and public policy. She also teaches a graduate distance-education course, Global Environmental Law and Policy, in support of the Master of International Studies and Master of Environmental Assessment program. She advises students, both graduate and undergraduate, and also serves as a member or chair of the committees, including Ph.D. committees.

She is very passionate about working with international and multicultural students because her own experiences make her aware and sensitive to the challenges that students may have. Appreciating and addressing cultural diversity in the classroom and beyond requires creating a more dynamic and productive learning environment for all students, and a more rewarding teaching experience for faculty.

In her spare time, Dr. Kochtcheeva enjoys hiking, especially in the mountains, with Mt. Rainier being her favorite destination almost every year, swimming, reading, and cooking, however, most of all she enjoys traveling and discovering new amazing places with her family.