Greetings from NC State’s Ph.D. in Public Administration

Greetings from the Ph.D. program in public administration at North Carolina State University! This has been a big year of transitions and new beginnings. The campus feels like it has finally come back to life — the hallways are once again full of students, the whiteboards in the newly updated Ph.D. office are scribbled with statistical problems and research models, and colleagues are reconnecting with each other following the long and difficult pandemic.    

I wanted to share a few updates and announcements. In Fall 2022, we welcomed our newest first-year cohort to the department: Devon Adams, Saman Afshan, Nina Blau, Allen Boyette, Jenny Gilmore and Ha Vien. We are currently conducting faculty searches and look forward to welcoming two new junior colleagues with expertise in quantitative research methods and in public management to our department in Fall 2023. Dr. Rajade Berry-James left NC State to pursue a new opportunity as the senior associate dean of faculty and academic affairs at the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Richard Clerkin also left NC State to serve as the Betty and Dan Cameron Family Distinguished Professor of Innovation in the Nonprofit Sector at UNC Wilmington. We will miss both of these colleagues but we wish them well in these exciting new endeavors.   

This November, we are thrilled to welcome the 51rst Annual ARNOVA Conference here to Raleigh, North Carolina. The ARNOVA program features several of our students including NC State doctoral student Paige Moore, who will be presenting a paper “The Future of Intervention Services: Innovations in Nonprofit, Social Work, and Law Enforcement Collaboration.” Doctoral student Yinman Zhong will be presenting a co-authored paper on “Evaluating Value-Based Purchasing Program for Skilled Nursing Facility through Agent-Based Modeling.” Doctoral student Ryne Jones will be presenting a co-authored paper on “Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Nonprofits: Investigating Board Member Perspectives.” Additionally, doctoral student Aneika Dickens will be presenting a paper, “Nonprofits Activity as a Gauge for Competition Trends.” Doctoral students Shannon McGovern, Jo’Ann Holder, and Dylan Russel and colleagues will be presenting a paper “The Education Pipeline: Investigating Nonprofit Sector Commitment in Light of School Debt and Perceived ROI.” We also are looking forward to welcoming a number of our esteemed alumni who will be returning to Raleigh to present at ARNOVA including: Dr. Emily McCartha (University of North Carolina), Dr. Jessica Berrett (University of Colorado), Dr. Kate Albrecht (University of Illinois – Chicago), Dr. Teshanee Williams (University of North Carolina), Anne-Lise Velez (Virginia Tech University), Xintong Chen (San Jose State University), and Dr. Jayce Sudweeks (Georgia Southern University).

I am also proud to announce that NC State public administration alum Dr. Brad Johnson graduated and accepted a position as assistant professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Reno, and alum Dr. Paul Broussard graduated and accepted a position as a senior budget analyst for the Town of Apex. In other exciting announcements, doctoral student Shannon McGovern was selected as a National Federation of American Scientists Impact Fellow to work with the U.S. Department of Interior Office of Wildland Fire in 2023, and doctoral candidate Kara Lawrence is on the job market. The Ph.D. admissions committee is looking forward to reviewing applications for our 2023 cohort in the new year. The COVID pandemic challenged us in so many ways. I remain in awe of the resilience and ingenuity of our faculty and students during this time. We hope this finds you all safe and healthy this holiday season and we thank you all for your continued engagement with, and support of, our department and program.