February 22 to 25th, 2023 in Bogotá D.C., Colombia Universidad de los Andes 

Workshop host and organizers:  

Public Management Research Association, PMRA. Alberto Lleras Camargo School of Government, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Public Administration Division, CIDE, Mexico 

In association with:  

Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, USA, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, USA, School of Public Administration, Florida Atlantic University, USA, School of Public Policy and Leadership, University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA  

PRESENTATION OF THE WORKSHOP  

The Public Management Research Association (PMRA), in collaboration with Andes University (Colombia) and CIDE (Mexico) are pleased to invite you to its third Academic Writing Workshop. PMRA is one of the most active academic networks in the public administration field. PMRA is a nonprofit academic membership association that furthers research on public organizations which over the years has substantially increased in size and influence. The Public Management Research Association Conference has become the foremost gathering of leading public management scholars in the US and around the world. PMRA publishes the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART), one of the premier journals in the field, and Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (PPMG), which debuted in 2017.

The workshop is fully funded for 24 participants. See pages 14 and 15 for more information

Publishing your research in top-quality academic journals is a requirement for a successful academic career.

As publication pressures grow, gaining insights into the writing and review process is essential knowledge that can add value to your career. The association held previous writing workshops in Copenhagen in 2020 and Hong Kong in 2019. At this conference in Bogota, Colombia, you will deepen your understanding and practice of the craft of writing and publishing. You will engage with senior scholars and journal editors in public administration and policy and discuss aspects of the writing, review, and publication process that are not typically taught in Ph.D. programs or other academic writing workshops. You will gain these insights by improving one of your manuscripts–which you will bring to the conference– to submit it to a leading academic journal. The conference will focus on improving your manuscript by examining the “journal article lifecycle”: crafting interesting questions, framing compelling arguments, drafting manuscripts, drawing out implications, navigating the review process, and maximizing the impact of your article after publication. Each workshop faculty will serve as a mentor for a small group of participants and work with them in groups or individually throughout the conference.  

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WORKSHOP 

• Gaining insights about academic writing from leading scholars and journal editors. Confirmed workshop faculty include: Mary Feeney, Jeremy Hall, James Perry, Valentina Mele, Sonia Ospina, Claudia Avellaneda, Pablo Sanabria, Guillermo Cejudo, Edgar Ramirez, Ricardo Bello-Gomez, Maria Escobar-Lemmon, Violeta Pallavicini, among others.
• Understanding the review process and how to manage it.
• Building your network with leading scholars and other academics in the field.
• Developing tangible ideas for revising and improving your manuscript for submission to a leading journal.
• Submitting your manuscript.
• Receiving feedback and working on your paper with fellow participants and journal editors.

TOPICS COVERED 

• Challenges and opportunities of academic publishing as a scholar from the global South
• Minorities and underrepresented groups in academic publishing
• The essence of good research articles: What makes a good paper?
• Framing of research articles: What makes a research question compelling?
• High impact literature review: What is the central argument in your article?
• Presentation of research findings: How do you draw out the implications of your study?
• Understanding the review process: How do you choose a journal?
• Managing R&R effectively: How do you manage and resubmit?
• After publication: How do you disseminate your research article to achieve impact?

HEADLINE POINTS 

• Learn from current and past editors, guest editors.
• Editors from these journals have confirmed participation

       Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, Local Government Studies, Journal of Public Policy. 

• Master class lectures on all aspects of journal writing and getting published
  • Working in small groups on your manuscripts to lift and improve their quality
  • Thorough understanding of the review process
  • Building your network of academics and editors

AGENDA

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS 

Sonia M. Ospina

NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

Sonia M. Ospina is a Public Management and Policy Professor at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, a sociologist by training, and an expert in qualitative research. Her interests in the participatory, inclusive, and collaborative dynamics of democratic governance have produced research on social change leadership, social innovation, and public accountability, both in the United States and Latin America. She is an elected Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration, a member of the Scientific Council of CLAD, a UN consulting body on state reform in Latin America, and a Board member of the Public Management Research Association (PMRA). She also served as President of the Inter-American Network of Public Administration Education (INPAE). In 2022 Sonia received the Public and Nonprofit Division Keith Provan Award from the Academy of Management.

Sonia has been co-editor of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory and Public Administration Review; editorial board member for PAR, Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, The American Review of Public Administration, Administrative Theory & Praxis, Action Research Journal, Journal of Public Management and Social Policy; International Advisory Committee member for Gobernar (Interamerican, in Spanish), Revista Cuadernos de Administración (Colombia), Revista Cadernos Gestão Pública e Cidadania (Brazil), Estado, Gobierno y Gestión Pứblica (Chile); and ad hoc reviewer for Human Relations, Leadership, Administration and Society, Public Management Review, Journal of Public Affairs Education, The Leadership Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, and Organization Studies.

Claudia N. Avellaneda

Indiana University O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs a O' Neill School of Government 

Born in Durania, Norte de Santander, Colombia, and first trained as an undergraduate in Bogotá, Dr. Claudia N. Avellaneda specializes in governance and public management in developing countries, emphasizing local governments. She joined the IU O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs a O' Neill School of Government in 2013 after serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and graduate coordinator of Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Her main research interests are decentralization, public policy, innovation, governance, and public management, with a regional focus on Latin America. Specifically, Professor Avellaneda investigates determinants of government performance in Latin American municipalities by focusing on the role of the local chief executive — the mayor.

Professor Avellaneda serves as editor of Local Government Studies. She is also the international editor for the Journal of Behavioral Public Administration and associate editor for The Journal of Policy Studies. She serves, or has served, on the editorial boards of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, Public Administration, Urban Affairs Review, Global Public Policy, and Governance, Fudan Public Administration Review, Public Service Review (Revista do Serviço Público), and the Brazilian Journal of Public Administration (RAP). She is an elected member of the 2017-21 Public Management Research Association Governing Board. She was selected as the 2019-20 Midwest Public Administration Caucus President.

Nathalie Méndez

Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Alberto Lleras Camargo School of Government Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Dr. Méndez is an Assistant Professor at the School of Government at Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. She is the Co-Principal Investigator for the World Values Survey in Colombia. Her research has appeared in Public Administration, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, Journal of International Development and Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy. Professor Méndez’s research agenda focuses on public management, public leadership, collaborative governance, local development, bureaucrats’ behavior, and public opinion. She is also interested in Latin American Politics, peacebuilding and human rights, and political culture. She has expertise in using mixed methods research design and field and survey experiments. She has taught and conducted research, consultancy, and fieldwork in Colombia, Brazil, the United States, and Sri Lanka.

Professor Méndez has served as a reviewer for the International Journal of Public Administration, Public Performance and Management Review, Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, Latin American Research Review, Korean Journal of Policy Studies, Local Government Studies, and Political Behavior.

Pablo Sanabria-Pulido

School of Public Administration, Florida Atlantic University - Alberto Lleras Camargo School of Government Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Dr. Sanabria studies and teaches the design, formulation, and implementation of public policies and the managerial challenges that public service organizations and public officials face, aiming to disentangle how to make public organizations work, particularly at the local level. Most of his research focuses on organizational and individual behaviors. To do so, he relies on a comparative perspective and uses mixed methods, focusing on the context of public affairs in Latin America and the global South. His areas of interest are public management, policy analysis and formulation, comparative public policy and administration, organizational behavior and HR, open government, corruption and transparency, local governance, and public affairs education.

He is associate editor of the International Journal of Public Administration (IJPA), editor for international outreach of the Review of Public Personnel Administration (ROPPA), associate editor of Gestion y Política Publica journal (Mexico), and member of the editorial boards of Public Administration Review (PAR), Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration (APJPA), Public Administration (UK), Gobernar Journal, Policy Studies Journal, and co-convenor of the Special Interest Group in Public Sector Human Resource Management of IRSPM.

Guillermo Cejudo

Public Administration Division CIDE Mexico 

Guillermo M. Cejudo is a professor at the Public Administration Department of the Center for Research and Teaching on Economics, CIDE, in Mexico City. He is the author/editor of several books on Mexican state governments, accountability, public management, transparency, evaluation, and policy implementation. He has published in leading journals such as Public Administration Review, Governance, Policy Sciences, International Review of Administrative Sciences, International Public Management Journal, International Public Management Review, Reforma y Democracia, and Gestión y Política Pública. His current work focuses on policy integration, policy termination, and the use of social information systems for policy implementation.

He has been guest editor for a special issue on policy integration to be published in Policy Sciences, member of the editorial board of Foro Internacional, Estado, Gobierno y Gestión Pública, and reviewer for Public Administration Review, Governance, Public Administration and Development, Policy Sciences, among several others. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. .

Edgar Ramírez de la Cruz

CIDE Mexico - Public Administration Division

Edgar Ramirez is a Professor in the Public Administration Division at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. He earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy from the Askew School at Florida State University. His primary research interests are: urban sustainability, growth management, land use regulations, public management, and policy networks. Dr. Ramírez is also a consultant for public, non-profit and private organizations in Mexico and the United States. Edgar Ramírez has published in academic outlets such as American Journal of Political Science, Public Administration Review (PAR), Urban Affairs Review, International Review of Public Administration, International Journal of Public Administration, and Housing Policy Debate. His most recent book on private capitalization of public goods was published last year in Mexico by CIDE. He is the Editor in Chief of Gestión y Política Pública and an Associate Editor of PAR.

Dr. Ramírez was awarded in 2019 the International Public Administration Award by the American Society for Public Administration.

DISTINGUISHED INVITED FACULTY (EDITORS AND REVIEWERS):

Michelle Maria Taylor-Robinson 

Texas A&M University - USA 

Dr. Michelle Maria Taylor-Robinson is a Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University & affiliated faculty with the TAMU Women’s and Gender Studies Program. Dr Taylor combines a rational choice and historical institutionalism approach to understand political behavior. Her research focuses on how the design of democratic institutions affects representation and the consequences for consolidating democracy. Her research often requires fieldwork to interview political elites, collect archival data, or conduct experiments. She has made research trips to Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, England, Honduras, Mexico and Uruguay, at times including her graduate students in her fieldwork and her research has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studie, among others. 

Alan Zarychta 

University of Chicago – USA 

Dr. Zarychta is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago and Fellow at the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) and a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Global Health (CGH) and Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS). His research focuses on the politics of social services in Central and South America, especially in the areas of public health and environmental policy. Broadly, he investigates the sources and effects of institutional reforms aiming to improve local service delivery—how public sector reforms are targeted, the contextual conditions that shape their effectiveness, and whether such reforms can fundamentally alter local governance system.  

Ricardo Bello-Gomez 

Texas Tech University – USA 

Dr. Ricardo Bello-Gomez is an Assistant Professor of public administration in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University. His overall research agenda explores the institutional, organizational and managerial factors affecting government performance, often focusing on the provision of social services. His research has been published in Public Administration Review, Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, the American Journal of Evaluation, and the Annual Review of Public Health, among others. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in public management and public policy such as Comparative Public Administration and Management Science. 

Mary K. Feeney 

Arizona State University – USA 

Mary K. Feeney is Professor and Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public Affairs at the School of Public Affairs at ASU. She is the Editor of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Mary is currently serving as the Program Officer for the Science of Science: Discovery, Communication, and Impact program at the National Science Foundation. Her expertise is in areas of public and nonprofit management, technology use in government, mentoring, and science & technology policy. Mary previously served as the Associate Director of the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Studies. 

Bruce McDonald 

North Carolina State University - USA 

Bruce D. McDonald III is an associate professor of public budgeting and finance in the Department of Public Administration at North Carolina State University. Currently, he serves as the editor in chief of Public Administration and the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Affairs Education. A graduate of Florida State University and the London School of Economics, his current research focuses on social equity budgeting, the measurement of fiscal health within local governments, and the intellectual history of public administration field. His research has appeared in the American Review of Public Administration, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and the Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, among others. 

Valentina Mele 

Bocconi University - Italy 

Valentina Mele is an Associate professor of the Department of Social and Political Science at Bocconi University. She has been a visiting researcher at the University of Geneva, UC Irvine, Columbia, and NYU. She is a Senior Editor of the Journal of Public Policy (Cambridge University Press) and Editorial Board Member for Governance and Public Administration Review, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. She holds an MPA from Columbia University and a PhD from LSE. Her main areas of interest include change and relational dynamics in public organizations. Her research has been published in JPART, Governance, Public Administration, and Academy of Management Journal, among others. 

Jered Carr 

University of Illinois Chicago – USA 

Dr. Carr  is a Professor and Department Head at the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Chicago. Carr’s teaching and research interests are in intergovernmental management, metropolitan governance, and local government administration. He teaches courses in intergovernmental management, public administration, urban policy and local government administration. He has ongoing research programs focused on effective metropolitan governance, public services contracting, risk perceptions in intergovernmental service collaborations, the effects of city size and density on civic and political engagement. He is the former Co-Editor and Managing Editor of the Urban Affairs Review, after nine years in the role. 

Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon 

Texas A&M University - USA 

Dr. Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education at Texas A&M University, is an active member of the Bush School of Government & Public Service’s Program in the Cross-National Study of Politics and the Project for Equity, Representation, and Governance. She studies the ways democratic institutions affect how citizens are represented by and interact with government, with a regional focus on Latin America and special emphasis on the representation of women.  A second line of research examines the consequences of decentralization and the functioning of local governments. Included in this line of research is work bridging the subfield of comparative politics and public policy/public administration that examines how decentralization has affected the delivery of services and whether it minimizes corruption. Her work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Electoral Studies, Journal of Policy Studies, Political Research Quarterly, and Publius: The Journal of Federalism. 

PARTICIPANTS:

1. Samanta Varela Castro 

Visiting PhD Candidate Leiden University. Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) - Mexico  

Samanta Varela Castro is a PhD candidate at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City and Visiting PhD candidate at Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University. She teaches Public Administration and Public Policy to practitioners. She holds a Master in Public Administration, and International Relations degree and a professional certificate in Privacy and Data Governance and Regulation. Before joining academia, she was an international liaison for different government agencies. Her research currently seeks to understand policy narratives and actions affecting frontline work during crises. 

2. Valentine A. Lamar 

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Newark - USA 

Valentine Lamar is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Administration from the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) at Rutgers University in Newark. Her research interests are counter-corruption, governance, institutional reforms, public administration, public policy, service delivery and applied statistics. She holds a Master in Public Policy from the University of Missouri, Columbia and a degree on Economics and Geography from the University of Nairobi. 

3. Liliana González Viveros  

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) - Mexico 

Liliana González Viveros holds a degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and a Master in Government and Public Affairs from the same university. She has experience in the public sector and as a teacher and specializes in qualitative and mixed methodology. She is currently a PhD candidate in Public Policy at CIDE. She has participated in various research projects related to public policies, governance and political parties. The courses she has taught as an assistant professor are: Public Policies and Project Design, both at UNAM. As a professor, she has taught the courses of Public Administration and Terminal II Project (degree seminar) at UNAM. 

4. Mary Solomon Mangai 

University of Pretoria- South Africa 

Mary Mangai holds a PhD in Management Sciences from the  Department of Public Administration at Radboud University in Netherlands. She is Lecturer and Research Coordinator at University of Pretoria at South Africa. Her current research is focused on the achievement of SDG 16 (peace and inclusive society) through the co-production of neighbourhood security in South Africa and Germany. The pragmatic research approach is aimed at developing innovative and practical models of co-producing neighbourhood security for both countries. The research instruments used for her research are Structural Equation Modelling, Field Survey, Structured and Unstructured interviews in both countries.  

5. Pawinee Chuayprakong 

Graduate School of Public Administration, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) - Thailand 

Pawinee Chuayprakong is an Assistant Professor at Graduate School of Public Administration, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Bangkok, Thailand. She holds a PhD in Public Affairs from the School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver. She also holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and a Master of Public Policy at the National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan. Her research interests include Public Finance and Budgeting, Public Management, and Gender issues in Public Administration.   

6. Marco Antonio Catussi  

Fundación Getúlio Vargas (FGV) 

Marco Antonio Catussi is a Postdoctoral fellow in Public Administration and Government at the São Paulo School of Business Administration of the Fundación Getúlio Vargas (FGV EAESP) and fellow at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. He holds a PhD and Master in Organizational Administration from the University of São Paulo, with a postdoctoral internship in Health Economics at NOVA School of Business and Economics in Portugal. He is a researcher at GPublic (Center for Contemporary Public Management Studies) and at GPEOS (Organizational Studies Research Group).  He has experience in Business and Public Consulting, focusing on corporate finance and Public Administration. 

7. Gerardo Bonilla Alguera 

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) - Mexico 

Gerardo Bonilla Alguera is a Public Policy PhD candidate at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City. He holds a Master in Political Sociology and a degree in International Relations. He has been a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Universidad del Valle in Mexico and Universidad de Quintana Roo. He is the author of the book Participación deliberativa, procesos legislativos y legitimidad democrática.  

8. Alejandra Rodas-Gaiter 

University of Georgia – USA 

Alejandra is a a third-year Ph.D. student of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Georgia. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics at Universidad Icesi (Colombia) and a Master in Public Policy at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). While pursuing her master’s, she worked with a multidisciplinary research team at the School of Government (Universidad de los Andes) in developing the foundations of a Human Resource Management Policy for the Colombian Public Sector (currently, national and subnational agencies are implementing those recommendations). She also has experience as a public servant in various positions at the local government in Colombia, specifically in Cali and

9. Alejandra T. Penilla Diez de Bonilla 

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) - Mexico 

Alejandra Penilla is a PhD candidate in Public Policy from CIDE, Mexico. She also holds a Bachelor's degree in Administrative Computer Systems from the Universidad del Valle in Mexico and a M.S. in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University. She is currently associated with the CIDE Public Administration faculty, and her main disciplines are public policy analysis, teaching and learning and case studies. Her research is related to organizational theory and teacher’s agency through the Educational Technical Councils in secondary schools in Mexico City. She has worked in consulting projects and as a coordinator in the educational program “Talentum Universidad”, a program to identify and shape talent at the college level nationwide.  She also worked at the Central Bank of Mexico for ten years, leading several projects to improve IT services and streamline IT infrastructure management. 

10. Gretel Iriaís Cervantes Hernández 

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) - Mexico 

Gretel is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico. She holds a degree in Financial Management from TEC de Monterrey and a Master in Economics from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She is currently a professor at TEC de Monterrey. Her research interests are agricultural sustainability and farm animal welfare.

11. Joaquin Andrés Benitez 

Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas CONICET - Argentina 

Joaquin Benitez holds a PhD in Social Sciences Universidad de Buenos Aires. He also holds a bachelor's degree in Sociology and a Master's degree in urban studies from Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento. From 2019 to 202, he was a SPURS Fellow in Urban and Regional Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He currently is a postdoctoral fellow at the National Council of Scientific & Technical Research in Buenos Aires. 

12. Maiara Marinho  

Fundación Getúlio Vargas (FGV) 

Maiara Marinho is a PhD candidate in Public Administration from the Brazilian School of Public Administration and Business at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil. She holds a Master in Business Administration from the Fluminense Federal University (2018) and Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro.  Her research topics relate to bureaucracies, administrative burdens, citizen-state relations, AI, algorithms, inequality, poverty, political psychology, among others. Currently, she is also a visiting PhD Candidate at Leiden University.   

13. Carlos Miguel Rodrigues de Caires 

FLACSO – Ecuador 

Carlos Miguel Rodrigues de Caires is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at FLACSO in Ecuador. He is associated to the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, in the Department of Public Affairs. His skills and expertise include public policy analysis, governance, transparency policy and public accountability. Some of his research projects include Realist Evaluation in the Policy Design Framework & the Institutional design of participatory democracy in Venezuela. 

14. Andrea Briceno-Mosquera  

School of Public and International Affairs – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 

Andrea Briceño was appointed as a Postdoctoral Associate for SPIA on the Richmond campus. Andrea holds her Ph.D. in Public Administration and Public Affairs from CPAP.  She has focused on quantitative and qualitative analyses examining policy-making processes and evaluations from an equity and inclusion approach, taught courses in economic foundations and policy design and served as a research program coordinator at private universities in Colombia. Andrea holds a master’s degree in Government and Public Policy from the Externado University of Colombia in partnership with the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) of Columbia University, NY, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the National University of Colombia. 

15. Lorena Andrea Estupiñán Pedraza 

Universidad Nacional de Colombia 

 She is PhD student at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Lorena Estupiñán holds a Master's Degree in Education from the Universidad de los Andes, in which she did an Emphasis in Management of Institutions and Public Policies. She also holds a degree in International Relations and Political Science. Since 2009, Estupiñán has worked as a teacher, researcher and/or university advisor in Faculties of International Relations, Political Science and Law in Bogota and Tunja, Colombia. Her main areas include Local Development, Public Management, Human Rights, International Relations Theories and Research for academic purposes. She has experience in both public and private entities and organizations. The foregoing, within the framework of command of the French and English languages, the use of quantitative and qualitative research tools, and the Logical Framework methodology applied to Projects with a Gender Focus and/or a Human Rights Focus. 

16. Marc Eric Barda Picavet 

Getulio Vargas Foundation - Brazil 

Marc Eric Barda is a PhD student in Public Administration and Government at the Brazilian School of Public Administration and Business at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil. He holds a degree in Economic Sciences and a Master in Global Political Economy. For the past six years, he has been a Senior Consultant at Brasia, a business consultancy specializing in China and Asia. Right before returning to Brazil, he worked for six months as a Research Assistant at the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, Israel. He has experience in the areas of ​​International Business, Political Economy & International Relations and now wants to specialize in Public Policy for sustainability and innovation in the public sector. 

17. Wan-Ju Hung 

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Newark – USA 

Wan-Ju Hung is a PhD candidate at the Rutgers’ School of Public Affairs and Administration.  Her research interests include Government contracting, social equity & Human resource management. Her teaching experience includes the courses Introduction to Nonprofit Administration & Technology and Public Service. At Rutgers University, she has been granted with the Graduate Student Travel Award & the Dissertation Fellowship Award Graduate School. 

18. Cynthia Lorena Michel Sahagún 

Hertie School, Berlin 

Cynthia L. Michel is a PhD researcher at the Hertie School. She holds a Master in Public Policy and Administration from the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico. She has been working as a professor and researcher for the last seven years at CIDE’s Public Administration Department. During these years, she has been conducting theoretical and empirical research on policy integration, policy capacities and implementation. Her field of study is social policy, with emphasis on social protection and care policy regimes. She has developed qualitative research projects for different agencies, including UNDP, IDB, UN- Woman, ILO and the Mexican Ministry of Social Development. She has taught Social Policy, Program evaluation and Research methods at CIDE and the Iberoamerican University in Mexico. 

19. Merlene Patrice Quispe 

University of Minnesota - USA 

Merlene-Patrice Quispe is a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the leadership and management area at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Her research interests include examining truth and integrity in budgets, especially at the state, county and municipal levels; examining the performance of local governments in execution of their budgets; and furthering the research in performance budgeting by examining if adherence to best practices as recommended by budgetary institutions does, in fact, lead to desired outcomes expressed by citizens. Quispe has worked internationally as a microfinance expert for USAID and the United Nations in multiple countries, including the United States, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, among others. She earned her PhD in Public Affairs from Florida International University. 

20. Ratna Okhai 

University of Central Florida - USA 

Ratna Okhai is a PhD candidate in Governance and Public Policy Research at the University of Central Florida. She is interested in local government leadership, collaborative networks and emergency management topics. She is a Research Assistant for the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded grant on Smart and Connected Communities program, focused on connecting public administration and technological advancements working coordinatively, and she teaches undergraduate upper-level courses in Emergency Management and Public Administration. Ratna's dissertation research is focused on interorganizational coordination networks in policy and practice, and she is interested in learning what constitutes the "public" within public service. In the Fall of 2023, she will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of South Florida. 

21. Serena Hoermann 

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) - USA 

Serena Hoermann serves as assistant director for the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions (CUES) within the FAU's Department of Urban and Regional Planning and program manager for the FAU Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Another current project, the Urban Stories Festival, uses storytelling to build community. She is pursuing her doctorate in public administration with a focus on urban planning. Her research interests include community resilience and community displacement. Serena received both a Bachelor of Science Cum Laude in Systems and Information Science and an MBA in Marketing and International Business from Syracuse University.  

22. Andrea Del Pilar Ramos Rangel 

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) - USA 

Andrea Ramos is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Administration at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. She received a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing from Florida Atlantic University and a Master's of Science in Public Health from the University of Miami. Prior to her pursuing a PhD, her field experience includes working in emergency services and being an active member of the South Florida Disaster Medical Team (DMAT-FL5).  Her research interests include disaster preparedness and resilience, emergency management, opioid abuse, human rights, and health promotion and wellness. Additionally, she works with the School of Urban & Regional Planning in evaluating the evacuation and sheltering plans for vulnerable populations including car-less and transportation-dependent for all counties in the State of Florida.  

23. Mauricio Astudillo-Rodas 

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Newark – USA 

Mauricio Astudillo-Rodas is a doctoral candidate in the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) at Rutgers University–Newark. His research combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to problems of human resources administration in public agencies vis-à-vis transparency and accountability, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and social equity and inclusion. His dissertation employs a sequential mixed-method approach that examines public servants' attitudes on transparency and accountability when using ICT tools in the workplace. Before his academic career, he worked in the local government in Colombia, which influenced his interest in understanding salient practical problems that could support better managerial decisions. 

24. Pedro de Jesús Canales Hernández 

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) - Mexico 

Pedro de Jesús Canales Hernández holds a bachelor's degree in Politics and Social Management from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana de México (UAM) and a Master in Administration and Public Policy from the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Public Policy at CIDE Mexico and has worked as an assistant professor at the UAM. He is also member of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA), the Latin American Studies Asociation (LASA), the Latin America Association of Political Science (ALACIP) & the Mexican Association of Political Science (AMECIP). 

25. Margaret Swenson 

The University of Kansas - USA 

Maggie Swenson is a Dean’s Doctoral Fellow and Ph.D. student in Public Affairs and Administration. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at William Jewell College in Nonprofit Management, Psychology, and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry. She earned her MPA at University of Missouri Kansas City with an emphasis in Nonprofit Management. Maggie has worked in the nonprofit sector in various capacities including program and fundraising management focused on volunteerism, cancer, health, and addiction. Maggie’s interests focus on racial and geographic disparities and health care access. She is also interested in collaborative efforts across sectors to address health disparities. 

26. Nathalie Méndez 

Universidad de los Andes – Escuela de Gobierno Alberto Lleras Camargo 

See profile in Workshop Organizers