Welcome to my personal webpage.
WORK:
I have just been named President-elect of Fulbright University Vietnam. Fulbright is Vietnam’s first independent, not-for-profit, liberal arts university. I will take up the position on July 1, 2023.
I currently serve as the Dean of the David L. Boren College of International Studies, and Associate Provost for Global Engagement, at the University of Oklahoma, where I am Professor of International and Area Studies and hold the William J. Crowe, Jr. Chair in Geopolitics. In these roles, I am dedicated to broadening student access to transformative study abroad experiences; improving the experience of international students across the university; and advancing global engagement as fundamental to a 21st century public research university.
I previously held faculty positions while serving as:
* Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, at New York University Shanghai. In this role, I stood up the provost’s office in its launch years as the first US university to received independent registration status in China, and the third degree-granting campus in NYU’s global network, with a complex set of curriculum development, stakeholder negotiation and faculty recruitment challenges.
* Vice Dean and Interim Dean, at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University. In this role, I led the development of several new programs, including an undergraduate public policy major, generating much needed revenue diversification in the aftermath of the financial crisis. I also worked collaboratively to keep the School on a productive and even keel as interim dean during a period of significant university-wide instability.
* Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. In this role, I launched several degree programs, coordinated multiple research centers and executive education initiatives, and oversaw the rapid growth of the School into Asia’s largest school of public policy. And most recently as –
* Director of International Executive Education and founding Director of the Global MPA, at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington. In this role, I developed a platform for dual degrees with several leading universities abroad, and led curriculum development of the Gates Foundation-funded International Program on Public Health Leadership, which has seen significant further investments and up-scaling across 20+ African countries.
I also served as an elected member of the Executive Council of NASPAA, the global professional association and accrediting body of schools of public policy and administration, and currently serve on the state advisory committee of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
EDUCATION:
* Princeton University, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs – Master in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning degree (MPA-URP) and Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs.
* Michigan State University, B.A. with high honor in Cultural Anthropology, with minors in African Studies and German Literature.
I studied during my undergraduate years for a full calendar year at the University of Zimbabwe.
And for a year I was a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam — by historical quirk, the first so designated for that country in the post-Vietnam war era –where I researched patterns of upland forest land allocation.
RESEARCH:
My research focuses on the comparative analysis of anti-corruption and decentralization strategies in Asia, and the globalization of public policy education. I am on the editorial board of Policy & Society, the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Fulbright Review of Economics and Public Policy, and Policy Design and Practice. Please see a list of my publications here and my google scholar page here.
TEACHING:
I teach in the same broad areas that I research, with a focus on international development, corruption control, public policy analysis, and strategic management. I have been extensively involved in executive education over the years, both as an instructor and an administrator, and greatly enjoy the interaction this offers with mid- and senior-level civil servants from around the world. I equally enjoy teaching in a range of professional graduate degree programs, and at the undergraduate level, where I have helped launch public policy majors in a few universities.
I also had the joy of working for two years in a rural district of the Japanese public school system, at middle- and high-school levels, under the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.
CONSULTING:
I have had an active international consulting practice over the that includes nearly 50 assignments – most of which as team leader – in three main areas: program planning and evaluation for international development agencies; applied policy analysis; and advisory services in global higher education. More about my consulting can be found here.
PERSONAL:
I grew up in Flint, Michigan. Among my interests are international travel and language learning, ignited by a year spent in Germany as a high-school exchange student in one of the first years of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship. I lived and worked for over twenty years in a dozen countries around the world, and speak several languages – German, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indonesian and Chinese – more or less proficiently (depending on caffeine intake and general clear-headedness of the day). I am also enthusiastic about playing piano, and about indoor and outdoor rock climbing. Last but not least, I am a grateful husband and proud father of four wonderful children.
