Sukumar Gunapati

Dr. Sukumar Ganapati is Professor in the Department of Public Policy and Administration. He joined FIU in 2004 after getting his Ph.D. in Planning from the School of Policy, Planning, and Development at the University of Southern California. He served as the Director of the Ph.D. program in Public Affairs from 2013 to 2016. He is presently the Chair of American Society for Public Administration’s Section on Science and Technology in Government.

Before joining FIU, Dr. Ganapati was the Assistant Director of the Center for International Policy, Planning, and Development (CIPPAD) at the University of Southern California. He has also taught urban planning courses at: (a) California State University, Northridge (1999-2002; 2004); (b) California Polytechnic State University, Pomona (2000; 2002); and (c) University of Southern California (2000, 2002, 2004). The Urban Studies and Planning Program at California State University, Northridge gave him the "Outstanding Professor Award” in 2001.

Dr. Ganapati’s research focuses on digital and local governance. The research is significant in the rapidly evolving context of digital era. There are five themes in his research: (i) Cybers-security; (ii) Agile government; (iii) Emerging technology applications in public service; (iv) Open government and (v) Local governance. He is the author of about 30 peer reviewed journal articles, 15 book chapters, and four research monographs. His articles have been published in major journals such as Administrative Theory and Praxis, Economic Development Quarterly, Government Information Quarterly, Public Administration Review, Public Performance and Management Review, and others. The links for his publication are available at Google Scholar [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DHFSD_4AAAA]. He has won two awards for his articles: (i) the Honorable Mention for the Chester Rapkin Award (2008) given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning; and (ii) the Jorge E. Hardoy Memorial Prize for Best Paper (1999), presented by International Sociological Association.

Dr. Ganapati’s total sponsored research as a principal investigator (PI) or Co-PI exceeds $2 million. He is the PI of the National Science Foundation supported “Advanced Cyber Infrastructure Training in Policy Informatics” (Award # 1924154) which is an over $1 million project to conduct research and training on machine learning tools and cyber-security for public policy and administration. The project features a data repository for making local government administrative data available to researchers. He was the PI of the "Cybersecurity Pathway for Public and Nonprofit Organizations. Cyber/IT Pathways Program", an over $0.6 million project funded by Cyber Florida in 2022-2023. He was Co-PI of another NSF funded project called “Resilient Rural America” that examined recovery after Hurricane Katrina. He has received four rounds of funding support from the IBM Center for the Business of Government to conduct research on adoption of emerging technologies in the public sector.

Dr. Ganapati has co-edited special issues of journals and co-chaired conferences. The special issues were in two journals: Information Polity (2000, Issue 2) focusing on “Public Policy and Governance in the Sharing Era” and Journal of Public Affairs Education (JPAE, Spring 2016) on “Information Technology and Public Administration Education.” He was the Program Co-Chair of the 2018 Southeastern Conference on Public Administration held in Birmingham, Alabama. He has co-chaired conference tracks for dgo.2023 (in Gdansk), dgo.2021 (in Omaha), dgo.2018 (in Delft), the IV World Planning Schools Congress (2016, in Rio) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP).

Courses Taught

Dr. S. Ganapati received the Public Administration Educator of the Year Award, presented by the South Florida Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) in 2012. He has taught the following courses at FIU:

• Ph.D.:  PAD 7808 (Economic Development and Urban Management), PAD 7703c (Empirical Methods in Public Administration), and PAF 7002 (Foundations of Policy Analysis).
• Master of Public Administration: PAD 6718 (Smart Governance), PAD 6306 (Policy Analysis and Program Planning), PAD 6056 (The Practice of Public Management, capstone course), and PAD 5805 (Economic Development and Urban Revitalization).
• Bachelor of Public Policy and Service: PAD 4712 (IT and E-government), PAD 3800 (Managing Global Cities) and the PAD 3003 (Introduction to Public Administration).