Who We Are
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Faculty and Staff
Eric Welch
Eric W. Welch is an Associate Professor and director of the STE Lab. His research interests include genetic resources for food and agriculture, information technology in government, environment policy, and public management. His current projects are, among others, working with Bioversity International to examine and assess the facilitators and barriers to germplasm flows, NSF work analyzing the different roles that network structure and resources play in the career success of men and women scientists, and exploring the use of social media technologies in public and private organizations. Dr. Welch is also currently an Agropolis Foundation research fellow working on genetic resources for food and agriculture with colleagues at CIRAD in Montpellier, France. Welch is the author of over 50 articles and book chapters.(cv)
Mary Feeney
Mary K. Feeney is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at UIC. She is interested in public management and sector distinctions and science and technology policy. She is currently working on research investigating mentoring in public and nonprofit organizations, rules and red tape within public organizations and across public and private organizations, and mentoring in ST&E fields. Feeney’s work on mentoring can be found in Human Relations, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Administration & Society, and the International Journal of Learning and Change. Feeney has also published in Public Performance & Management Review, Public Integrity, and Research Evaluation. (cv)
Karen Mossberger
Karen Mossberger is Professor and Head of the Public Administration department at the UIC. Her research interests include urban policy, information technology use and disparities, civic engagement online, and e-government. Dr. Mossberger is currently evaluating the Smart Communities Program, a federally-funded technology training and outreach initiative in five Chicago neighborhoods. She is also examining local government use of social media, open data, and websites for citizen information and engagement. Her research has been funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, among others. She is co-editor of the Georgetown University Press series on American Governance and Public Policy. (cv)
Yonghong Wu
Dr. Yonghong Wu's research primarily focuses on the interconnections among public finance, technological innovation, and economic development. One major topic of his research is to investigate the effects of government finance policies targeting on research and development (R&D) activities. Dr. Wu’s recent research has focused on NSF’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). His JPAM article (2009) examines the relationship between EPSCoR and state’s funding of academic research. The empirical results indicate that EPSCoR, while increasing federal R&D assistance, may crowd out financial support for academic research from the governments of EPSCoR states. Future research will assess how EPSCoR has affected research capacity of EPSCoR universities and researchers. (cv)
Aseffa Seyoum Wedajoo
Dr. Aseffa Seyoum Wedajoo joined the STE Policy Lab in February 2012 and is currently working on cross-cutting issues of genetic resource policy, climate change and food security, including research to better understand benefits sharing practices in the food and agriculture genetic resource user community. He is also engaged in a Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) project to understand if and how climate changes and how institutional change and actors’ behavior affects the exchange of germplasm in terms of access, use and dissemination at national and local levels in nineteen developing countries. Dr. Wedajoo received his PhD from Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. (cv)
M. Jin Lee (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
M. Jin Lee is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Science, Technology and Environment Policy Lab in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She joined the STE Lab in February 2013. Her research focuses on decision making in public organizations, policy making and network analysis. Her academic background is in diverse social sciences including public administration, psychology, information science, and cognitive science. Lee received her PhD from Yonsei Universitiy, Seoul, Korea, and her thesis title is “Network Analysis on the Functional and Organizational Structures of Government: Focusing on the 2008 Korean Government Reorganization.” (cv)
Teresa Jonsson (Research Associate)
Teresa joined the STE Policy Lab full-time in January 2013, where she assists in research and managing the Lab. Prior to this position, she was a graduate research assistant at the Lab while in the MPA program, concentrating in public management. She graduated with her Master's in December 2012.
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Graduate Students
Yamini Jha
Yamini Jha is a PhD ABD candidate in the department of Public Administration at UIC. Her research interests include social network analysis, science, technology, and public policy, survey methods, and disaster management. Her research has been published in Research Policy. She has presented her research at the International Sunbelt Social Network Conference, Public Management Research Conference, Atlanta Science and Technology Conference, and Midwest Political Science Annual National Conference. Her dissertation focuses on the effects of collaborative network on satisfaction of academic scientists in six fields of science and engineering. (cv)
Eunjung (EJ) Shin
Eunjung (EJ) Shin is a PhD candidate in the Public Administration program at UIC, with a concentration in science, technology, and environmental policy, as well as public management. She received her B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Kyungpook National University, South Korea, in 2000, and a M.C.P. in Environmental Planning from Seoul National University, South Korea in 2003. Her research interests are in how natural resources and information are managed, shared and collectively governed among different individuals, organizations, and sectors. Currently, EJ is working on her dissertation titled, “Exclusive Sharing of Genetic Materials in U.S. Agricultural Research: Antecedents and Consequences.” (cv)
Marla Parker
Marla Parker is a PhD candidate in Public Administration. Recently, her work with co-author Dr. Eric Welch on leadership in the academic STEM environment has been published in Leadership Quarterly. Marla is currently working on her dissertation titled, "Social Network Determinants of Self-Perceived Influence in Organizational Decision Making Among Minority and Non-Minority U.S. STEM Faculty." Her research interests include understanding the role of social networks in explaining the disparities among women and minorities in academic STEM and leadership in the public sector. (cv)
Margarita Bernal
Margarita Bernal is a PhD student in the Public Administration program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received a MPA from UIC in 2010, as well as a MS in Engineering from Universidad EAFIT, Colombia, in 2007. Her research interests include underrepresentation of women in academic science, collaboration networks, and science and technology policy. (cv)
Nisa Yazici Aydemir
Nisa Yazici Aydemir is a Ph.D. student in the Public Administration department. She received her MPA degree from Ohio University where she studied performance-based budgeting in US state government for her thesis. Her research studies focus on academic entrepreneurship and commercialization of university patents as well as the strategic behavior linked to public performance measurement. As part of her dissertation research she is currently investigating the use of information technology in public sector performance measurement and decision making processes. (cv)
KyungWoo Kim
KyungWoo Kim (Kyung) is a Ph.D. student in the Public Administration program at UIC. His concentrations in the program are science and technology policy and public management. Kyung earned his Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Pusan National University, South Korean in 2006 and a Master’s degree in Environmental Science in Indiana University at Bloomington in 2011. His research interests are in how individuals (scientists) or organizations work together to produce better collaborative outcomes. Currently, he is working for a team to evaluate the performance of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at UIC. (cv)
Gustavo Oliveira
Gustavo Henrique Maultasch de Oliveira is a PhD student in Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his Bachelor's degree in Law from the Rio de Janeiro State University and an M.A. in Diplomacy from the Rio Branco Institute, in Brasilia, Brazil. His current research interests include technology use in organizations, behavior change, ethics and public values. (cv)
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Affiliated Faculty
Sélim Louafi
Sélim Louafi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad, Montpellier) and holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics. Since 2010, he is part of a team of agronomists and geneticists at Cirad to work on the governance of genetic resources for food and agriculture. (cv)
Julia Melkers
Dr. Julia Melkers is an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech. She previously was on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Georgia State University, and the University of Alaska. Please see Julia's faculty web page for more information.
P.S. Sriraj
P.S Sriraj is a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Urban Planning at UIC and is Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Support Initiative (METSI) Sriraj's research interests are in the realm of welfare-to-work, equity, public transportation, stakeholder participation, asset management, and geo-spatial analysis in transportation.
Jae Moon
M. Jae Moon is a Professor at the Department of Public Administration at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. He was also a faculty member at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and at the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver. He earned his and a Ph.D. in public administration from Syracuse University (1998).
Akira Hibiki
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Alumni
Megan Haller
Megan Haller was previously a Research Assistant Professor at UIC and a principal in the STE Policy Lab. Her research focused on public entrepreneurship, social networks, science and technology policy, and environmental policy. Dr. Haller received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2008. Her dissertation investigated the role of social networks and cognitions on scientist’s entrepreneurial behavior. (cv)
Wan-Ling Huang
Wan-Ling Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at the Tamkang University. She teaches courses on the constitution of the Republic of China, public policy and seminar in science and technology policy. For more information on Wan-Ling, please see her faculty website.
Benoy Jacob
Benoy Jacob is an Assistant Professor and the Director for the School’s Center for Local Government Research and Training at the University of Colorado at Denver. Benoy’s research specialization is local political economy. Benoy is currently working on a series of papers that explore: local fiscal stress, community well-being, and collaborative governance. His work has been featured in Urban Affairs Review, Public Organization Review, the Canadian Journal of Public Administration, and Public Administration Review. Please see Benoy's website for more information.
Nilay Yavuz
For information about Nilay, please see her faculty website.