MPA Core CSUN Faculty Bios
- James David Ballard
- James David Ballard is an associate professor of sociology at California State University, Northridge. He teaches terrorism classes, criminal justice policy seminars, criminology studies, technology related curriculum, and other programs of study related to crime and political violence. In May 2005 he published a book on the Oklahoma City Bombing case and has authored over 70 articles, book chapters, presentations, and reports on terrorism, primarily against energy related targets. He is also the President of Exclusive Use Research, a firm dedicated to nuclear waste transportation research.
- Lawrence Becker
Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Northridge. In the Political Science Department, he teaches a variety of American politics courses including the American Presidency, the Legislative Process, and Political Parties and Elections.
Dr. Becker's main research interests center on link between legislative procedures and policy outcomes. His forthcoming book, Doing the Right Thing, studies four cases in which Congress utilized tailor-made procedures to overcome collective action problems. It has been published by Ohio State University Press in spring 2005. In his most recent research projects, Dr. Becker has studied the effect of conference committees on policy outcomes and he has worked collaboratively with on a project studying the geographic impact of term limits in California.
Dr. Becker teaches the Policy Process course in the MPA program. Dr. Becker received his B.A. (1991) from the University of California, San Diego and his M.A. (1996) and his Ph.D. (2001) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He can be reached at lawrence.becker@csun.edu.- Matthew Cahn
Matthew Cahn, currently chair of the Political Science Department, has been a professor at California State University, Northridge since 1991. Over the years he has taught at several universities in the southern California region, most recently as Visiting Professor of Public Policy at UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and as occasional Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California.
His research interests include environmental management, public policy and California Studies. He is currently working on a book titled Linking Science to Decision Making in Environmental Policy: Bridging the Disciplinary Gap (MIT, forthcoming). This project examines the tensions between science and policy using the question of marine protected areas in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) as a case study. Dr. Cahn served as Chair of the Marine Reserve Science Advisory Panel working with the CINMS process and is a member of the Sanctuary Advisory Council. The CIMNS resides within NOAA in the U.S. Department of Commerce. His most recent book is Rethinking California: Politics and Policy in the Golden State (2001).
In the MPA Program, Dr. Cahn teaches the Seminar in Public Administration and Its Environment, Research Methods, Public Policy Analysis and Organizational Leadership. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California. He can be contacted by email at matthew.cahn@csun.edu.- Warren M. Campbell
Professor of Political Science (emeritus). He has taught in the MPA program since 1976 and had served as program co-director from 1985 to 2005.
As a professor of political science, Dr. Campbell's writing and teaching has ranged widely from state and local government, urban politics, and administrative behavior to city planning. He was a founding member of the interdisciplinary urban studies undergraduate program at CSUN. For eleven years he was a member of the Board of Zoning appeals of the City of Los Angeles and was the elected president of the Board for approximately half of that period.
Dr. Campbell's teaching in the MPA program includes the beginning seminar, Public Administration and Its Environment, in which entering students explore the full scope of public administration and are introduced to the nature and requirements of the MPA program. He has also had responsibility for the Integrative Seminar, the MPA capstone course. As one of the last courses taken by every MPA student, it emphasizes using the information and skills gained in previous classes through case studies, discussion, and analytic essays. The course also serves to provide an avenue for major progress on a graduate project or on preparation for the comprehensive examination.
Dr. Campbell earned his bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Minnesota. His master's degree and doctorate are from Stanford University. He can be contacted by email at warren.campbell@csun.edu.- Herman DeBose
Herman DeBose, Ph.D. is a tenured professor in the Sociology Department at California State University, Northridge. He teaches Introduction to Social Welfare, Introduction to Social Work Practice, Human Behavior and the Social Environment and Ethnic Diversity in America in the Sociology Department. Additionally, he teaches Organizational Behavior in the MPA program at CSUN. During his ten years in CSUN, Dr. DeBose has received the Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award (1999-2000) and the Extraordinary Service Award (2000-2001). His primary areas of research are Biracial/Multiracial Identity, Juvenile Delinquency, Community Policing, and HIV/AIDS among minority populations. The research has afforded him the opportunity to make presentations at international, national, regional and local professional conferences. Dr. DeBose, along with Dr. Loretta Winters, co-edited a book titled New Faces in a Changing America: Multiracial Identity in the 21st Century released by Sage Publications in December 2002.
He is the principal investigator of a five-year $1,000,000 grant, in its fifth year, from the Los Angeles County Probation Department to implement and administer a Youth Services Specialists (YSS) program at CSUN. Prior to accepting his position at CSUN, Dr. DeBose worked in a variety of positions for Los Angeles County and the United States Peace Corps. He worked as a Psychiatric Social Worker on the Psychiatric Emergency Team and as a Patient Rights Advocate for the mentally ill with Los Angels County Department of Mental Health. In the United States Peace Corps, he served as Associate Peace Corps Director in Kenya where he was responsible for approximately 125 Peace Corps volunteers in the Western Province of Kenya. Dr. DeBose was a Peace Corps volunteer himself, serving in Kenya during 1969 to 1973.
Dr. DeBose has been sharing his experience and knowledge with others by serving on community advisory boards and committees. He can be contacted by email at herman.debose@csun.edu.- Paul D. Krivonos
Professor of Communication Studies (emeritus) at California State University, Northridge. From 1991-1999 he was Chair of the Communication Studies Department and from 1999-2002 he was Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Media, and Communication. At CSUN he has taught a wide variety of courses in the Communication Studies Department; in the MPA program he teaches Communication in Public Organizations and Organization Theory & Human Behavior. Dr. Krivonos has also been a Visiting Professor of Management at Massey University and at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Professor Krivonos is co-author of Communication for Supervisors and Managers, a textbook published in the United States, and of the Communication in American Business Series and a Dictionary of Managerial and Intercultural Communication, both of which were published in Japan. He has written over a dozen articles in the communication and management fields.
Dr. Krivonos received his Ph.D. in Communication from Purdue University in 1975, his M.A. in Political Science in 1969 and his B.A. in International Relations from University of California, Davis in 1967. He can be contacted by email at paul.krivonos@csun.edu.- Christopher A. Leu
Professor of Political Science (emeritus). He has taught in the MPA program since 1979 and had served as program co-director from 1985 to 2005.
As a professor of political science, he has taught courses in American politics, comparative politics and international relations. His professional research interest and teaching have been in the broad areas of international political economy with a special emphasis on comparative policymaking and analysis in the Third World generally, and in Africa and China, specifically. He has presented numerous papers at national and international conferences since 1967 and has various academic publications.
In the MPA program since 1979, Dr. Leu has devoted his time to managing the program and in teaching and instructional development. He has designed, developed and taught the courses on Public Policy Analysis, Organizational Leadership, Ethics and Professionalism, and Policy Implementation and Program Evaluation. He has also taught three of the core seminars in the program: Public Policy Process, Seminar in Public Administration and Its Environment, and Research Methods. In the area of elective courses, Dr. Leu has initiated and coordinated the following courses: Comparative Public Policy and Management; Strategic Management; Communication in Public Organization; Public Entrepreneurial Management; and Community and Economic Development.
Most recently, he has been an active participant in the MPA-China partnership, a formal collaborative effort to strengthen the MPA program and training capacity of Peking University in Beijing, China. He also lectured on the theory and practice of public administration to public officials in Liaoning Province, China, an initiative sponsored by the CSU Chancellor's Office of Global Partnership Development (GPD).
Dr. Leu received his B.A. in political science at the University of California, Riverside and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. He can be contacted by email at christopher.leu@csun.edu.- Mingfang Li
Professor of Management at California State University, Northridge. His teaching area focuses on strategic management, technology and innovation, and global management. In addition, he has presented executive seminars and guest lectures. Dr. Li's research focuses on corporate governance, technology and innovation, and emerging economies.
Dr. Li has published in articles in Strategic Management Journal, Advances in Competitive Research, Information & Management, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, and Asia Pacific Journal of Management. He is also actively involved in professional organizations and serves as an Associate Editor of Organizational Analysis. Dr. Li teaches the Strategic Management course for the MPA program.
Dr. Li joined the Northridge management faculty in 1990 after completing his Ph.D. in management from the Department of Management, Virginia Tech in 1990. Prior to that he obtained an MBA degree from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina in 1985, and received his undergraduate degree at Northern University of Technology in Beijing China in 1983.
Professor Li can be reached by email at mingfang.li@csun.edu.- Henrik Minassians
Director of Public Sector Programs at The Tseng College, California State University, Northridge. He also teaches courses in Public Policy and Administration at CSUN. His research interests include implementation and evaluation issues in higher education and health care policy. His applied research has focused on accountability programs in higher education and the effectiveness of indicators used for performance measurement. Dr. Minassians has written on the implementation of public programs in higher education and healthcare.
Before coming to CSUN, Dr. Minassians worked as a senior research associate for the higher education program at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, New York. Recent publications include: Performance Reporting: "Real" Accountability or Accountability "Lite" (2003); Reporting Higher Education Results: Missing Links in the Performance Chain (published by Jossey-Bass, 2002); State Performance Reporting Indicators What Do They Indicate? (In Planning for Higher Education, 2002); Performance Reporting: The "No Cost" Accountability Program, (2002); Linking State Resources to Campus Results: From Fad to Trend, (2001); Performance Funding and Budgeting: An Emerging Merger? (2000); and Myths and Illusions: The Media and AIDS Policy (with Stella Theodoulou, 1996);
He has had the experience working for public agencies as well as not-for-profit organizations. In addition, he taught public policy and American politics courses at State University of New York-Albany. He currently teaches public policy classes for the MPA program. Henrik holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Policy and Affairs at the University at Albany-SUNY. He can be contacted by email at henrik.minassians@csun.edu.- James A. Mitchell
Professor in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Northridge. He teaches courses in Public Policy, American Foreign Policy, International Relations and Central Eastern European Affairs. He has edited a book, American Government and Politics in Focus, in addition to writing over a dozen articles. He taught at the University of Bucharest in Romania in 1997 and 2001/02 as a Fulbright Professor and Civic Education Project Visiting Faculty Fellow, respectively. Professor Mitchell teaches the Public Policy Process course for the MPA program. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He can be reached at james.mitchell@csun.edu.- Martin Saiz
Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Center for Southern California Studies at California State University, Northridge. He teaches Community and Economic Development for the Masters of Public Administration Program. Professor Saiz joined the CSUN faculty in 1999 after teaching for seven years with the Department of Government and International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Prior to teaching, Professor Saiz directed small town and neighborhood community service centers for the Center for Community Development and Design at the University of Colorado at Denver. In Denver, he was active in local affairs and was appointed by Mayor Federico Peņa to the City and County of Denver's Planning Commission.
Professor Saiz writes extensively on issues of urban politics, local political parties, economic development, and the effects of voting on public policy. His book Local Parties in Political and Organizational Perspective, incorporates studies of seven mature and two developing industrial democracies and unites them with an original theoretical framework. His articles have been published in the Journal of Politics, Urban Affairs Review, Political Research Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Economic Development Quarterly, The Journal of Urban Affairs, and California Policy Issues Annual, as well as other books and journals.
Dr, Saiz received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He did postdoctoral work in Urban Sociology at the University of Chicago, a Master's Degree in Planning and Community Development at the University of Colorado, Denver and concurrent Bachelor's Degrees with majors in Political Science and Geography from Arizona State University.- Victor N. Shaw
Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Northridge.
Dr. Shaw is interested in the study of crime, deviance, social control, organizational behavior, higher education, and public policy. Dr. Shaw has published four books, five book chapters, 25 scientific papers in academic journals, and numerous articles in newspapers and magazines. His most recent book, Substance Use and Abuse: Sociological Perspectives, has appeared in "Outstanding Academic Titles, 2003" by the authoritative CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, under the auspices of the Association of College and Research Libraries. He has also made more than 70 presentations to local, national, and international conferences.
Dr. Shaw is dedicated to professional and community services. He has reviewed numerous manuscripts and grants for academic journals, university presses, commercial publishers, and governmental agencies, including Cambridge University Press, Prentice Hall, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Shaw is currently Executive Board member of Neighborhood Council #4 in the City of Simi Valley, and Administration of Justice Advisory Board member at Los Angeles Mission College.
Dr. Shaw is a recipient of numerous academic awards, honors, and scholarships. In 1994, he was honored in the XIII World Congress of Sociology as a grand winner of the Second Worldwide Competition for Young Sociologists, sponsored by the International Sociological Association.
For the MPA program, Professor Shaw teaches the Organization Theory and Human Behavior course. Dr. Shaw received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
For more information, visit Dr. Shaw's website.
- Ward Thomas
Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at California State University, Northridge. He teaches undergraduate courses in urban planning, community development, and urban administration. He is also responsible for supervising student internships.
Dr. Thomas' research interests include economic development, urban labor markets, race, and environmental planning. He recently completed a study examining racial discrimination in employment. Findings from this study were published in the journals, Review of Black Political Economy, and The Sociological Quarterly. Dr. Thomas is currently conducting research on the effects of environmental regulations on industries in the Los Angeles region. A recent report investigating the effects of air pollution regulations on the wood furniture industry in Los Angeles was accepted for publication in the journal Economic Development Quarterly.
Dr. Thomas has taught the following graduate level courses in public administration: grant writing, the economics of urban policy, and national urban policy. He teaches Public Policy Analysis for the MPA program.
Dr. Thomas received a Ph.D. in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.P.A degree from San Francisco State University, and a B.A. degree in sociology from the University of Oregon.
