UCF Pegasus Professor Naim Kapucu has been selected to join the National Academy of Public Administration’s (NAPA) 2021 Class of Academy Fellows. He is one of 39 leaders selected for the honor and will be inducted during the annual Academy Fall Meeting, which takes place virtually and in-person at five host sites across the country Nov. 3-9.
NAPA fellows “are nationally recognized for their expertise in the field of public administration,” NAPA President and CEO Terry Gerton says. “As government at every level continues to manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to addressing public concerns regarding equity, the environment, the nation’s fiscal health and others, we welcome our new fellows’ perspective as we work collaboratively to find intergovernmental solutions to the grand challenges in public administration.”
NAPA fellows are selected after a thorough review of each individual’s contributions to the public administration field by the Academy’s Fellows Nominating Committee, followed by a cohort-wide vote by existing fellows. More than 940 officials from all levels of government —including former cabinet members, members of Congress, governors, prominent scholars and nonprofit leaders — make up the academy’s fellows, including fellow UCF Professor of Public Administration Jeremy Hall, a 2020 inductee.
“I am extremely honored to be a part of NAPA,” Kapucu says. “My scholarship demonstrates breadth of inquiry in the field of public administration in addressing complex issues to produce timely analysis, and my experience will support the 12 grand challenges identified by the academy.”
Kapucu says his work with the academy will focus on the organization’s standing panel on intergovernmental systems, where his expertise in network governance and disaster mitigation will contribute to NAPA’s grand challenge on building community resilience.
“I will bring energy, experience and insight to NAPA’s professional activities, with focus and discipline that I have developed over my career to advance NAPA’s goals,” he says.
Kapucu’s role teaching network governance and emergency management with UCF will travel across the world this coming spring. After receiving the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Applied Public Policy (Democratic Resilience) award earlier this year, the honor will take Kapucu all the way to Australia. Hosted jointly by Flinders University and Carnegie Mellon University-Australia, his research and teaching will focus on the role of network governance in building urban resilience both abroad in Adelaide and at home in Orlando.
Kapucu served as director of the School of Public Administration, which is in the College of Community Innovation and Education, from 2015 to 2020 and as the inaugural director of the school’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Management from 2008 to 2011. In addition to being a published field leader, Kapucu has received numerous honors since arriving at UCF in 2003. From awards in graduate teaching, research and grant awards to the UCF Luminary Award, Kapucu’s honors culminated with his receipt of the Pegasus Professor Award in 2019 — UCF’s highest faculty distinction.
