Elaine Yi Lu, MPA-PPA Director
Elaine Lu is a professor, editor and director in the Department of Public Management at the City University of New York-John Jay College. This year marks the 20th year of her involvement in the field of public policy and administration. Her primary field of study is fiscal policy and performance accountability. Publications have appeared in many peer-reviewed journals. Her recent book, Public Performance Budgeting: Principles and Practice (2019), is published by Taylor and Francis with co-author, Dr. Katherine Willoughby. Among others, her research with Dr. Willoughby on analyzing the legal foundations of performance budgeting among US state governments provides the most comprehensive account on this subject. She was an invited speaker for the Delmer D. Dunn Lecture Series that recognizes accomplished younger scholars at the University of Georgia.
She engages with professional associations in various capacities. In addition to currently serving as an executive committee member of the Section of Public Performance and Management (SPPM) and the Chair of Section of Chinese Public Administration of American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), she is also one of the 14 members of NASPAA’s Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA), which “is the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)-recognized accreditation body for master’s degree programs in public policy, administration, and affairs, globally.”
She is an editorial board member of three journals (two in US and one international) as well as the editor of an international ASPA ESCI-indexed journal, managing a team of 14 staff worldwide. It is her team building capacity that moved a section journal into an ESCI-indexed one that fosters international knowledge exchange.
She is committed to turning knowledge into actionable policy recommendations. For more than a decade, she has worked with community policy analysis groups on such issues as local government consolidation; with professional associations and think tanks, and more recently with international entities. In recognition of her international services, she was selected as the recipient of the Julia J. Henderson International Award, by the Section for Women in Public Administration (SWPA) of ASPA, 2019.
Currently, she also directs one of the largest NASPAA-accredited MPA programs in the United States. She is committed to enhancing the social mobility of students into the middle class and beyond, and promoting leadership among people from all walks of life, particularly those underrepresented in the leadership of public services. Before that, she managed a large undergraduate program with more than 1000 students.
