MPA Program Leadership

Elaine Yi Lu is the MPA-PPA Director, editor, and professor. Her primary field of study is fiscal policy and performance accountability. 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 the Section of Chinese Public Administration of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), she is also one of the 14 members of NASPAA's Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA). She is an editorial board member of three journals (two in the U.S. and one internationally) and an international ASPA ESCI-indexed journal editor. She is committed to turning knowledge into actionable policy recommendations.

David Shapiro is a Fraud Risk and Financial Crimes Specialist and an expert on financial investigations and law enforcement. His extensive background includes work as an FBI (public sector) special agent/assistant legal advisor, assistant (public) prosecutor, and corporate (private sector) investigator. David serves as a distinguished lecturer at John Jay College, instructing in the fields of fraud examination, financial forensics, managerial inspection, and oversight-related courses. He published articles in the areas of accounting, finance, and risk management. He recently wrote a special chapter for the book, "How They Got Away With It: While Collar Criminals and the Financial Meltdown." In December 2019, his book on Applications of Accounting Information Systems was published by Business Expert Press. It contains observations about AIS not often related by vendors and consultants. Presently, he is writing a book about organized crime.

Nicole M. Elias is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY and Founding Co-Director of the Initiative for Gender Equity in the Public Sector at John Jay College. Her research focuses on equity in public administration and policy, with an emphasis on the ethics of administration, management of human resources in public organizations, and public policy impacts on SOGIE populations. Dr. Elias is the author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, government reports, and practitioner training modules aiming to foster greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in public service. She regularly collaborates with practitioners in government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Dr. Elias was a Research Partner with the New York City Commission on Gender Equity and held a Research Fellowship at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Office and U.S. Department of Defense’s Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI). She was named a PoliticsNY Power Player in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in 2023, and in 2022 she was included in City & State’s Higher Education Power 100: Driving diversity on campus, which recognizes college and university officials for making their schools more inclusive in 2022.  

Jeanne-Marie Col received her Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. She taught at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, the State University at Albany, New York, and the University of Illinois at Springfield. She served as the Senior Interregional Advisor in Governance and Public Administration at the United Nations. She is the Vice-Chair of the Board of the Institute for Conscious Global Change. She has led projects for the International Institute for Administrative Sciences, the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration, and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA).