Professor Jason Rivera Wins Best Book Award from American Society for Public Administration

Indigenous Experiences with Collaborative Governance: Moving Toward Equitable Partnerships by Dr. Jason D. Rivera received a 2026 Best Book Award from the Democracy and Social Justice Section of the American Society for Public Administration.

Rivera, a professor in the Department of Public Management, co-edited Indigenous Experiences with Collaborative Governance with Dr. Michèle Companion, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. The volume highlights the importance of authentic Indigenous inclusion in governance processes at national and subnational levels worldwide through case studies and best-practice models.

Rivera’s research focuses on social equity, governance public administration theory, disaster and emergency management, interorganizational collaboration and research design. Over the course of his career, he has focused on investigating the experiences of minority and historically marginalized groups related to disaster and emergency management, in addition to factors affecting these groups’ disaster preparedness and recovery. 

His scholarship has been published in the Public Administration Review, State and Local Government Review, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction and Natural Hazards Review, among others. Rivera’s work has also been recognized by the Lavern Burchfield Award (2024), William Petak Award (2024, 2019 & 2017), State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creativity (2020) and Stanford M. Lyman Distinguished Book Award (2008). 

Rivera earned his PhD from Rutgers University and BA from Rowan University. Find Rivera’s full bio here.