

Department of Political Science
Faculty
Our Practitioner Faculty
Kent State University’s faculty are devoted advocates for their students and for the fields of public and nonprofit service. They collectively bring an extensive history of academic research combined with significant in-field work experience, allowing our programs to balance academic rigor with a practitioner focus. Learn from faculty who have:
- Specialized in a wide variety of topics that influence public administration and policy – including e-government, immigration policy and privatization, and public policy reform
- Served as leaders within the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)
- Held positions within the local and state government
- Published articles in a wide variety of public administration and public policy journals including Public Administration Review, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Administration & Society, and International Public Management Journal
Faculty Spotlight on Dr. Anthony D. Molina
Anthony Molina comes from a public service background. His father was a Cleveland police officer, and his mother was a nurse. After graduating from high school, he went into the Air Force and got a taste for public service. “I got into public administration because I’m attracted to public service,” Molina says. “I grew up in a family where public service was highly valued.”
Anthony D. Molina, Ph.D.
Master of Public Administration
amolina4@kent.edu
Anthony Molina is currently an Associate Professor and Interim Department Chair of Political Science. Before coming to Kent State University, he served as Director of Graduate Studies and an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of South Dakota. His teaching and research interests include political philosophy, professional ethics, administrative law, qualitative research methods, public administration theory and the role of public service values in administrative decision making. His scholarly work has been published in Administration & Society, Journal of Public Affairs Education and the International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior.
Dr. Molina received his MPA in in 1999 and his Ph.D. in Urban Studies and Public Affairs from the Maxine Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University in 2004.
Brian Kelley
Master of Public Administration
bkelley1@kent.edu
Learn more about Brian Kelley
Daniel Chand
Master of Public Administration
Daniel E. Chand (“Danny”) received his Ph.D. in Public Policy in the Policy Management specialization at the University of Arkansas and has a masters in Political Science with an emphasis in Community Development from Illinois State University. His primary areas of interests are policy implementation (specifically relating to immigration policy) and political activities by nonprofits. His current research projects include an examination of 501(c) nonprofits involved in federal elections and a study of disparities in immigration court outcomes. He has worked with a number of policy nonprofits, such as Emily’s List and the American Civil Liberties Union. Before earning his Ph.D., he designed and implemented community development projects and program evaluations in both the United States and abroad. From 2006 through 2008, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Zambia.
Learn more about Daniel Chand
Daniel Hawes, Ph.D
Master of Public Administration
dhawes2@kent.edu
Daniel Hawes’ research interests deal with questions related to public policy and public administration, broadly, and substantively focus on education and immigration policy. His research incorporates aspects of public administration, public management and state and local politics in examining questions of public policy and policy performance. A central theme in his research is a focus on the determinants of public policy outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged groups. A fundamental question that his work has sought to address is how can government—via policy, structure, bureaucracy or management—better address the inequalities we observe in policy outcomes for disadvantaged groups? In doing so, his work has explicitly examined the role of public management, organizational structure, political representation, organizational and external environments on shaping policy outcomes. He has approached this broad question through different theoretical lenses (social capital, representative bureaucracy, rational choice, public management) and in different substantive contexts (K-12 education, higher education and immigration).
Dr. Hawes earned his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2008.
Learn more about Dr. Hawes
Mark Cassell, Ph.D.
Master of Public Administration
mcassell@kent.edu
Mark K. Cassell is Professor of Political Science where he teaches courses in public policy and administration, comparative public policy and urban politics. His scholarship is mainly concerned with understanding public sector transformation.
His work includes How Governments Privatize: The Politics of Divestment in the United States and Germany (Georgetown University Press, 2003). The book compares the Resolution Trust Corporation with Germany’s Treuhandanstalt, the agency charged with taking over, managing and privatizing the industrial assets of the former East Germany. The book received the 2003 Charles H. Levine Award for the best book in public policy and administration.
Dr. Cassell holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MPA from the Robert LaFollette Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Learn more about Dr. Cassell
Gabriella Paár-Jákli
gjakli@kent.edu
Education:
Ph.D. in Political Science, Kent State University, M.B.A. with concentration in International Business, Kent State University, 2001, B.A. in Foreign Trade & Economics, Budapest, Hungary, B.S. in Engineering, Pécs, Hungary
Wendy Patton
wpatton4@kent.edu
Education:
Master of City Planning, University of California, Berkeley, B.A. English and Political Science, Kent State University
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