Public Administration and International Affairs Leadership and Staff

Colleen Heflin is the chair and professor of public administration and international affairs and associate dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She is also a faculty affiliate at the Center for Policy Research and the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion.

As a research and policy scholar for nearly twenty years, Heflin is regarded as a national expert on food insecurity, nutrition and welfare policy, and the well-being of vulnerable populations. Heflin’s research has helped document the causes and consequences of food insecurity, identify the barriers and consequences of participation in nutrition programs, and understand the changing role of the public safety net in the lives of low-income Americans. Heflin has published over 70 research articles and her work has appeared in leading journals such as the American Sociological Review, Social Problems, Health Affairs, Medical Care, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Her research is regularly funded by the National Institutes for Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation.

From 2012-2017, Heflin was supported by a five-year award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service as Family Self-Sufficiency and Stability Research Scholar to explore how multiple program participation affects vulnerable families’ well-being. Heflin has experience engaging with federal policymakers, recently providing expert testimony before Congress, providing technical assistance to states working to improve access to food and nutrition assistance programs, and working with county agencies to redesign their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) application process.

Renée de Nevers is an associate professor in the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Previously she taught at the University of Oklahoma, and was a program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She has been a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Hoover Institution, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Russia in 2011.

She received a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her current research focuses on great power efforts to protect or manipulate sovereignty when confronted by new security challenges, and the regulation and accountability of private military and security companies. She is the author of "Comrades No More: The Seeds of Change in Eastern Europe" (MIT Press, 2003) and the co-author of "Combating Terrorism: Strategies and Approaches" (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2008), and numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Steve is responsible for overseeing the School’s midcareer graduate degree programs (roughly 150 full- and part-time students from thirty countries around the world) and developing and managing various executive management training for both domestic and international audiences. Steve also teaches graduate level courses at the Maxwell School on subjects related to non-governmental organizations and civil society.

Prior to his work with the Maxwell School, Steve spent 12 years designing and managing development programs in South East Asia across a range of topics including health (i.e. family planning, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, nutrition) and rural development (i.e. agricultural production, microcredit, small business development).

Starting as a World Teach volunteer in Thailand in 1991, Steve’s career path allowed him to live and work also in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and to become fluent in Thai and Vietnamese. Steve’s last assignment before returning to Syracuse University full-time in 2004 was as regional director of a Thai NGO, the Population and Community Development Association.

Steve also has experience as an information systems analyst while working for Computer Science Corporation (CSC) from 1989 – 1991. Steve is a graduate of Jamesville-DeWitt High School and his wife and three children are residents of DeWitt since 2003. Steven Lux has an A.B. in economics from Harvard College (1989) and an M.P.A. from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University (1997).

As assistant director of Executive Education Programs, Margaret directs the Humphrey Fellowship Program and is the contact for admissions and financial aid for the E.M.I.R. in D.C.

Samantha manages the myriad administrative responsibilities of the Center, including financial and faculty/staff support elements of the office. She also advises students on career and internship opportunities in Washington, D.C. She helps bridge academic training at Maxwell with the practicalities of preparing for a global career. 

Ken maintains the department database and records for the graduate students. His main tasks involve admissions where he processes applications, coordinates with the EMC and SCIS to see that our international student’s documents are in order for a smooth arrival. Ken also serves as administrative support to the faculty director of the Ph.D. program in public administration. 

Melissa helps arrange our program schedule and class meetings, gather and disseminate information to students, as well as other administrative and logistics concerns. Melissa mainly works from home, but you will receive important messages and information from her electronically.