Jackson State University Department of Public Policy & Administration

09/29/2026

Professor Billingsley has become an Academy Fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration's 2026 Class.

Professor Gloria Billingsley was recently selected as a fellow of the National Academy of Administration.

This is a great honor for Professor Billingsley personally, and it will also be a great honor for the PPAD program at JSU.

Congratulations!!!!!!

https://napawash.org/news/national-academy-of-public-administration-announces-2026-class-of-academy-fellows

09/27/2026

Professor Jae-Young Ko attended a two-day workshop on flooding and social vulnerability in Jackson

As a Co-Principal Investigator of the JSU team for a National Science Foundation (NSF) project examining flooding patterns and management, social vulnerability to water-system-related hazards, and patterns of infrastructure investment in Jackson, Mississippi,
Professor Jae-Young Ko attended a two-day workshop on flooding and social vulnerability in Jackson on Sept. 24 and 25, 2026.

The project brings together researchers from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the lead institution, Jackson State University, the University of Alabama, and Tuskegee University. Jackson State University has also partnered with Dr. Matt Kondolf, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley.

The workshop provided an opportunity to discuss our NSF research findings to date and work through the JSU-UC Berkeley Student Exchange and the UC Berkeley Environmental Studio class.

The workshop also created a collaborative, co-production environment where researchers and practitioners can share information, identify research and implementation priorities, strengthen coordination, and support local and regional capacity.

As climate change continues, the risk of urban flooding has increased nationwide. Urban areas, like Jackson, are especially vulnerable to increasing flash-flood risks.

After the presentation and discussion session, the research team looked around the Ross Barnett Reservoir dam and multiple spots along the three major creeks in town: Lynch Creek, Town Creek, and Eubanks Creek, with a Waggoner engineer who is familiar with the creek watersheds.

09/23/2026

P&G recruiting
Graduate Scholars,

Please take advantage of the opportunity below. I am also sharing this message with graduate faculty and program administrators to encourage any interested students you may have to apply. The contact information is below for any students who have additional questions. Please see the full announcement and attachments below.

Sincerely,
Carlos D. Wilson, Ph.D.
Dean, Division of Graduate Studies.

---------------------------------------------
From: Robertson, Jeida
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2026 10:47 AM
Subject: Procter & Gamble - We are recruiting!

Business Use

Hello Jackson State Faculty,

Procter & Gamble is recruiting students from all majors for Full-Time positions and Summer 2027 internships in Sales, Information Technology, Research & Development (R&D), Human Resources (HR), Manufacturing, Engineering, Operations, Quality Assurance, Purchases, Finance & Accounting, Analytics & Insights, and Brand.

Interviews will begin October 9th , and students are asked to submit applications by October 2nd .

Please share these opportunities with Jackson State students and encourage them to apply. Students with questions may contact the JSU Recruiting Team listed below, who are also JSU alumni.

Sanyika Keyes
[email protected]

Darryl Swanigan
[email protected]

Jeida Robertson
[email protected]

Corey Wilson
[email protected]

Eric Hobson
[email protected]

Jeida Robertson Senior Manager, Market Operations Quality Assurance

Mobile: 301.481.1396 |

P&G is improving everyday life as a Force for Growth and a Force for Good — for you, for the world, and for generations to come.

09/23/2026

Dissertation defense by Dr. Lamar Johnson

Mr. Lamar Johnson successfully defended his doctoral dissertation (title: ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CONTINUING OUT-MIGRATION IN JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, FOR 1970-2024) on Sept. 22,2026.

He currently works at NISSAN as a full-time production manager. He came to JSU and took coursework for his doctoral degree at night.

His dissertation examines the economic impacts of out-migration by White Americans after the federal court desegregation orders for K-12 public schools (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954; Alexander v. Holmes County, 1969). Because of federal desegregation mandates, the City of Jackson has undergone tremendous political and economic changes from 1970 to today.

Professor Jae-Young Ko served as the committee chair and the dissertation advisor. Professors Johnny Gilleylen, Easter Stokes, Gloria Billingsley, and Talya D. Thomas (external) served on the dissertation committee.

Congratulations, Dr. Johnson.

09/22/2026

Professor Jiwon Nam Speers was recently invited to join the Editorial Board of an academic journal, Social Innovation Inquiry and Insight.

https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/SIII/about/editorialTeam

Serving on an editorial board is a great personal honor because it shows that peers recognize Professor Speers as a leading scholar in the field.

Also, having faculty serving on an editorial board indicates the department's and the university's academic quality.

Congratulations, Professor Speers!

09/03/2026

Jackson State University’s Public Policy and Administration students had the distinguished opportunity to attend a private luncheon and conversation featuring Ambassador Andrew Young on Thursday, September 3, 2026.

Ambassador Young shared reflections from his extraordinary career in public service, civil rights, diplomacy, and leadership. From working alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement to serving as a U.S. Congressman, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Mayor of Atlanta, his life and legacy offer invaluable lessons on the power of leadership, service, policy, and perseverance.

For our PPAD students, the opportunity to hear directly from a leader who has helped shape American history was both an educational experience and a powerful reminder that public service has the capacity to transform communities and generations.

We are grateful for the opportunity to learn from Ambassador Young and to be part of this memorable conversation at Jackson State University.

08/28/2026

Mr. George Welch, a doctoral student, published an article titled," Beyond the DEI vs. Merit Binary: Why Public Institutions Need Both Fair Access and Credible Standards" in the PA TIMES, which is an official publication by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), on Aug 28, 2026.
https://patimes.org/beyond-the-dei-vs-merit-binary-why-public-institutions-need-both-fair-access-and-credible-standards/

It's his 6th publication!
Congratulations on your significant achievements!
Great job!

08/22/2026

Professor Jae-Young Ko has completed a GIS class on Urban Management.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system that stores, checks, maps, and analyzes data tied to specific locations on Earth. GIS is a significant part of teaching and conducting research on urban affairs. Even stakeholder analysis uses GIS techniques. Further, spatial modeling is also based on GIS analysis. The field of public policy has also been using GIS techniques. For example, GIS can produce multiple potential outcomes from multiple scenarios, and stakeholders can choose their preferred outcomes, enabling consensus-based (or majority-opinion-based) decision-making.

Professor Jae-Young Ko has completed a five-day training course on GIS, organized by the JSU Dept of Urban & Regional Planning and Wagnoner Engineering in Jackson, from Aug. 18 to 21, 2026.

The class was a practice-focused intensive class on mapping downtown Jackson.

Professor Ko has been fascinated with spatial modeling using GIS for years, and now ArcGIS has obtained a monopolistic position in the GIS field nationally and globally. He hoped to use what he learned to advance his research and teaching.

From the instructor, Ms. Tracy Milton's LinkedIn page:

Day 1
Tonight was all about building the foundation—introducing our participants to GIS, ArcGIS Online, web maps, and the power of using location and data to better understand our communities.
What I enjoyed most was seeing participants with little or no previous GIS experience begin exploring the technology and creating maps in their own GIS environments. This week, we'll continue building those skills as we explore Downtown Jackson, work with real community data, collect field observations using Survey123, and turn those observations into interactive maps.
A special thank you to BERNEECE HERBERT at Jackson State University, Downtown Jackson Partners, and Waggoner Engineering for coming together to make this community GIS learning experience possible.

Day 2
Building the map and understanding the data behind it!
Our Mapping Our Neighborhoods – A Ground-Zero Community GIS Course participants moved deeper into ArcGIS Online tonight and got hands-on with real GIS data.
We explored ArcGIS Living Atlas and open GIS data, discussed the importance of metadata and knowing your data source, and added layers to our Downtown Jackson maps. Participants practiced working with symbology, labels, transparency, attribute tables, and sorting data to begin asking questions of the map—not just looking at it.
One of my favorite parts is watching participants who started with little or no GIS experience become more comfortable navigating the technology and discovering what the data can tell them.
And we're only halfway there! Next, we take GIS beyond the computer and begin connecting what's on the map with what's actually happening on the ground.

Day 3
Taking GIS from the map to the real world.
Tonight, our participants learned how to use ArcGIS Survey123 to create their own community observation surveys and collect location-based information. Then we got out into Downtown Jackson and put those skills to work—capturing GPS locations, photos, observations, community assets, concerns, and opportunities.
This is the part of GIS I love: getting out from behind the computer and seeing the connection between data and what is actually happening on the ground.
And the best part? These participants started the week with little or no GIS experience. Now they're building maps, working with GIS data, creating surveys, and collecting their own field data.

Day 4 was AWESOME!
way to close out Mapping Our Neighborhoods: A Ground-Zero Community GIS Course!
Over four days, we watched participants go from having little or no GIS experience to building their own web maps, exploring real GIS data, understanding metadata, creating Survey123 forms, collecting GPS field observations, and turning it all into an interactive mapping application.
Tonight was about bringing it all together and seeing the complete story—from data to field observations to a map that can be shared with the community. Seeing the excitement and confidence in the room made all the work this week worth it.
This was never just about teaching software. It was about showing community leaders how GIS can give them another tool to understand their neighborhoods, communicate what they see, and support better decisions.

08/14/2026

Professor Ko has updated his classes with AI applications this semester.

Nowadays, people are amazed by the power of AI such as ChatGPT and Gemini, and they are also nervous about the potentially negative impacts on cognitive learning in class.

He decided to learn and apply AI in his classes. His students will learn how to use AI ethically and productively. For example, his class requires a term paper as the final assignment, with no final exam. Some of the students tend to have a writing phobia. If they use AI to develop a starting draft through an AI-based brainstorm, it would be much easier for them to develop their own papers.

07/28/2026

PPAD 50th Anniversary Gala,
Sept. 18, 2026

Update:
The event will start at 7 pm, not 6pm.