About Us

What is Public Administration and Nonprofit Management?

Public administration is the implementation of government policies and the management of public programs.  Public administrators are responsible for the organization and operation of government agencies, ensuring that our laws, policies, and programs are effectively administered to serve the public.  Public administrators work in institutions at the local, state, federal levels as well as supranational organizations.  Public administrators engage in policy implementation, public service delivery,  government accountability, intergovernmental relations, and public sector management.  

Closely tied to the work of government are nonprofit organizations, many of which deliver government services on the behalf of the public through government contracts and grants.  Nonprofit managers must be conversant in fundraising and resource development, program management, managing and recruiting volunteers and their staff, financial oversight, advocacy, and community engagement. At Buffalo State we train current and future managers through courses in budgeting, human resource management, strategic planning, leadership, research methods, data analysis, program evaluation, organizational structure, and policy analysis. 

History

SUNY Buffalo State University is the only public college or university in the Buffalo-Niagara region offering degrees, certificates, and minors in the field of public administration.  Buffalo State's has had a longstanding commitment that began in the late 1960s to combine both liberal arts and professional training for current and future government administrators and nonprofit managers. Our faculty and alumni led the effort to establish the Buffalo-Niagara Chapter of the American Association for Public Administration (ASPA) (a commitment that continues to this day).  Further evidence of Buffalo State's commitment to state-of-the art education and nonprofit management was admission to the Network of Public Administration and Public Affairs (NASPAA) in 2011.  Much of the credit for the department’s early efforts in teaching public administration goes to Dr. Keith Henderson who was the first to teach undergraduate public administration courses at Buffalo State and oversaw the public administration minor for over 40 years until he passed away in an automobile accident in 2014.  Dr. Henderson's family endowed an annual scholarship for an MPA student in his name.

Our public administration faculty have been guided by our mission to serve the City of Buffalo, Western New York, the State of New York, and beyond by training civic and community-engaged leaders to start or enhance their careers in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.  Our public administration alumni have served from the White House to village hall, from banking to industry,  from large, well-funded nonprofits to storefront neighborhood voluntary associations, and higher education.  

We nurture alumni-student interactions by inviting our alumni to campus to share their expertise with students and faculty, such as City of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown who co-created our NYS Government & Budget class (MPA); serving on our MPA advisory board;  serving as panel chairs and discussants in conferences; supervising undergraduate and graduate internships;  and, overseeing MPA project research at their government and nonprofit agencies.  New York State government has recognized our leadership in training public administrators by including our MPA in the Excelsior Service Fellowship Program, which has accepted a number of our MPA graduates for two-year, full-time fellowships in NYS government agencies and state authorities.

Faculty Diversity

Public administration has been a leader in SUNY with respect to hiring and mentoring a diverse faculty that reflects diversity in NYS and the United States.   Three women have served as our campus public administration directors: Dr. Buonanno, 2012-2017 (previously serving as department chair, 2006-2012), Dr. Ceesay (2017-2023), and Dr. Soni (2024-present).  Our reach is also global.  We have public administration faculty whose roots are in The Gambia, India, and South Korea, thereby offering us depth in the important area of comparative public administration.   Notable adjunct professors have included Dr. Kevin Hardwick (Canisius College, Erie County Legislator, Erie County Comptroller); John Maggiore (Senior Advisor to Governor Andrew Cuomo); and Dr. Greg Rabb (Professor emeritus, Jamestown Community College, SUNY, Rockefeller Institute Fellow, and the first openly gay man to run for and win elected office in Western New York); Ken Stone (CFO, Buffalo & Erie County Public Libraries); and the Honorable Mayor Bryon Brown - professor of practice.

We also have worked together as a faculty to continue to attract and mentor assistant professors (untenured) from diverse backgrounds, having applied on two occasions for SUNY diversity fellowships to enable us to inclusively hire talented assistant professors.  Further to this support for mentoring, one of our public administration faculty received the prestigious Nulla Drescher award (Soni), which provides a pre-tenure sabbatical for women faculty members to focus exclusively on research.   

Department Organization - Public Administration discipline is housed in a merged Department of Economics & Public Administration as of January 1, 2025

Public administration was originally housed in the Department of Political Science.  As it has become increasingly apparent employers seek more hard skills when hiring in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, university administration in consultation with the public administration and economics faculty, approved public administration programsto be housed in the Economics Department.  On August 1, 2025, there will be a new merged department - Business, Economics, and Public Administration.  The merger will enable students and faculty to realize synergies in research, teaching, cohort work, and course availability in a Department of Business, Economics, and Public Administration.