Kelly Ann Krawczyk

Associate Professor and Ph.D. Program Director, Department of Political Science

Kelly Krawczyk is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. Her research focuses on the role of civil society in democracy and development. She is specifically interested in how civil society impacts political behavior. Her research has been published in journals of public administration and civil society, including Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, and International Review of Administrative Sciences. She has also authored book chapters, as well as governmental and professional publications for the Governance Commission of Liberia and the World Bank. She is a Founding Committee Member of the Strengthening Research on Civil Society in West Africa project, an initiative of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), funded by the Ford Foundation. She is also a Democracy & Development Fellow at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) (https://www.cddgh.org/home/).

Felicia Tuggle

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work

Felicia Tuggle is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at Auburn University. Her research focuses on community and organizational practices and processes that facilitate social development, specifically as they relate to building responsive and resilient health and humanitarian systems. As a social work educator, researcher and practitioner, Dr. Tuggle frequently consults with international academic institutions around internationalizing social work education and with international community based organizations (CSOs) around addressing sustainable development goals (SDGs), most notably SDG #3 “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all people at all ages" and SDG #16 “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.” She values the importance of bridging the gaps between science and service and is committed to assisting public and private agencies build the organizational and programmatic capacity necessary to design, implement, and evaluate high quality sustainable programs that facilitate development. Her research has been published in social science journals including the Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, Journal of Policy Practice and Research, and the Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Sciences. Dr. Tuggle currently serves on the Capacity Building Committee for the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW).

Peter Weber

Assistant Professor, Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (PNPS) program, Department of Consumer and Design Science, College of Human Science

Peter Weber is an assistant professor of philanthropy and nonprofit studies at Auburn University. His research focuses on how private actors exercise an influence in public life through associational and philanthropic vehicles in times of political, cultural, and economic crises. This approach guides the investigation of civil society and international philanthropy in building democratic practices of governance from both a historical and a contemporary perspective, as well as the analysis of philanthropic innovations through the lenses of program-related investments (PRIs). This broad-based approach and reliance on historical methods aims to track changes over time in associational action and philanthropic strategies, to better understand today’s philanthropic practices. As a multidisciplinary scholar, he has published extensively in edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals, including diverse disciplinary outlets such as Voluntas, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Journal of Civil Society, Global Society, Central European History, Journal of Public Affairs Education, and Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership.

Brian Ezeonu

Graduate Research Assistant; Doctoral Student, Ph. D. in Public Administration & Public Policy, Department of Political Science

Brian Ezeonu is a Ph.D. student in Public Administration and Public Policy at the Department of Political Science, Auburn University. His research focuses on the role of the nonprofit sector in international development. His research interests include democratic governance reforms, anti-corruption strategies and economic development. In 2020, Brian Ezeonu along with two faculty members Dr. Kelly Krawczyk and Dr. Hayford Nsiah, were awarded a research grant from the Anti-Corruption Evidence by Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme and the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (ACE-SOAS) for their research titled “Lending Corruption and Bank Loan Contracting: Implications for Gender Inequity and Inclusive Growth in West Africa”. This project investigates how lending corruption contributes to gender inequality using Ghana and Nigeria as case studies. The results of this study will help develop innovative approaches that will strengthen regulatory institutions to adequately address lending corruption in their financial sector. Brian also presented a paper titled “Cross-National Differences in Charitable Giving” at the 49th Annual Conference, Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), co-authored by Dr. Kelly Krawczyk.