I began serving as dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs in January 2022. Previously, I served as associate dean for academic programs at Georgia Tech Professional Education. In that role, I was responsible for developing academic programs, overseeing all academic offerings and curriculum, and leading outreach and student affairs. I played a key role in leading Georgia Tech’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

My research and teaching have been at the nexus of environmental and health policy and the built environment, with a special focus on youth engagement and health equity.  

Distinguished Global Professor and McKnight Presidential Professor  Dr. Abimbola Asojo is the Associate Dean for Faculty at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a Professor of Interior Design at the School of Architecture at the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Asojo has been at the University of Minnesota since 2011. Her leadership and contributions in the classroom and the community for over 25-years have been impactful both globally and locally. She has engaged her students in over forty community-based service-learning projects that tackle both local and global societal challenges. Dr. Asojo’s scholarly agenda focuses on cross-cultural design, architectural lighting design, African architecture, computing and design, global issues, sustainable design and K-12 spaces. Her work has been widely published in international journals and books. Her co-edited book with Professor Toyin Falola titled African Humanity Creativity, Identity and Personhood was published in 2021 by Carolina Academic Press, Durham, North Carolina. She is a licensed architect and holds a National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) certification. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). She is a LEED Accredited Professional and serves on the Journal of Interior Design (JID) Review board and is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) Building Information Modeling (BIM) committee. She is a fellow of the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment and she co-founded the lighting design minor in the College of Design in 2019. Asojo was twice named a US DesignIntelligence top educator in 2010 and 2017. In 2018, Asojo received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Nigeria. In 2020, she received the University of Minnesota Outstanding Community Service Faculty Award, the highest honor the University gives to a faculty member for service to the community. Her work is charting the course for Interior Design globally in Africa and the Diaspora.  Asojo’s capacity-building efforts led to the development of the first Master of Interior Design in West Africa.  The inaugural class of the MID program graduated in 2021.  Asojo developed and has led the College of Design Diversity and Design program which exposes K-12 students to architecture and design careers since 2013.

I grew up in rural Minnesota and have lived in Saint Paul for the past 10 years.  I joined the staff of the Humphrey School in the fall of 2021 with a background in nonprofits and event management.  It was the ability to work with the JSI program that most strongly drew me to this position in the admissions office, and I am excited to be a part of this program.  I attended Carleton College and Hamline University for Global Studies, with a focus on Mongolian culture and development.

Sunga is a program design and development professional from Malawi (Southern Africa). With experience in global, transformative leadership with grassroots and international organizations, Student Affairs work within higher and secondary education, supporting underserved communities and advocating for the inclusion of historically marginalized student groups. Sunga is currently doing a Ph.D. in Comparative International Development Education with research interests in radical participatory designs, social movements in communities experiencing poverty, and the intersections of education and international development in rural Sub-Saharan African communities. She is passionate about Human Rights, Community Centered design, and engagement in Education, especially in marginalized communities experiencing poverty. Sunga co-founded a non-profit called Loving Arms, which works in education development in central Malawi. 

I am a doctoral fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for Global Change and a Ph.D. candidate at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. My dissertation examines Ecuadorian feminist and LGBTIQ+ movements against gender-based violence (GBV) and how a discursive shift from violence against women to gender-based violence can challenge conventional perceptions of violence and help us better understand how movements and policymakers can more effectively combat GBV. I earned my Master's of Arts in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and my Bachelor's of Arts in International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati in my home state of Ohio, where I studied how the political Left Turn in Ecuador impacted the state responses to GBV. Before joining the Humphrey School, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay and worked as an advocate for survivors of GBV in the US and Ecuador for ten years. When I'm not researching I enjoy cooking, reading, and embroidery. 

I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Organizational Leadership and Policy Development (OLPD), studying higher education. Previously, I was at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where I received my master's degree in educational leadership and policy analysis, with a focus on educational policy analysis and evaluation. My research interests include academic freedom and tenure, and non-degree credential programs, like micro-credentials and certificates. I enjoy running, playing tennis, and catching up on Real Housewives & Bravo shows in my free time.

I started my PhD studies in the Applied Economics department in fall 2020. Before commencing my studies, I worked in tax administration for eight years. My field of research is in environmental and natural resources economics as well as public economics. My research has focused on finding how degradation to the environment affects rural households in Sub-Saharan Africa. I have also worked on investigating the effectiveness of tax policies on tax compliance and evasion.

Ethan Ellis is a Ph.D. student at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. His research interests focus on labor market institutions, including occupational licensing, minimum wage laws, unions, the monopsony power of firms, and higher education. He is also interested in how these topics relate to stratification economics and the role of these institutions in developing and transition economies.

From 2020 to 2022, Ethan worked as an Economic Research Assistant in the Regulatory Analysis Section of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Division of Insurance and Research. Prior to this he served as a Community & Economic Development Volunteer with Peace Corps Ukraine.

This is my second summer as a JSI instructor and I'm excited to delve into applied economics with this year's JSI cohort! I hope to contribute to a fun and intellectually stimulating learning environment here at JSI.

I am a first-year PhD student in Health Service Research, Policy & Administration with a concentration in health economics. I am interested in health economics, environmental economics, and labor economics. Currently, I am studying the association between drought and ozone and their impact on public health and the healthcare system. Additionally, I am employed by the UMN Medical School to study effective ways to promote the Human Papillomavirus vaccine for LGBT youth.

Omar Sharifi is a research fellow and lecturer at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. Omar Sharifi is Asia Society Fellow and member of Afghan 21 Young Leaders Forum. He graduated from Kabul Medical Institute in 2003. Following his medical studies, he worked as Head of research and publications for the Foundation for Culture and Civil Society in Kabul, and as Director of the Open Media Fund for Afghanistan. From 2006 to 2008, he studied Cultural Anthropology at Columbia University in New York under a Fulbright Scholarship. He also received a fellowship at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. He completed his PhD in anthropology from Boston University in 2019. He recently joined the New School University Scholars in Exile Consortium. In 2023 he received the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Minnesota, Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Michael Lekan-Kehinde is an Interior Design Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota.  Michael has a background in Architecture, with a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and Masters of Technology (M.Tech) degree in Architecture from the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria. Michael is interested in social justice, and his research is focused on improving occupant satisfaction, well-being, productivity, and indoor environment quality (IEQ) for better indoor spaces. Michael is advised by Dr. Abimbola Asojo.

My name is Jing Tian and I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Design (Interior Design track) at the University of Minnesota. I have a Bachelor’s degree and a Master's degree in Architecture. My research interests lie in exploring the relationship between built environments and human behavior. In my past research experience, I have published several articles on the impact of built environments on human health and behavior, which have appeared in publications such as the Huazhong Architecture Journal and the PLEA conference proceedings. I have also presented related research posters at conferences such as the ARCC and EDRA conferences.