Three GSPIA faculty members have been promoted from Associate Professor to Professor: Dr. Shanti Gamper-Rabindran, Dr. Jennifer Murtazashvili, and Dr. Paul Nelson. Dr. Marcela Gonzáles Rivas has also been promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor.
Each has made extremely valuable contributions to GSPIA, to the University of Pittsburgh, to the fields of public and international affairs, and beyond.
Professor Shanti Gamper-Rabindran analyzes the economic, legal, and political barriers and opportunities for the energy transition to renewable energy and for economic diversification of fossil fuel-reliant communities in the United States and globally. Her book America’s Energy Gamble details how political, financial, and legal institutions entrench fossil fuel dependency, but how efforts to shift to cost-competitive renewable energy have gained traction.
Professor Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili is Founding Director of the Center for Governance and Markets. Her research focuses on issues of self-governance, security, political economy, and public sector reform in the developing world. Murtazashvili has advised the United States Agency for International Development, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, World Bank, the US Department of Defense, the United Nations Development Program, and UNICEF.
Professor Paul Nelson is an expert on economics and the developing world. He has worked for 13 years as a policy analyst and research consultant for several non-governmental organizations. Currently, his courses focus on development, human rights, NGOs, food security, and religion and development. His book, Global Development and Human Rights: The Sustainable Development Goals and Beyond, was published in 2021 by University of Toronto Press.
Associate Professor Marcela Gonzáles Rivas spearheads groundbreaking research advocating for equitable water access through community development, policy, and planning. Her fieldwork spans from Pittsburgh to Mexico and Latin America. She is also a permanent member of the PWSA’s Low Income Assistance Advisory Committee and leads the Ford Institute Working Group “Closing the Water Gap.”