Advisor · Kente Registry
Dr Julius A. Nukpezah
Governance and Public Finance Advisor
Dr Julius A. Nukpezah is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration at Mississippi State University, and a scholar of public budgeting, finance and governance. He advises the Kente Registry on building an institution that lasts.
At a glance
- Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration, Mississippi State University
- Sanderson Dean’s Eminent Scholar in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2020)
- More than US$1.6 million in competitive research funding
- Associate Editor, Public Integrity and Public Works Management & Policy
- Former Senior Policy Advisor, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana
- PhD in Public Administration and Management, University of North Texas
- Faculty profile · Google Scholar
Scholarship and recognition
Dr Nukpezah’s research and teaching cover public budgeting and finance, state and local government management, organisational theory and behaviour, public sector performance, and the relationship between poverty alleviation policies and economic development.
In 2020 he was appointed Sanderson Dean’s Eminent Scholar in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. The Department of Political Science and Public Administration named him Outstanding Graduate Professor in 2018 and again in 2022.
As Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator, he has secured more than US$1.6 million in competitive research funding for studies on governance, financial management and public policy.
Editorial work and publication
He is Associate Editor of Public Integrity and of Public Works Management & Policy, and sits on the editorial boards of Public Administration Review and Public Finance and Management.
His work appears widely in leading international journals, including Public Administration Review, Administration & Society, Public Performance & Management Review, Public Integrity, Public Budgeting & Finance, Public Money & Management and Economic Development Quarterly.
Policy and practice in Ghana
Before his academic career, Dr Nukpezah was a Senior Policy Advisor at Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture. There he contributed to policy development and implementation aimed at strengthening agricultural productivity and economic growth.
He coordinated youth development programmes in agriculture and worked with international development organisations including USAID, JICA, GIZ and SNV, alongside partners across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.
He earned his PhD in Public Administration and Management at the University of North Texas, where he also taught and mentored students in public administration and public policy. His career joins research, policy and practice.
Why it matters to the Registry
The Kente Registry is a young institution with long-term obligations. It keeps a public register meant to outlast its founders, it must account transparently for every dollar it receives, and it depends on relationships with weaving communities, traditional authorities and, in time, funders and regulators.
Those are the questions Dr Nukpezah has spent his career on: how public-purpose organisations are financed, governed and held to account, and how they earn and keep public trust. His experience of policy delivery in Ghana, working between government, communities and international partners, adds a practical understanding of the setting in which the Registry’s field work takes place.
As Governance and Public Finance Advisor, he brings strategic insight, a global perspective and deep expertise in governance, public finance and institutional development, in support of the Registry’s commitment to accountability and lasting benefit for the weaving communities it serves.