What is your name?
Dr. Daniel Fay.

What kind of work do you do in the College?
I am an associate professor and PhD Director in the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at The Florida State University. I teach, do research and engage in service in the department, profession and community.

Why did you decide to become an academic? 
I participated in an undergraduate research program during college.  My project compared the GPAs of merit-based scholarship program recipients compared to students without these generous packages.  My mentor for the project encouraged me to continue my education in a discipline that would allow me to ask similar questions.  In my MPA program one of my professors also encouraged me to continue onto a PhD program in order to generate new knowledge in the field.  The rest is history.

What do you find most fulfilling about your job? 
Working with doctoral students is by far the most fulfilling aspect of my job.  I remember the challenges I faced in my doctoral program and as an early career academic. I succeeded due in part to the support from my mentors.  There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing my own students succeed due in small part to my support.

What are you working on or teaching right now that has your excited professionally? 
I am very excited about the burgeoning work of the Social Justice and Innovation Lab.  I was recently awarded a contract to perform an intersectional gender analysis for a large city’s police department.  This work will not only support several students, but will hopefully also improve the lives of marginalized communities that interact with the police department. 

The feature image is from Pexels.