
Always positive and enthusiastic in class.
Encourages students to keep striving for excellence.
Christopher Hawkins is a Professor of Public Administration in the School of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida's College of Community Innovation and Education. His contributions to Social Science center on public administration, urban policy, and governance. He holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University, a Master of Community Planning from the University of Rhode Island, and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Geography from Rhode Island College.
Hawkins joined the University of Central Florida in 2008 as an Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014, and to full Professor in 2020. From 2010 to 2018, he served as Program Director for the Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning. Prior to UCF, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of North Texas from 2007 to 2008. His research focuses on local governance and collective action in metropolitan areas, interlocal collaboration addressing urban sustainability and economic development, the capacity and structure of political institutions shaping urban policy outcomes, and urban resiliency and environmental management. Key publications include the co-authored book Implementing City Sustainability: Overcoming Administrative Silos to Achieve Functional Collective Action (Temple University Press, 2021, with Rachel Krause) and the edited volume Disaster Resiliency: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Routledge, 2012, with Naim Kapucu and Fernando Rivera). Other significant works are Trends in Resource Capacity and Collaboration for City Sustainability: Implications for Planning Research and Practice (Planning Theory and Practice, 2021, with Rachel M. Krause), Institutional Mechanisms for Local Sustainability Collaboration (Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2021, with Angela Y.S. Park and Rachel M. Krause), Capacity to Sustain Sustainability: A Study of US Cities (Public Administration Review, 2012, with Xiaohu Wang, Nick Lebredo, and Evan Berman), and The Administrative Organization of Sustainability within Local Government (Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2016, with Rachel M. Krause and Richard C. Feiock). Hawkins has earned the UCF College of Health and Public Affairs Research Incentive Award in 2018 and 2013, the UCF College of Health and Public Affairs Excellence in Research Award in 2013, and the Clarence N. Stone Scholar Award from the American Political Science Association Urban and Local Politics Section in 2012.