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The Center for Public Service at Nova Southeastern University turns academic expertise into practical solutions for real-world public service challenges. Through applied research, consulting, leadership development, and community partnerships, we help government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and public-sector leaders develop data-driven solutions that strengthen communities and improve organizational performance.
Making an Impact Across South Florida
In its inaugural year, the Center for Public Service established partnerships, launched research initiatives, and delivered consulting engagements that created meaningful value for public-sector and nonprofit organizations.
Multi-Year Partnership Agreements
Applied Research Projects
Consulting & Professional Development Engagements
Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) Students Engaged
Doctoral Closure Projects Completed
View the 2025–2026 Annual Report
About the Center
The Center for Public Service serves as a hub for applied research, consulting, and professional development within the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship.
Our mission is to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world public service by helping local governments, nonprofit organizations, healthcare systems, and community agencies address complex organizational and community challenges.
By combining faculty expertise, doctoral-level research, and student engagement, we deliver practical solutions that are both academically rigorous and directly applicable to the needs of our partners.
This first annual report of the Center for Public Service reflects the work completed during the 2025–2026 academic year, a launch point and proof of concept for the Center’s role within Nova Southeastern University and the broader South Florida community.
The pages that follow highlight the work of faculty and students in partnership with public agencies and nonprofit organizations across the region. Each project reflects the Center’s core purpose: bringing academic rigor, applied research, and practical problem-solving together to help organizations improve their communities.
This year helped clarify the Center’s strategy of strong partnerships with local governments, nonprofits, and community-based institutions to create a living laboratory for applied research. These partnerships give faculty and doctoral students opportunities to conduct research in real organizational settings, while allowing partners to benefit from data-driven analysis, consulting support, and fresh perspectives.
The Center’s work is grounded in the scholar-practitioner model, which integrates theory, research, and professional practice in real-world settings. Applied research that takes place in organizations and communities responding to real challenges. This approach helps researchers and practicioners better understand problems and identify realistic solutions.
During the 2025–2026 academic year, the Center advanced this model through partnerships with the City of Miramar, the City of Plantation, the City of Coconut Creek, the City of North Lauderdale, the Broward County School Board, and the Community Foundation of Broward. The Center has secured contractual services that will continue into the next fiscal year and generate over $100,000 in revenue for FY 2027, in to other proposals and research currently in development.
Additionally, the 2025–2026 academic year also marked an important milestone for NSU’s first cohort from the Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) program. Four doctoral candidates, Leslyn Benjamin, Stuart Boucaud, Shalima K. Mohamed, and Shaun Gayle, completed closure projects under the Center’s applied research and engagement model and graduated from the DPA program.
Another important upcoming change is the transition of the Master of Public Administration program to an asynchronous, online modality. The Center will help maintain a strong connection between students, faculty, alumni, and practitioners through the Public Service Forum: speaker events, roundtables, industry talks, organization tours, and other outreach activities.
Looking ahead, the Student Researchers program will come online, the Public Service Forum will host monthly events in collaboration with the NSU Student Chapter of ICMA, and new partnerships with healthcare systems, nonprofits, and local government organizations are in development.
On behalf of the Center staff, we look forward to the work ahead.
Randy Cross, Ed.D.
Director of the Center for Public Service
Assistant Professor of Public Administration
- Where Theory Meets Practice: Faculty-mentored student projects deliver measurable results for real-world challenges.
- Built On Partnerships: Collaborations are formalized through MOUs, ILAs, and tailored scopes of work.
- Flexible Delivery: Our services scale from short-term consulting to long-term planning and implementation.
Why Partner with the Center for Public Service?
The Scholar-Practitioner Model
The Center for Public Service operates as an integrated scholar-practitioner fellowship. The work that reaches the partners, organizations and communities the Center serves is produced through a coordinated structure of faculty leadership and graduate fellow execution, supported by research assistants drawn from across the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business.
How the Fellowship Works
Faculty Leads
Public administration faculty design project scopes, set research methodologies, and serve as quality assurance on every deliverable. They are active contributors who hold the work to professional and scholarly standards. Faculty also chair doctoral committees, ensuring that fellow work translates into completed degrees and publishable research.
Doctoral Fellows
DPA students work on Center engagements that become the applied research for their degree completion. They serve as lead researchers and project managers on their engagements: conducting interviews and focus groups, analyzing data, drafting deliverables, and presenting findings to government, non- profit, and community leaders.
Student Researchers
Launching in AY 2026-2027, undergraduate and graduate students will be engaged in supporting roles on Center projects. Students will be trained to assist with data collection and other aspects of the research and consulting processes. The program formalizes and expands the role graduate research assistants played during 2025-2026.
The Inaugural DPA Cohort
The first graduating cohort of NSU's Doctor of Public Administration program. Each fellow has led substantive applied research and consulting services for their closure project research.
Leslyn Miller
Doctor of Public Administration, Class of 2026
City of North Lauderdale | HR Policy Modernization
Leslyn led the modernization of the City of North Lauderdale's human resource management policies, a system unchanged in substance for decades. Her closure project drew on a benchmark of peer municipalities, confidential interviews and focus groups across every level of the city's workforce, and analysis of a 2024 employee survey, producing a fully revised policy manual and an implementation plan for city-wide adoption.
Stuart Boucaud
Doctor of Public Administration, Class of 2026
City of North Miami | Joint Use Agreements as Economic Development
Stuart's closure project examines how Joint Use Agreements (JUA), the contracts that govern shared use of public facilities, can be repositioned as instruments of local economic development in fiscally constrained municipalities. Using the City of North Miami as the focal case, his research will produce an implementation-ready framework for integrating JUAs into local economic development policy.
Shalima K. Mohamed
Doctor of Public Administration, Class of 2026
City of Miramar / Broward County Public Schools | Local Government Academy Evaluation
Shalima's closure project assessed the pilot launch of Miramar’s Local Government Academy in partnership with Broward County Public Schools, with a focus on how the program shaped students’ civic knowledge, attitudes toward government, and awareness of public service careers. The work produced an evaluation framework for the Academy’s early instructional modules and identified how the model can support stronger school–municipal partnerships, improve student engagement, and help communities begin developing the next generation of local government professionals.
Shaun D. Gayle
Doctor of Public Administration, Class of 2026
City of Miramar / Broward County Public Schools | Local Government Academy Evaluation
Shaun's doctoral research is an evaluation of the BCPS Local Government Academy project, which examined how experiential civic education can help high school students better understand local government, economic development, and public-private collaborations. Through a model centered on instruction, mentorship, internships/apprenticeships, and applied learning, the project engages the business community and government agencies to garner their perception, reaction, feedback and recommendation on the Academy’s potential to strengthen civic awareness, workforce readiness, and future career pathways in public service, business, and community leadership.
Consulting & Professional Development
The Center's consulting engagement are both with partner organizations and one-time services designed to produce concrete deliverables within agreed timelines. Led by faculty with academic and practitioner expertise and supported by doctoral fellows researching those same areas, the work combines academic rigor with practical consulting value. This year's portfolio included five engagements, some of which will support closure projects for DPA students entering the dissertation phase next academic year.
The City of Coconut Creek engaged the Center to develop a practical approach for using AI in city operations. The project begins by assessing how prepared each department is, followed by a phased plan to introduce AI tools and train staff. It addresses both technical skills and broader concerns including privacy, fairness, transparency, and ethical use. Data collection and staff interviews are underway. The methodology is designed so other cities can apply the same approach.
The City of Miramar engaged the Center to conduct a study of its small business programs and identify opportunities for future growth. The project examines industry trends, barriers to small business growth, and benchmarks from comparable cities, while also incorporating input from business owners, residents, and city staff. The final report will provide a clear picture of Miramar's economic strengths, opportunities for small business development, the structural challenges it faces, and where the city should direct its investment, partnerships, and policy efforts.
The City of Miramar engaged the Center to design a leadership program for senior staff, establishing a common approach to managing the city. The program runs 32 hours across six sessions, covering the fundamentals of leading people, coordinating across departments, communicating with staff and the public, managing performance, leading change, and a final session to integrate the material.
The City of North Lauderdale engaged the Center to revise its employee handbook, which had not been substantially updated in decades, to better reflect the operations and administrative functions of a modern municipality. The project included a review of policies from comparable municipalities, confidential interviews and focus groups with staff, analysis of a 2024 employee survey, and comparison against national HR standards. The result is a new handbook covering hybrid work, AI and technology use, and updated rules for discipline and performance reviews, with an implementation guide.
In partnership with the Community Foundation of Broward, the Center developed an intensive five-day training program for executive directors and senior staff at nonprofit organizations across South Florida. Each day focuses on a single topic and is led by a faculty member with expertise in that area: financial management and fiscal sustainability, strategic planning and organizational leadership, human resources and employment law, board governance and community engagement, and a closing session that integrates the material.
Partnership Opportunities
We partner with organizations to provide evidence-based solutions that improve operations, strengthen leadership, and address community challenges.
Partner Models
Organizations can engage with the Center through both short-term projects and long-term partnerships. Initial collaborations may include internships, feasibility studies, and workforce training initiatives that address immediate organizational needs. As relationships grow, partners can establish formal agreements through memorandums of understanding (MOUs), service agreements, and customized teaching cohorts that support ongoing workforce development, applied research, and community impact.
Services We Offer
The Center helps organizations strengthen performance and drive meaningful change through applied research and consulting services. Projects may include strategic planning, workforce development, policy analysis, budget forecasting, performance audits, survey research, grant development, and community engagement initiatives.
Partner Benefits
Organizations that partner with the Center benefit from cost-effective solutions supported by the resources and expertise of Nova Southeastern University. Partnerships can streamline project implementation, provide access to university facilities and talent, and strengthen stakeholder trust through data-driven, community-focused outcomes.
Applied Research & Scholarship
The Center conducts applied research to help communities improve quality of life, strengthen public policy, and address issues such as health, wellbeing, service delivery, and organizational performance. These projects are grounded in real challenges facing the public, with research questions shaped by practitioner needs and findings designed to support practical improvements. Many projects also serve as DPA closure projects. This year’s portfolio included three applied research projects.
Partner: Community Foundation of Broward | Type: Exploratory applied research | Status: Ongoing into 2026-2027 Academic Year
The Center is engaged in an exploratory research partnership with the Community Foundation of Broward examining how artificial intelligence can be integrated responsibly into nonprofit grant operations. Beginning in early 2026, the research deepened through a focused engagement with the Foundation's grants team, structured around three research areas: human and behavioral dimensions of AI integration in grantmaking, leadership and organizational response to AI-enabled inquiry, and the data warehouse architecture required to support AI-assisted grant operations responsibly. The work is exploratory because the question itself is comparatively new in the nonprofit sector. Deliverables include a scholarly research report and presentation materials, with publication readiness contingent on IRB review.
Partner: City of Miramar; Memorial Healthcare Systems | Type: Exploratory Applied Research | Status: Ongoing into 2026-2027 Academic Year
The Center will lead an applied research project in partnership with the City of Miramar building on the National League of Cities Community Health and Wellbeing Accelerator grant program awarded to the Miramar in 2025. The 2025-2026 academic year established the foundation: securing the research and data coordination with Memorial Healthcare System, formalizing the scope and methodology of the project's research design. Initial data gathering will begin over the summer of 2026.
The work is organized into three objectives: a structured capacity assessment using the NLC capacity checklist; secondary data analysis characterizing Miramar's senior population and current senior services delivery; and a practitioner-driven research design in which the Center, working with the Accelerator committee, identifies a focused research question of operational relevance and conducts the empirical work to answer it. A pilot program will be initiated to test the recommendations for service delivery improvements that are informed by the data gathering process. Future research will expand into other areas of the NLC capacity checklist.
Partner: NSU Doctor of Public Administration Program | Type: Applied Higher Education Research / Program Case Study | Status: Research Design in Development
The Center is supporting a research project examining a redesigned Doctor of Public Administration program as a case for rethinking doctoral education in the field of public administration and public affairs. The study explores how a professional doctorate can maintain doctoral-level rigor while focusing on applied inquiry, workforce relevance, and scholar-practitioner formation.
The project will use program document analysis, a scholar-practitioner survey, and focus groups with DPA students and public service stakeholders. The study focuses especially on the Doctoral Closure Project as a rigorous applied alternative to the traditional dissertation and as a model for preparing public service professionals to use research, theory, and evidence to address real-world organizational and community problems.
Student & Community Impact
The Center provides students with opportunities to engage in meaningful research, consulting, and community partnerships that extend beyond the classroom. Through doctoral fellowships, student research opportunities, practitioner forums, and interdisciplinary collaborations, students gain valuable experience working alongside faculty and community leaders on projects that create measurable public impact.
The center's practitioner engagement series, which teams with NSU's student ICMA Chapter,
bringing together elected officials, public-sector leaders, NSU faculty, and students
around questions of public administration practice. The first event brought three
mayors and more than fifty attendees together for a roundtable on municipal leadership.
The forum moves to a monthly calendar in AY2026-2027.The Public Service Forum
The Student Researchers program launches in 2026-2027 as the third tier of the scholar-practitioner
fellowship. It engages master's and undergraduate students in supporting roles on
center projects. The program builds research capacity for the center and gives students
hands-on experience in public administration work.Student Researchers Forum
The center partnered with an undergraduate marketing class in the Huizenga College's
Department of Marketing. Student teams developed marketing strategy proposals for
the center and presented their work at semester's end, with selected ideas now in
conversation for 2026-2027 implementation. The engagement offers a template for collaboration
with other disciplines and exposes students to public sector work.Cross Discipline Collaboration
Student Opportunities
- Closure projects for DPA students
- Practicum and capstone projects for MPA students
- Research assistantships and fellowships
- Project management
- Client presentations and reporting
- Policy analysis and negotiation strategies
- Government and nonprofit consulting
Each student-led project is mentored by expert NSU public administration faculty and supported by the Center Director.
Meet the Faculty
Thomas Wuerzer, Ph.D.
Professor of Real Estate Development and Director of the Terry W. Stiles School of
Real Estate Development
Let's Work Together
Whether you're seeking applied research, strategic planning support, leadership development, program evaluation, or consulting services, the Center for Public Service can help your organization turn challenges into opportunities. Partner with faculty experts, doctoral researchers, and emerging public service leaders to develop practical solutions that create lasting community impact.
Randy Cross, Ed.D.
Director of the Center for Public Service and Assistant Professor of Public Administration, Ed.D. from Barry University, and a 30-year career as a practitioner and college educator. Included 25 years at the City of Miramar in roles ranging from Police Bureau Commander to Procurement Director, Human Resources Director, Chief Operating Officer, and Assistant
City Manager. Twenty years of teaching in higher education as an adjunct professor at Barry University and FAU, and now Assistant Professor of Public Administration at NSU.
Office: 954-262-5027
Email: rcross@nova.edu
Casey Seidman, M.P.A.
Public Sector Business Relations Expert at the Center for Public Service, with an M.P.A. and B.S. in Political Science from Arizona State University, whose career in policy analysis, higher education advising, and nonprofit fundraising includes legislative advocacy work that contributed to Arizona's 2013 Medicaid Expansion.
Office: 954-262-5060
Email: cs1401@nova.edu