Dr. Songkhun (Sunny) Nillasithanukroh and Dr. Andreas Darmega Sihotang have been named Assistant Professors at the Clinton School of Public Service.
This fall, Sihotang will teach Program Planning and Development and Nillasithanukroh will teach Field Research Methods and Data Analysis.
“We are excited to officially welcome Sunny and Andreas to the Clinton School faculty,” said Dean Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto. “Their collective expertise will be a tremendous resource to our students as we continue to bridge classroom experience with the real world.”
Nillasithanukroh served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Clinton School’s Open Governance Lab during the 2023-24 academic year.
With a strong interest in political economy and political institutions, Nillasithanukroh has focused his research on two main programs: enhancing citizen-government engagement through e-government initiatives to bolster governance, and delving into the intricate nexus of business, money, and politics.
Nillasithanukroh’s work has been published in Electoral Studies and the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics. He has received funding from the International Growth Centre in the U.K. for his research projects.
In December 2023, Nillasithanukroh presented his research paper, “Turning Private Sector Resources into Political Power: Investigating the Utilization of Firm Resources for Electoral Purposes by Businessperson Politicians in Thailand” at Duke University as a member of the Southeast Asia Research Group Fellows.
Nillasithanukroh completed his Ph.D. in Political Science at Duke University in 2023.
Sihotang spent the 2023-24 academic year as a postdoctoral fellow in the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri. He has served as guest lecturer at the University of Indonesia.
Sihotang boasts more than 15 years of experience working in international development, peace-building, and policy advocacy. He has led and managed different projects funded by organizations such as the World Bank and European Union, collaborated with academic and non-academic institutions to conduct research and project evaluations, developed case studies and training modules, and facilitated numerous training and workshops in Asia and Africa.
His research interests include public participation and organizational performance. As part of his dissertation, he applied quasi-experimental designs to examine the effects of direct and indirect forms of public participation on different public organization performance indicators.
Sihotang’s research has been published in the Public Management Review, the Journal of Urban Affairs, and the International Journal for Equity in Health.
Sihotang earned his Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the University of Missouri in 2023.
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