New Faculty Join Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

ATLANTA — Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYSPS) welcomed new faculty in economics, social work and urban studies to campus in August for the 2022-23 academic year.

Assistant professors Lelani Mannetti and Rea Zaimi have joined the Urban Studies Institute, and Doug Hooker has joined the department as a senior fellow and professor of practice. Associate Professor Qiana R. Cryer-Coupet has joined the School of Social Work, and Sam (Hongkil) Kim has joined the Department of Economics as a clinical assistant professor.

“We are thrilled to welcome such accomplished and exciting new faculty to campus,” said Dean Sally Wallace. “Each new member possesses unique research foci and relevant teaching strengths that will benefit our students further as we continue to prepare them to thrive in the digital landscape.”

GSU economist Sam Kim

Sam Kim is an applied macroeconomist working in the areas of macroeconomics and money and banking. He supports the growing movement for pluralism in economics, and his research primarily focuses on sovereign money/bank credit creation and its empirical relevance to key macroeconomic variables such as inflation and interest rates (asset prices).

Kim has published articles in the International Review of Applied Economics, Journal of Economic Issues, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Review of Keynesian Economics and Real-World Economics Review. Prior to joining the AYSPS, he was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He holds a B.C. from the University of Newcastle, Australia, and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Associate Professor of Social Work Qiana Cryer-Coupet

Qiana Cryer-Coupet’s overarching program of research explores the impacts of parenting practices on child, adolescent and family health and well-being. Her current projects examine family trauma in relation to paternal experiences with substance use disorders, incarceration, racial discrimination and economic instability, with findings from this work used to inform family interventions and workforce development.

Cryer-Coupet’s work has been funded by the Fatherhood Research and Practice Network, the Health Resources and Services Administration and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. She holds Ph.D. from the University of Illinois-Chicago, an M.S.W. from the University of Maryland-Baltimore and a B.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Assistant Professor of Urban Studies Rea Zaimi

Rea Zaimi is a critical urban geographer whose research and teaching broadly center on the economic, legal and institutional infrastructures that shape access to land and housing in U.S. cities. Findings from her dissertation project, funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the Illinois Humanities Institute, have been published and are forthcoming in articles in academic journals such as Antipode and Environment and Planning D. Formerly a postdoctoral associate at the Urban Studies Institute, Zaimi conducted research focused on housing predation in Chicago’s South Side that is intended as a teaching tool and platform for collective organizing in the area. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. from Suffolk University.

Assistant Professor of Urban Studies Lelani Mannetti

Lelani Mannetti has a keen interest in identifying differences among people’s values and perceptions pertaining to ecosystem services, in particular an understanding of the implications of these differences. She has gained practical experience by doing research, outreach and project administration via numerous consultancy opportunities in her native Namibia. Formerly a postdoctoral associate at the Urban Studies Institute, she participated in the ongoing research of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN), working alongside Professor David Iwaniec and co-authoring chapters in “Resilient Urban Futures” (Springer, 2021). Mannetti holds a Ph.D. in Conservation Ecology from Stellenbosch University.

Senior Fellow Doug Hooker

Doug Hooker is the former executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, which facilitates community and development strategies to enhance the Atlanta region’s growth and competitiveness. Throughout his career, he has worked for public- and private-sector organizations, including Georgia Power Co., BioLab Inc., the City of Atlanta’s Department of Public Works, HDR, the State Road & Tollway Authority and Atkins Global.

Hooker serves as president of the Executive Directors’ Council and is a board member for the National Association of Regional Councils, for which he co-founded the Major Metros forum. He sits on numerous boards or advisory boards for a variety of metro Atlanta nonprofits and is a frequent speaker for civic, nonprofit and educational organizations. Among his many awards and honors, in 2020 he received the Donald C. Stone Practitioner Award from the American Society for Public Administration. Hooker holds a B.M.E. and an M.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Emory University.