Zachary S. Huitink and David M Van Slyke

Zachary S. Huitink is a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is a research associate at the Maxwell School’s Campbell Public Affairs Institute, as well as at Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), a research and service organization focused on veterans’ and military family members’ socioeconomic, educational, health, and employment issues. In addition, he has conducted research with faculty and staff at Syracuse University’s Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT).

Huitink’s research focuses on government contracting, public-private partnerships, and strategic management in the U S national and homeland security context. His current and planned projects deal with defense acquisition, public-private partnerships in homeland and cybersecurity, and community-based veteran services delivery networks. He is a member of the student advisory board at the International Public Management Journal, and has provided referee services for the Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation.

Huitink received a BA with departmental honors in economics and business administration from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA, and a master’s degree in public policy (MPP) from the James W Martin School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Kentucky Prior to graduate school, Huitink worked as an analyst in the financial services industry.

David M. Van Slyke is a tenured full professor in the department of public administration and international affairs and the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. He also serves as a non-resident faculty member at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, University of Maastricht, Netherlands. Dr. Van Slyke is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a recipient of the Birkhead-Burkhead Professorship for Teaching Excellence Award, the Beryl Radin Award for Best Article published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and several other international research awards.

His research and teaching focuses on government contracting, public-private partnerships, and strategic management in public and nonprofit organizations. Specifically he is interested in government’s use of policy instruments, such as contracts, partnerships and grants, in both intergovernmental and interorganizational relationships and how they shape each institutional actors strategic behavior and decision making.  He has published on these topics in a range of domestic and international journal and practitioner outlets and serves on several editorial boards. His most recent book, Complex Contracting: Government Purchasing in the Wake of the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater Program is published by Cambridge University Press.

Dr. Van Slyke is actively engaged in executive education and has conducted trainings around the world including in China, India, Singapore, and Thailand. He has worked in Russia with the World Bank on issues of corruption in government contracting and partnerships. He served from 2008-2010 as the Research Director for the Smith Bucklin Institute for Association Research. Prior to becoming an academic, David worked in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.  He holds a Ph.D. in public administration and policy from the University at Albany’s Rockefeller College and a B.S. in Economics.