Alka Sapat, Ph.D., professor and director of the School of Public Administration within Florida Atlantic University ’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters , has been named a 2026 Fellow of the prestigious National Academy of Public Administration, one of the nation’s highest honors for scholars and practitioners whose work has made significant and continuing contributions to public administration and public policy.
Sapat is among 64 distinguished public service leaders selected for the Academy’s 2026 class, which includes prominent scholars, educators, executives, nonprofit leaders and public service practitioners from the local, state and federal levels. The new Fellows will join more than 1,000 current members of the Academy, including former cabinet officers, members of Congress, governors, mayors and state legislators.
Founded in 1967 by James E. Webb, then administrator of NASA, and other leading public administration practitioners, the National Academy of Public Administration is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan organization chartered by Congress to provide expert advice to government leaders and agencies at all levels. The Academy works to help government become more effective, efficient, accountable and transparent and brings together nationally recognized experts to address critical challenges facing public institutions and public service.
Fellows are elected by the Academy’s membership based on their distinguished and continuing achievements and contributions to public administration and public policy. The selection process includes a rigorous review by a nominating committee, which evaluates hundreds of applicants before making recommendations to the full Fellowship, which then votes on each nominee.
“Being selected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration is an extraordinary honor and a meaningful recognition of the work that I have been fortunate to do with so many colleagues, students and research partners throughout my career,” said Sapat. “I am especially honored because the Academy brings together people who have dedicated their careers to strengthening public service and addressing complex challenges facing communities and governments. As the first faculty member at FAU to be elected as a NAPA Fellow, I am deeply honored by this recognition and I look forward to contributing to that community and to learning from and working alongside Fellows whose scholarship, leadership and public service have had such a significant impact.”
Sapat’s scholarship focuses on public policy, disaster management, community resilience, vulnerability and resilience assessment, housing and population displacement. Her research examines how communities, governments and organizations can better prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters and other complex challenges.
At FAU, Sapat has led and contributed to research funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Homeland Security involving critical infrastructure resilience, port resilience, population displacement, energy and water resilience, building code regulations, post-disaster housing, disaster recovery and nonprofit collaboration. She has secured more than $3.3 million in federally funded grants.
Her research has addressed issues ranging from the displacement of populations following disasters and the role of housing in recovery to the resilience of critical infrastructure and ports. She also has examined the role of diaspora communities and nonprofit organizations in disaster recovery and has contributed to research on disaster readiness and resilience among vulnerable populations.
Sapat was a research fellow with the National Science Foundation’s “Next Generation of Hazards Researchers” program. She also participated in a National Academies of Sciences report examining lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and their implications for disaster planning.
More recently, Sapat was invited to serve as a subject matter expert and lead author on a chapter focused on disaster recovery for the third national assessment of natural hazards, a large-scale initiative launched in 2024-25 to synthesize more than 25 years of U.S. disaster research, assess evolving risks and establish a research agenda for the next 50 years aimed at reducing the impacts of disasters.
She served on the Florida State Disaster Housing Task Force and the Governor’s Hurricane Conference Scholarship Committee and has participated in local initiatives focused on post-disaster housing.
“Dr. Sapat’s election to the National Academy of Public Administration is an exceptional accomplishment and a powerful recognition of the national significance of her scholarship and leadership,” said Michael Horswell, Ph.D., dean of FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. “Her work demonstrates the essential role that public administration research plays in addressing some of society’s most consequential challenges, from disasters and displacement to infrastructure resilience and public policy. This honor reflects extremely well on Dr. Sapat and our college and is an important distinction for Florida Atlantic. It further elevates the national profile of our faculty and underscores the impact and growing reputation of our research enterprise as an R1 university.”
Sapat’s scholarship has appeared in leading journals including the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory; Public Administration Review; American Review of Public Administration; Risk Analysis; Natural Hazards Review; Natural Hazards; and the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. She is co-author of the 2014 book “Displaced by Disasters: Recovery and Resilience in a Globalizing World,” and co-editor of the 2017 book “Coming Home after Disaster: Multiple Dimensions of Housing Recovery.”
She also has more than 15 years of academic leadership experience, including serving as director, Ph.D. program coordinator and undergraduate program coordinator of FAU’s School of Public Administration. Sapat’s teaching and mentoring have focused on disaster management, homeland security, public policy, research methods and statistical analysis.
The new Fellows will be formally inducted during the Academy’s 2026 National Conference, Nov. 8 to10, at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C.
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About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University is one of the nation’s fastest-rising public research universities, serving more than 32,000 students in South Florida. Ranked among the Top 100 Public Universities by U.S. News & World Report, Florida Atlantic is also one of only 13 institutions nationwide to hold Carnegie Foundation designations for R1 research, opportunity and community engagement. Guided by its strategic plan, “2031FAU: Where Tomorrow Begins,” the university is focused on delivering career-ready education and experiential learning, driving scholarly inquiry that creates healthier, safer and more prosperous communities, strengthening institutional excellence, and elevating its impact across South Florida and beyond. Florida Atlantic continues to advance its position as Florida’s first quantum university, integrating research, education and industry partnerships around next-generation computing technologies. Through other signature strengths in neuroscience and healthy aging, environmental, ocean and coastal innovation, and national defense and autonomous systems, Florida Atlantic expands knowledge, fuels economic opportunity and fulfills its mission as South Florida’s hometown university.