Rym Kaki, Ph.D.
Director of International Public Policy and Management Program,
Vice Chair of Price Department of Governance and Management,
Associate Professor (Teaching) at USC Sol Price School of Public Policy
Rym Kaki is an Associate Professor (Teaching) at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and the Vice Chair of Price Department of Governance and Management. Her teaching and research foci pertain to human behavior in public and nonprofit organizations, international development management, development NGOs’ project design and evaluation, social finance innovations, and urban poverty reduction policy. Prior to joining USC Price Faculty, Rym Kaki hailed from the global social finance and microenterprise development professions where she has worked in different capacities: strategic management, research and development, program evaluation and social impact assessment. She brings extensive practical experience in designing and evaluating financial and non-financial solutions to support community-oriented economic empowerment. Her consulting foci pertain to urban poverty reduction policy and capacity building for emergent development NGOs taking her on assignments to North Africa and South Asia regions.
She is a co-founder of the Section on African Public Administration (SAPA) at the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA), bringing together diaspora and global scholars and practitioners with a commitment to advance the science and art of public administration on the African continent. As once a Fulbright scholar, a Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of International Education at the South Mediterranean University, Rym Kaki developed a professional interest in international graduate education benchmarking and the emergence of international academic hubs. Currently, she teaches the following courses at USC Price School: Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations, International Public Policy and Management; International Development Administration; Development NGO Management, and Social Finance. Her teaching philosophy is driven by the merits of the comparative method and the thrilling rewards of co-incubating high social-value projects and solutions with the next generation of future leaders, managers, policy makers and social innovators, both at home and abroad.