Ruffin Hall joined the School of Government as an Adjunct Instructor in 2021. Hall offers experience in the areas of budget and financial management, local government management, organizational development, and strategic planning. He is the co-founder and principal of Walton & Hall, LLC and serves as a management consultant and advisor to North Carolina local governments, non-profits, state agencies, and private businesses. Prior to consulting, Hall served for over 25 years in a variety of local government positions, most recently as the Raleigh City Manager. Hall also held positions as Assistant City Manager and Budget Director of Charlotte, Senior Budget and Management Analyst in Durham, Assistant to the Town Manager in Chapel Hill, and Management Auditor in Wilmington. Hall previously served as the President of the N.C. Local Government Budget Association (NCLGBA). He has been honored with several awards and recognitions, including the A. John “Jack” Vogt Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Advancement of Local Government Budgeting & Evaluation and Life Member of the N.C. City-County Management Association. Hall earned a Masters of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He continued his professional and executive development through several executive leadership programs, including the Senior Executive Institute at the University of Virginia, the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the Public Executive Leadership Academy at the UNC School of Government.

John C. Kuzenski joined the School of Government as adjunct faculty in the MPA Program in 2015. A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he has served as university faculty in Political Science and Public Administration for over 25 years, in addition to division management-level service in the North Carolina Department of Revenue and as a law clerk to judges at the US District Court (Eastern District of NC) and the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Kuzenski is a member of the North Carolina and District of Columbia Bars, in addition to the Bars of several US Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. He has formed, served on the Board, and/or worked with several nonprofit organizations in the Raleigh/Durham area, and also serves as General Counsel for Pi Sigma Alpha, The National Political Science Honor Society in Washington, DC. He has authored and edited several books on Southern regional politics, and his more recent scholarly articles in the areas of elections law, common law doctrine and public policy have appeared in Widener Law Review, North Carolina Central Law Review, and the Appalachian Journal of Law. In the mid-1990s while faculty at The Citadel, he was a consulting social scientist and data analyst on the first Citizens Survey Projects conducted by the City of Charleston, SC. Kuzenski holds a Ph.D. in political science from the School of Public and International Affairs at The University of Georgia and the J.D. with honors from the UNC School of Law. He earned his B.A. from Louisiana State University and an M.A. from Mississippi State University.

Erin Riggs joined the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) in 2016. Her primary focus is research and writing on multiple topics, including innovative stormwater finance, nutrient management, water, and wastewater affordability, and the benefits of green infrastructure. She also engages in teaching and advising and is particularly interested in legal and policy questions related to her research. Riggs currently teaches the PUBA 787: Applied Environmental Finance course in the UNC Master of Public Administration program as an adjunct instructor. Prior to joining the EFC, Riggs worked as a Staff Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit Court in Tampa, FL, primarily in the Unified Family Court. Riggs holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from the University of Florida.

Dylan Russell is the executive director of Lead for North Carolina at the UNC School of Government and a co-founder of Lead for America. Lead for North Carolina has placed 28 students in high-impact fellowships in local government across the state. He has secured over $2.5 million in private support to advance Lead for North Carolina’s mission. Prior to serving as executive director, Dylan was a development officer at the School of Government, a policy analyst at the NC Department of Public Instruction, a fifth-grade public school teacher, a White House intern during the Obama Administration, and a member of the Board of Trustees at Appalachian State University. Dylan served as president of the Graduate Student Body at UNC and president of the Student Body at Appalachian. Dylan was awarded the Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award from the UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor and the Plemmons Leadership Medallion by the Appalachian State University Board of Trustees. Dylan earned a B.S. in education from Appalachian State University and is a graduate of the UNC Master of Public Administration program.

Russell currently instructs UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate students interested in public service, teaching the PUBA 401 – State and Local Governance course.

Audrea Caesar is the inaugural chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer (CDEIO) for the UNC Healthcare system and the UNC School of Medicine. She is working to embed equity into the culture, policies, and practices to achieve a more inclusive organization while decreasing disparities in health. Audrea is a certified health education specialist (CHES) and a senior certified human resources professional (SHRM-SCP) who specializes in Leadership, Organizational Behavior, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Health Equity. With more than 20 years in the public sector, Audrea has served at the state, county, and city levels of government. Prior to UNC Health, she came to UNC Health from the City of Raleigh, where she created and led the city’s first Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In this role, she developed Raleigh’s first racial equity action plan emphasizing workforce equity, police-community relations, business inclusion and community engagement, and served as an advisor to the Mayor and City Council on issues related to community health, social justice, and equity. Prior to her role in Raleigh, Audrea held several positions helping organizations better understand the social determinants of inequity. As director of community outreach and support for Union County’s Department of Health and Human Services, she founded the Union Health Equity Collaborative, which trained more than 150 providers and staff from Union County Public Health, Atrium Health Union, Novant Health, and members of the community on topics related to social determinants using Union County-specific data. Audrea has also worked in the provider network management arena as a medicaid ombudsman, assisting all medical provider types with billing, coding, and reimbursement.

Alexandra Bartz is a 2016 graduate of the online UNC MPA program and returned to the program in 2022 as adjunct faculty. Since 2007, Bartz has devoted her career to work in nonprofits, focusing on program design, implementation, innovation, and evaluation. Currently, she serves national director of program implementation at Summer Search, a national youth development nonprofit based in Oakland, California. In her role, Bartz oversees program implementation across the five-region network, drives continuous improvement for program operations and curriculum, and ensures staff have the structures, resources and support to run the program.