Paul Benson
Associate Director/Chief Operations Officer, International Center for Public Policy
Contact:
Phone: 404-413-0235
Fax: 404-413-0244
Office: 555 AYSPS
Email: paulbenson@gsu.edu
Paul Benson is the Associate Director of the International Studies Program and serves as the Chief Operating Officer and an expert in public budgeting and financial management. Paul has worked for the ISP since March 1997 in various roles and has accumulated 15 years of experience working on a wide spectrum of multi-million dollar economic technical assistance and training projects in developing countries spanning 6 regions (Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, CIS) with clients include the World Bank, IMF, Foreign Governments, USAID and UNDP.
Paul's main public policy research interests are in public budgeting and financial management and currently focus on budgeting legislation and its relationship to the quality of implemented performance budgeting systems in developing and transitional countries.
Before becoming Associate Director in September 2011, Paul was the ISP's Assistant Director and was responsible for overseeing the center's operations, financial management, and personnel and contributed to the strategic planning and development of the center. As part of these duties, he managed and monitored public policy technical assistance and training contracts and agreements: proposals, budget development and execution, logistics, delivering outputs, and audits.
Paul also spent 4 years in the Czech Republic designing, implementing, and managing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programs where he taught EFL lectures, developed curriculum, and wrote English-Czech language books.
Paul earned a Master's in Public Administration (2007) and a Master's in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language (2001), both from Georgia State University, and a Bachelor of Arts (1992) degree with a major in Comparative Religion and a minor in German language from Central University of Iowa.
