Roland Calia

Roland Calia is an associate dean at Illinois Tech’s Stuart School of Business and is also director of the Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.), M.P.A. in Analytics, and Master of Science in Sustainability Analytics and Management programs. He teaches courses in public and nonprofit financial management, capital budgeting, public management, comparative public administration, and economic development. Calia was the 2022 recipient of the Brownlow Teacher of the Year Award from the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Greater Chicago Chapter.

Calia’s research interests focus on state and local government governance, tax, and fiscal policies. His recent applied policy research includes reports on countercyclical fiscal policy in the states during the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitating the incorporation of unincorporated areas of Cook County, residential and commercial effective property tax rates in southern Cook County municipalities, and recommendations for reforming Chicago Public Schools finance and governance.

He has extensive consulting experience in public financial management in the areas of budget, tax, and performance measurement for a wide variety of clients, including the State of Illinois, Cook County, and the Civic Federation of Chicago.

Calia previously served as a senior manager in the Research and Consulting Center of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), where he managed GFOA’s national training programs on financial management and staffed GFOA’s Committee on Budgeting and Management, which develops national recommended practices on state and local budgeting.

Prior to his work at GFOA, Calia served as director of research for the Civic Federation, a governmental research organization in Chicago, where his research focused on property taxes and governmental budgeting. He also has had extensive experience in political election campaign communications and issues research.

He is a current Board member of the American Society for Public Administration Greater Chicago Chapter. He has served as a member of the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (GASAC), the standard setting body for governmental accounting in the United States, and as a trustee of the Governmental Research Association (GRA).

Education

Ph.D., University of Chicago, Political Science
M.A., Claremont Graduate School, Government
B.A., University of Redlands, Political Science and History

Affiliations

Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.)

M.P.A. in Analytics

M.S. in Sustainability Analytics and Management