About
About Grichawat
Grichawat Lowatcharin was born to a Thai-Chinese family in a small town by the Mekong river in the Northeast of Thailand. He received a BA in English with a minor in eco-tourism and an MPA in Local Government from Khon Kaen University (KKU), Thailand. After that, he moved to the United States and received a PhD in Public Affairs from the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri-Columbia. While he was there, he also received a graduate certificate in geographical information science (GIS). His dissertation addressed the implications for performance of centralized versus decentralized police systems, an important policy debate in Thailand and several other countries.
Grichawat’s research interests include local governance, decentralization, fiscal federalism, public participation, and transparency. He is also interested in combining and applying different methodological approaches—from qualitative methods to geographic information system, to survey and quasi-experimental designs—to address policy issues. He has provided technical assistance related to policy and administrative issues to multiple local governments in Thailand. Since 2017, he has been part of an innovative project that aims to improve education quality through the application of digital technology to over 200 secondary schools in the Northeast of Thailand.
Grichawat has continuously presented his research at multiple professional conferences at the national and international levels, for example, the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), the European Group for Public Administration, the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA), the International Rural Comparative Policy Studies (ICRPS) Summer Institute, and the ASPA International Young Scholars Workshop. His work appears in the International Journal of Public Sector Management, Heliyon, the Australian Journal of Public Administration, the Journal of Public Affairs, the Social Science Journal, the Asia-Pacific Social Science Review, the State and Local Government Review, Social Science Asia, and the Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, etc. He co-authored a chapter on local government in the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand (2020) and a chapter on decentralization in the Routledge Handbook of Comparative Rural Policy (2020). He has also published several policy papers for the University of Missouri Extension and conducted several service evaluation research studies for local governments in Thailand. He is currently working on such issues as cross-sector collaboration, digital divide and government responsiveness, and the application of social listening tools to local governance.
Before working in academia, Grichawat was an editorial member and writer at Starpics, Thailand’s longest-running movie magazine. He is currently Assistant Professor of Public Administration in the College of Local Administration, KKU and editor of the Local Administration Journal. In 2019, he was awarded the Outstanding Young Researcher Award by Khon Kaen University. Currently, he has served as the Associate Dean for Academic, Research, and Global Affairs at the College of Local Administration.
Work experience
2020 - Present
College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
Associate Dean for Academic, Research, and Global Affairs
2018 - Present
College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
Assistant Professor of Public Administration
2018 - Present
College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
Editor, the Local Administration Journal
2009 - 2018
College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
Lecturer
2006 - 2009
Confucius Institute, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
Academic Support Officer
2005 - 2006
Starpics Movie Magazine, Bangkok, Thailand
Film Critic and Writer
Education
2016
Doctor of Philosophy in Public Affairs, University of Missouri, United States
2014
Graduate Certificate in Geographical Information Science, Department of Geography, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States
2009
Master of Public Administration in Local Government, College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
2005
Bachelor of Arts in English (Second Class Honors), Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Awards and Honors
2019
Outstanding Young Researcher (Humanities and Social Sciences), Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
2016
Best Paper (Honorable Mention), American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) 5th International Young Scholars Workshop for Public Policy and Administration Research, Cape Town, South Africa
2016
Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), International Geographical Honor Society
2014
International Recognition Award, Missouri International Student Council, University of Missouri, United States
2007
Outstanding Graduate Student, College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Thailand (with a GPA of 4.00 when awarded)
2005
Second Class Honors, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
2004
Student Activist Award, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
2004
Grand Prize, Short Fiction Writing, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
2002
Student Exposure for Global Awareness Award (SEGA), Office of the Higher Education Commission, Royal Thai Government, Thailand