Alan Zarychta, PhD

Assistant Professor in Social Service Administration

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Alan Zarychta is an Assistant Professor in the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. His research focuses on the politics of social services in Central and South America, especially in the areas of public health and environmental policy. Most broadly, he investigates the sources and effects of institutional reforms aiming to improve local service delivery—how public sector reforms are targeted, the contextual conditions that shape their effectiveness, and whether such reforms can fundamentally alter local governance systems.

Professor Zarychta is currently part of an interdisciplinary team working in collaboration with the Honduran Ministry of Health to study the effects of decentralized governance on the performance of local health systems in that country. He is also beginning related projects on health sector reform in Guatemala and Nicaragua. This work benefits from the generous support of the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council.

At the University of Chicago, Professor Zarychta is also a Fellow at the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) and a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS). Prior to joining thenCrown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, he supported numerous US federal government agencies on issues of environmental policy while employed by IEc and was Director of Health Information Systems for the non-governmental organization Hombro a Hombro in Honduras.

Professor Zarychta earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Colorado Boulder. He also holds a MA in Public Policy from the University of Colorado Boulder and a BS in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University.