SHREVEPORT – LSU Shreveport faculty member Dr. Zeeshan Noor has been named a recipient the Krishna K. Tummala Award for Emerging Scholars, which is presented by the South Asian Section for Public Administration (SASPA).
Noor, an assistant professor and director of the master’s in nonprofit administration program at LSUS, has been recognized for his scholarship to advance the study of public and nonprofit affairs, particularly in areas and diasporas connected to South Asia.
The native of Pakistan helped found SASPA and has served multiple terms on its board in the past seven years.
SASPA is one of about 30 sections under the umbrella organization American Society for Public Administration, the most recognized in its field.
“I never thought I’d be receiving an award of this prestige, it’s certainly an achievement and an honor,” Noor said. “There’s very few scholars in this field from Pakistan when compared to other South Asian areas like India or Bangladesh, so it’s an honor to represent my country in this way.”
Noor is contributing to several global philanthropy scholarly projects, including an edited volume examining volunteering practices across eight countries spanning three continents.
“I’m currently working on a book about monitoring philanthropy across the globe, especially in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh,” Noor said. “Research is limited in South Asia and is often qualitative or subjective in nature.
“We’ve been striving to obtain more quantitative data and publish more quantitative and mixed method studies on South Asia to produce more peer-reviewed articles and books.”
Noor helped collect and analyze global data at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University Indianapolis (IUI), where he served as a research manager and affiliate faculty before coming to LSUS.
His research spans well beyond South Asia, especially as it relates to American philanthropy in a faith-based and non-faith-based context.
As the director of LSUS’s master’s in nonprofit administration, Noor has added a faith-based organizations track to the three existing program tracks – nonprofit administration, nonprofit development, and disaster preparedness.
Since stepping into the director’s role in 2024 as the holder of the Norman A. Dolch Super Professorship, he’s overseen the continued growth of an online master’s program that’s the largest nonprofit program in the country.
“Our faith-based organization track is one of the first of its kind in the country, and something that was nonexistent in the online education space,” Noor said. “We’ve capped the number of students per class and began offering more sections of those classes each session, which allows individuals to get more attention from our faculty.
“We believe the popularity of our nonprofit administration program is the result of the experience and the connection our students feel, even in an online setting.”