Kris is Dean, Professor, and Scientist II at the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP NCPAG) in Diliman, Quezon City. He earned his Ph.D. and master’s degrees in Urban Engineering and Environmental Studies, respectively, from the University of Tokyo, and his bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from UP. He works broadly in the intersecting areas of public policy, sustainable development, inter-local cooperation, crisis management, climate adaptation, and disaster governance.
Kris sits in the International Advisory Council of the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation, an international think-tank based in Taiwan. He is also the Deputy Secretary General of the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration, Secretary General of the Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines, and Board of Trustee Member of the Philippine Academic Society for Climate and Disaster Resilience.
He was the former founding Director for Research and Creative Work of the UP Resilience Institute and a core member of the UP COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team. Since 2020, he has been serving as a Technical Evaluator for Public Administration of the Commission on Higher Education in the Philippines. Outside of teaching and research, Kris has worked with various government agencies and development organizations in and outside the Philippines over the past 20 years.
He has published extensively in both academic and media platforms, with his latest book on “Climate Emergency in the Philippines” published by Springer in 2024. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Review of Public Administration (ARPA) and has served as an issue editor of several journals, such as Land, the Philippine Journal of Public Administration, and SciEnggJ.
Kris is an IRDR Young Scientist, was conferred the Virginia Miralao Excellence in Research Award by the Philippine Social Science Council in 2019, and held the UP Diliman Rafael Salas Professorial Chair in Public Administration for 2018-2019. He has also received recognition for his work from UP (UPD Centennial Professorial Chair and Faculty Grants, One UP Award, International Publication Awards) and was inducted into the Council of Fellows of the Philippine Public Safety College in 2020.
