Profile

Dr. Daniel Stephens is an Associate Lecturer and coordinator of the Public Administration program at the UCF Valencia Osceola Connect Center, though he primarily teaches an array of undergraduate and graduate courses at UCF Downtown and online. Complementing his teaching responsibilities, he mentors honors students through directed independent studies, serves as faculty advisor to various student organizations, organizes and leads a university-sanctioned annual trek to Tallahassee during each year’s legislative session, is past-President of Central Florida ASPA, and is an honorary member of Pi Alpha Alpha. Dr. Stephens currently serves as chair to the UCF Faculty Senate’s Graduate Appeals Committee. Having earned his Ph.D. in Public Affairs from UCF in 2018, Dr. Stephens has continued studying the behavior of roadway users with a particular interest in active (i.e. human-powered) commuters, and more recently, with micromobility devices and general traveler behavior. Given that his doctoral dissertation examines the effect of the thematic elements found in mass media on the perceived self-efficacy specific to pedestrians, he continued this work through his service to Metroplan Orlando as a regional appointee, advocating on behalf of vulnerable roadway users and historically excluded communities across the tri-county region for seventeen years. Prior to working in academia, Dr. Stephens worked for nearly five years in local government as an urban planner and nearly nineteen years before in the private sector, having founded the international freight forwarding company AutoShippers.com. He now parlays that same entrepreneurial expertise into producing Open Educational Resources via his production company, PlannerDanner Productions.

University of Central Florida

• BA in Public Administration w/political science and urban/regional planning minors
• Nonprofit Management Graduate Certificate
• MPA in Public Administration
• Ph.D. in Public Affairs

• Transportation
• Public Policy
• Urban & Regional Planning