As the Chief of Staff at Student Veterans of America, Dr. Abby Kinch is responsible for leading and implementing various strategic planning processes across the organization and implementing and managing any organization-wide initiatives and programs. She is also responsible for our internal and external research, including impact analysis and reporting, our catalog of annual surveys, and our published knowledge. Dr. Kinch has participated in SVA as a chapter member and chapter president at Florida State University, an SVA student council member, and an adviser. She has represented SVA in an advisory role to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Education. In Florida, she participated in the push for legislation to provide in-state tuition to veterans and gap fund payments to veterans with financial need during semester breaks.

Currently, Dr. Kinch is also an adjunct professor for the School of Information (“iSchool”) at the University of South Florida teaching courses in data analysis, information strategy, and decision-making. Prior to joining SVA, she served in various program management roles with IEM, a global emergency management and homeland security firm. She also led in the creation of the U.S. Intelligence Studies program within Florida State University’s College of Social Sciences, providing instruction in intelligence analysis coursework to undergraduate and graduate students. In 2013, Dr. Kinch was named a Presidential Management Fellow. Following an enlistment in the U.S. Air Force as an Airborne Chinese Cryptologic Linguist, Dr. Kinch worked for six years in the private sector using the language skills the Air Force provided until ultimately deciding to complete her undergraduate degree.

Dr. Kinch holds a doctoral degree in Public Administration and Policy from Florida State University, specializing in strategic management. Her dissertation examined the policies, programs, and services of higher education institutions targeting student veterans. She has written extensively on this topic from the institutional, state, and national perspective. She has also earned a Master of Public Administration in 2018, a Master of Arts in Asian Studies in 2013, and a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and Culture as well as Linguistics in 2011.

Research Interests and Expertise

Behavioral economics and decision-making; strategic management and information strategy; moral linguistics; cognitive psychology

Recent Publications

Daniel L. Fay, Abby Kinch & Frances S. Berry (2021) Explaining interstate military friendly policy diffusion across U.S. universities: uncovering vertical-diagonal diffusion, Public Management Review, DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2021.1960735

Abby Kinch (2019) Factors in student veteran success.

Abby Kinch (2019) Strategies in military friendly organizations: tldr; there isn’t one.

Abby Kinch (2019) Veteran-specific strategic implementation: toward an understanding of strategy and policy convergence.