Mahdi Najafabadi

Dr. Mahdi Najafabadi (Dr. N) is a strategic planning and performance review consultant, and helps organizations develop and deploy technologysolutions, enhance project management practices, audit organizational policies and guidelines, and acts as a change agent for business processreengineering and improvement. He has earned his Ph.D. from State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, in two specializations: " Information,Government, and Democratic Society," and "Data Analytics". He has a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from Rockefeller College (SUNYAlbany) specializing in "IT Strategy and Management". He also has an MBA and a Software Engineering degree that enables him to communicate withboth managerial and technical teams effectively. Dr. N teaches various Information Systems (IS) courses. Topics range from "Systems and Technologiesfor Managers", "Systems Analysis and Design", "Enterprise Applications and Project Management" for his home department, as well as "Managing PublicSector Projects" and "Research Methods" for CSUN's Tseng College of Extended Learning. Dr. N pursues an active interdisciplinary research portfoliorevolving around how modern-day tools and technologies can enhance sustainable decision processes in sociotechnical ecosystems at different levels,ranging from individuals and small teams to corporations, communities, and (smart) cities. He utilizes systems thinking, simulation modeling, and social network (social media) analysis for education and decision-support.

Education

  • Ph.D. 2020, University at Albany
  • M.P.A. 2014, University at Albany
  • M.B.A. 2007, Sharif University of Technology
  • B.A. 2004, University of Tehran

Areas of Expertise/Research

  • Information Systems Open Data Ecosystems AI Adoption
  • Change Management Simulation Modeling for Decision-Support and Policy
  • Analysis Social Network Analysis and Computational Social Science

Selected Publications

  • Najafabadi, M.; Eslami, P. (2025). The Role of AI in Transforming Workplaces and Its Impact on Deep Work. AMCIS 2025 Proceedings. 3.
  • Eslami, P.; Najafabadi, M.; Gharehgozli, A. (2024) Exploring the journey of influencers in shaping social media engagement success. Online Social Networks and Media. 41.
  • Najafabadi, M. Cronemberger, F. A. (2023) Systemic effects of an open government program on data quality: the case of the New York State’s Food Protection program area. Transforming Government: People, Process, Policy (TGPPP), 17(2), 192.
  • Najafabadi, M. & Domanski, R. J. (2018) Hacktivism and Distributed Hashtag Spoiling on Twitter: Tales of the #IranTalks, First Monday, 23(4).
  • Najafabadi, M., & Luna-Reyes, L. F. (2017) Open Government Data Ecosystems: A Closed-Loop Perspective. Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 2711–2720). Waikoloa Village, HI: IEEE Computer Society.

Honors and Awards

  • NSF ACCESS Allocations Service; JetStream2 Awarded 200K ACCESS Credits (2025)
  • Association of College and University Educators (ACUE):  Effective Teaching Practices (2024)
  • CSUN Institute for Transformative Teaching & Learning Award (2023)
  • CSUN Faculty Development’s Institute for Transformative Teaching & Learning Award (2023)
  • CSUN Faculty Development’s New Faculty Academy Award (2022)
  • CSUN Community Engagement(SEED) Award (2022)
  • CSUN Faculty Development’s eLearning Institute Award (2022)