Kolbe A. Dumas

I am a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Houston, specializing in public policy and quantitative methodology. I study how governments pursue artificial intelligence and how their priorities become administrative action.

My research centers on AI procurement in U.S. state and local government. I use solicitation records to study how priorities spread across governments and policy areas, how agency missions shape the capabilities officials request, and whether executive agendas influence bureaucratic demand. These records make an early stage of government AI adoption visible, before systems are purchased or deployed.

My methods training focuses on causal inference and machine learning. I also use language models to measure what agencies request in procurement documents. I apply the same attention to research design in other institutional settings, including a threshold-based observational study of administrative election records.

Prior to doctoral study, I earned a Master of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Quantitative Sciences from Arizona State University.