Dr. James Agbodzakey is a professor of public leadership/administration and the director of the Urban SERCH Institute at the University of North Texas (UNT) at Dallas. He has worked extensively for governments and private and nonprofit entities in Africa, U.S., and the Caribbean on various projects and programs. He has championed efforts in the areas of public health, management, public affairs, economics, and sustainable development through his work with numerous prestigious institutions such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and Florida Atlantic University. His public management and health services research using the collaborative governance framework has helped shape policies and strategies as a conduit to promoting the health and general well-being of target populations at the local and regional levels across the U.S. He recently served on the American Society for Public Administration’s Executive Committee and its National Council, and was the president of the Conference of Minority Public Administrators (COMPA).
Dr. Agbodzakey has participated in over 80 academic conferences, has made over 70 academic presentations, and has at least 50 peer-reviewed academic publications to his credit. Recently, as a section editor, he facilitated the publication of 200 authors in Springer’s Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. He currently serves on three editorial boards and four governance boards. His extensive experiences related to scholarship, curriculum development, accreditation, program building, the nonprofit sector, and community engagement have seen him excel as a specialist and consultant. He was a delegate for the AIDS conferences held in Washington D.C., Melbourne, Durban, Amsterdam, Montreal, and Munich. He was also a delegate for the tenth IAS Conference on HIV Science in Mexico City.
Dr. Agbodzakey has received outstanding faculty awards from the University of the Bahamas and UNT Dallas. He has won Florida Atlantic University’s National Association of Graduate-Professional Students Award and the Gwendolyn Bullock-Smith Public Service Award from COMPA. He is also the first Black faculty to be promoted to the rank of full professor at UNT Dallas.
Dr. Agbodzakey is committed to working with various stakeholders to help address the complex contemporary challenges in the area of public benefits related to inclusive excellence.