Dr. Jeffry A. Will is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Northeast Florida Center for Community Initiatives. Jeffry joined the UNF faculty in 1993. He earned his undergraduate degree at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and his masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In 1994 Dr. Will, along with Drs. Charles E. Owens and Henry Camp, established the Northeast Florida Center for Community Initiatives to provide research and evaluation support for agencies and communities throughout the region and the nation. Since that time, research faculty working within CCI have been responsible for over $3 million in research contracts and grants.

Dr. Will's primary areas of research concern poverty, inequality and public policy. He has authored or co-authored two books, four book chapters, 11 refereed articles and book chapters, more than 40 research reports, and presented over 70 research papers at Regional, National, and International conferences since 1990. Dr. Will also served as President of the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology from 2007-2008. He is currently serving as Chair of the American Sociological Association's Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology, and is the Chair of the Southern Sociological Society's Committee on the Status of Students.

In addition to his work at UNF, Dr. Will is currently on the Advisory Board for the NCCD Center for Girls and Young Women.  He was on the Board of Directors for the Clara White Mission. He also has previously served on the Advisory Board for the Health Care for the Homeless Clinics in Jacksonville, and worked as a consultant and coordinator for the annual Homeless Census and Survey in Jacksonville from 1994 - 2000, 2006. Dr. Will was also a member of the Leadership Jacksonville Y2K Class.