Henry B. Thomas, D.P.A.
Executive Director
hthomas@unf.edu, (904) 620-2978

Dr. Thomas serves as the Executive Director of the Florida Center for Public & International Policy. He received an M.P.A. and D.P.A. in Public Finance at the University of Southern California in 1977. Thomas studied under Jeff Chapman at USC. Thomas earned an M.S. in Systems Analysis/Applied Economics from what is now the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester. He also attended Divinity School in Rochester where he was one of fourteen black students who conceived, organized and promoted the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professorship/Scholarship Fund. That effort resulted in the most important Black Church Studies program in America at what is now the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. Dr. Thomas holds a B.A. in Philosophy from UCLA. His primary interests were Symbolic Logic and Philosophy of Language. UCLA was an amazingly exciting place at that time, with Richard Montague, Montgomery Furth, David Kaplan, Keith Gunderson, and Wade Savage among others. Just as Thomas was leaving for seminary Angela Davis joined the UCLA faculty. 

In addition to serving as Executive Director of the Florida Center, Dr. Thomas is a tenured Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration. He served as the chairman of the department from 1996 - 2004. His continuing research interest has been the application of the principles and tools of Total Quality Management (TQM) at the community, neighborhood and grassroots level. He is also interested in the intersection between the Faith Based Initiative and efficient and effective public service provision. Thomas suggests that the US cannot be a world-class society absent world-class neighborhoods and communities. While transforming the workplace is critical, community transformation must also occur. The Florida Center understands that one's individual fate is tied to our collective fate and to the collective good. The Florida Center intends to take a leading position in the attempt to integrate the disparate traditions of community organizing, learning organization theory, and the PDCA cycle to the promotion of urban sustainability.

Florida Center Research Fellows

Dr. Mary Borg, Professor of Political Economy and  Director of the Undergraduate Academic Enrichment Program
Dr. Candice Carter, Associate Professor of Peace Education
Dr. Hyunsun Choi, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration
Dr. Matt Corrigan, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, and Director of the UNF Public Opinion Research Laboratory
Dr. Dominik Güss, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Dr. Ron King, Assistant Professor of Computing Science
Dr. Coskun Samli, Research Professor of Marketing
Dr. David Simon, Retired Professor of Sociology
Amb. Nancy Soderberg, Visiting Professor and former US Ambassador to the United Nations
Dr. David Swam-Baird, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration
Dr. Ma. Teresa Tuason, Assistant Professor of Psychology