Current Research Interest

The primary current research interest of Dr. Thomas is the application of the principles and tools of Total Quality Management (TQM) at the community, neighborhood and grassroots level. The United States of America cannot be a world class society absent world class neighborhoods and communities. While transforming the workplace is critical, community transformation must also occur. The Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Florida is taking a leading position nationally in the attempt to integrate the disparate traditions of community organizing, learning organization theory, and the PDCA cycle of TQM.

Education

D.P.A. Public Finance
School of Public Administration
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 1977

M.P.A. Public Finance
School of Public Administration
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 1977

M.S. Systems Analysis - Applied Economics
William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 1974

No Degree
Colgate Rochester Divinity School - Bexley Hall
One of the 14 originators of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professorship/Scholarship Fund, Black Church Studies Program. Withdrew from school in final year to begin work with the FIGHT Organization.
Rochester, NY 1967 - 1969

B.A. Philosophy
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 1967

Employment History

Summary
University of North Florida 1990 - Present
Florida International University 1977 - 1990
City of Rochester 1972 - 1975
FIGHT Organization 1969 - 1972

August 1990 - Present, University of North Florida

• Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration
• Department Chairman, 1996 - present
• Director, Master of Public Administration (MPA) Program, 1991 - 1996

• Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration
• Special Assistant to the President, 1982 - 1983
• Vice President for Student Affairs, 1979 - 1982
• Associate Dean, School of Public Affairs and Services, 1979
• Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President, 1978

• Associate Analyst, Bureau of the Budget, 1974 - 1975
• Senior Analyst, Federal Program Review, Office of City Manager, 1972 - 1973

 September 1969 - August 1972, FIGHT Organization, Rochester, NY
[FIGHT was a black community grass roots organization founded in 1965 as a response to the Rochester riots in the summer of 1964. Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation was the organizer.]

• Director, Recruitment for Construction, Rochester's Affirmative Action Program for the Construction Industry, 1971 - 1972
• Chief of Staff, FIGHT 1969 - 1971

Teaching Experience

My teaching has been in the areas of public finance, public management and the economic context of public administration. My policy focus has increasing been on the application of the tools and techniques of TQM to government service, neighborhood improvement and effective community building. At FIU I taught in the in the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Public Administration program. Additionally, I chaired the dissertation committees of three of the six students to have completed the Ph.D. program by the time I relocated to Jacksonville. At UNF I have served on three Ed.D. dissertation committees within the School of Education. Finally, at FIU I taught in "Mexican MPA program." This program was grant funded on Pemex dollars and was taught for SECRETARIA DE HACIENDA Y CREDITO PUBLICO, MEXICO, D.F. I taught FINANZAS PUBLICAS Y PROCESO PRESUPUESTARIO.

Honors

Golden Key Honor Society
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
Florida International University : Outstanding Administrator 1981
University of Southern California: EBONICS Support Group, Outstanding Black Alumnus 1982

B. Service

Professional Service

Corporate Secretary & Archivist, Association for Budgeting & Financial Management,
(Section of ASPA) 1994 - Present
Member Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA), National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) 1992-95
Member Executive Council, National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, (NASPAA) 1992-95
Member, Advisory Board, National Community Research Initiative - Technology and Democracy Project (The Loka Institute) 1995
American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Jacksonville and First Coast Chapter 1991 - present
Board of Directors, International Resource Center of Jacksonville, 1991 - 1994
Member Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, World Trade Center Association, 1991 - present
Member American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the Jacksonville Quality Council (JaxQ), 1994 - present

Department Service
Faculty Advisor, Pi Alpha Alpha 1994-Present
MPA Director 1991-1996
Department Chair 1996-Present

University Service -- UNF
Chair of the annual faculty -- staff fund drive. 1997
Member Search Committee for the Director of University Center. 1997
University Tenure and Promotion Committee 1996
Faculty Advisor, Golden Key National Honor Society 1994-Present
President, College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Association 1994-1995
President, Black Faculty & Staff Association 1993-1994
Member College of Arts and Sciences Strategic Planning Group 1991
Member College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Development Committee 1991-1992
Division of Student Affairs Minority Student Mentoring Program 1991-Present
Service to numerous UNF university wide search committees 1990-Present

University Service -- FIU
Chair of committee that planned and designed the School of Public Affairs & Services (SPAS)
Member Faculty Senate 1983-1984 &1987-1988
Member SPAS Budget Committee 1984-1988
Member University Budget Committee 1984
Member of Public Administration Department Ph. D. Admissions Committee 1986-1989
Vice Chair of SPAS Faculty Assembly 1988-1989
Member of Committee on SPAS Structure 1987-1988
Member of Committee on Lower Division Planning and Programs
(This was the committee that developed lower division at FIU) 1979-1980

Community Service
Board of Directors JCCI 1996-present
Board of Directors Daniel Memorial 1994-Present.
Board of Directors Florida Association of Voluntary Agencies for Caribbean Action (FAVA/CA) 1997.
FAVA/CA is perhaps the premier example of state level activity in foreign affairs. It is achieved through a public private partnership. This is my second tour of service on FAVA/CA. I was a founding board member, served as president during the mid-1980s and rotated off the board after six years of service. This year I returned to the FAVA/CA board.
Board of Directors Daniel Payne Academy, which will soon become Jacksonville's first Charter School. 1997
The Academy represents a partnership between Daniel Memorial and St. Paul AME Church.
Board of Directors, Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville Inc. HABIJAX, 1992
Member Jacksonville Community Council Inc. 1991 - present
Management Team - JAXPORT Study, 1994
Management Team - The Positive Development of Jacksonville's Children Study, 1991
Management Team - Long Term Financial Health of Jacksonville Government Study, 1992
Chairman - Long Term Financial Health of Jacksonville Government Implementation, 1992 -1995
Member of the Board, 1996
Management Team - Disadvantaged Transportation Study
Florida Association of Voluntary Agencies for Caribbean Action (FAVA/CA) -- (see above)
Chairman Education Committee 1982 - 1984
Vice President, 1984 - 1985
President 1985 - 1987
Short-term Volunteer Service Assignments:
Haiti 1982 - 1985; Belize 1984 - 1986; Jamaica 1986; Eastern Caribbean 1986
Florida InterAmerican Scholarship Foundation, Member Board of Trustees, 1986-1987
President of FAVA/CA has a seat on the Foundation
Council for International Visitors of Greater Miami
Chairman of the Finance Committee, 1988
President 1989 - 1990
Member Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce, Club of 21, 1989 - 1990
South Florida Sickle Cell Foundation, Founding Director 1978
Member of the Board of Director 1978-1981
American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) South Florida Chapter
Member Board of Directors 1978-1980, Member 1977-1990
The Florida Bar, Member of Grievance Committee 11E, 1979 - 82

 C. Scholarly Work

Publications

Stumm, Ted and H.B. Thomas. "TQM in Florida's Municipal Electric Utilities." Forthcoming --the manuscript has been submitted to Public Productivity and Management Review.

 Thomas, H. B. and Jerry Lieberman. "Where has Neighborhood Revitalization Worked?". Inside Out: Neighborhood Redevelopment and Revitalization. The Proceedings of a Writing Conference Sponsored by: Florida Department of Education; Florida Department of Community Affairs; Florida Institute of Education. August 1996, page 25.

Lieberman, Jerry, H.B.Thomas, and Joel Burdin. "Strategies for Action" Inside Out: Neighborhood Redevelopment and Revitalization. The Proceedings of a Writing Conference Sponsored by: Florida Department of Education; Florida Department of Community Affairs; Florida Institute of Education. August 1996, page 47.

Wilson, C. Nick; Andrew J. Kantack; and Henry B. Thomas, "NLRB Rule Making: The Impact of Regulatory Reform on Hospital Unionization", Hospital Topics, Summer 1995, Volume 73, Number 3.

Thomas, H. B. and R. Frost, "An Analysis of Government Efficiency in Industrial Countries", Public Productivity and Management Review, Summer 1990, Volume XIII, Number 4, Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Thomas, H.B. and J. Chapman, Chapter 15: Cost Benefit Analysis: Theory and Practice, Managing Public Systems, Duxbury Press 1980, Clayton et. al. editors, page 291.

Thomas, H.B. and J. Chapman, "Cost Benefit Analysis: Theory and Practice", Reprint of book chapter in
C O A Journal, 1985, Commission On Audit, Republic of the Philippines.

Thomas, H.B. and E.J. Kaplan, "A National Survey of Chief Student Personnel Officers at Randomly Selected Institutions of Postsecondary Education in the United States", College and University, Winter 1981, Volume 56, #2, page 183.

Thomas, H.B. , Chapter 2 : "Political Conditions", Southeast Florida: The Only Thing We Can Change Is The Future -- Nontraditional Self-study: Charting the Course to the Bimilleniun, Stephen M. Fain, editor, pp. 51, Fall 1978.

Thomas, H.B., "Some Estimates of the Distribution of Benefits from Los Angeles City Government", Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, 77(2) 1978, page 71.

Papers and TechnicalReports

Stumm, Ted and H.B. Thomas. "TQM in Florida's Municipal Electric Power Enterprises." Paper presented at the Southwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 97.

Technical Report entitled "Ryan White I & II: A Community Needs Assessment" (with Terry Bowen, Ted Stumm, and Matt Corrigan). This technical report examines the needs of the HIV+/AIDS community of Northeast Florida and was funded by the City of Jacksonville. June 97

Thomas, H. B., Panel chair of panel on budgets and crime at the Association on Budget and Financial Management (ABFM). I also delivered a paper on "The Political Economy of Convict Labor," October 96.

Thomas, H.B. "Strategic Planning and Community Services Block Grants." This paper was an outgrowth of the PUP 6007 class in Spring 96 that organized the survey that resulted in the Community Action Plan required by the State of Florida Department of Community Affairs -- Community Services Block Grant Program. The focus of the paper was the incorporation of research into the teaching functions of an MPA program. Delivered at SECOPA 96, October 96 in Miami.

Thomas, H.B., and Steven Davenport, Blueprints for Quality Government: Lessons from Florida, presented at the Seventh National Public Productivity Improvement Conference - Breakthrough Government Strategies, Measures and Successes. Sponsored by Coopers & Lybrand, the International Society for Quality Government, the ASPA Section on Management Science and Policy Analysis and the National Center for Public Productivity. 1995

Thomas, H.B., The Florida Criminal Justice System. Collins Center for Public Policy. 1994.

Thomas, H.B., "Use of JMP in Teaching Statistics and Methods", Proceedings of the National Conference on Teaching Public Administration, February 1992.

Thomas, H.B. et al, "NASPAA Faculty Workforce Analysis", Presentation at the National Association of Schools of Public Administration and Affairs (NASPAA), October 1991.

Thomas, H.B., "Race and the Allocation of Bail in Florida", Presentation at Southeast Conference on Public Administration (SECOPA), October 1991.

Thomas, H.B., "If Bush Wants to Help Blacks..." Editorial in The Miami Herald, April 7, 1989

Thomas, H.B., Blacks and the Economy of the State of Florida, Service Through the Application of Research - (STAR) Grant # 87-048, June 1988.

Dluhy, Milan J., and H.B. Thomas, A Needs Assessment of the 55 and Over Population - The Opa Locka Area of Dade County, Florida, The Southeast Center on Aging, March 1988.

Thomas, H.B., "Florida Taxes - Toward the Year 2000", Preparing for the Year 2000: Future Policy Direction for Florida, Symposium Proceedings, pp. 25, March 1988.

Thomas, H.B., R. Frost, C. Mc Cue, and R.D. Frost, "A Three Year Revenue Forecasting Model for the City of Hialeah, FL, FY 1987-1989", August 1986.

Thomas, H.B., R. Lewis and R. Frost, "Analysis of Casino Gambling in South Florida", Prepared for the City of Bal Harbor, April 1986.

Thomas, H.B., "An Internationalized Undergraduate Curriculum of 36 Units: A Contingency Core", Southeast Regional Symposium, International Association of University Presidents, June 1983.

Thomas, H.B. and M. Park, Summary/Project Report...City of North Miami Employee Incentive Program, June 1979. Sponsored by the Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970.

Thomas, H.B. et al, Fiscal Management Capacity Sharing Program (1978 - 79). Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Project staff assembled by the Joint Center for Political Studies, Washington, D.C.

Consultancies, grants and other scholarly activity

Co-hosted a conference sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council ($7, 728), the Department and UNF-IOG on "The Decline of Civic Involvement in America - Real or Imagined." March 97

Hosted a Microlending Conference to build a public-private partnership in support of microlending in Northeast Florida. The conference was sponsored by the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, UNF-SBDC, The Alliance for Community Quality Councils, The Collins Center for Public Policy, and the Charles Steward Mott Foundation, November 96

UNF - Presidential fellows Program. Florida Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education Coordination, $15,000. The project was designed to increase the number of women and minority faculty and staff in university leadership positions throughout the State University System of Florida. January 1994

The FIU/Florida Poll - I wrote and/or identified all the tax and finance questions that appeared in the 1988, 1989 and 1990 Florida Polls. Additionally, I conducted the numeric analysis on the tax and finance portions of the poll. The statewide telephone surveys were conducted by FIU's Institute for Public Opinion Research (IPOR).

Racial and Ethnic Bias Study Commission of the Florida Supreme Court. Principal Investigator for the Bail and Pre-trial Release Study. June - September 1990.

1986 Member of team advising Bal Harbor Village on issues regarding Casino Gambling. FIU Institute for Public Management and Community Services Grant.

FIU Institute for Public Management and Community Services Grant to conduct a revenue forecasting study in Hialeah, FL 1986. $8,958.

Service Through the Application of Research - (STAR) Grant # 87-048, Blacks and the Economy of the State of Florida. Thomas is the Principal Investigator. 1987-88. $22,000.

Agency for International Development (USAID) - Private Enterprise Support Project # 525-0189-C-00-7010-00. Analysis of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of the Republic of Panama. Thomas is one of four FIU based Consultant/Investigators. 1987. $300,000.

Florida International Volunteer Corps (FIVC) - Florida's Peace Corps. FIVC is a statutorily established direct service program administered by FAVA/CA under contract with the State of Florida. FAVA/CA places short term technical assistance assignments in developing countries of the Caribbean. 1986 - Present. Grant was conceived, written and developed when I served as President of FAVA/CA.

VOCA Farmer to Farmer Program Grant. 1986. Grant was conceived, written and developed when I served as President of FAVA/CA.

Agency for International Development. Assessment for the Need for Youth Development Programs in St. Vincent, the Grenadines and Grenada. This grant was written and the analysis conducted while I served as President of FAVA/CA.

Mid-Winter Community Seminars funded by the Agency for International Development and the National Council for International Visitors. This grant was written while I served as President of the Council for International Visitors of Greater Miami (CIV). The Seminars will focus on Small Business Development in a Multi-Ethnic Society.

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