Joseph Whorton

Associate Professor Ph.D., College of SUNY-Albany

Joe Whorton is currently Director of the University of Georgia's Poverty Initiative, a Senior Fellow with the Fanning Institute and an Associate Professor in SPIA teaching graduate courses in local government administration. He previously served as Director of the Georgia Rural Development Council from 1999-2004, as Director of the Institute of Community and Area Development from 1985- 1997 and as administrator of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government's Research and Service Division from 1980-1985.

Prior to coming to the University of Georgia he served as an assistant city manager and as Director of the Oklahoma City Housing Authority. He is former editor of the State and Local Government Review and founder and co-editor of The Regionalist, a journal promoting regional problem solving. He has served on the Region 5 Advisory Council to the Georgia Departments of Industry, Trade and Tourism and Community Affairs, and is a former member of the Board of Directors of Saint Mary's Health Systems. He served as chair of the Growth Strategies Reassessment Task Force and was principle facilitator of Georgia's Future Communities Commission and of the American Planning Association's Growing Smart project.

He received the 2003 Georgia Municipal Association's Georgia Key Citizen Award, and has been awarded the Red Atherton Award for service to Georgia's local governments, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Rockefeller College of SUNY, Albany and the James E. Webb research award from the American Society for Public Administration.

He received his Master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma and his doctorate in Public Administration with a concentration in Organization Behavior from the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the State University of New York Albany. He is a trained group facilitator and is experienced with intervention design, strategic planning, and large group decision making.