James H. Svara is a research professor of public affairs at Arizona State University and visiting professor in the School of Government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.  He specializes in local government leadership, management, innovation, and ethics.

He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, an honorary member of ICMA, and former a member of the board of the Alliance for Innovation. He co-chaired the working group that revised the code of ethics of the American Society  for Public Administration in 2013.  His book, co-edited with Douglas Watson, More Than Mayor or Manager: Campaigns to Change Form of Government in America’s Large Cities, was recently published by Georgetown University Press.