H. Brinton Milward
Senior Fellow

H. Brinton Milward

Member Since 2026

Biography

Brint Milward holds the Melody S. Robidoux Foundation Fund Leadership Chair at the University of Arizona. He was the first director of the School of Government & Public Policy, which is the largest school at the university. He was Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, whose honorary co-chairs were President George Herbert Walker Bush and President Bill Clinton. He was the first president of the Public Management Research Association and is a former president of NASPAA. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and in 2019 won the H. George Frederickson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Public Management Research Association. In 2010, he won the NASPAA/ASPA Distinguished Research Award. Milward's research interests revolve around networks and collaboration. His research has focused on understanding how to manage networks of nonprofit and for profit organizations that jointly produce public services. He has conducted studies of what happens when governments privatize public services, or what he calls, governing the “hollow state." Several of these articles are classics in public administration with one named as one of the most influential articles published by Public Administration Review in its 75 year history. In 2018, PS, the journal of the American Political Science Association, recognized him as the 14th most cited scholar in the combined subfields of public administration, public policy, political psychology, and public law. In addition, since 9/11 he has studied illegal and covert networks that pursue grievances or greed. His articles on "Dark Networks," have been widely cited for their application of network analysis and management theory to terrorist networks, human trafficking, and drug smuggling. This work on “dark networks” has led to his participation in federal research grants worth over $10,000,000 since 2009. Milward received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.

History of Employment

Position Division Organization Start End
Melody S. Robidoux Foundation Fund Chair School of Government & Public Policy University of Arizona 2015 Present
Director School of Government and Public Policy University of Arizona 2009 2019
Providence Service Corporation Chair in Public Management University of Arizona 2005 2015
Associate Dean College of Business and Public Administration University of Arizona 1988 2009
Director School of Public Administration and Policy University of Arizona 1988 2009
McClelland Professor of Public Management School of Public Administration and Policy, Eller College of Management University of Arizona 1995 2005
Associate Professor of Management and Public Administration University of Kentucky 1979 1988
Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration University of Kansas 1975 1979

Expertise

Primary Sector

Academic

Primary Functions

Academic Faculty
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