Director's Biography

Dr. Naomi Bailin Wish, Director of the Center for Public Service at Seton Hall University, is a nationally recognized leader in the field of philanthropy and nonprofit studies. In 2002-03, Dr. Wish served as President of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, a national council of representatives of 38 universities with graduate research and teaching programs in philanthropy and nonprofit studies. During her Presidency, the Council, which includes representatives from Duke, Boston College, Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale, was awarded a $400,000 gift from the Kellogg Foundation for fellowships to help junior faculty of color pursue their research agenda.

In 2002-3, Dr. Wish, who is a former chair of the Nonprofit Management Education Section of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, served as Board Member at Large of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). Most recently, she chaired a national committee of academicians that developed guidelines for professional education in nonprofit management for graduate public administration degree programs at universities throughout the country. She is also a former President of the Northeast Political Science Association. In 1987-88, Dr. Wish received a fellowship from the American Council on Education. During her fellowship year, she served as special assistant to the Dean of the College of Arts & Science at New York University, and while serving in that capacity, researched and reported on national, university and departmental ranking studies and made recommendations for their use.

Since 1989, under her leadership, Seton Hall University’s Center for Public Service faculty and administrators have been able to attract foundation funding and government support totaling more than $5 million dollars for scholarships and for a number of applied public policy studies on quality of life issues, including affordable housing, adequate health care, and the promotion of mass transportation in New Jersey.

Dr. Wish is the author of numerous articles that have appeared in the Public Administration Review, the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The Municipal Yearbook, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Urban Affairs, Seton Hall Law Review, and Nonprofit Management and Leadership.