W. Bartley Hildreth

Dr. Bart Hildreth’s research and professional interests center on the financing of subnational governments. He teaches the core masters course in public budgeting and finance, and the Ph.D. seminars in budgeting and financial management.

Professor Hildreth recently designed and conducted budget and finance training programs for faculty and students working with The Volcker Alliance, the Fellows and Residents of the CDC Public Health Prevention Service, and a turn-key audio workshop on financial management for public health laboratories in Africa.

Hildreth’s career includes 30 years in business schools (including service as an interim dean in AY2008) at other universities, and since 2009 in this policy school (including service as dean in AY2010).

As Regents Distinguished Professor of Public Finance and director of the Kansas Public Finance Center (1994-2009), governors appointed him to high-level tax and infrastructure financing assignments, and he led several research teams on significant state-wide policy issues. His past service includes appointments to the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council, and service as Executive Director (part-time) of the National Tax Association, and Director of Finance for the City of Akron, Ohio.

Dr. Hildreth’s primary focus is on municipal securities. He recently completed a three year term (2012-2015) on the Board of Directors of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board which was created by Congress to promote a fair and efficient municipal securities market. Since 1989, Dr. Hildreth has served as the editor-in-chief of the only refereed journal devoted to municipal securities and state and local financing, the Municipal Finance Journal. In 2017, he received the Industry Contribution Award from the National Federation of Municipal Analysts for contributions that advance the municipal bond industry.

Dr. Hildreth has published widely in the top journals, including co-authored winner of the Jesse Burkhead Award for Best Article in Public Budgeting & Finance for 2012 and again in 2017. His books include the State and Local Government Debt Issuance and Management Service, the co-edited Handbook on Taxation, and the co-authored Budgeting: Politics and Power, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Hildreth received the 2008 Aaron B. Wildavsky Award for lifetime scholarly achievement in the field of public budgeting and financial management. He is a 2012 Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. As a Fulbright Scholar in 2005, Hildreth served as the visiting research chair in public policy at McGill University in Montreal. In 2002, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars selected him to serve on its delegation to China on capital market financing of environmental infrastructure.

Hildreth serves as the faculty advisor for the Municipal Securities Laboratory.

His professional website is http://barthildreth.com.