David O. Renz, BA, MAIR,PhD

David O. Renz is Professor Emeritus of Nonprofit Leadership and Director Emeritus of the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, the nonprofit leadership research and development center of the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC). An award-winning educator and scholar, David studies, teaches, and writes about nonprofit and public service governance, leadership and management, and regularly consults with boards and executives to support their efforts to build capacity for effective governance and organizational effectiveness. He has worked with more than 250 boards and commissions throughout his career. In 2019 David was honored with a Special Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kansas City nonprofit association, Nonprofit Connect, and in 2017 he was recognized with the “Distinguished Achievement in Leadership and Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research Award” from the international association, the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

David writes frequently for both the academic and practice communities and, with colleagues and coauthors, has produced more than 165 chapters, reports, and articles for journals such as Nonprofit Management and Leadership, The Nonprofit Quarterly, Strategic Governance, Public Administration Review, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. He also is senior editor of The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, now in its fifth edition, and co-editor of The Research Handbook on Entrepreneurs’ Engagement in Philanthropy.

David has served on the governing boards of many nonprofit field-building organizations, including the Association for Nonprofit Research and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), the Nonprofit Financial Commons, the Fieldstone Alliance, and the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, and the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council. In 2015, he served as the founding chair of the Governance Section of ARNOVA. His early career service included teaching and consulting with the University of St. Thomas, and senior executive positions in government, including executive director of the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities and assistant commissioner of administration for the State of Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. David holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Organization Studies from the University of Minnesota.