Tom James

Tom is the lead evaluator for the Southwest Resource Team. He is also Director of the Institute for Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. Since receiving his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in 1976, he has directed and conducted applied policy research projects for a wide range of federal, state, and local agencies and non-profit organizations. Recent projects have included evaluation protocols for multi-jurisdictional drug task forces, large multi-year evaluations of government programs dealing with abstinence education and substance abuse prevention for youth, evaluations of youth gang prevention and intervention programs, and studying barriers to coordination of local transportation services for disadvantaged populations. He has extensive experience with all phases of policy research and teaches graduate courses regularly on measurement, data analysis, program evaluation, and policy analysis.