Colt Jensen joins School faculty to work in local government management

The School of Government is excited to welcome Colt Jensen to its faculty. Jensen joined as an assistant professor of public administration and government in the summer of 2025 and works in the general area of local government management. He came to the School faculty after recently serving as a faculty member for Georgia Southern University.

As a member of the School’s Center for Public Leadership and Governance and instructor in the School's Master of Public Administration program, he conducts training and provides advice on leadership and management topics. His expertise and research on local government management, rural governance, trust in government, and public service motivation is well established and widely sought after in local government academia—having been published in Public Administration Review, The American Review of Public Administration, and other journals.

Jensen’s pull to serve in the local government management space comes from, in part, a desire to help the officials on the everyday front lines of ensuring governance runs smoothly and provides needed resources to the communities for which it is set up to serve.

“Local government is often described as the level of government where ‘the rubber meets the road’ because its actions and projects often produce easy-to-observe impacts in the communities they serve,” he said. “At this level of government, managers play a critical role in ensuring that democratically chosen leaders (i.e., mayors, council members, and other elected or appointed officials) have all of the information they need to make decisions that they feel best reflect their community’s preferences, and in effectively implementing those decisions.”

When asked what he is most looking forward to during his faculty tenure at the School, Jensen’s answer was singularly clear.

“Partnerships,” he said. “The School of Government’s mission to ‘improve the lives of North Carolinians by engaging in practical scholarship’ means my work goes far beyond traditional research and teaching.”

“I’m particularly excited to contribute to the School’s continuing education programs for state and local officials and administrators. These courses provide a unique opportunity to share my research directly with the people it’s intended to serve, while also gaining valuable insights from participants about the needs, challenges, and opportunities in their communities.”

Jensen earned an MPA at Appalachian State University before obtaining a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

Published September 9, 2025