Professor of Educational Leadership
Microsoft Scholar
CB# 3500 Peabody Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599
Phone: 919-962-2517
morrison@unc.edu
Complete
Vita
James L. Morrison received his Ph.D. at the Florida State University in 1969. He was
lecturer in sociology at the University of Maryland, European Division, and graduate
assistant in sociology at the University of Munich (1964-65), instructor in sociology at
the Florida State University (1968-69), and assistant professor of education and sociology
at the Pennsylvania State University (1969-73). He moved to The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill as associate professor of education in 1973 and was promoted to
full professor in 1977. At UNC he teaches courses in planning and management.
He founded and served as first president, the American Educational Research Association Special Interest Group (SIG) on Postsecondary Education, and later, when the SIG became Division J, served as vice president and member of the AERA Council. He also served as convener of the Forum on Environmental Scanning, The American Association for Higher Education; served two terms as a member of the Board of Directors, Association for the Study of Higher Education; chaired AERA's SIG on Futures Research; chaired the editorial board, The Review of Higher Education; and served as consulting editor of The Review of Educational Research and The American Educational Research Journal. He founded and continues to edit On the Horizon and he co-edits The Technology Colloquium.
He is author and coauthor of over 150 publications focusing on the application of futures research techniques in planning and policy analysis, including Anticipatory Management [with William Ashley] (Issue Action Press, 1995), The Alternative Futures Approach to Long-Range Planning: A Handbook for Army Long-Range Planners (Department of the Army, 1990), Applying Methods and Techniques of Futures Research [with William L. Renfro and Wayne I. Boucher] (Jossey-Bass, 1983), and Futures Research and the Strategic Planning Process [with William L. Renfro and Wayne I. Boucher] (Association for the Study of Higher Education, 1984). The latter two publications and two articles, "Establishing an Environmental Scanning Capability to Augment College and University Planning," and "Managing Uncertainty" [with Thomas V. Mecca] have been cited as critical reading in A Guide to New Planners (Norris and Poulton, Society for College and University Planning, 1991). Several of his most recent publications are The Strategic Management Response to the Challenge of Global Change (with Ian Wilson), Analyzing Environments and Developing Scenarios for Uncertain Times (with Ian Wilson), Using the Fuures Program as a Tool for Transformation: A Case Study of Lincoln University, New Zealand (with Allan Sargison and Debbie Francis), and Anticipatory Management Tools for the 21st Century (with William Ashley). He recently edited a CD titled, Technology Tools for Today's Campuses. For a complete list of publications, see his complete vita.
He has designed and implemented professional development seminars on strategic management, strategic planning, scenario-based planning,issues management, institutional vulnerability audits, and environmental scanning and forecasting for the UNC-Chapel Hill Continuing Education Center, H + E Associates (Great Britain), and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. In addition, he has made over 100 conference presentations for such associations as the World Future Society, the Society for College and University Planning, the American Association for Higher Education, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the American Educational Research Association, the Association for Community and Junior Colleges, the American Association of Community Colleges President's Academy, the North Carolina Association for Institutional Research, the Southern Association for Institutional Research, the European Association for Institutional Research, the Association for Institutional Research, the National League for Nursing, the Credit Union Executives Association, and the American Association of School Administrators. For a complete list of presentations and workshops, see his complete vita.
He has served as a planning consultant to a number of colleges (Caldwell, Hood, Lenoir-Rhyne, Saint Augustines), universities (Alabama, Arizona State, Clemson, Drexel, Indiana, James Madison, Lincoln (New Zealand), Tennessee, and the Virgin Islands), university systems (Maine), university continuing education centers (Georgia), community college systems (South Carolina), community colleges (McHenry County College, Metropolian Community College, Northwestern Michigan College, St. Cloud Technical College), educational agencies (U.S. Department of Education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction), school systems (Orange County [Orlando] Public Schools), educational consortia (Consortium for the Advancement of Public Education) and public agencies (U.S. Department of Labor, Public Pension Guaranty Corporation, and in the Department of the Army, the Office of Chief Army Reserve, the USAR Personnel Center, the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, and the Office of Chief Public Affairs). In the corporate world, he served as a planning consultant to Ethan Allen, Inc., as a faculty member in the executive leadership training program of Caltex Petroleum Corporation and as a planning consultant to Lisboa Associates and to Andrulis Research Corporation. His consulting activities focus on assisting organizations in developing environmental scanning/forecasting systems to augment their strategic long-range planning processes.
He retired from the U.S. Army Reserve (Colonel, USAR, Civil Affairs) in April 1992. From 1986-1991 he served as Deputy Commander, Individual Mobilization Augmentee, U.S. Army Research Institute for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. His assignments included serving as a long-range planning consultant for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Doctrine, the U.S. Army Reserve Personnel Center and the Office Chief, Army Reserve. In July 1990, the Secretary of the Army awarded him the Meritorious Service Medal for training Army long-range planners in the alternative futures approach to planning model and for assisting the Chief, Army Reserve in using this model to develop the 1990-2020 Army Reserve long-range plan. In April 1991, the Secretary of the Army awarded him the second highest award authorized for peacetime, the Legion of Merit Medal, for his career contributions to planning for the Total Army.