Michael A. Pagano is Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, professor of public administration, elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (which was chartered by Congress to assist federal, state, and local governments in improving their effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability), former co-editor of Urban Affairs Review (2001-14), and Faculty Fellow of UIC’s Great Cities Institute. He is Project Director of an annual conference, the UIC Urban Forum, designed to address contemporary urban problems. He has published six books, including Metropolitan Resilience in a Time of Economic Turmoil, Cityscapes and Capital, and The Dynamics of Federalism, and over 80 articles on urban finance, capital budgeting, federalism, transportation policy, infrastructure, urban development and fiscal policy.

Since 1991, he has written the annual City Fiscal Conditions report for the National League of Cities and is currently the Principal Investigator of a 3-year project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to research city fiscal behavior and city financial adaptations during the Great Recession.