Lenneal Henderson Cities and the challenge of regionalism, social change, the environment, government performance — Lenneal Henderson has focused on them all in a distinguished academic and civic career. At the University of Baltimore, Henderson is Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Administration and a Senior Fellow in the William Donald Schaefer Center. Earlier he served on the faculties of St. Mary’s College, the University of San Francisco, Xavier College of New Orleans and Howard University, and headed the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Raised in the housing projects of New Orleans and San Francisco, Henderson as a high school student was involved in the Save the Bay Campaign for San Francisco Bay. As a graduate student at the University of California, studying under a pioneer in metropolitan governance studies, Victor Jones, he became a member of the Regional Task Force on Open Space of the Association of Bay Area Governments.

That civic commitment continues today in numerous task forces and committee memberships connected with regional governance and environmental issues in the Baltimore area and the state of Maryland, including chairmanship of the Environment 2000 Steering Committee for the state’s environmental agency.

The Innovations Program of the Ford Foundation/Kennedy School of Government selected Henderson to be site evaluator of Hope VI — the federal government’s major effort of recent years to relieve class conflict and strengthen cities by introducing market-oriented, mixed-price housing for varied income groups at a single integrated site, as an alternative to traditional public housing. The program did win one of the coveted Innovations awards.

With wit and charm audiences long remember, Henderson has lectured on metropolitan issues across the United States and in Europe, Africa, India, China, South America and Australia. He served on the interview team for the Peirce Report for the Baltimore Sun and was a long-standing board member of the National Civic League. He is a trustee of the Institute for Regional Community, co-editor of The Regionalist Journal, and author of a number of articles on regionalism and metropolitan issues.

Henderson is active in professional trade associations, especially those representing the interests of African-Americans. He also actively speaks, studies and writes on energy issues, neighborhood revitalization, public administration and diversity management.

Speech Topics

  • Fiscal disparities among local governments in the metropolis.
  • Racial, ethnic and class mediation in the emerging citistate.
  • International and comparative approaches to citistates and metropolitan issues.
  • Energy and the metropolis.

Last Updated June 13, 2004