Ric Kolenda, Ph.D., is a Clinical Associate Professor of Public Administration and Associate Chair of the Public Administration Department at Pace University in New York City.

He is also an experienced technology and nonprofit entrepreneur with the strong analytical skills developed as a Ph.D. in public policy. He has written regular columns for mass-market weekly and monthly publications.

Ric was previously a Professional Lecturer of Public Policy at DePaul University’s School of Public Service. Prior to that he was a Clinical Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA), and since 1987 he has taught public policy, urban planning, urban politics and American government at several institutions including Appalachian State University, Georgia State University, the University of North Carolina Wilmington and Temple University.

His dissertation is entitled “Growing an Industrial Cluster?: Movie Production Incentives and the Georgia Film Industry.” His most recent publication is “Are Central Cities More Creative? The Intrametropolitan Geography of Creative Industries,” with Cathy Yang Liu, published in the Journal of Urban Affairs in December 2012. He is currently working on inequality and economic mobility in the creative economy. 

His research interests include the pedagogy of public service; the economic geography of creative industries; urban inequality, equality of opportunity & socio-economic mobility; and twenty-first century employment structures.

Prior to entering his Ph.D. program in 2008, Ric spent over 15 years in the technology sector, and co-founded the Philadelphia Area New Media Association and two Internet start-ups. He also founded Creative Wilmington, an organization and Website dedicated to enriching the creative economy in Wilmington, NC. Ric also has a M.A. in Urban Studies from Temple University and a B.S. in Economics.

Described as a “people alchemist” by the Philadelphia Business Journal in their 2001 issue on the future leaders of Philadelphia, Ric Kolenda does enjoy mixing it up.

Kolenda has a Ph.D. from the joint program in Public Policy at Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, with a special focus on Economic Development Policy and Planning. His research interests are in the connections between high-tech workers and their impact on local and regional economic development.

Kolenda relocated from Wilmington, NC, where he served as Executive Director of the Cape Fear Hospitality Association, a non-profit organization advocating for the region’s restaurant and hotel industries which he founded in 2002. He also taught Political Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and Hospitality Technology and basic computer skills at Cape Fear Community College.

He also chaired the Emerging Issues Action Group as part of the New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington Safe Communities Initiative. In that role, Mr. Kolenda has spearheaded the effort for a Regional Progress Board with faculty from UNC Wilmington. He also had an Internet and publishing services consultancy, Kolenda Associates, which has served clients such as Genesis Press and WXPN-FM, a nationally recognized public radio station.

Mr. Kolenda has over twenty years of experience in personal computer consulting, training, and technical support. His diverse background includes Web technology management, government & nonprofit administration, printing and pre-press production, and university teaching.

After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Economics from Grand Valley State University in 1984, Mr. Kolenda moved to Philadelphia to begin graduate studies at Temple University. While pursuing his M.A. in Urban Studies (M.A. 1988), Mr. Kolenda worked as the Assistant to the Township Manager of Upper Merion Township. In this role he formulated a comprehensive PC-based budgeting program, oversaw the upgrading of the township’s computer system, and coordinated several building and road projects. Although he was working in a predominantly DOS-based computer environment, Mr. Kolenda purchased the original Apple Macintosh in 1985.

In 1986 Mr. Kolenda formed Human Technologies, a consulting company specializing in the emerging cross-platform needs of companies with DOS and Macintosh computers. Human Technologies operated until 1992, although Mr. Kolenda left the company for a short time to explore possibilities in corporate sales and technical support with a computer reseller.

With several years of computer experience behind him, Mr. Kolenda returned to Temple University to pursue a Ph.D. in Political Science, specializing in regional economic development policy. He completed his coursework while teaching courses at Temple, Philadelphia Universityand Rowan College of New Jersey. While studying and teaching, Mr. Kolenda continued to hone his computer skills by doing freelance desktop publishing and production, as well as occasional consulting and training work.

Mr. Kolenda also spent several years in the printing and pre-press industry. Following a freelance engagement while studying for his Ph.D. he joined Wace Philadelphia, part of the world’s largest pre-press company, he served as Desktop Systems Manager. There he managed a network of 20 Macintosh workstations used for desktop publishing, color correction and administrative record keeping, and evaluated and recommended hardware/software purchases. He then moved to Centennial Printingwhere he worked with Macintosh and Scitex systems in pre-press production.

Mr. Kolenda furthered his skills while working as a support technician and consultant for EPS Associates in Wynnewood, PA. There he serviced several clients in design agencies, printing, and publishing while learning about emerging technologies in multimedia and Internet marketing.

With the explosion of the Internet in 1995, Mr. Kolenda co-founded Odyssey Systems Corporation to provide Web development, Internet consulting, and marketing services to this new market. As head of new business development and strategic planning, he led Odyssey to profitability with it’s first two years. While at Odyssey, Mr. Kolenda became expert in the technical aspects and practical applications of Internet streaming media, having produced several live and recorded “webcasts” for Disc Makers, Electric Factory Concerts, and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

During his time with Odyssey, Mr. Kolenda also co-founded the Philadelphia Area New Media Association (PANMA), an Internet professional association, in 1996. He became Founding President shortly thereafter, and then left Odyssey in 1997 to become the first Executive Director for PANMA. Since its incorporation in November 1997, the organization has grown to nearly 1,000 members. Mr. Kolenda led PANMA to a merger with the Eastern Technology Council, a trade association of over 700 technology companies, where it continued as a distinct division.

Following the PANMA merger, Mr. Kolenda became a co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Precision Media, Inc., a technology company started in 1998 and specializing in delivery of streaming video for education and advertising. He was instrumental in creating and honing the company’s business model and in securing seed financing for the company. Mr. Kolenda remains a major stockholder and Director of Precision Media since leaving active service to the company in July 1999.

Upon leaving his active participation with Precision Media, Mr. Kolenda served as Director of Creative Technologies at GivingCapital Inc., and as Director of Product Marketing for WiredVines Inc.

More recently Mr. Kolenda served as Director of Interactive Strategiesfor Culture Quest, Inc., a Philadelphia company specializing in tailored educational travel programs. At Culture Quest, Mr. Kolenda was charged with developing and maintaining all things interactive and technological, from the company’s web presence to its internal marketing and operations databases. He was also very involved in the corporate marketing strategy.

Just prior to moving from Philadelphia, Mr. Kolenda had continued his role heading the PANMA Advisory Board, served as Chair of the Philadelphia School District’s Computers and Technology Stakeholders Partnership, on the Painted Bride Art Center Board of Director, served on the Advisory Board of Greater Philadelphia CollegeTown Project and was a member of Multimedia and Web Site Advisory Board of the Art Institute of Philadelphia. He also wrote a monthly New Media column for PhillyTech Magazine and reorganized and updated a statistical sourcebook for the Philadelphia region for the Metropolitan Philadelphia Policy Center.

See his complete Curriculum Vitæ.