Dr. James N. Mills

Biography

Dr. James N. Mills is the Department Chair of the Leadership Studies Department. He is a Faculty Fellow serving as Coordinator of the U.S. based Educational Leadership Program. In this capacity, he supervises all field placements for candidates seeking to be a New York State certified school leader. Dr. Mills also coordinates the CAEP accreditation initiative for the College of Education. He serves on the College of Education’s Leadership and Planning Committee.

Dr. Mills joined the faculty at Niagara University in 2007 after a long and distinguished career in public school administration. Before coming to Niagara University, Dr. Mills served as a public school administrator for thirty years serving in roles of increasing responsibility from vice-principal (2 years), high school principal (13 years) to superintendent of schools (18 years). He has also held positions of related responsibility, including but not limited to CSE Chairperson, School Business Administrator, Director of Facilities, and Transportation Supervisor.

Dr. Mills has served as a professional negotiator representing over twenty boards of education in the collective bargaining process. During his administrative career Dr. Mills has served in many leadership positions including, but not limited to President of the New York State Council of School Superintendent (NYCOSS), Chairman of the NYSCOSS Distinguished Service Committee, President of the Chautauqua County School Administrators Association, Chairmen of the Orleans-Niagara Athletic Association and most recently Chairman of the Eastern Niagara Power Alliance. He has also served on both national and state professional organization committees such as the MARLA (Management Advocates for School Labor Affairs, NYSCOSS Commissioner’s Advisory Council and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Delegates Committee.

Current Research

Dr. Mills continues to research in areas related to labor relations, collective bargaining, and negotiations in the public sector. He is also interested in the impact of emotional intelligence in leadership, with special emphasis on how a school leader’s emotional intelligence impacts individual credibility and translates into personal trust and organizational trust. A secondary interest rest in public school finance and the complexity of the administration of the local district school budget.

Current Involvement

Dr. Mills is active in educational consulting. He annually tours New York State presenting workshops to school leaders related to public sector collective bargaining and negotiations. He is a regular presenter for the New York State Superintendent’s Development Program, which he helped found. Since 2008 Dr. Mills has had a long-standing consulting contract with HUNT Engineers and Architects (Horseheads/Rochester), where he serves as their senior educational planner. In this role, Dr. Mills provides direct consulting services to school districts related to capital construction projects. He also holds a standing consulting contract with Clinical Associates of the Finger Lakes to provide services related to special research projects, operations and management, and policy development and interpretation.

Educational Background

Dr. Mills undergraduate work was in elementary education at the State University College at Buffalo (SUCB). Graduate work includes master’s studies in education and history at SUCB, advanced study in school administration at Niagara University, and doctoral studies at SUNY Buffalo and Hamilton University.