Mark McDaniel, ICMA-CM

Public Administration
George R. Schrader Professor of Practice in Local Government Management
Co-coordinator, Master of Public Administration Program

Chilton Hall 204D

940-565-2165

Mark.McDaniel@unt.edu

Mark McDaniel headshot
About

Mark McDaniel will begin serving as the first George R. Schrader Professor of Practice for the University of North Texas MPA program in the fall of '26. Mark's city management experience spans eight Texas cities ranging in size from 8K to 1.3M in population.

 
Mark recently served as deputy city manager for City of Fort Worth during an exciting time of extraordinary change and challenges for the fastest growing large city in America. Previous to accepting that leadership role full-time, Mark provided public management consulting services through MMC as a subcontractor to SGR. In a consulting capacity, Mark served as Fort Worth’s greenspace champion and reinvented its budget and research function while serving as interim chief transformation officer and creating the FWLab.
 
Prior to his consulting career Mark served in a number of city management roles. While Kerrville's city manager, Mark significantly improved the city's fiscal position and shepherded development of a new comprehensive plan (Kerrville 2050) that continues to guide the city and foster numerous community and economic development improvements.
 
From 2014 to 2017, Mark served as assistant city manager for the City of Dallas, where he quickly gained greater responsibility that later led to his appointment to first assistant city manager. Mark also created and provided direct leadership for the Dallas Center for Performance Excellence.
 
Before joining the City of Dallas executive team, Mark served as city manager/deputy city manager for the City of Tyler. During his ten years in Tyler, Mark led efforts to receive a AAA bond rating and was the architect for culture change via the city's highly successful Performance Excellence Program (PEP). PEP included extensive use of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodologies, an innovative leadership structure, rigorous strategic/business planning, and award-winning employee training/career development initiatives.
 
Mark has also served in a number of other municipal management roles in Texas during the course of his career, including budget director and assistant city manager for the City of Corpus Christi, city manager for Woodway, assistant city manager for Lake Jackson, and budget director for Denton.
 
Finally, a leader in his profession, Mark has served as Vice President for ICMA, representing the central United States, President for TCMA, board member for the Alliance for Innovation, and Chair for the University of North Texas MPA public administration advisory board.