William McCoy, PhD: Senior Project Consultant
He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Western Kentucky University and the Ph.D. degree from The University of Tennessee. He came to UNC Charlotte in 1970 as an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department. In 1979, Dr. McCoy joined the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute on a part-time basis and was named its Director in 1985. He retired from that position in 2001. He was selected for the North Carolina National Bank (Bank of America) Teaching Award in 1974.
Among community activities, he served on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission for six years, chaired the Citizens Advisory Committee for the 2005 Transportation Plan, served on the Planning Board of the Town of Davidson and began a term of chair of that board in January 2005, and served five years as the Executive Director of Leadership Charlotte. He either currently or has served on the Board of Directors of Leadership Charlotte, the Carolinas Land Conservation Network, Central Carolinas Choices, the Charlotte Chamber, WFAE, the University City Area Council, the University City YMCA, Child Care Resources Inc., Grier Heights Economic Foundation, and the Advisory Board of Warren Wilson College's Environmental Leadership Center.
During his tenure with the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, he has been involved in land use planning, strategic planning, meeting facilitation, organizational development, public opinion surveys, waste minimization, and regional approaches. He has also published articles on planning, voting behavior, and teaching methods.
Since retirement he has continued to work on community projects both as a paid consultant and as a volunteer. Among those community projects have been: member of a research team from UNC Charlotte studying the governance of the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS); member of a UNC Charlotte research team that developed regional population and employment projections for 2010, 2020 and 2030 for an EPA funded clean air compliance study; member of a UNC Charlotte team that is assisting Rowan County in the development of a comprehensive land use plan; served as co-chair of a committee that developed the data base for a day long town meeting attended by over 1000 citizens that looked at the safety, health and education of the county's youth; serving as chair of Physical Environment Committee of Mecklenburg County's Status of Seniors Initiative; and serving on the Traffic Calming Committee and the Transit Station Design Committee in the Town of Davidson.