David Ammons joined the School of Government (then the Institute of Government) in 1996. Prior to that, he was a faculty member at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia and taught in the public administration programs at Georgia and the University of North Texas. Early in his career he served on the staffs of four municipalities-Fort Worth, Texas; Hurst, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee-in various administrative capacities. Among his seven books on local governmentmanagement are Municipal Benchmarks: Assessing Local Performance and Establishing Community Standards (Sage Publications, 2001); Leading Performance Management in Local Government (ICMA, 2008); and Tools for Decision Making: A Practical Guide for Local Government (CQ Press, 2009). Ammons earned a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma