JON VAN TIL is Professor of Urban Studies and Community Planning at Rutgers University, Camden, where he chairs the Urban Studies program, and is a co-founder of the graduate program in public policy.. He served from 1990-2000 as founding director of the Urban Studies department's innovative program in Citizenship and Service Education.

Van Til's books include GROWING CIVIL SOCIETY (Indiana University Press, 2000), CRITICAL ISSUES IN AMERICAN PHILANTHROPY (1990), MAPPING THE THIRD SECTOR: VOLUNTARISM IN A CHANGING SOCIAL ECONOMY (1988), NONPROFIT BOARDS OF DIRECTORS (co-edited with Robert Herman, 1988), SHIFTING THE DEBATE: PUBLIC/PRIVATE SECTOR RELATIONS IN THE MODERN WELFARE STATE (co-edited with Susan Ostrander and Stuart Langton, 1987). Earlier books include LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS: CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE (co- edited with Trudy Heller and Louis Zurcher, 1986), LIVING WITH ENERGY SHORTFALL (1982), INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON VOLUNTARY ACTION RESEARCH (1981), and PRIVILEGE IN AMERICA: AN END TO INEQUALITY? (1973).

Van Til served as Editor-in-Chief of NONPROFIT AND VOLUNTARY SECTOR QUARTERLY (formerly the JOURNAL OF VOLUNTARY ACTION RESEARCH) from 1978 through 1992. He was twice elected President of the Association of Voluntary Action Scholars, and is the founding Board Chair of the Center for Nonprofit Corporations (Trenton). Van Til has also served as a Trustee of the George H. Gallup International Institute.

Van Til writes a regular column in the NONPROFIT TIMES, the major trade magazine for the nonprofit sector, which he serves as a Consulting Editor. He has published in a variety of scholarly journals including SOCIAL WORK, TRANSACTION/SOCIETY, and the URBAN AFFAIRS QUARTERLY.

An active leader in the development of nonprofit organizations in the Camden area, Van Til is a former board member and longtime adviser of the Community Planning and Advocacy Council, the Human Services Coalition of Camden County. Among the national clients of Van Til's consulting in the area of voluntary and nonprofit action have been the National Service Secretariat, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Health Visions Inc., the University of Colorado, the University of Pennsylvania, and the United Way of Central Indiana, and the Center for Youth as Resources.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Swarthmore College with High Honors in Political Science, Van Til received his doctorate in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1991 he was recognized as "Creative Teacher of the Year" at Rutgers, Camden for his work in developing that campus' program in Citizenship and Service Education. In 1994, he received the Career Award for Distinguished Research and Service from the Association for Research in Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action.

Prof. Van Til will be spending the Spring term 2004 at the University of Ulster as a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar researching dilemmas of social reform in Northern Ireland. In the Summer term 2004 he will serve as Anna Deane Carlson Distinguished Chair in Social Science at West Virginia University. He is listed in the forthcoming edition of WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA.