Dr. Harold M. (Hal) White, Jr. is the Executive Vice President for the University of West Florida. In this role, Dr. White is the Vice President in charge of the Division of University Affairs and also serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the university. Dr. White is also university professor of Ethics, Law and Policy.
Dr. Hal White joined the University of West Florida in fall 2002.
Born in Richmond, Va., the son of a school teacher and a clergyman, White grew up in several Virginia and North Carolina towns where his father served churches. White received his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University. He went on to earn his doctorate in law from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, and holds a Certificate in Higher Education Administration from the Institute for Higher Education Administration at Harvard University.
White began his career as a law professor at Western State University College of Law in suburban Los Angeles, Calif., where he pioneered courses in space law and consumer law, won a teaching award and was a member of an advisory committee to Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. of California on science and technology policy. While there, he also served as assistant to the dean for Governmental Affairs and Student Affairs, and became one of the youngest full professors of law in the United States.
Immediately prior to joining UWF, White served as assistant to the chancellor and university (general) counsel at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW). As a faculty member there, he won four teaching awards, and taught courses in law, ethics and policy, with a special focus on aerospace, cyberspace, media and telecommunication, in addition to the philosophy of law. He also served as a member of the Computer and Internet Legal Issues Committee for the University of North Carolina System and helped negotiate, raise funds for and direct the "Global Virtual University" initiative for UNC with four Japanese universities.
Previously, White served a special appointment as chief of international law and senior assistant attorney general for the newly formed country and former U.S. Trust Territory of the Federated States of Micronesia, where he briefly served as acting attorney general and culminated his service as a delegate to the United Nations. He helped Micronesia to join the United Nations, select its first indigenous attorney general, establish a new communications department and join international agencies such as the International Telecommunications Union, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the World Health Organization and the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium.
White is also a former special deputy attorney general of North Carolina and a former visiting professor of Law, Ethics and Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he pioneered two new courses. Having authored two books and written numerous articles on the law and policy relating to activities in space, including the international regulation of telecommunication satellites, White has advised numerous aerospace trade and professional associations. He was instrumental in the formation of the National Coordinating Committee for Space, a consortium of trade and professional space-related organizations.
White also served as project counsel and associate researcher at the Smithsonian Institution where he assisted in conducting a special space law project and conference series for the nation's capital in commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Constitution of the United States. He also produced and directed the first national symposium on the impact of outer space activities on law and public policy. White's research and teaching specialties in media, telecommunication, space and cyberspace have always had an interdisciplinary orientation, with a special focus on social adjustments to rapidly changing technologies and new environments and their impact on the philosophy and development of law.
