Brent Never

Brent Never serves as Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Henry W. Bloch School of Management, while directing the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership. His dual role bridges academic scholarship with practical nonprofit sector engagement across Kansas City.

His research employs Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial regression to analyze underserved communities and financially distressed nonprofits within decentralized human service systems. This work extends to urban blight mitigation through data-driven approaches, notably the Alteryx Excellence Award-winning Abandoned to Vibrant (A2V) consortium addressing abandoned housing. His methodology integrates property violations, 311 calls, crime data, and Census demographics to transform blighted properties into productive community assets.

Recent publications demonstrate consistent evolution from nonprofit financial distress analysis toward cutting-edge applications of deep learning for abandoned property identification and zero-fare transit health impact studies. This trajectory reflects growing emphasis on spatial analytics for public policy innovation, particularly in human services delivery and urban revitalization.

His scientific recognition includes:

• Fulbright Scholar appointments in Benin (2003-04) and Northern Ireland (2007)
• Kresge Foundation Young Scholar Research Grant (2011-2013)
• Alteryx Excellence Award for civic data innovation (2018)
• Elmer F. Pierson Award for Teaching Excellence
• Bloch Student Award for Impactful Teaching

Never advises students across Master of Public Administration, Executive MPA, Executive MBA, and MBA programs while securing foundation funding for spatial policy research. His service includes ARNOVA Track Chair duties (2014-2016), manuscript reviewing for top journals, and civic engagement through Kansas City's Citizens’ Commission on Municipal Revenue.

The Abandoned to Vibrant consortium exemplifies his translational research approach, collaborating with KCMO Open Data, Land Bank of Kansas City, Legal Aid of Western Missouri, and neighborhood groups to convert Alteryx-powered data analytics into tangible urban renewal outcomes across historically redlined corridors.