Michael W. Hail is an Associate of Government at Morehead State University and Director of the MPA program. He also serves as the Assistant Dean of IRAPP. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Delaware, his M.A. in government from EKU, and his A.B. in international economics and philosophy from Centre College. His dissertation was under the direction of Marian Lief Palley and examined cycles of federalism through longitudinal, comparative state case studies of federal rural economic development policy.

Hail serves as Associate Editor of The Federalism Report, the publication of the federalism and intergovernmental relations section of the American Political Science Association. Hail was formerly the Director of Planning, Policy and Research at the University of Kentucky Center for Rural Development, and most recently served as Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Social Issues and Research Associate in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His principal research interests are in federalism and intergovernmental relations, economic development, public policy and program evaluation.