Death & Taxes

Whitney Afonso

Whitney Afonso is a professor of public administration and government at the School of Government. Her research focuses on state and local public finance with an emphasis on local sales taxes. Afonso won the Burkhead Award for best manuscript published in Public Budgeting and Finance in 2015 and the Curro Award for best student paper in 2010. She also has served on the executive committee of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management since 2018.

In addition to her traditional research and teaching, her position at UNC engages her with elected officials and practitioners within the state. Afonso serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory; Public Budgeting & Finance; and State and Local Government Review. She also serves as an executive committee member for the Association for Budgeting & Financial Management. Afonso is the liaison for the North Carolina Local Government Budget Association.

She received her bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University, completed a master's program at Texas A&M University, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.