- Phone:
- 812-855-6191
- Email:
- krwhite@iu.edu
Biography
Kirk White joined the Center on Representative Government staff in 2024.
He holds an additional appointment as a member of the IU Emergency Management incident management team and served as co-chair of the IU Bloomington COVID Response Unit (2020-2022).
White joined IU’s professional staff in 1984 after completing his Bachelor of Science degree in the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs and serving as IU’s student body president. He has served IU in several external, alumni, and government relations assignments including vice provost for external relations, assistant vice president for strategic partnerships, director of Hoosiers for Higher Education, and director of alumni clubs.
Local government work
A former elected official, White served eight years as a member of the Bloomington City Council (1988–95) and one term as Monroe County commissioner (1997–2000). In city and county office he focused on land use planning, improving public works, utilities, public safety, emergency management, animal control, and fleet management. The Association of Indiana Counties awarded Monroe County the 2001 Local Government Cooperation Award for an emergency communications system project that White directed.
Military career
Colonel White retired as a field artillery officer in the Indiana Army National Guard in 2020 after 30 years of service. He held command positions at the battery, battalion, brigade, and provisional task force levels while assigned at 2-150th field artillery regiment, 38th infantry division and 81st troop command.
White was called to active duty in support of Operation Enduring Freedom for three overseas mobilizations. He served as chief of an embedded training team with a light infantry battalion of the Afghanistan National Army (2004–05), where he was awarded the Combat Action Badge; a second tour in Afghanistan (2009–10) as commander of a provisional task force responsible for base operations and force protection in Kabul and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal; and as officer-in-charge, Task Force Spartan-Jordan (2019-20) where he served as the senior army officer in Jordan directing the 38th infantry division’s forward command post and assisting Jordanian army partners.
Additional service
White serves as president of the Hoosier Trails Council, Boy Scouts of America, and serves on the boards of the City of Bloomington Utilities Services Board, and United Way of South Central Indiana (past chairman). He was appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court and served as a commissioner on the court’s attorney disciplinary commission (2013-23). White is past chairman of the church council of First United Methodist Church-Bloomington and past president of the Rotary Club of Bloomington North.
Family
White and his wife Janice have two daughters, Reagan, (IU BS, ’20) and Jillian, (IU class of ’24).