Bill McKee grew up in a Missouri Ozarks farm family that moved to town for work on the railroad. He is Professor Emeritus of Applied Economics at the University of North Texas and former chair of the Southwest/Rockies region of the NAA. He is a second-term member of the NAA’s Board of Governors
and currently is in his first year as vice-president.
After completing graduate studies in economics, Bill received a post-doctoral appointment at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where he served from 1977-78. In 1978 he joined the faculty at the University of North Texas. Bill is a founding member of the Texas Labor-Management Conference and the Texas Mediator Credentialing Association. At UNT he served as Professor of Applied Economics, Executive Assistant to the Chancellor, Academic Integrity Officer, Faculty Athletic Representative to the NCAA, and chair of his department. He founded/co-founded the Master’s Program in Labor and Industrial Relations, Interdisciplinary Minor in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Denton County Dispute
Resolution System, and the Academic Integrity Office.
A labor and employment arbitrator on panels of the AAA, FMCS, and U.S. Olympics, he has arbitrated/mediated disputes in virtually all industries and sectors of the US economy on a wide range of issues. His arbitration experience includes several complex cases in the airlines industry, including interest, scheduling, and subcontracting disputes. Bill also arbitrated a large, complex international construction dispute for the AAA International Centre for Dispute Resolution as the single arbitrator. He is an appointed panel arbitrator by several other employers and unions.
Bill was selected as Faculty Athletic Representative of the Year by the All-American Football Foundation in 2003. In 2004 he was elected to the Texas Labor Management Conference Hall of Fame. Bill served two years on active duty in the US Army and five years in the Army Reserve and National Guard.