Dr. Jim Doti

James Doti earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.  He currently holds the Rick Muth Family Chair in Economics.

He was appointed president of Chapman University in 1991 and served for 25 years.  During that time, Chapman University’s overall rank in U.S. News & World Report increased from 61 in 1991 to 7 in 2016.  Its rank in student selectivity increased from 92 in 1991 to 3 in 2016.  During the 1991 to 2016 period, Chapman advanced more rapidly in the rankings than any other school in higher education.  In September 2016, he returned to the Chapman faculty.

In Dr. Doti’s honor, Ambassador Ron Spogli established the new Doti-Spogli Chair in Free Enterprise at the Argyros School of Business and Economics, which will introduce students to fundamental texts and explore the impact of free enterprise.

Before serving as president of the university, Dr. Doti founded the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research.  The Center’s inaugural Orange County Forecast, presented in December 1978, was the first economic forecast in the U.S. to be based on an urban econometric model. In December 2025, Dr. Doti presented the forecast before 4,000 people at Chapman’s 48^th Economic Forecast conference.

Dr. Doti is the author of “Using Data Analytics to Drive Transformational Change – The Chapman University Model, published by Bloomsbury Academic and selected to be included in the ACE Series on Higher Education. This book describes the strategies that guided Chapman’s transformation during Doti’s 25-year presidency at Chapman University. As described by Lucie Lapovsky, Principal of Lapovsky Consulting, “Jim Doti has done a masterful job of portraying the complex job of college president as a leader and visionary.” The President of High Point University, Dr. Nido Qubein, wrote, “Jim Doti is a brilliant leader and an impactful author. His extraordinary career has given birth to this outstanding book. I read it, learned from it, and I highly recommend it. It’s a great work.”

Dr. Doti also co-authored two econometric texts – “Econometric Analysis with EViews” and “Statistical Analysis with Excel." He is also the co-editor of a collection of readings in free enterprise that received the Templeton Honor Award for Scholarly Excellence.

Dr. Doti’s articles have appeared in academic journals as well as periodicals such as The Wall Street Journal and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dr. Doti also enjoys distance running, biking, and mountain climbing. His latest book recounts some of his favorite experiences in An Adventure Log – A Chronicle of Climbing, Running, and Biking, a book that also includes articles contributed by his fellow adventurers. The 25 articles in “Adventure Log” including climbing all 7 Summits, training for an Ironman, biking the RAGBRAI, and the special experiences of running four different Boston Marathons.

He has completed 60 full marathons, including ten runnings of the famed Boston Marathon.  He climbed five of the world’s famed Seven Summits.  He is also an avid reader and writer.  He has written three children’s books, the third of which, “Jimmy Trilogy,” I Love You This Much, Nonna, has been named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2018.

Dr. Doti is a recipient of the Horatio Alger Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.