Political scientist Henry Brady new Goldman School dean
| 20 March 2009
BERKELEY — Political scientist Henry E. Brady, a leading scholar of public opinion, political movements, politics and public policy in the United States, Canada, Russia, Estonia and other countries, has been appointed dean of the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.
Henry Brady The Goldman School was founded in 1969 as one of the nation's first graduate programs of its kind. Through the 1970s, it led the modern public policy movement in American universities, and today it is consistently rated as one of the top two public policy schools in the United States, according to rankings by U.S. News & World Report. The school prepares nearly 200 students every year for careers in national and international policy analysis, program evaluation, management and planning — most of them in its two-year master’s program and about 20 in its Ph.D. program.
"In the last forty years, policy analysis has become an important force in Washington, Sacramento and around the world for developing better public policies based upon reasoned analysis," Brady said. "With the new millennium, better public policy has become a global concern with the challenges of global warming, world food and economic security, AIDS in Africa, stopping terrorism and improving governance."
He noted that the Internet and information technology have changed the ways that public policy is formulated, advanced and evaluated, while science and engineering have become essential components of more and more public issues such as global warming, homeland security, public infrastructure and telecommunications policy. Because of that, he said, he sees the Goldman School leading the way in showing how public policy can creatively use the Internet and information technology, how policy analysis can contribute to solving problems around the world, and how public policy approaches can be integrated into scientific and engineering analysis.
"To do this, the Goldman School will surely continue to improve the techniques of policy analysis, but it will also work to prepare the next generation of policy entrepreneurs who will provide both rational policy analysis and outstanding leadership to make public policy work," he said.
George Breslauer, UC Berkeley executive vice chancellor and provost, said Brady is "a giant in the field of political science, a wide-ranging intellect who holds Ph.D.s in both political science and economics, and a proven academic administrator. Chancellor Birgeneau and I are very excited that Henry has agreed to lead the Goldman School of Public Policy to new heights of achievement and influence. We look forward to working with him toward that end."
Brady earned his bachelor of science degree in mathematics and physics at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif., in 1969 and was a master of divinity student for a brief time at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He then worked in and around government in Washington, D.C., for four years in the early 1970s, and his jobs included a stint in the Federal Office of Management and Budget. He received Ph.D.s in both economics and political science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980.
He taught at UC Berkeley from 1978 to 1984, and returned in 1990 after teaching at Harvard University and the University of Chicago. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Brady is co-director of the Goldman School's Class of '68 Center on Civility and Democratic Engagement. He is the director of the Survey Research Center, a UC Berkeley laboratory for social scientists developing research tools for gathering and compiling data about people's attitudes, behaviors, relationships and experiences. Brady also is director of UC DATA (Data Archive and Technical Assistance).
In the 1990s, Brady led major evaluations of welfare reforms in California and contributed to state welfare reform legislation. After the 2000 presidential election and the butterfly ballot snafu in Florida, Brady became an advocate for replacing punch card ballots. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals briefly halted the 2003 California gubernatorial recall vote, in part due to Brady's research on how punch card systems disproportionately lost votes in minority communities.
A 2003 profile of Brady is on the College of Letters and Science Web site. Information about his compensation is online at the UC Regents' salaries and compensation Web site.