For the last eleven years, the author has been a professor of Public Policy at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Prior to this, he was the executive director of the National Governors Association (NGA) for 28 years. This bi-partisan organization represents the nation’s governors and state governments on domestic policy issues that come before the U.S. Congress. Prior to NGA, he worked for seven years at the non-partisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office, serving the last two years as the Deputy Director.He has written numerous professional articles and authored or co-authored four public policy books. The author received his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Connecticut.