Don Moynihan

Donald Moynihan is the Ford School's J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy. Previously he served as Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy Chair of Public Policy and the director of the La Follette School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Moynihan's research seeks to improve how government works by studying the administrative burdens people encounter in their interactions with the government. He co-directs the Better Government Lab, which looks for technology and other types of interventions to help government improve access to the social safety net.

Moynihan has presented his research to policymakers at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, OECD, the Government Accountability Office, as well as governments around the world. His writing and research have been cited in President Obama's and President Biden's budget proposals, OMB policy guidance under President Biden, and media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and other publications.

In 2026, Moynihan was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Frederickson Award for lifetime contributions to the field of public management from the Public Management Research Association. He is the past winner of the Kershaw Award provided by Mathematica and the Association of Public Policy and Management (APPAM) to one scholar under the age of 40 for outstanding contributions to the study of public policy and management. Also in 2014, he had two papers listed among the 75 most influential published in the then-75-year history of Public Administration Review. His book on performance management won awards from the American Political Science Association and the Academy of Management, and his 2018 book on administrative burdens received awards from the National Academy of Public Administration, the American Society of Public Administration, the American Political Science Association, and the Academy of Management. In 2011 he won the National Academy of Public Administration award for scholarship in social equity. Moynihan received the 2012 Distinguished Research Award from ASPA and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. In 2022 he was awarded the Herbert Simon award for the Midwestern Political Science Association for the scientific study of bureaucracy.

Moynihan is the former president of APPAM. He is the former President of the Public Management Research Association.