Cornelius M. Kerwin

Cornelius Kerwin "became American University's fourteenth president on September 1, 2007. He had been AU's acting, then interim, president since August 2005, and served as provost from 1997 until 2005.

"Dr. Kerwin is a long-standing member of the AU community. He received a BA from American University in 1971 (followed by an MA in political science from the University of Rhode Island in 1973, and a PhD in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1978) and has been a member of the AU faculty since 1975. He has held a number of prominent leadership positions within the School of Public Affairs, including his service as dean from 1989 to 1997...

"Under Dr. Kerwin’s leadership, the university established the Center for the Study of Rulemaking in July 2004. As part of its mission to better understand and improve the processes and techniques used by government agencies to develop regulations, the Center organizes conferences, symposia, and workshops, which bring together scholars, public and private sector personnel, and the larger academic community.

"Dr. Kerwin’s experience in the public sector includes work with the Office of Personnel Management, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Administrative Conference of the United States, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Agriculture, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Public Health Service. In the private sector, he has served as a consultant to IBM Corporation and General Electric.

"Dr. Kerwin is active in a number of professional associations and societies. He was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) in 1996. He was president of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) in 1998 and was the founding chair of the Section on Public Law and Administration of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). He is a member of Pi Sigma Alpha and Pi Alpha Alpha national honor societies for the fields of political science and public administration, respectively."


 * Chair (2002), Center for the Global South
 * Advisory Committee, Center for Democracy and Election Management