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Paul H. O’Neill
School of Public and Environmental Affairs

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  • John D. Graham

John D. Graham

Professor

Headshot
Phone:
(812) 855-3933
Email:
grahamjd@iu.edu
Research areas:
Environmental and Energy Policy
Governance and Public Law
Methods Econometrics and Data Management
Policy Analysis
Social Policy and Health
Sustainability and Sustainable Development
Areas of Interest:
Government reform
Energy and the environment
The future of the automobile
Presidential studies
SPEA 415

Education

  • Ph.D., Urban and Public Affairs, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1983
  • M.A, Public Affairs, Duke University, 1980
  • B.A., (with honors), Economics and Politics, Wake Forest University, 1978

Courses

  • National and International Policy (honors)
  • International Energy Issues: A Nation-State Perspective

Biography

Print-quality photo

Curriculum Vitae

John D. Graham was born in 1956 and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in politics and economics at Wake Forest University in 1978, where he also won national awards as an intercollegiate debater. He earned his Master of Arts in public policy at Duke University in 1980 before serving as staff associate to Chairman Howard Raiffa's Committee on Risk and Decision Making of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. His Carnegie-Mellon University doctoral dissertation on automobile safety, written at the Brookings Institution, was cited in pro-airbag decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 and by Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole in 1985.

Dr. Graham joined the Harvard School of Public Health as a post-doctoral fellow in 1983 and as an assistant professor in 1985. He taught methods of decision analysis and cost-benefit analysis to physicians and graduate students in public health. His prolific writings addressed both the analytic and institutional aspects of lifesaving policies. In 1991, at age 34, Graham earned tenure at Harvard.

From 1990 to 2001, Graham founded and led the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA). By raising over $10 million in project grants and philanthropic contributions, Graham helped support eight new faculty positions and dozens of post-doctoral and doctoral students. By 2001, HCRA became internationally recognized for analytic contributions to environmental protection, injury prevention, and medical technology innovation.

In 1995, Graham was elected president of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA), an international membership organization of 2,400 scientists and engineers. Graham reached out to risk analysts in Europe, China, Japan, and Australia as he helped organize the first World Congress on Risk Analysis in Brussels in 2000. In 2009, Graham received the SRA's Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, the society’s highest award for excellence.

Dr. Graham is widely known to the public and opinion leaders through his entertaining speeches about why Americans are both paranoid and neglectful of risks in their daily lives. He has made several prime-time television appearances, including a significant contribution to John Stossel's ABC special, “Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?” and he has spoken frequently to groups of reporters, business leaders, and government officials.

In March 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Graham to serve as Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. He was confirmed by the Senate in July 2001. Located in the Executive Office of the President, this small office of 50 career policy analysts oversees the regulatory, information, and statistical activities of the federal government. In this capacity, Graham worked to slash the growth of regulatory costs by 70 percent while encouraging regulations that save lives, prevent disease, and protect the environment.

From March 2006 to July 2008, Graham was dean of the Frederick Pardee RAND Graduate School (PRGS) at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. PRGS is the largest doctoral program in policy analysis in the world. Graham streamlined the core curriculum, established new analytic concentrations, revised program requirements to enable students to launch their dissertations more promptly, and raised funds from individuals and corporations to support scholarships, dissertation support, and policy papers co-authored by students and RAND researchers.

On July 28, 2008, Graham became the dean of the unique two-campus, $56 million professional school, the Indiana University O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He served as dean until August 1, 2019, and continues on as a faculty member. 

During Graham’s tenure as dean, the School’s enrollment grew to more than 2,100 undergraduate students, nearly 600 master’s students, and nearly 80 doctoral students. The full-time faculty members, which include laboratory scientists, social scientists, lawyers, and policy specialists, have almost doubled the number of research articles they produce annually since 2008.

Additionally, under Graham’s deanship, O’Neill’s Master’s in Public Affairs Program on the Bloomington campus rose to No. 1 out of 272 programs in the 2016 U.S. News and World Report national survey. He raised more than $37 million in philanthropic support for the school and, with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and donors, implemented a strategic planning process to guide the School, resulting in the publication of SPEA 2015. A new process called SPEA 2020 is underway. During his tenure, student enrollment in overseas study programs has tripled and the first fully online MPA program offered by a top graduate school in public affairs, O'Neill Online, was launched.

Throughout his tenure in academia, he has authored or coauthored 10 books and more than 200 articles for academic journals and national publications. Graham has also continued to be involved in policy at a global scale. In 2013, he returned to Brussels, Belgium, to testify before the European Parliament's Trade Committee about barriers to free trade. He has delivered invited testimony to numerous House and Senate Committees, state and federal agencies, and the European Commission and Parliament. The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) praised Graham as a pioneer in bringing insights from risk analysis to federal clean-air legislation.

Dr. Graham is married to Susan Woerner Graham, a certified financial planner. They have two daughters, Jennifer and Katie. The Grahams share interests in duplicate bridge, golf, and ballroom dancing.



Highlights

  • Elected Fellow, National Academy of Public Administration
  • 2008 Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, Society for Risk Analysis
  • Dean, The Pardee RAND Graduate School, RAND Corporation
  • 2002 Alumni Merit Award, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, US Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President
  • Founding Director, Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health

In the News

  • "Regulatory reform, benefit-cost analysis, and the poor" - The Regulatory Review, March 8, 2022
  • "What damages should the feds consider when regulating carbon?” - The Hill, March 4, 2022

Selected Works

  • Regulatory Reform from Nixon to Biden:Politics, Economics, and Law, Edward Elgar Publishing (2024)
  • "Incorporating Environmental Justice Into Benefit-Cost Analysis of Federal Rulemakings,"Richmond Public Interest Law Review, 25 (3) 6, (2022)
  • "Consumer Adoption of Plug-In Electric Vehicles in Selected Countries," (with E. Brungard), Future Transportation, 1 (2) 303-25 (August 2021)
  • The Global Rise of the Modern Plug-In Electric Vehicle: Public Policy, Innovation and Strategy, Edward Elgar Publishing, Northhampton, Mass., (April 2021)
  • “Regulatory Reform in the Trump Era,” (with K. Krutilla and K.B. Belton), Public Administration Review, 77 (5) 643-44 (August 29, 2017)
  • A Macroeconomic Study of Federal and State Automotive Regulations with Recommendations for Analysts, Regulators, and Legislators with Recommendations for Analysts, Regulators, and Legislators, (with S. Carley, D. Duncan, S. Siddiki, and N. Zirogiannis), IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs (March 2017)
  • Obama on the Home Front: Triumphs and Setbacks, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Ind. (2016)
  • "Rethinking Auto Fuel Economy Policy:Technical and Policy Suggestions for the 2016-17 Midterm Reviews," (with S. Carley, D. Duncan, D. Esposito, S. Siddiki, N. Zirogiannis), Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (February 2016)
  • Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT) Chemicals, (with A. Abelkop and T. Royer) CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla. (2015)
  • Public Administration and the Modern State: Assessing Trends and Impact (with E. Bohne, J. C. N. Raadschelders, Eds., in collaboration J. P. Lehrke). New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2014)
  • “’Not in (or under) my backyard’: Geographic proximity and public acceptance of carbon capture and storage facilities,” (with S. Carley, J. Rupp, and D. Warren), Risk Analysis, 34(3): 529-540 (2014)
  • “Bumpy designs: impact of privacy and technology costs on support for road mileage user fees,” (with A. Bowers, D. Duncan, S. Giroux and N. Venkata) National Tax Journal, 67(3): 505-530 (2014)
  • "Predictors of attitudes toward carbon capture and storage using data on world views and CCS-specific attitudes," (with D. C. Warren, S. R. Carley, R. M. Krause, J. A. Rupp) Science and Public Policy, 41(6): 821-834 (2014)
  • “Regulatory and quasi-regulatory activity without OMB and cost-benefit review,” (with C. R. Liu), Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, 37(2) (2014)
  • America’s Poor and the Great Recession (with K. S. Seefeldt). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, (2013)
  • “Perception and reality: public knowledge of plug-in electric vehicles in 21 American cities,” (with S. Carley, R. Krause, and B. W. Lane), Environmental Science and Technology63: 433-440 (2013)
  • Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press (2010)
  • “Saving Lives through Administrative Law and Economics,”University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Volume 157 (2), 395-540 (December 2008)
  • “Five-hundred lifesaving interventions and their cost-effectiveness,” (with T.O. Tengs, M.E. Adams, J.S. Pliskin, D.G. Safran, J. Siegel, and M.C. Weinstein), Risk Analysis, Volume 15, No.3,369-389 (1995)

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