Michael Waldman has been president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School since 2005. Under his leadership, the organization has worked to spread awareness on the most vital issues of democracy and justice. During the general election of 2008, the Center’s efforts protected the voting rights of at least 500,000 Americans. The Boston Globe recently called the Brennan Center “indispensable.”
Mr. Waldman makes frequent television and radio appearances to discuss public policy and the Center’s work. His writing is also frequently featured in national publications such as The New York Times, the Washington Post, and Newsweek, and on websites such as The Huffington Post and Slate. He is the author of several books, including The Fight to Vote (2016), My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America’s Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama (2003), A Return to Common Sense (2007) and POTUS Speaks (2000).
From 1989 until 1992, Mr. Waldman served as executive director of Congress Watch at Public Citizen — at the time the nation’s largest consumer lobbying organization. He left Congress Watch to work in the Clinton Administration, serving first as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination and then as Director of Speechwriting. In the latter position he was responsible for writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, including four State of the Union Addresses and both of President Clinton’s Inaugural Addresses. He also drafted the Clinton Administration’s public campaign financing proposal.
After his time in the White House Mr. Waldman spent two years as a lecturer at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and was a partner in a litigation law firm. He graduated from Columbia College and earned his J.D. from New York University Law School.
