Department of Government

Jeffry Burnam

Visiting Professor of Government
Associate Director, MA Program in American Government
Suite 106, 3240 Prospect St.
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C. 20057

Phone

703-385-8176

Email: Burnamj@georgetown.edu

Office Hours

Monday 4-6 (ICC 661)
Tuesday 4-6 (3240 Prospect St)
Wednesday 4-6 (3240 Prospect St.)

Bio

Professor Burnam teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on American politics, including an undergraduate internship seminar on divided government and graduate seminars on the theory and practice of American Government. He received his B.A. from Cornell University, his M.A. (Public Law) and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago and a Senior Manager’s Certificate from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Professor Burnam has had an extensive career in public service. From 1979-2000, while on the professional staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, he helped draft nuclear safety legislation in the aftermath of the accident at Three Mile Island. From 1981-2001, he served as legislative assistant to Senator Richard G. Lugar and on the staff of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, where he helped draft legislation on energy, environmental and forestry issues. Among his domestic legislative accomplishments are the creation of a wilderness area in the Hoosier National Forest, provisions of the Acid Rain Title of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and key energy and forestry laws included in 1990, 1995 and 2001 Farm Bills. In the international arena, he was the staff coauthor of the Global Environmental Protection Assistance Act of 1989 (Debt for Nature) and of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act of 1998.

From 2001-2007, Dr. Burnam was a senior official in the U.S. Department of State, where he focused on African and international environmental issues, including formation of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership and implementation of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act and of the Montreal Protocol to Protect the Ozone Layer.

Dr. Burnam has spoken at many diplomatic and academic conferences and has testified before Congress on several occasions. His primary research interests are in presidential-congressional relations and in environmental policy and politics.