Department of Government

Lynn Ross teaches Public Policy Process (PPOL-517) and Public Management (PPOL-580) at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute. She is also the Director of Practica for the MA in American Government Program, and teaches Executive Branch Politics and Policymaking (GOVT-539) for Georgetown’s Government Department. She also trains new State Department Foreign Service Officers at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center.

Before returning to academe, Ross worked for the U.S. Federal Government for almost 15 years. She served in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 1994-2001, and graduated from OMB’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program in 2000.

Ross started her Federal career as a Presidential Management Intern in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), where she served as a personnel management specialist and as a budget officer. She was one of two OPM employees chosen for the federal government’s Executive Potential Program. She has had experience working on Capitol Hill with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, as well as with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. She has received more than a dozen professional awards in government for outstanding service and special achievement.

Dr. Ross holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton, a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in American Government from Georgetown University.

Her academic interests focus on the bureaucracy, the Presidency, Presidential electoral politics, and budgetary politics. She has written chapters in academic compilations on democratic government and the 2000 Presidential election. She has delivered several papers at academic and professional conferences, and she authored a book-length annotated bibliography and resource guide on career advancement in the Federal service. Originally from Upstate New York, Dr. Ross now lives in Arlington, Virginia with her 8-year-old son, Sam.