Dyer Elected to the National Academy of Public Administration

MIT Sloan Research Affiliate Barbara Dyer (pictured above) is one of 39 leaders in the field of public administration who have been elected to the 2021 Class of Academy Fellows of the National Academy of Public Administration. Dyer, who is currently a Research Affiliate with the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) and was the founding Executive Director of the Good Companies, Good Jobs Initiative at MIT Sloan, will be inducted as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration during the Academy’s Fall Meeting, which will take place November 3-9.

“I am very pleased to welcome the Academy’s 2021 class of Fellows,” Terry Gerton, President and CEO of the Academy, said in a news release. “Our distinguished Fellows are nationally recognized for their expertise in the field of public administration and this year’s incoming class is no exception. As government at every level continues to manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to addressing public concerns regarding equity, the environment, the nation’s fiscal health and others, we welcome our new Fellows’ perspective as we work collaboratively to find intergovernmental solutions to the Grand Challenges in Public Administration.”

Chartered by Congress to provide non-partisan expert advice, the National of Public Administration Academy is an independent, nonprofit, and nonpartisan organization established in 1967 to assist government leaders in building more effective, efficient, accountable, and transparent organizations.

Barbara Dyer was president and CEO of The Hitachi Foundation prior to joining the MIT faculty. Under her leadership, the Foundation was an influential force in bringing focus to the role of business in society. She was instrumental in shaping major national collaborative philanthropic initiatives that received high honors proffered by the Council on Foundations, including the Critical Impact and the Distinguished Grantmaker awards.

Dyer’s extensive career in public policy included serving as special assistant to the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior; director of policy studies with the Council of Governors’ Policy Advisors; an affiliate of the National Governors’ Association; deputy executive director of the Western Regional Office of the Council of State Governments; and founding director of the National Academy of Public Administration’s Alliance for Redesigning Government. Earlier in her career she served as executive director of a community nonprofit organization in Alameda County, California, and helped to launch an experimental school within a public high school as a teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Dyer has been a trustee of Clark University and was a member the American University School of Public Affairs Dean’s Advisory Council. She also cofounded and was the first chair of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

She is a graduate of Clark University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government.

You can read more about Dyer’s work at MIT Sloan in a recent interview with her, “The Good Jobs Imperative.”