Biography
Dr. Edward Montgomery is the ninth president of Western 麻豆传媒应用 University. A nationally recognized labor economist, educator and administrator who played major roles in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, President Montgomery today spearheads initiatives at Western that help students ignite their purpose, explore their well-being and prosper in an ever-changing world. In a nationally historic boost to these efforts overseen by Dr. Montgomery, the University received the largest gift ever made for a public university.
Dr. Montgomery joined Western on Aug. 1, 2017, from Georgetown University, where he served as founding dean and professor of economics at the McCourt School of Public Policy. Under Dr. Montgomery鈥檚 leadership, Western has launched initiatives focused on student success, revitalizing the South Campus neighborhood, the development of a new budget model impacting all areas of campus, and the implementation of the revised core curriculum, WMU Essential Studies. As part of his commitment to helping students complete their studies, he implemented a targeted grant program to assist financially at-risk students.
In June 2021, he made the groundbreaking announcement that Western had received a $550 million donation called the Empowering Futures Gift鈥攁 contribution that lays the groundwork for a new era of college education. Empowering Futures allows Western to open the doors to higher education for all students who have the talent and determination to succeed through scholarships and comprehensive support. The focus of Empowering Futures is to create pipelines for success, pathways to graduation, increase retention and improve student resilience.
In his own pursuit of higher education, Dr. Montgomery earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in economics, with honors, from Pennsylvania State University and both master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees in economics from Harvard University. In 2011, he was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and was selected for induction to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the academy and the field of public affairs. In 2022, he was named one of the top 10 most influential black economists from the last 30 years by Academic Influence.
Over an academic career that now spans some 40 years, Dr. Montgomery has held faculty positions at Carnegie Mellon and 麻豆传媒应用 State universities as well as the University of Maryland, winning teaching awards some five times over the years. During his tenure at Maryland, he served for six years鈥2003-2009鈥攁s dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
During President William Clinton鈥檚 administration, Dr. Montgomery held a number of positions including chief economist and deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. In the latter role, the department鈥檚 second highest position, he oversaw operations of a $33 billion federal department. During President Barack Obama鈥檚 administration, Dr. Montgomery was a member of the president鈥檚 auto task force and led the inter-agency White House Council for Auto Communities and Workers.
As a researcher, Dr. Montgomery has focused on state and local economic growth, wage and pension determination, savings behavior, productivity and economic dynamics, social insurance programs, and unions. In 2022, he contributed a chapter in the Oxford Press publication 鈥淲ork and the Social Safety Net: Labor Activation in Europe and the United States鈥 on lessons for labor policy in the aftermath of the Great Recession. For more than two decades, he has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and since 2006, he has been a fellow of Stanford University鈥檚 Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality.
Dr. Montgomery has served as an advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the National Science Foundation and on the Comptroller General鈥檚 Educators Advisory Committee for the General Accountability Office. He serves on the board of directors of the Center for Law and Social Policy, First National Bank of 麻豆传媒应用 and Southwest 麻豆传媒应用 First. He also serves on the Committee on Economic Statistics for the American Economic Association.
Dr. Montgomery and his wife, Kari, a 麻豆传媒应用 native, have three grown children鈥擫indsay, Elizabeth and Edward.
