Biography

Ben Goehring is an assistant professor of public policy in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.  He studies American political institutions, with a particular focus on executive branch politics at the state and federal levels. Among other topics, his work examines how the public responds to unilateral presidential actions like executive orders, the effects of state civil service reforms that make it easier to fire government employees, and the causes of correctional officer understaffing in U.S. prisons. 

Ben received his PhD in political science and public policy from the University of Michigan and his BA from George Washington University. Before graduate school, he worked at the Urban Institute studying means-tested public assistance programs.