Judy Feder

Judy Feder is a Professor of Public Policy and, from 1999-2008, served as Dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Feder is one of the nation's leaders in health policy--most particularly, in efforts to understand and improve the nation's health insurance system. A widely published scholar, her three decades of policy research began at the Brookings Institution, continued at the Urban Institute, and, since 1984, has flourished at Georgetown University. Her expertise on health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and long-term care is regularly drawn upon by members of Congress, Executive officials, and the national media.

Feder has also held leadership policy positions. As staff director of the congressional Pepper Commission (chaired by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV), Feder is widely credited with setting the stage for the health reform debate of the 1990s. During President Clinton’s first term, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services, where she worked to expand health insurance coverage, effectively manage Medicare and Medicaid, and assure the safety of food and drugs. In 2006 and 2008, Feder was the Democratic nominee for Congress in Virginia’s 10th congressional district.

Feder is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the National Academy of Social Insurance; a former chair and board member of AcademyHealth; a member of the Center for American Progress Action Fund board, the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowships Program Advisory Board, and the Hamilton Project’s Advisory Council; and a senior advisor to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Feder is a political scientist, with a B.A. from Brandeis University (1968) and a Master's (1970) and Ph.D. (1977) from Harvard University.