Elaine Kamarck Wikipedia, Age, Husband: Family & Married Life of Political Scientist

Elaine Kamarck is a prominent American political scientist who has made significant contributions to the fields of governance, public policy, and electoral politics. She is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution, a leading think tank in Washington, D.C. She is also a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she teaches courses on American politics, public management, and innovation.
Kamarck has a distinguished career in both academia and government. She has written several books and articles on various topics, such as presidential leadership, government reform, political parties, and primary elections. She has also been involved in many presidential campaigns and served in the Clinton administration as the creator and manager of the National Performance Review, also known as the “reinventing government initiative.”
Elaine Kamarck Wiki/Bio
Name | Elaine Cuilla Kamarck |
---|---|
Birth date and place | 1950, New York City |
Education | A.B. in political science, Bryn Mawr College (1972) M.A. in political science, University of California, Berkeley (1974) Ph.D. in political science, University of California, Berkeley (1986) |
Current positions | Senior fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution Director, Center for Effective Public Management, Brookings Institution Lecturer in public policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government |
Previous positions | Assistant professor of political science, University of Pennsylvania (1986-1989) Senior fellow, Progressive Policy Institute (1989-1993) Senior policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore (1993-1997) Senior policy advisor, Gore 2000 presidential campaign (2000) |
Books | “Practical Politics and Government in the United States” (1986) “Governance.com: Democracy in the Information Age” (2002) “The End of Government-As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work” (2007) “How Change Happens – Or Doesn’t: The Politics of US Public Policy” (2013) “Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again” (2016) “Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates” (2018) |
Awards | John F. Kennedy School of Government Alumni Achievement Award (2017) American Political Science Association’s Herbert A. Simon Award (2015) National Academy |
Elaine Kamarck Wikipedia Details

Elaine Kamarck was born in 1950 (Age: 73 years, as of 2023) in New York City. She grew up in a politically active family, as her father was a lawyer and a Democratic Party activist, and her mother was a teacher and a union leader. She attended Bryn Mawr College, a women’s liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, where she majored in political science and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1972.
She then moved to California, where she pursued her graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her master’s degree in 1974 and her doctorate in 1986, both in political science. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the impact of political parties on public policy in the United States and Western Europe.
Academic Career
After completing her Ph.D., Kamarck joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor of political science. She taught courses on American politics, comparative politics, and public policy. She also wrote her first book, “Practical Politics and Government in the United States,” which was published in 1986.
In 1989, she left academia to join the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist faction of the Democratic Party. She became a senior fellow and a leader of the “New Democrat” movement, which advocated for a modernized and pragmatic approach to governance, emphasizing economic growth, social justice, and national security.
She returned to academia in 1997, when she joined the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a lecturer in public policy. She also became a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she founded and directed the Center for Effective Public Management, a research center that studies how to improve the performance and accountability of the public sector.
She has written several books and articles on various aspects of governance, public policy, and electoral politics, such as:
- “How Change Happens – Or Doesn’t: The Politics of US Public Policy” (2013), which analyzes the factors that enable or hinder policy change in different issue areas, such as health care, education, energy, and immigration.
- “Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again” (2016), which examines the causes and consequences of presidential failures, such as the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, the Iraq War, and the Great Recession, and offers recommendations for improving presidential leadership and management.
- “Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates” (2018), which provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of the history, evolution, and dynamics of the presidential nomination system in the United States.
- “Reforming the Administrative State” (2017), which is a podcast series that explores the challenges and opportunities for reforming the federal bureaucracy and making it more responsive, innovative, and accountable.
Government Service

In addition to her academic career, Elaine Kamarck has also been actively involved in government service and political campaigns. She has been a member of the Democratic National Committee and the DNC’s Rules Committee since 1997. She has participated in four presidential campaigns and in ten nominating conventions, including two Republican conventions, and has served as a superdelegate to five Democratic conventions.
She has also served in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, where she created and managed the National Performance Review, also known as the “reinventing government initiative.” This was a major effort to review and improve the processes, structures, and cultures of the federal government, with the aim of making it more customer-oriented, results-driven, and cost-effective. The initiative resulted in hundreds of recommendations and reforms that saved billions of dollars, reduced thousands of regulations, and improved the quality and delivery of public services.
In 2000, she took a leave of absence from Harvard to work as a senior policy advisor to the Gore presidential campaign. She helped develop and communicate the campaign’s policy agenda, focusing on issues such as health care, education, environment, and technology.
Trump was unable to look to the future in his @TuckerCarlson interview.
— Elaine Kamarck (@EKamarck) August 24, 2023
Instead, he repeated many of the same talking points we have heard before, spent time on the subject of Jeffrey Epstein’s death, and bemoaned the U.S.’s decision to sell the Panama Canal over 40 years ago.
Spouse
Elaine Kamarck is married to Mr. Kamarck, a lawyer and a former federal prosecutor. They have three children. They live in Washington, D.C.
Kamarck is a Roman Catholic and a member of the Catholic Democrats, a group that promotes the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church in the public sphere. She is also an avid reader, a fan of classical music, and a supporter of the arts and culture.
Awards and Recognition
Elaine Kamarck has received several awards and recognition for her work and achievements, such as:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government Alumni Achievement Award, which is the highest honor bestowed by the school to its alumni, in 2017.
- The American Political Science Association’s Herbert A. Simon Award, which recognizes significant contributions to the scientific study of bureaucracy, in 2015.
- The National Academy of Public Administration’s Louis Brownlow Book Award, which recognizes outstanding books on public administration, for her book “The End of Government-As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work,” in 2008.
- The American Society of Public Administration’s Dwight Waldo Award, which recognizes distinguished contributions to the professional literature of public administration, in 2007.
Source
Elaine Kamarck is a prominent American political scientist who has made significant contributions to the fields of governance, public policy, and electoral politics. She is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution, a leading think tank in Washington, D.C. She is also a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she teaches courses on American politics, public management, and innovation.