School of Government & Policy

Governing institutions are struggling to keep pace with a world transforming around them. Johns Hopkins isn’t just lamenting the problem—we’re building a school to help solve it.

Rigorous research. Real-world partnerships. A new generation of leaders ready to diagnose what’s broken, design what’s needed, and build institutions that deliver impact.

An inflection point.

The institutions running today’s world were built for a different one. The problem isn’t a shortage of good policy ideas. It’s that the systems meant to deliver them too often fail—and the gap between what government promises and what it produces keeps widening.

Johns Hopkins launched this school to close that gap, drawing on a research tradition applied over 150 years to medicine, engineering and public health. Faculty and researchers work inside government systems, turning evidence into policy and policy into results. Students work alongside them, trained to understand the challenge and prepared to fix it.
Two young men work on research together on a computer screen

PLACEHOLDER (from existing website): “This new school will draw on our university’s existing strengths and emerging areas of expertise to offer a different approach to the work of government and policy, one that can help rebuild confidence in our institutions and advance new and needed approaches for more effective government.”

-Ron Daniels,
President of johns Hopkins university
WHERE WE BEGIN

Our values.

Working to reimagine and build effective governing institutions that solve public problems.

THE HOPKINS STANDARD

Grounded in rigor, innovation, and creativity.

Everything we do is grounded in the rigor, innovation, and creativity that defines Johns Hopkins University. Hopkins has spent 150 years turning evidence into results—from space exploration to life-saving treatments to data that shapes global decision-making. This school brings that same standard to governing institutions. 

Hopkins chose to build this school from scratch because meeting this moment requires something that didn’t exist yet. No outdated curriculum. No artificial divide between policy creation and implementation. Every course, faculty hire and research agenda is designed for the demands of governing in the 21st century. 

INTELLECTUAL PLURALISM

Ideas sharpened by engagement.

The hardest governance problems resist any single ideology or approach.

The School of Government and Policy brings together diverse disciplines, ideologies, and worldviews in the classroom, in its research, and in the partnerships it builds. Economists alongside philosophers. Liberals alongside conservatives. Scholars alongside practitioners.

Graduates leave equipped to test assumptions and build cross-ideological coalitions. This commitment reflects Johns Hopkins’ conviction that genuine dialogue means engaging ideas that challenge us, not just the ones that confirm what we already believe.

IMPACT THROUGH PARTNERSHIP

Connecting ideas to action.

The school builds active partnerships with governments — federal agencies, city halls, and communities — working alongside institutions to design reforms, test solutions, and put them into practice. These partnerships extend to academic institutions, think tanks, and organizations from across the ideological spectrum.

Our students learn by doing, working alongside world-class academic faculty and practitioners who have shaped and implemented policy.

Where policy is made.

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Meet our faculty

  • Michael Clemens

  • Gillian K. Hadfield

    Gillian Hadfield

  • Francesca Molinari

  • Bhaven N. Sampat

    Bhaven Sampat