Patricia McGinnis

Pat McGinnis is President and CEO of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government. The Council’s mission is to improve the performance of government at all levels and to increase citizen confidence and participation. Among major Council initiatives are its leadership programs for Presidential Appointees and White House Staff, organized at the request of the Bush and Clinton administrations. The Council’s Center for Democracy and Citizenship organizes bipartisan retreats for legislators in the U.S. Congress and also at the state level. Other leadership initiatives target senior career managers in federal and state governments. The Council’s Technology Leadership Consortium, which convenes leaders in business, government, and the research communities, has produced a blueprint for harnessing information and communications technology in the public interest. Detailed descriptions of Council programs can be found at its web site – www.excelgov.org.

Before coming to the Council, McGinnis was a co-founder and Principal of the FMR Group, a public affairs consulting firm in Washington, D.C., where she concentrated on education, energy, and communications policy. In government, she served in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where she led the effort to create the Department of Education. She also held posts at the Senate Budget Committee, and the Departments of Commerce and Health and Human Services.

McGinnis has served on numerous committee and boards, including the Dean’s Alumni Leadership Council of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Board of Visitors at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and is currently a Director of the Brown Shoe Company in St. Louis, Missouri, Imagitas, Inc. in Waltham, Massachusetts and Logistics Management Institute in McLean, VA.

She holds a B.A. in political science from Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia and a M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.