John L. Palmer

University Professor and Dean Emeritus

Degree

Ph.D., Stanford University, 1971

Specialties

Public policy, public management, public finance, U.S. and comparative social policy, Medicare and Social Security

Biography

One-page biography / Abridged biography

John L. Palmer, Dean Emeritus of the Maxwell School, has served as a University Professor at Syracuse University since 2003. His research and graduate teaching interests focus on federal budget policy, health care financing and retirement income security, comparative social policy, and the challenges posed by world-wide population aging. He is also a regular participant in various of the Maxwell School’s executive education programs, as well as in its signature, interdisciplinary, team-taught undergraduate course, Critical Issues for the United States: Coming to Public Judgment.

Dr. Palmer recently completed two presidentially appointed terms (2000-2008) as a public trustee for the Medicare and Social Security programs. His current external professional activities include co-directing a MacArthur Foundation funded project on “The Fiscal Future of the United States” being carried out under the joint auspices of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration, chairing the research advisory board of the Committee for Economic Development (CED), and serving on the council of academic advisors of The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the board of directors of the New York State Health Foundation. He is also as a trustee of the Central and Western New York State chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

Dr. Palmer has a B.A. in mathematics from Williams College and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University, where he also held his initial faculty appointment. He moved from there in the early 1970s to Washington, D.C., where he occupied several different positions—including senior fellow at both The Brookings Institution and The Urban Institute and assistant secretary for planning and evaluation of the Department of Health and Human Services—before assuming the deanship of the Maxwell School in 1988. Throughout his career he has written and consulted extensively on a wide range of concerns. His publications include 13 books and numerous professional and popular articles. He has testified before Congress on many occasions, been a consultant to government agencies, universities and private foundations, and served as an officer of several national professional associations and on various committees of the National Academy of Sciences and the Social Sciences Research Council. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and past president of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Courses

Fall 2009
The Federal Budget, the Economy, and Entitlement Program Reform