David Osborne
David Osborne
American Author
Awards Luncheon
Friday, October 26th 11:30am-1:00pm
David Osborne is the author or co-author of six nonfiction books: Reinventing America’s Schools: Creating a 21st Century School System, published in September 2017;
The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis (2004); The Reinventor’s Fieldbook: Tools for Transforming Your Government (2000); Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government (1997); Reinventing Government (1992); and Laboratories of Democracy (1988).
He has also authored numerous articles for the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, Harpers, The New Republic, Inc., Governing, Education Week, U.S. News, and others. In February 2017 he published his first novel, The Coming, based on the life of explorer William Clark’s Nez Perce son. It won a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America as the best historical novel of the year.
A long-time senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, David currently directs a project on Reinventing America’s Schools at PPI, supported by the Walton Family Foundation and the Arnold Foundation.
From 1994 through 2014, David was a senior partner of The Public Strategies Group, a consulting firm that helped public organizations improve their performance. He worked with governments large and small, from cities, counties, and school districts to states, federal agencies, and foreign governments. He lectured widely around the globe and advised presidents, ministers, governors, mayors, city managers, and other leaders.
In 1993, David served as a senior advisor to Vice President Gore, to help run what the Vice President called his “reinventing government task force,” the National Performance Review. He was the chief author of the NPR report, which laid out the Clinton Administration’s reinvention agenda, called by Time “the most readable federal document in memory.” In 2000 he served as an advisor to the Gore presidential campaign.
David also serves as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a Congressionally chartered organization similar to the National Academy of Sciences. From 1992 through 1997, he served as chairman of the Alliance for Redesigning Government, a National Academy initiative to help public sector leaders learn more about reinvention and redesign. He also served for 20 years as a member of the National Selection Committee for the Innovations in American Government Awards.
Much of David’s work, including two of his books, can be found at his website, www.reinventgov.com. His more recent work on education can be found at www.progressivepolicy.org. And his novel website is www.davidosbornethecoming.com.
