Arthur C. Brooks, professor of public administration at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, has been chosen to head the prestigious American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, beginning January 1, 2009. Brooks, who is currently the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy, has been a member of the Maxwell School faculty since 2001.

Brooks will be the eleventh president of AEI, a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare. Founded in 1943, AEI is home to some of America’s most accomplished policy experts whose work informs government officials and legislators, teachers and students, business, journalists, and citizens on a full range of policy issues. Brooks has been a visiting scholar at the institute since 2007.

“We are enormously proud of Arthur’s success and of the recognition of his intellect and accomplishments,” says Maxwell School Dean Mitchel Wallerstein. “He will be missed by his students and his faculty colleagues. He is a talented scholar and teacher whose research and writing have brought much credit to the School and whose commitment to the community has benefited the City of Syracuse and the Central New York region. At the same time, we are pleased and honored that such a prominent Washington organization has seen fit to tap a member of the Maxwell faculty to be its next leader – a position that exemplifies the Maxwell commitment to citizenship and public affairs.”

Brooks observes that “while I am saddened to leave Maxwell and SU at the end of the calendar year, I am confident that AEI and Maxwell will develop a great collaborative relationship in the coming months and years, as makes sense for two leading public policy institutions. I am exceptionally proud to have served on Maxwell’s outstanding faculty for the past 7 years. Maxwell is the leader in public policy education and recognized as such in AEI and around Washington.”

At Maxwell, Brooks teaches courses in policy analysis, microeconomics, public and nonprofit management, and social entrepreneurship. He has written dozens of academic articles, scores of magazine and newspaper columns, and 7 books – most recently, Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America – and How We Can Get More of It (Basic Books, 2008). He has won the School’s Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for outstanding teaching and the Birkhead-Burkhead Teaching Excellence Award. Preceding his work in academia, Brooks spent 12 years as a professional musician, holding positions with the Barcelona Symphony and other ensembles. He earned an M.A. in economics from Florida Atlantic University in 1994 and a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in public policy analysis from the RAND Graduate School of Policy Studies in 1998.