Alan K. Campbell, 1961-1968
Alan Campbell was a professor of political science when he established the Metropolitan Studies Program in 1961. He served as dean of the Maxwell School from 1968 to 1973.

Guthrie S. Birkhead, 1968-1973
Guthrie Birkhead was a professor emeritus of political science and public administration. He served as dean of the Maxwell School from 1977 to 1988.

Roy W. Bahl, 1973-1985
Bahl was a professor of economics and public administration while serving as director of the Program and director of the Program's Jamaica Tax Structure Examination Project. He then became the Maxwell Professor of Political Economy. In 2007, he retired as dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

Larry D. Schroeder, 1985-1987
Larry Schroeder was a professor of public administration and economics and Maxwell Professor of Teaching Excellence. He served as associate director of the Program from 1983 to 1985, director of the Program's Local Revenue Administration Project from 1985 to 1988, and director of the Decentralization Finance and Management Project from 1987 to 1994.

David Greytak, 1987-1993
David Greytak was a professor of economics and served as associate director of the Program from 1973 to 1987. He also served as director of the Fiscal Administration Studies project in Ecuador.

Timothy M. Smeeding, 1994-2008
Smeeding was Distinguished Professor of Economics and Public Administration. Until September 2006, he was also director of the Luxembourg Income Study Project, which he founded in 1983.

Douglas A. Wolf, Interim Director, 2008-2009
Douglas Wolf is the Gerald B. Cramer Professor of Aging Studies, professor of public administration and international affairs, and director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies.

Christine L. Himes, 2009-2012
Himes was a Maxwell Professor of Sociology, and was interim associate dean of the Maxwell School (2010-2011).

Leonard M. Lopoo, 2012-2022
Leonard Lopoo is a professor of public administration and international affairs, Maxwell Advisory Board Professor of Public Policy and director of the Maxwell X Lab. He is currently the social policy co-editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Lopoo is also the recipient of numerous awards for his research and teaching, including the Birkhead-Burkhead Teaching Excellence Award, a Meredith Professors Recognition Award and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize.