Arthur C. Brooks is professor of the practice of public leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School. Before joining the Harvard faculty in July 2019, he served for 10 years as president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI), one of the world's leading think tanks.
Previously, Brooks was the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government at Syracuse University, where he taught economics and social entrepreneurship. Prior to his work in academia and public policy, he spent 12 years as a professional French hornist in the United States and Spain.
As an economist, Brooks has spent decades studying culture and public policy. He is recognized internationally as an expert on topics such as technical economics, human happiness, world poverty and behavioral economics.
Brooks is a columnist for The Atlantic, host of the podcast "The Arthur Brooks Show," and bestselling author of 11 books on topics including the role of government, economic opportunity, happiness and the morality of free enterprise. His latest creative projects include the book Love Your Enemies and a feature-length documentary, "The Pursuit." He has also published dozens of academic journal articles and the textbook Social Entrepreneurship.
In 2013, Brooks traveled to Dharamshala, India, to meet with the Dalai Lama. That meeting led to the Dalai Lama joining Brooks at a 2014 AEI-hosted conference on happiness, free enterprise and human flourishing. The pair coauthored an op-ed in The New York Times titled, "Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded," and a joint op-ed in The Washington Post titled, "All of Us Can Break the Cycle of Hatred."
Brooks holds a doctorate and a Master of Philosophy in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He also holds a master's degree in economics from Florida Atlantic University and a bachelor's degree in economics from Thomas Edison State College.