John Weingart

B.A. degree in sociology, Brandeis University, and M.P.A. degree, Princeton University

John Weingart has been associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics since 2000. He directs the Institute’s Center on the American Governor; Education Programs including the Eagleton Fellowship and Undergraduate Associates Programs; and the Arthur J. Holland Ethics in Government Program.His interests include the consideration of, and communication about, risk in public policy; narrowing the gaps between science and government; public participation in government; and, more generally, the vitality of the infrastructure of government.

Weingart’s prior experience includes work in New Jersey state government during the administrations of two Democratic and two Republican governors. He helped to write and implement New Jersey’s Coastal Zone Management Program and Hudson River Walkway Plan, and directed a state commission’s unusual public process encouraging municipalities to consider volunteering to host a disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste. While at Eagleton, Weingart served as the gubernatorially-appointed inaugural chair of the New Jersey Highlands Council, leading the Council through its first 93 meetings to the adoption of a comprehensive regional land use plan covering much of northwestern New Jersey.

Weingart’s publications include: Waste Is A Terrible Thing To Mind: Risk, Radiation and Distrust of Government (Rutgers University Press); the Eagleton Institute studies, From Candidate to Governor-Elect: Recommendations for Gubernatorial Transitions (with Kris Shields); and Another Government Success Story: Citizen Volunteers on New Jersey State Boards and Commissions; and an earlier book written with Arthur E. Levine, Reform of Undergraduate Education (Jossey Bass). On Sunday evenings, Weingart hosts Music You Can’t Hear On The Radio, New Jersey’s premiere radio program of folk music, bluegrass and other American roots music, on WPRB-FM and www.WPRB.com.