Darrell M. West, Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution

Darrell M. West is the vice president and director of Governance Studies and director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he was the John Hazen White Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University.  He received his B.A. in Political Science at Miami University (of Ohio), and his Ph.D. in Political Science in 1981 from Indiana University. His current research focuses on technology, mass media, campaigns and elections, and public sector innovation.

West is the author or co-author of 17 books including Brain Gain:  Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy (Brookings, 2010), Digital Medicine:  Health Care in the Internet Era (Brookings, 2009), Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance, (Princeton University Press, 2005), Air Wars: Television Advertising in Election Campaigns (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2005), Cross Talk:  Citizens, Candidates, and the Media in a Presidential Campaign (University of Chicago Press, 1996) The Sound of Money:  How Political Interests Get What They Want (W. W. Norton, 1998), Biotechnology Policy Across National Boundaries (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), and Patrick Kennedy:  The Rise to Power (Prentice-Hall, 2000), among others. 

He is the winner of the American Political Science Association’s Don K. Price award for best book on technology (for Digital Government) and the American Political Science Association’s Doris Graber award for best book on political communications (for Cross Talk).  He has published more than three dozen scholarly articles in a wide range of academic journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Public Administration Review, Political Science Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, the British Journal of Political Science, New England Journal of Medicine, and Urban Affairs Review, among others.

He has served as a visiting scholar at Nuffield College of Oxford University and delivered nearly 150 lectures in a dozen different countries around the world, including China, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Bahrain, and the United States.  He has been quoted in leading newspapers, radio stations, and national television networks around the world.  He has received grants from the National Science Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Gates Foundation, Kauffman Foundation, Ford Foundation, and McCormick Foundation.

The center that he directs examines a wide range of topics related to technology innovation including governance, democracy, and public sector innovation; policy architecture, legal and Constitutional aspects of technology; digital media and social networking; health information technology; virtual education, and green technology.  Its mission is to identify key developments in technology innovation, undertake cutting-edge research, disseminate best practices broadly, inform policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels about actions needed to improve innovation, and enhance the public’s and media’s understanding of the importance of technology innovation.

Read Darrell West’s latest contributions to The Age of Personalized Medicine Blog