Lecturers at the Jefferson Educational Society

John Austin, MPA, recently completed 16 years of elected service on the Michigan State Board of Education, serving 6 years as President. Austin directs the Michigan Economic Center a center for ideas and network-building to advance Michigan’s economic transformation.  He also serves as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and the Upjohn Institute where he leads these organizations efforts to support economic transformation in the American Midwest and in the industrial heartlands of Western democracies.  Mr. Austin also Lectures on the Economy at the University of Michigan. Austin received his Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and a Bachelor's from Swarthmore College in Economics & Political Science, with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa.