Michael Edwards is a public policy advocate, strategic advisor, and educator who - - over the past five decades — has played a critical role in helping develop and secure programs and policies that make schools and colleges stronger, the economy fairer, and the political system more democratic. Among his past positions, he has served as a senior staff member to four Members of Congress, senior director of the country’s largest labor union (the 3-million-member National Education Association), and as a member of the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition Team, focusing on establishing the priorities and personnel for the Departments of Education, Labor, Justice, and related boards and commissions.  He has been on the faculty of The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM) since its founding and has taught Fundamentals of Political Management, Legislative Theory and Behavior, Budgetary Politics, Issues Advocacy, Crisis Management in American Politics, and Political Power and Practice. He is an affiliate faculty member of GW’s Global Food Institute (GFI]. And he provides strategic advice, counsel, and support to education, labor, and social justice organizations to enhance their policy development, implementation, and advocacy; leadership development and training; organizational governance; strategic partnerships; and civic engagement. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with advanced degrees from the George Washington University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, he holds a certificate in Labor Studies from Cornell University, a credential in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School where he was a 2022 Senior Executive Fellow, and a higher education teaching certificate from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard.