Three new appointments have been announced by Hoover Institution director John Raisian. Senior Fellow David Brady has been appointed associate director for research, Distinguished Visiting Fellow Chester E. Finn Jr. has been appointed a senior fellow, and Scott W. Atlas, M.D., professor of radiology and chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical School, has been appointed a senior fellow, by courtesy.
David Brady is the Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy Professor of Political Science and Ethics in the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a professor of political science in the School of Humanities and Sciences at the university. His research focuses on the U.S. Congress, legislative decision making, and general public policy processes.
Brady's recent publications include, with John Cogan, "Out of Step, Out of Office," American Political Science Review, March 2001; with John Cogan and Morris Fiorina, Change and Continuity in House Elections (Stanford University Press, 2000); and, with John Cogan and Doug Rivers, Revolving Gridlock: Politics and Policy from Carter to Clinton (Westview Press, 1999).
Brady has been on continuing appointment at Stanford University since 1987. He was associate dean from 1997 to 2001 at Stanford University and a fellow at the center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences from 1985 to 1986 and again in 2001–2. From 1980 to 1987, Brady was the Autrey Professor at Rice University, and from 1972 to 1979 he was an associate professor and professor at the University of Houston.
Brady has won several awards for his writing and teaching. In 1995 and 2000 he received the Congressional Quarterly Prize for the "best paper on a legislative topic." He also received the Richard F. Fenno Award of the American Political Science Association for the "best book on legislative studies" published in 1988–89. In 1992 he received the Dinkelspiel Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from Stanford University, and in 1993 he received the Phi Beta Kappa Award for best teacher at Stanford University. While at Rice University, Brady was honored with the George Brown Award for Superior Teaching.
Brady has been a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution since 1997 and will continue as a senior fellow while assuming his role as associate director.
Brady is a presidential appointee to the National Historical Records and Publications Commission and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.
Chester E. Finn Jr.'s work centers on education reform. He is a member of Hoover's Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, a group commissioned by Hoover director John Raisian to study American public education. He is also president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation for education reform.
Finn is the author of Charter Schools in Action: Renewing Public Education, with Bruno V. Manno and Gregg Vanourek (2001), and The Educated Child: A Parent's Guide from Preschool Through Eighth Grade, cowritten with William J. Bennett and John Cribb (1999). His other works include The New Promise of American Life, coedited with Lamar Alexander (1995); Radical Education Reforms, coedited with Herbert J. Walberg (1994); We Must Take Charge: Our Schools and Our Future (reprinted in 1993); Education Reform in the '90s, coedited with Theodor Rebarber (1992); and What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know? (1988), written with Hoover Institution distinguished visiting fellow and fellow Koret Task Force member Diane Ravitch.
Finn has served on the boards of several organizations, including the Center for Education Reform, the Foundation for Teaching Economics, the Colorado League of Charter Schools, the National Association of Scholars, the Center of the American Experiment, and the National Assessment Governing Board, which he chaired for two years.
Finn has been a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the Hudson Institute. He was a founding partner and senior scholar with the Edison Project from 1992 to 1994 and assistant secretary for research and improvement and counselor to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education from 1985 to 1988. Finn has also worked as staff assistant to the president of the United States; special assistant to the governor of Massachusetts; counsel to the American ambassador to India; and research associate in governmental studies at the Brookings Institution.
Finn is on leave from Vanderbuilt University, where he has been a professor of education and public policy since 1981.
Scott W. Atlas has long been recognized as a leader in both education and clinical research in the medical field. Currently, he is studying the impact of the changing health care marketplace on technology-based innovations in medicine. His latest research looks at the effects of managed care on expensive technologies involved in emerging medical applications.
Atlas is the editor of the leading textbook in the field, the best-selling Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine, currently in its third edition. He is also editor of the journal Topics in MRI and has been associate editor of the journals Radiology, Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and a member of the editorial boards of the American Journal of Neuroradiology, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and International Journal of Neuroradiology. He is an adviser to major industry leaders in medical technology and author of more than 100 scientific publications in leading journals.
Atlas has been on several national committees and a board member of many major scientific societies over the past decade. He has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his leadership in the medical field.
Before his appointments at Stanford University and the Hoover Institution, Atlas was on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania, and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
The Hoover Institution, founded at Stanford University in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the 31st president of the United States, is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic public policy and international affairs, with an internationally renowned archive.
