The American Public Policy Institute was founded in 2014 by Michael P. Riccards. Dr. Riccards is the former president of St. John’s College (Santa Fe, NM), Shepherd University (WV), and Fitchburg State University (MA). He was also the founding executive director of the Hall Institute for Public Policy and the Public Policy Scholar in Residence for the College Board.
Dr. Riccards’ public service roles include leadership on the National Skill Standards Board (appointed by the U.S. Senate), the New Mexico Council on the Humanities, and the New Jersey Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He was part of a leadership team dispatched to Kuwait to help rebuild its higher education system after the first Gulf War and has worked to establish international education partnerships with a number of countries, including China.
A presidential historian and political scientist by trade, Dr. Riccards has authored more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles and analytical studies of public policy and public affairs issues. His books on presidential leadership have been read by the very U.S. presidents he has studied. Over the past three decades, Dr. Riccards has also served as an expert witness to state legislatures, commissions, and other government bodies on issues ranging from higher education to pension funding, public integrity to school finance. Dr. Riccards has also served as an advisor on education policy to a wide range of U.S. senators, U.S. representatives, and governors.
Dr. Riccards earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Rutgers University. He and his wife, Barbara, currently reside outside Princeton, New Jersey.
American Public Policy Institute 