Edwin Dorn (born 26 March 1945) is a political scientist who served as dean of the

Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (or LBJ School of Public Affairs) is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer training in public policy analysis and administration for students that ar ...

from July 1997 to December 2004. He previously served as

Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness The under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, or USD (P&R) is a high-ranking civilian position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) within the United States Department of Defense responsible for advising the secretary an ...

from March 1994 to July 1997. Also in 1994, Dorn was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Early life and education

Born in

Crockett, Texas Crockett is a city and the county seat of Houston County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 6,332. Houston County is the oldest county and Crockett the fifth-oldest city in Texas. History The town was named ...

, Dorn graduated from

Jack Yates High School Jack Yates Senior High School is a public high school located at 3650 Alabama Street, very near Texas Southern University, in the historic Third Ward in Houston, Texas, United States. Yates High School handles grades nine through twelve and is par ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

in June 1963. He earned a B.A. degree in government from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in June 1967, an M.A. degree in political science from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

in January 1970 and a Ph.D. degree in political science from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in June 1978. His doctoral thesis was entitled ''Rules and Racial Equality''. Dorn also studied at the

Centre of West African Studies Centre of West African Studies (CWAS) is a division of the School of Historical Studies at the University of Birmingham, England. The centre provides teaching and research into issues of African development, culture, anthropology, sociology, polit ...

Birmingham, England Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

from September 1967 to May 1968 under a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

Career

After completing his master's degree, Dorn served as a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

intelligence officer in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, West Germany. After completing his active duty commitment, he began his doctoral studies at Yale in September 1972. In 1977, Dorn began working for the

Department of Health, Education and Welfare The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is " ...

while completing his doctoral dissertation. In 1980, he moved to the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

. In March 1982, Dorn joined the

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (also known in abbreviated form as Joint Center) is an American public policy think tank headquartered in Washington, DC. According to its mission statement, the Joint Center, through research, ...

as a senior researcher and later became deputy director of research. In August 1990, he became a senior staff member in the Center for Public Policy Education at The

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

. In April 1993, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

nominated Dorn to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Management and Personnel. In January 1994, he was nominated to be the first Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. After leaving government service, Dorn served as dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs from July 1997 to December 2004. He then remained at the school as a professor of public affairs.

Personal

Dorn is the son of Edgar and Mary Dorn. Dorn married actress Franchella Nadine Stewart on 8 August 1970. They have three daughters. Franchelle Stewart Dorn is a professor of acting in the Department of Theatre and Dance, College of Fine Arts, University of Texas at Austin.

References

1945 births Living people People from Crockett, Texas University of Texas at Austin alumni Alumni of the University of Birmingham Indiana University Bloomington alumni African-American United States Army personnel United States Army officers Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American political scientists Carter administration personnel Brookings Institution people Clinton administration personnel United States Assistant Secretaries of Defense United States Under Secretaries of Defense University of Texas at Austin faculty {{US-edu-bio-stub