Andy Smarick is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where his work focuses on education, civil society, and the principles of American conservatism. He served as a domestic policy aide for President George W. Bush, a legislative assistant for a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. At the state level he has served as the president of the Maryland State Board of Education, the chair of the Maryland Higher Education Commission, a member of the Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland, New Jersey's deputy commissioner of education, and a legislative aide at the Maryland state legislature. He has also been a Morgridge Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a partner at Bellwether Education Partners. He helped found a college-prep charter school for disadvantaged students and two national nonprofits. Smarick has authored or edited four books. He received a B.A. in government and politics, summa cum laude and with honors, from the University of Maryland and a Master of Public Management from the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy.