Josh McGee is an economist who is associate director of the Office for Education Policy and a faculty member in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. In August 2024, he will be an associate professor and 21st Century Endowed Chair in Education Accountability and Transparency.
McGee’s work focuses on helping governments and nonprofits use data and evidence to make better decisions. His research investigates issues related to retirement policy, P-20 education, and economic development and has been published in popular media outlets and scholarly journals.
McGee is a leading retirement policy expert and has written extensively about retirement plan design, benefit security, and sustainability. He has provided expert testimony and technical assistance in more than 50 jurisdictions across the country and routinely provides state and local governments with retirement policy advice. McGee is the former chairman of the Texas State Pension Review Board.
McGee is a director at the nonprofit research firm MDRC and the retirement policy nonprofit Equable. McGee has formerly served as the chief data officer (CDO) for the State of Arkansas, an executive vice president at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, director at the education nonprofit EdBuild, and member of the Tax Policy Center‘s Leadership Council. McGee has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Rice University, where he taught in the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program at the Jones Graduate School of Business.
Josh holds a B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Arkansas. He lives with his wife and daughter in Fayetteville, AR.