Alan J. Abramson is a Professor of Government and Politics in the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs at George Mason University, and Founding Director of Mason’s Center on Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, and Policy.

Alan is also a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute, and an Affiliated Scholar at the Urban Institute. In these several positions, he teaches, conducts research, and works with leaders on a broad range of nonprofit and philanthropic issues. For more than a decade, Alan directed the Aspen Institute’s nonprofit and philanthropy program, overseeing the Nonprofit Sector Research Fund and other initiatives that helped to build the nonprofit research field in the U.S., strengthen nonprofit and foundation leaders, and deepen the understanding of policymakers about nonprofit activities.

Before joining the Aspen Institute, Alan Abramson was on the research staff of the Urban Institute, where he worked on a variety of domestic public policy issues. Alan has served on many national and local nonprofit boards and advisory committees. He has also been an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and George Washington Universities. Alan Abramson received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University and his B.A. from Wesleyan University. He is the author and co-author of numerous books and papers, and his work has twice won awards from the American Political Science Association.

Alan has also been named among the 50 most influential leaders in the U.S. nonprofit sector. In 2015-2016, Alan is serving as President of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), the nation’s leading association for nonprofit researchers. Knowledgeable about a broad range of nonprofit issues, Alan’s major, current interests are: nonprofit-government relations; foundation policy and practice; social enterprise and social entrepreneurship; and shared governance, the engagement of all three sectors – nonprofit, government, and business – in addressing social problems.