Stephen Joel Trachtenberg is president emeritus of George Washington University and former University Professor of Public Service. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, a master in public administration from Harvard University, a juris doctor from Yale University, and a doctor of laws from Columbia University. His teaching and research interest is educational leadership.
Trachtenberg is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves on the board of the Bankinter Foundation and the Columbia University Press. He was an attorney with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and an aide to Congressman John Brademas and to U.S. Education Commissioner Harold Howe II. He is former president of the University of Hartford and former president of the SGO at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, NY.
“We’re not going to fix the problem of elitism by doing away with standards.”
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, former president of George Washington University, sits down with Peter Skerry and Suzanne Garment to reflect on his life, the education debates—and why he’s not woke. “I had hoped by now America would have fixed its Black problem or its White problem.”
