Stephen Burd

Senior Policy Analyst, Education Policy Program

Stephen Burd is a senior policy analyst with New America’s Education Policy Program. Burd recently returned to New America, where he previously served as the editor of the foundation’s Higher Ed Watch blog. In that capacity, he led the blog’s award-winning coverage of the student loan industry and for-profit higher education. He also helped shape New America’s work on higher education policy and on student financial aid issues.

Burd has received multiple national reporting awards from the Education Writers Association for his coverage of federal higher education policy and his investigative work on the student loan industry. He has also published articles and op-eds in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Los Angeles Times, and Washington Monthly, and provided expert commentary for media outlets including America Public Media’s Marketplace, the CBS Evening News, CNN, C-SPAN, and National Public Radio.

Prior to rejoining New America, Burd was a senior policy analyst for higher education at Education Sector, a non-partisan education think tank in Washington D.C., where he focused on student financial aid and federal higher education tax policy. He also worked for 15 years as a reporter and senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he primarily reported on student aid policy and the inner-workings of the U.S. Department of Education.

Burd holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Swarthmore College. He lives with his wife and daughters in Silver Spring, Md.