John DiIulio to D.C.
Last Monday, President George Bush appointed criminologist and political scientist Dr. John J. DiIulio, Jr., to direct the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives--the first federal office intended to promote the integration of religious groups into federally financed social services. Dr. DiIulio is the Frederick Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion and Civil Society in SAS. In the newly created position he will oversee the President's effort to have religious and community organizations, using government subsidies, assume a bigger role in combating social problems such as drug abuse and juvenile delinquency. The new initiative, if approved by Congress, will allow religious charities to compete for government grants alongside secular organizations. President Bush described Dr. DiIulio as "one of the most influential social entrepreneurs in America. I can't tell you how honored I am for him to leave his post in academia to join us." He went on to say, "He has been a major force in mobilizing the city of Philadelphia to support faith-based and community groups."
Dr. DiIulio's research focuses on public management, U.S. politics, faith-based social programs, criminal justice and government reform. He is the author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books, including Body Count: Moral Poverty... and How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs, with John P. Walters and William J. Bennett, the former education secretary and drug czar, 1996; Improving Government Performance: An Owner's Manual, 1993; Medicaid and Devolution: A View from the States, 1998; and What's God Got to Do with the American Experiment?, 2000, co-edited with Washington Post national columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr.
A Penn alumnus, Dr. DiIulio took his bachelor's degree in political science and in economics and a master's degree in political science-public policy here and his Ph.D. from Harvard. He taught at Princeton before joining Penn's faculty in 1999. He is the founding director of Penn's new Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society and the director of the Fox Leadership Program.
Dr. DiIulio, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, senior counsel to Public/Private Ventures and founding director of the Center for Public Management at the Brookings Institute, has chaired the American Political Science Association's standing committee on professional ethics.
Almanac, Vol. 47, No. 21, February 6, 2001