Priscilla M. Regan

Priscilla M. Regan is Professor Emerita in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. Prior to joining that faculty in 1989, she was a senior analyst in the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (1984-89) and an assistant professor of politics and government at the University of Puget Sound (1979-84).

From 2005 to 2007, she served as a program officer for the Science, Technology and Society Program at the National Science Foundation. Since the mid-1970s, Regan’s primary research interests have focused on both the analysis of the social, policy, and legal implications of organizational use of new information and communications technologies, and also on the emergence and implementation of electronic government initiatives by federal agencies. She is currently a co-investigator on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s eQuality grant exploring big data, discrimination, and youth. 

Regan has published more than eighty articles or book chapters, as well as Legislating Privacy: Technology, Social Values, and Public Policy (University of North Carolina Press, 1995) and two coedited books. As a recognized researcher in this area, Regan has testified before Congress and participated in meetings held by the Department of Commerce, Federal Trade Commission, Social Security Administration, and Census Bureau. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. State Department. She was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Committee on Authentication Technologies and their Privacy Implications. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and was a member of its Working Group on Artificial Intelligence and Public Administration.

She received her PhD in government from Cornell University and her BA from Mount Holyoke College.

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Areas of Research

• Communication and Information Technology/Policy
• Digital Government
• Information and Communication Privacy Policy
• Privacy
• Public Administration
• Public Law
• Public Policy Process
• Science and Technology Policy
• Surveillance
• U.S. Politics