Biography

I’m a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a think tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through ideas and action. I work on a variety of social policy topics and am particularly interested in education, criminal justice, and social capital.

Prior to the Center, I was a contributing editor for U.S. News & World Report, special projects director for The Washington Post Express, and research coordinator for Education Week. My work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many other publications. I also served as an editor of the best-selling U.S. News Ultimate Guide to Colleges.

I've written a number of influential reports on social policy and good governance. My recent work on school spending included the first-ever attempt to evaluate the productivity of almost every major school district in the country. Hundreds of media outlets covered the release of the report including the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Associated Press. I've also serve as research director of Leaders and Laggards, a joint project of the Center for American Progress, the US Chamber of Commerce, and Rick Hess of AEI that evaluates state systems of education.

In February 2009, HarperCollins published my criminal justice book The Gardner Heist, which examines the largest art heist in history, the 1990 theft of a dozen masterpieces from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The book tells the story behind the caper and highlights the growing problem of art crime, an estimated $6 billion black market, with more than 50,000 heists occurring worldwide each year.

The book received glowing reviews in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. "Captivating,” said the Wall Street Journal. “Vivid,” noted the Associated Press. "Boser has done a public service in exposing the real world of art theft: It isn't about glamour and culture — it's about greed, violence and irreparable, maddening loss," wrote USA Today. The book spent almost six months on the Boston Globe best-seller list and became a national best-seller.

My writing and research has received a variety of awards and citations. I have been an Arthur F. Burns fellow, won the National Award For Education Reporting, and been dubbed a "writer to watch" by Washingtonian magazine. I have also served as a commentator for CNN, National Public Radio, and The New York Times. I graduated with honors from Dartmouth College and live in Washington, D.C. with my wife and two daughters.

I can be reached at ulrich @ ulrichboser.com. I give speeches and serve as a consultant for a variety of organizations, and my disclosure statement can be found here. You can also follow me on Twitter at @ulrichboser