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Bob Davidson directs the development and presentation of the Department's annual budget request--to the Office Of Management and Budget, and to the Congress--for 42 postsecondary education programs currently funded at more than $11 billion. The student aid programs support the annual delivery of some $40 billion in loans, grant and work-study assistance to over 8 million students. He also helps coordinate the development of the Department's higher education legislative and regulatory initiatives. He is currently a member of the Department's Higher Education Act Reauthorization Steering Committtee, and is deeply involved with the development of higher education program performance measures and data collection systems.
During eight years in this position and in previous Department policy positions, Davidson has received numerous performance awards and citations. He has been a leader in the development and advocacy of major student aid policy and delivery improvements, including: student consumer information requirements; student loan default reduction initiatives; creation of the Direct Student Loan program; recent expansions of the Pell Grant and Work-Study programs; and the proposed Presidential Honors Scholarship program.
Prior to joining the Budget Service in 1981, he served as Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Student Financial Assistance. Davidson began his career with the Department's predecessor agency, the U. S. Office of Education, in 1976 as a student loans policy analyst, drafting regulations to implement the Higher Education Amendments of 1976 and the Middle Income Student Assistance Act of 1978. He has been closely involved with every Higher Education Act reauthorization since that time.
Bob holds a B.A. "with distinction" from Dartmouth College and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. Before leaving graduate school, he completed additional course work and was admitted to candidacy for a Ph.D. in Higher Education. As part of his Ph.D. program, he served as Special Assistant to the Chancellor, University of Maine. During Vietnam era service in the U.S. Navy, he held a variety of education and public affairs positions.
Bob is married to Betsy Davidson, a higher education management/ data systems consultant and former Director of Student Financial Assistance at American University, who shares his interests in higher education policy and management issues.
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