Peter McDonough

Background

About Peter McDonough

PETER J. McDONOUGH JR. A public policy and public affairs professional with more than 40 years experience designing, directing and executing successful efforts to promote policy initiatives, candidates and the interests of public and private clients. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President for External Affairs at Rutgers University and is a faculty member at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University where he leads the institute’s graduate seminar, Perspectives in America Politics, for third-year law students and doctoral candidates. He served in the cabinet of NJ Gov. Christine Todd Whitman as her director of communications and one of her principal strategic advisors. McDonough was the youngest-ever executive director in the New Jersey General Assembly, a position to which he was appointed in 1982 at the age of 29. In this capacity, he led staff research, policy development and communications efforts for the Republican members of the lower house of Legislature during the first term of Governor Thomas H. Kean. Mr. McDonough twice served as chief of staff for Congressman Dean A. Gallo and as an associate staff member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. His federal experience also includes serving a consultant to the US State Department and the US Environmental Protection Agency. He was a founding partner of the Princeton Public Affairs Group, New Jersey’s largest public affairs firm. He has, since 2001, been an adjunct professor and visiting associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University where he teaches the institute’s seminar, Perspectives in America Politics, for masters and doctoral candidates. Mr. McDonough has lectured and trained government officials and journalists in Russia, Ukraine, Kosovo, Belarus, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Botswana and the Republic of Georgia. He was as a political consultant for the Agency for International Development (USAID)/National Endowment for Democracy in Romania in 1992 and Ukraine in 1993. He was an international election observer for the presidential elections in Nigeria in 2003. Columns written by Mr. McDonough have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Moscow Times and dozens of major newspapers throughout the US. Specialties: Public affairs, media training, public relations, writing.