Dennis Ippolito

Dennis S. Ippolito is the Eugene McElvaney Professor of Political Science and Director of the interdisciplinary Public Policy Program at Southern Methodist University (SMU). He holds a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia (1967). Prior to SMU, he taught at the University of Virginia and Emory University.

His research focuses on national political institutions, federal budget policy, and deficit politics. Key works include Deficit Politics in the United States (2022), Why Budgets Matter (2015), and Uncertain Legacies (1990). His scholarship has been supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and U.S. Department of Transportation.

Ippolito received the Aaron B. Wildavsky Award for Lifetime Achievement in Public Budgeting and Finance (2010). His advisory roles include directing SMU’s Public Policy Program, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to governance challenges.