Ben Wildavsky is a veteran higher-education writer and consultant. His decades of experience in journalism and education policy include leadership roles at Strada Education Network, the College Board, and U.S. News & World Report. He launched the Higher Ed Spotlight podcast in 2022 and is a visiting fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the author of The Career Arts: Making the Most of College, Credentials, and Connections, published by Princeton University Press in November 2023 (paperback edition forthcoming in February 2026). He is also the award-winning author of The Great Brain Race (2010, updated paperback edition 2012, translations in Korean and Vietnamese) and coeditor of Reinventing Higher Education and Measuring Success. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and other publications. His New York Times guest essay, “Let’s Stop Pretending College Degrees Don’t Matter,” was reprinted in the bestselling textbook The Norton Field Guide to Writing.

He was recently selected as a Fulbright Specialist and a Salzburg Global Fellow. A former scholar at the Brookings Institution, the Rockefeller Institute of Government, and the Kauffman Foundation, he has spoken on degree value, globalization, and higher education innovation in 16 U.S. states and 10 foreign countries, in venues including Google, the World Bank, and the London School of Economics. He has long experience on high-profile writing projects, including policy reports and thought leadership articles for education and workforce executives. He has convened leading thinkers to produce memorable events and publications.