Rachel Augustine Potter

Rachel Augustine Potter is an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the hidden politics of procedure and process in American political institutions, with a particular focus on the bureaucracy and regulation.
 
Her book Bending the Rules: Procedural Politicking in the Bureaucracy (University of Chicago Press, 2019) received the American Political Science Association's Theodore Lowi Award for the best first book in any field of political science, APSA's Richard Neustadt Award for the best book on executive politics, and the National Academy of Public Administration's Louis Brownlow Award for the best book on public administration. Her other research has appeared in the Journal of Politics, Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and Journal of Public Policy, among others.  

A paper she recently co-authored, A Female Policy Premium? Agency Context and Women’s Leadership in the U.S. Federal Bureaucracy, won the Riccucci-O’Leary Award at the Public Management Research Association’s 2022 annual conference. The award recognizes the best article on diversity published in the association’s journals.
 
Potter has testified before Congress and is a regular contributor to the Brookings Institution Center on Regulation and Markets. She has also served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States. Before becoming a political scientist, she worked for a number of government bureaucracies, including the White House Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and the German Federal Ministry of the Interior.