Ruth Ellen Wasem

Ruth Ellen Wasem has worked as a domestic policy specialist at the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service, a professor of public policy practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin, and a senior fellow at Levin College of Public Affairs and Education at Cleveland State University. Wasem earned masters and doctoral degrees in history at the University of Michigan and received her baccalaureate degree magna cum laude from Muskingum University. Her widely cited publications span academic journals, books, and policy institute reports.

Wasem has been featured on the PBS News Hours and heard on NPR's All Things Considered and Throughline, PRI's The World, NPR's Morning Edition, Ideastream Public Media, TBS eFM’s This Morning, Texas Public Radio, and The Texas Standard. For several years, she was an opinion contributor to The Hill. The Atlantic, Austin Statesman, Axios, Bloomberg, Politico, Houston Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, San Diego Union Tribune, and Dallas Morning News are among the print media that have cited her. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on asylum policy, legal immigration trends, human rights, the push-pull forces on unauthorized migration, and welfare policies. The Library of Congress, LBJ Foundation, and C-Span have released videos of her lectures and interviews.