Robert Gordon

Robert Gordon is Recoding America’s Executive Vice President for State Initiatives, where he oversees the organization’s work focused on state governments across the U.S. He has served in key roles at each level and in each branch of government, with a particular focus on improving government performance.

Most recently, Robert served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Mobility at the White House Domestic Policy Council, overseeing education, housing, anti-crime, and anti-poverty initiatives, among others. Before that, he served as Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, leading several efforts to streamline grant and service delivery while saving taxpayers money.

Between 2019 and 2021, Robert served as director of the Department of Health & Human Services for the State of Michigan, playing a key role in the early pandemic response. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Robert served as an acting deputy director and executive associate director at the Office of Management & Budget, guiding the Administration’s evidence-based policy initiatives. Earlier in his career, Robert served as a senior official at the New York City Department of Education, driving equity-focused school finance reform, as a senior aide on Capitol Hill, and as a law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Outside government, Robert has worked as a senior vice president for global strategy and finance at the College Board, and, while a Skadden Fellow, as law guardian for children in abuse and neglect proceedings for the Juvenile Rights Division of Legal Aid in the Bronx, New York. Robert is also a visiting fellow with the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and at the Better Government Lab at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. He has a J.D. from Yale and a B.A. from Harvard.