Alumnus named White House Fellow

Andrew Buher ’07 has been named a White House Fellow for 2014-15, catapulting the alumnus into one of the nation’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. The appointment is Buher’s latest step in a journey that has taken him from Rider’s campus to the New Jersey Governor’s office to leading the nation’s largest school system and now the White House — all before his 30th birthday.

“I want to take full advantage of the opportunity to reflect and learn from folks who are working on intractable problems at the national level and subsequently bring best practices back to my field and local community,” he says.

As a White House Fellow, Buher is serving at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. His role includes working to expand access to knowledge and careers for Americans living in public and other assisted housing. The fellowship comprises four parts: his work assignment, community service, leadership development and education, and class fellowship.

“Together, these interconnected areas create an unparalleled first-hand look into the process of governing the nation and a sense of personal involvement in the leadership of society," he says. "I am deeply honored and incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to serve as a White House Fellow."

President Lyndon B. Johnson created the White House Fellows program in 1964 to provide first-hand experience of how the federal government works and to increase participation in the nation’s affairs.

Fellows are selected on a record of professional achievement, evidence of leadership potential and a proven commitment to public service. “Each fellow must possess the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute meaningfully at senior levels in the federal government,” the White House wrote in a press release announcing the newest participants.

Past fellows include General Colin Powell, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin.

A New Jersey native, Buher grew up in Lawrenceville and enrolled at Rider after transferring from Tulane University following Hurricane Katrina. He graduated magna cum laude in 2007 and was the first Rider student to receive a presidential fellowship from the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington, D.C. As an undergraduate, he also worked on education policy issues while interning at the Office of the Governor of New Jersey.

After graduating, he worked in the nonprofit sector promoting college access for students who would be the first in their family to attend college. He went on to earn a master’s in public administration from Columbia University in 2010 where he served as an Education Pioneer Fellow and worked on education access in Washington Heights, a predominately Dominican neighborhood in northern Manhattan. After graduate school, he joined the New York City Department of Education. Three years later he was named chief of staff to Chancellor Dennis Walcott. Shortly thereafter, Buher was named chief operating officer of the department, taking the operational reins of an organization with a $25 billion annual operating budget and a workforce of 135,000 employees.

Under his leadership, the department turned a $250 million deficit in 2013 into a $2 million surplus. Buher developed public-private partnerships with several high-performing nonprofits, including City Year, iMentor, College Bound Initiative and Citizen Schools. These collaborations allowed 25,000 students to receive additional services such as one-on-one mentoring. For his work at the department, he was recognized in 2014 as one of Forbes “30 under 30” in education.

Buher characterizes the environments many organizations operate in as “increasingly complex, chaotic and ambiguous.” He says, “The White House Fellowship promised the opportunity to continue to challenge my core beliefs and provoke the divergent thinking needed to succeed in leading (these) organizations.”

For all of his success, Buher remains modest, saying he is approaching the fellowship with a deep sense of humility. “Both my education and career have taught me that I have so much more to learn,” he says.