Mary Graham (writer)

Mary Graham (née Wissler) is an American writer and co-director of the Transparency Policy Project at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

She has written four books on the politics of public information. Presidents' Secrets: The Use and Abuse of Hidden Power, was published in 2017.[1] In 2007, with co-authors Boston University professor David Weil and Harvard University professor Archon Fung, she wrote Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency.[2] In 2002, she wrote Democracy by Disclosure: The Rise of Technopopulism.[3] In 1999, she wrote The Morning after Earth Day: Practical Environmental Politics.[4]

Graham has written for the Atlantic Monthly, Financial Times, Environment , Issues in Science and Technology, and other publications. She has a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center and an undergraduate degree from Harvard-Radcliffe.[5] From 1967 to 2007, she was married to former Washington Post publisher Donald Graham. They have four adult children.

From 2001 to 2013 Graham was a board member for the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation.[6] In 2010, she joined the advisory board for the Wikimedia Foundation's Public Policy Initiative.[7]

Earlier in her career, she practiced law in Washington, DC, worked on regulatory reform at the U.S. Department of Transportation,[5] and worked on legislative and budget issues at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Graham is a trustee of the Juilliard School for the Performing Arts[8] and a member of the visiting committee of the Columbia University School of Journalism.

She also serves as a trustee emerita of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,[9] and serves on the board of directors of The Pew Charitable Trusts.[10]