Dr. Matthew Woessner is the Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs at the College of International Security Affairs (CISA) at National Defense University, where he serves as the senior academic leader overseeing all faculty and academic initiatives. Prior to joining NDU, Dr. Woessner was the Associate Provost for Research and Assessment and Professor of Institutional Research at the United States Army War College. From 2001 to 2019, he was a member of the faculty at Penn State University in Harrisburg. From 2017 to 2018, he served as the 52nd Chair of the Penn State University Faculty Senate, representing 6,500 faculty on Penn State's 24 campuses.
Dr. Woessner's research focuses on the study of public opinion, attitudinal formation, and ideology. He has coauthored numerous studies on the impact of politics in higher education, including The Still Divided Academy: How Competing Visions of Power, Politics, and Diversity Complicate the Mission of Higher Education (Rowman and Littlefield 2010). Additionally, Dr. Woessner has conducted research on faculty administrative relations. His co-authored article "Faculty Constitutions in the Ivory Tower: Exploring the Balance of Power between the Professoriate and the Administration" in the journal PS: Political Science and Politics considers how the formal rules of shared governance, influence, faculty, and administrative relations. More recently, Woessner coauthored "Share Governance for Intellectual Overmatch" for the Army War College journal War Room, which explores how professional military education (PME) can leverage faculty expertise to improve both the military curriculum and institutional operations.
Dr. Woessner has published articles in the journal PS: Political Science and Politics, The International Journal of Educational Reform, The Journal of Political Science Education, and The International Journal of Political Science and Management. In addition to his scholarly publications, Dr. Woessner's research has been featured in the popular press including: The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Dr. Woessner earned his B.A. in Political Science (1995) from the University of California, Los Angeles, followed by his M.A. (1999) and his Ph.D. (2001) in Political Science from The Ohio State University. Among his honors, he is the recipient of Penn's State's McKay Donkin Award for his efforts to transform faculty-administrative relations as the Senate Chair.