Jennifer Bremer is an associate professor of public policy and chair of the public policy and administration department, the first public policy department in the Middle East and one of three academic departments making up the new School of Public Affairs at the American University in Cairo.

Her work focuses on corporate social responsibility, international trade, investment and development and strategies to bring private sector resources to bear on development challenges. Prior to joining AUC, she served for 16 years as director of the Washington Center of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, a unit of the University of North Carolina business school.  She holds a PhD (1982) and MPP (1975) from Harvard’s Kennedy School, an MA (1977) from Stanford in Development Economics and an ABcl (1972) from Columbia University.

Bremer serves as executive director of the US-Egypt Friendship Society; a non-profit organization dedicated to building stronger ties between the U.S. and Egypt and was appointed to the US-Egypt Business Council in December 2005 by US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez.  She also holds an appointment as adjunct professor of public policy from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. 

Prior to joining UNC, she directed the agricultural and rural development practice at Nathan Associates (1984-1990) and held positions as an agricultural economist with Development Alternatives (1981-1984) and USAID/Cairo (1977-1980).  Bremer has directed a wide range of academic and applied studies, both in the United States and overseas, focusing on private sector development, trade and investment, corporate social responsibility and development programming. Bremer’s extensive international experience includes long-term assignments in Egypt and Mexico and more than 80 short-term assignments in the United States and 30 other countries, emphasizing policy reform, trade and investment, corporate responsibility, infrastructure development and private enterprise promotion.

Recent Publications

Refereed journals

• “Improving audit committee performance in the Middle East: Do Egyptian audit profession norms support international standards?” International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, with Mohamed Hegazy and Auday Sabri (forthcoming, in press).
• "Developing Public Administration/Public Policy Master’s Programs to Meet the Changing Needs of the Middle East – the Case of Egypt." Journal of Public Administration Education, Fall/Winter 2008, with Laila El-Baradei.

• “Building Effective Local Development Agencies:  Lessons from Global Experience,” in Abd El-Latif, Lobna (editor), Empowering Local Dimension in Economic Development, Cairo: Dar Elkarnak Press, 2011.
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Progress in Public Mangement Reform in the Middle East and North Africa:  Case Studies on Policy Reform. Paris:  OECD.  2010. (co-editor and author of two chapters, Overall Strategies and Conclusions). Also published in Arabic in January 2011.

• “Leadership and Collective Action in Egypt’s Popular Committees:   Emergence of Authentic Civic Activism in the Absence of the State.” Paper presented to the inaugural conference of the Africa Network of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR), Stellenbosch, South Africa, August 2011.
• “Leadership and Collective Action in Egypt’s Tahrir Revolution: Emergence of Civic Activism in Response to Repression.” Paper presented at the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration Annual Conference, Rome, Italy, June 2011.
• “Governance off the Grid:   The Challenge of Delivering Essential Services in the Illegal Squatter Communities of Cairo.”  Listed paper for the annual conference of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration, Bali, Indonesia, July 2010. 
• “Can Global Initiatives in Corporate Social Responsibility Really Contribute to Global Governance:   Evidence from the UN Global Compact and SA-8000 on the North-South Divide in CSR Participation.”  Paper presented at the annual conference of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration, Bali, Indonesia, July 2010.

Other publications

• Egypt: Civil society success or spontaneous combustion? ISTR Africa, March 2011.

Book review

• Global Governance. Review of How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance by Parag Khanna; World Rule: Accountability, Legitimacy, and the Design of Global Governance by Jonathan G. S. Koppell; The Future of Power by Joseph S. Nye, Jr., and The End of Arrogance: America in the Global Competition of Ideas by Steven Weber and Bruce W. Jentleson. Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Spring 2011.