Tevi Troy put himself on the map in Washington with a book about intellectuals who have worked in the White House, starting with one of the anchors of the Kennedy administration, the late Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Troy's career path wound from Capitol Hill to the Labor Department to the White House, followed by a stint as deputy secretary of HHS in the last two years of the administration of former President George W. Bush. Now at age 42, Troy is putting his legislative and executive branch experience to work as a visiting senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he will focus on health care and biodefense.
After graduating from Cornell University in 1988, Troy moved to Washington to follow the public service example of his parents, both public school teachers in New York City.
He volunteered that summer for the presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush, then landed a job at the American Enterprise Institute. He left there for the University of Texas to earn a doctorate in American civilization, which led to his 2002 book, "Intellectuals and the American Presidency: Philosophers, Jesters, or Technicians."
Troy then moved to Capitol Hill, working first for the House Republican Policy Council under its chairman at the time, former Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., and then for former Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo.
After Ashcroft lost his re-election bid in 2000, Troy joined the new Bush administration, first as a deputy assistant secretary of Labor, then as a top staffer on the White House Domestic Policy Council, and finally as deputy secretary at HHS. He proudly recalls that the 43rd president, upon greeting Troy in his last visit to the White House, exclaimed, "Tevi -- eight-year man!"