Dr. Patrick Graff is the Director of Legislative Policy for the American Federation for Children. At AFC, he advises the Government Affairs team on school choice policy design and research.
Dr. Graff has worked in the education field as a teacher, administrator, policy advisor, and researcher since his first year as a 3rd Grade teacher in 2011. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame, where he specialized in education and quantitative research methods. His dissertation research focused on first-year teachers, teacher quality, trust in schools, teacher turnover, and the effects of teachers on student disciplinary outcomes in Indiana. He also worked on several projects evaluating the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, which is Indiana’s long-running voucher program.
His current research focuses on the impacts of private school choice programs and supports for teachers. He has published academic research in the peer reviewed journals of Educational Policy and AERA Open in addition to the policy brief titled “Teacher Spending Accounts” with the American Enterprise Institute’s Conservative Education Reform Network series that seeks to support teachers across all school types.
Dr. Graff received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2011 with a BA in Philosophy and Chinese. He then taught third grade in Tampa, Florida, where many of his students were able to attend due to the tax credit scholarships provided by Step Up for Students. He then earned a Master of Education degree from the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Teaching Fellows program. Immediately following, he was offered the opportunity to return to Notre Dame to help recruit, mentor, and accompany ACE teachers as they entered the classroom in under-resourced Catholic schools across the country. He spent three years as an Associate Director of the ACE program before beginning doctoral work in Notre Dame’s Sociology Department. Dr. Graff lives in South Bend, Indiana with his wife and four children, several of whom are beneficiaries of Indiana Choice Scholarships.
