Marion E. Orr, Brown University
Council 2003-05

Marion Orr is professor of political science at Brown University. He previously was a member of the political science faculty at Duke University. He earned his B.A. degree in political science from Savannah State College, M.A. in political science from Atlanta Uni-versity (now Clark-Atlanta University), and a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is affiliated with the Urban Studies Program and the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions at Brown University.

He is the author of two books, Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore (University Press of Kansas, 1999), which won the Policy Studies Organization's Aaron Wildavsky Award for the "best policy studies book published in 1999," and The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics and the Challenge of Urban Education (Princeton University Press, 1999), with Jeffrey Henig, Richard C. Hula, and Desiree Pedescleaux, which was named the best book in 1999 by the APSA's Urban Politics Section. His research is in the areas of American government and politics, urban politics, race and politics, urban public policy, and the politics of urban schools.

Orr is active in the profession. He is president-elect of the APSA Organized Section on Urban Politics, is a member of the Governing Board of the Urban Affairs Association, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Urban Affairs. In addition, he served on the APSA Ralph Bunche Book Award Com-mittee (2002-2003), the APSA Strategic Planning Committee (1999--2000), the executive council of the APSA organized section on urban politics (1995--1997 & 1999--2001), the editorial board of Urban Affairs Review (1995--1998), and the executive council of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (1995--1998).

Orr is currently gathering data for a study of the community organizing efforts of local affiliates of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a network of local, community-based organizations founded by the late Saul Alinsky.