David W. Breneman is University Professor, Newton and Rita Meyers Professor in Economics of Education, and Dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Sweet Briar College.

He was Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1990 to 1995, where he taught graduate courses on the economics and financing of higher education, on liberal arts colleges, and on the college presidency.

As a Visiting Fellow at The Brookings Institution he conducted research for a book, Liberal Arts Colleges: Thriving, Surviving, or Endangered? published by Brookings in 1994. (He was selected as the recipient of the 1999 Award for Outstanding Service from the Council for Independent Colleges for this work.) From 1983 to 1989, he served as president of Kalamazoo College, a liberal arts college in Michigan. Prior to that, he was a Senior Fellow at Brookings from 1975 to 1983, specializing in the economics of higher education and public policy toward education.

His other books include: Earnings from Learning: The Rise of For-Profit Universities (SUNY Albany Press, forthcoming), Strategies for Promoting Excellence in a Time of Scarce Resources (1996), Finance in Higher Education (1993), Academic Labor Markets and Careers (1988), Financing Community Colleges: An Economic Perspective (1981), Public Policy and Private Higher Education (1978), and numerous articles, including several on the federal education budget in the Brookings series: Setting National Priorities. His most recent publications include: Finance in Higher Education in Japan (OECD forthcoming), Equity in Higher Education in Japan (OECD forthcoming), Negotiating a New Relationship with the State: The Virginia Experience (TIAA-CREF Institute, in press), The University of Phoenix: Icon of For-Profit Higher Education (in press), Entrepreneurship in Higher Education (2005), Are the States and Public Higher Education Striking a New Bargain? (2004), For Colleges, This Is Not Just Another Recession (2002), and Financing Private College and Universities: The Role of Tuition Discounting (2002).

David received his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Colorado, his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and taught at Amherst College before moving to Washington in 1972. In 1999, he received an honorary Doctor of Education degree from Worcester State College, and in 2006, Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.