Thom Reilly is a professor in the School of Public Affairs and co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. He is a a former director of ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, a former chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education and a former county manager of Clark County, Nev.
Reilly has held senior administrative positions in Nevada state government, overseeing income-maintenance programs and the statewide child-welfare system. He also was managing principal and founder of the Reilly Group, a Las Vegas-based management-consulting firm, and is former vice president of social responsibility at Caesars Entertainment Inc.
Reilly is the co-author, with Jacqueline S. Salit and Omar H. Ali, of The Independent Voter, published in September 2022. His previous books include The Failure of Governance in Bell, California: Big-Time Corruption in a Small Town, published in 2016, and Rethinking Public Sector Compensation: What Ever Happened to The Public Interest?, published in 2012.
A fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, Reilly received his master's and doctorate in public administration from the University of Southern California. He also earned a master's degree in social work at ASU.
