Burt S. Barnow is the Amsterdam professor of public service and of economics at the George Washington University and a nonresident fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Before joining the George Washington University, Barnow was associate director for research at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies. Before that, he worked for the Lewin Group and the US Department of Labor.

Barnow teaches the core course on program evaluation and a doctoral program seminar on public finance and human capital for public policy and public administration students. He has conducted evaluations of several social programs, including unemployment insurance, training, welfare, child support, and responsible fatherhood programs. His current research includes an evaluation of a new approach to providing adult education and career and technical education, the national evaluation of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training program, an evaluation of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment program serving unemployment insurance claimants, and a formative evaluation of the Career Pathways for Youth demonstration. Barnow is on the board of editors for the Journal of Public Affairs Education, is consulting editor for Evaluation Review, and is methods section editor for the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Barnow received a BS in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MS and PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.