
Director of Policy
Patrick McIlheran, director of policy at the Badger Institute, has decades of top-level policy, communications and political experience. Most recently, he served U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson for more than 10 years in a number of roles, including deputy chief of staff, policy advisor and communications director. Previously, he had a long career with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, including seven years as a columnist, where one of his primary focuses was Milwaukee’s complex environment of school reform. Prior to that, he worked for other newspapers in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Pat grew up in western Racine County.
McIlheran’s latest:
- Post-Kirk assassination, Wisconsin needs to teach difference between words and bullets, says prof
- Overwhelming demand for choice schools in Milwaukee drives massive philanthropy and big builds
- Wisconsin can learn from neighbors’ disappearing-passenger blues
- Tony Evers’ puzzlingly swift rejection of more education money