Dr. Nancy E. Brune is the Executive Director of the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities, a statewide policy research center providing independent, data-driven analysis on issues of tax and fiscal policy, education, economic development, and natural resource security. She also serves as a Senior Fellow at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. In 2016, President Obama appointed Dr. Brune to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She is the author of over 75 peer-reviewed journal articles, reports, essays, blogs, and op-ed pieces on topics ranging from economic security, health outcomes, public sector reforms, education, energy security, public security, and natural resource security. Her work has appeared in the IMF Staff Papers, Social Science and Medicine, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Americas Quarterly. Dr. Brune received her Ph.D., Master of Philosophy and Master of Arts degrees from Yale University and her Master of Public Policy and B.A. degrees from Harvard University.

Prior to joining the Guinn Center, she was a Senior Policy Analyst at Sandia National Laboratories, where she worked on issues of national security and energy security. In addition, Dr. Brune served as an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for A New American Security, a bipartisan national security think tank. Dr. Brune has consulted for the Harvard School of Public Health, JPMorgan Chase, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the World Bank. She has taught at the College of Southern Nevada, Nevada State College, and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

The product of a Mexican father and an English mother, Dr. Brune was raised in a household that emphasized public service. Dr. Brune serves as Vice Chair of the Knowledge Fund Advisory Council, an initiative of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, as well as the Chair of the Institutional Advisory Council of the College of Southern Nevada. She was appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval to sit on the English Mastery Council and the Jobs for America’s Graduates-Nevada board of directors. She is a member of the Nevada Children’s Commission and the Clark County Department of Social Services Citizens Advisory Committee and has served on the Blue Ribbon for Kids Commission, Clark County Committee on Community Priorities, the Clark County Citizen Review Board, the Clark County School District’s School Comparison Report Committee, and the Advisory Council on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Dr. Brune is on the board of Southern Nevada Public Television (President), Get Outdoors Nevada, and Goodwill Industries of Southern Nevada (Secretary). She has served as a bilingual CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate), and on the Yale University Graduate School Alumni Association Executive Committee. Dr. Brune is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, the Climate and Security Working Group, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the International Women’s Forum, and the Pacific Council on International Policy, and is a Truman National Security Project Fellow. She is a graduate of the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Las Vegas (Class of 2010). In 2015, she was named a “Woman Who Means Business” by the Las Vegas Business Press. In 2016, Dr. Brune was selected as a Gard Jameson Fellow.