Michael Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a think tank that studies education policy and promotes educational excellence for every child in America. In addition to leading a think-tank, for many years Mr. Petrilli has been a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, the executive editor of Education Next journal, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Education Commission of the States. He also has held positions in the U.S Department of Education and K12, a private e-learning company.

Marci Harris is CEO and co-founder of POPVOX, a company that develops technologies and platforms to better connect the public and government officials, and to improve governance. She has served as a tornado recovery coordinator in Tennessee, worked as legislative counsel for a member of Congress, and held internships with a federal judge, as well as the U.S. attorneys office and a subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. She also has been a think-tanker at Harvard’s Ash Center and New America. Follow Marci on Twitter @marcidale.

Yuval Levin is director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Under President George W. Bush, he served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff and was also executive director of the President’s Council on Bioethics. He is the founding and current editor of National Affairs and is also the author of several books on political theory and public policy, most recently A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream.

Have you ever wanted to advise a president? Serve in Congress? Help craft public policy behind the scenes? Every week "Why Public Service?" will introduce you to these career paths, and more, and the color cast of characters behind them who chose to improve our nation through public service. This podcast is a product of the R Street Institute, a free market think tank in Washington, D.C. The first episode drops on August 26th.