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Danny Werfel, who recently served as the 50th Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and is a Sanford Master of Public Policy alum (MPP'97), is returning to Duke as a Polis Distinguished Fellow for the upcoming academic year. Werfel will also be actively involved with Duke's Civil Discourse Project (CDP).
Werfel brings decades of high-level experience in federal government leadership, transformation, and financial management to Duke. During two separate stints leading the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), he presided over the nation's tax system, which collects approximately $4.1 trillion in tax revenue annually, representing about 96% of the total gross receipts of the United States. He spearheaded a dramatic transformation of the IRS during his tenure, achieving significant improvements across all dimensions of its operation.
Abdullah Antepli, Director of Polis: The Center for Politics, Leadership, Innovation, and Service, expressed his enthusiasm for Werfel’s arrival: "It is a distinct honor to welcome Danny Werfel back to Duke and Sanford as a Polis Distinguished Fellow. As a distinguished MPP alum, his remarkable career, particularly his transformative leadership at the IRS and extensive OMB experience, offers an invaluable real-world perspective for our students. Danny's commitment to tackling complex challenges and his involvement with our Civil Discourse Project will be instrumental in helping our community explore how to engage constructively across diverse viewpoints, a cornerstone of Polis’s mission."
Manoj Mohanan, Interim Dean of Sanford, also shared his excitement: "We are thrilled to welcome Danny Werfel, one of our own Sanford MPP graduates, back to campus as a Polis Distinguished Fellow. His impressive track record of leadership in critical government roles provides a unique learning opportunity for our students aspiring to careers in public service. Danny’s engagement with the Civil Discourse Project will be particularly beneficial, offering insights into navigating the complexities of policymaking and public leadership through reasoned, respectful dialogue. His presence underscores Sanford’s commitment to fostering leaders equipped to address society’s most pressing challenges."
Werfel's recent leadership as IRS Commissioner saw an unprecedented hiring surge, the launch of more digital solutions in a two-year period than the previous two decades combined, and the deployment of targeted management interventions to reach historic high watermarks on key performance indicators, such as customer service, transaction processing timelines, and increased receipts.
His career has been marked by his consistent call to lead the government’s most complex and high-stakes assignments. His most recent appointment as IRS Commissioner came as the Administration committed to a “once-in-a-generation” agency transformation. A decade prior, his appointment to lead the IRS as Acting Commissioner followed a significant organizational crisis. While at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Werfel served as Controller and Acting Deputy Director for Management, leading efforts across the federal government to improve program integrity and taking on special assignments such as leadership roles in implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and coordinating the government-wide response to the budget sequester of Fiscal Year 2013.
Before his latest government service, Werfel spent 9 years in the private sector and was the global leader of Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) Public Sector practice. He initially served in the federal government for more than 15 years.
Werfel will contribute to the Civil Discourse Project (CDP) as part of his Duke engagement. The Civil Discourse Project sponsors courses, events, and scholarship that promote civil discourse through modeling or teaching the capacities and virtues necessary to engage in healthy exchange across differences. At CDP, the aim is to create, both inside and outside the classroom, intellectually diverse communities of friends who will both support and challenge in a collective pursuit of truth and knowledge, enabling all to become better thinkers, people, community members, citizens, and leaders. The project maintains that such community requires freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression for faculty and students alike.
Earlier in his career, Werfel served as a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Duke University, a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor's Degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
His appointment will allow students and the broader Duke community to learn from his extensive experience navigating the challenges and opportunities within public service and national policymaking.