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BIO of April Ponnuru:
April Ponnuru got her B.A. in Political Science from Liberty University and M.A. in Legal and Political Theory, University College of London.
She was Senior Advisor, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt,
Policy Director, YG Network and Senior Policy Advisor for the presidential campaign of Governor Jeb Bush, Washington, D.C.
In 2002, she married conservative journalist Ramesh Ponnuru.
April Ponnuru said, "The Witherspoon Fellowship was crucial to my formation as a Christian, and it deepened my understanding of the role of civil society. From there I gained an appreciation of the proper role of government—a limited role with the primary purpose of protecting and strengthening the space where civil society can flourish.”
April knew the potential of conservative policies to build a flourishing society and believed that conservatives were badly in need of a governing agenda that spoke to the needs of average people. April helped the Republican Party to target middle class voters by conservative policy messages.
- She worked in both House and Senate leadership offices, serving as a senior policy advisor to Roy Blunt (R-MO) during his tenure as House Majority Whip, and later as a senior advisor and director of his Senate leadership office.
- She’d also served as executive director of National Review Institute, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr., and as vice president of National Review magazine.
- In 2013, April became policy director of the YG (“young guns”) Network, a young conservative organization founded by up-and-coming leaders such as Paul Ryan (R-WI). YG is now at the center of the conversation about how conservatives should address health care, higher education, and an economy that works for middle-income families.
- In May 2014, April’s team published Room to Grow, a collection of essays that put together some of the best new conservative ideas from respected policy thinkers—including Yuval Levin, Andrew Kelly, Michael Strain, and Bradford Wilcox—into a popular manifesto that launched a flurry of public discourse.
- April’s work was profiled in a cover story for The New York Times Magazine- To be a conservative is to apply timeless truths to the present moment,” reflects April, and her team found sophisticated ways to do that. New York Times columnist David Brooks called the publication “the most coherent and compelling policy agenda the American right has produced this century.
- In 2015, she was senior policy adviser for Governor Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign.
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