Brandon Brockmyer, Ph. D.

Brandon Brockmyer is the director of investigations and research at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and the head of POGO Investigates, the organization’s investigative journalism program. He leads POGO’s accountability reporting and oversees a team of journalists and researchers focused on exposing government corruption and abuse of power.

Under Brandon’s leadership, POGO Investigates has produced nationally influential investigations published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Intercept, The New Republic, and other major outlets. This reporting has been cited in dozens of congressional letters and has informed enforcement actions and reforms across multiple federal agencies.

Brandon also oversees Bad Watchdog, POGO’s award-winning investigative podcast, and has led major public-interest research and reporting initiatives, including POGO’s COVID-19 Relief Spending Tracker. The tracker won three 2021 CSS Design Awards and drew interest from the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. In 2023, Brandon received a Society of Professional Journalists DC Dateline Award for his work on Accounting’s Big Lie, an investigation into systemic failures in federal financial oversight.

Brandon has spent nearly two decades working on public sector transparency and accountability by evaluating spending programs, ethics systems, and oversight institutions across the federal government, the 50 states, and internationally. His work has included field research in Bolivia, China, Guatemala, the Philippines, and Tanzania. He is frequently quoted by national media, including The Washington Post, ABC News, and CNN, and has served on the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability roster of experts.

Before joining POGO, Brandon held research leadership roles at the New Venture Fund’s Western Values Project and at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and worked as a research officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts. In 2016, he helped establish the Accountability Research Center, an action-research incubator supporting civil society organizations and accountability reform efforts worldwide.

Brandon holds a Ph.D. in international relations from American University, an M.A. in psychology from New York University, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Reed College.