Emily Murphy joins GMU

Emily Murphy, then head of GSA, testifies before a House committee in 2018

Emily Murphy, the former head of the General Services Administration who briefly became a national figure when she declined to ascertain Joe Biden’s election victory, preventing the release of funds for the transition, has taken on a new role at the George Mason University Center for Government Contracting.

Murphy was GSA administrator from 2017 until she resigned days before the Biden's inauguration and ahead of a critical inspector general report related to the agency’s pandemic response. On Tuesday, GMU announced Murphy would be joining the center as a senior research fellow to help lead business, policy and regulatory initiatives focused on government contracting.

Murphy has held numerous roles as an acquisition and contracting official throughout the federal government, focusing on acquisitions as counsel for the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Small Business, and serving as the GSA's chief acquisition officer under former President George W. Bush. She was unanimously confirmed to serve as GSA administrator by the Senate under Trump, but found herself mired in controversy because of GSA’s resistance to oversight of the Trump Organization’s lease of the Old Post Office building Pavilion in Washington D.C., which was the site of the Trump International Hotel.

Murphy has taken on several other positions in addition to her new post at George Mason since resigning from the Trump administration in its final days. She now serves on multiple government contracting boards, including the Board of Advisors of SkillStorm and Vita Inclinata, and was also hired to work as a coach for CEO Coaching International.