Georgetown Law

Mushtaq Gunja serves as executive director of the Carnegie Classification systems and senior vice president at the American Council on Education. Professor Gunja previously served as Assistant Dean in JD Programs at Georgetown Law, where he also served as an adjunct professor. Prior to joining Georgetown, Professor Gunja served as the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary at the United States Department of Education. As Chief of Staff, he provided strategic advice to the Under Secretary in the development and implementation of policies across higher education, including improving access and affordability, highlighting promising practices to foster completion, encouraging increased innovation, improving the borrower experience for students with federal loans, and ensuring fair treatment for all students of higher education. He also assisted the Under Secretary in the management of Federal Student Aid, the Office of Postsecondary Education, the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, and six White House Initiatives on minority education. Professor Gunja also served in the Obama administration as Deputy Associate White House counsel with responsibilities for vetting and confirming the President’s political appointees. Before moving to Washington, Professor Gunja served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Baltimore where he prosecuted a variety of crimes, including violent crime, racketeering offenses, drug conspiracies, and financial fraud. He tried nine cases to verdict, and argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. His work on the opioid crisis, prescription overdose deaths, and doctors’ prescribing habits earned him three Drug Enforcement Administration awards. Professor Gunja graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an Articles Editor for the Harvard Journal on Legislation and coached the mock trial team. He received the Lamport Prize for Outstanding Leadership at Brown University, where he graduated with honors and magna cum laude with a B.A. in political science and diplomatic history.