Dan Murphy is program officer for the Land Use and Public Participation Program, the Public Intellectuals Program, and the Policy Leaders Orientation Program. Prior to joining the National Committee he coordinated the China Environment and Health Initiative at the Social Science Research Council.

Mr. Murphy has an M.A. in Chinese Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst as well as a graduate certificate from the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, where he studied politics and was supported by a Freeman Foundation Fellowship. In 2001 he received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to conduct research on environmental management in six countries. He speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.