Jared S. Lyon is a doctoral student in the Maxwell School's Social Science Ph.D. Program at Syracuse University. He holds a B.S. in social science from Florida State University and an M.P.A. from Syracuse University, and he is a U.S. Navy veteran.

From 2016 to 2026, Lyon served as president and chief executive officer of Student Veterans of America where his work focused on the policy, financing and institutional design that determine whether veterans complete postsecondary credentials and translate them into civic and economic contribution.

His research interests sit at the intersection of federal higher education policy, public administration, American political development and institutional theory, with a particular focus on how postsecondary education functions as part of the United States' national security and national capacity architecture.

He is interested in how federal policy has built, sustained and at times lost the broader public-purpose rationales that originally connected universities, workforce development and the federal government's responsibilities to its citizens.

Adjacent interests include the governance and finance of mission-driven institutions, the GI Bill and its successor programs as cases in federal-state-institutional coordination, veterans and military-affiliated populations in higher education, and the political economy of civic infrastructure.