Has conducted extensive public policy research including the problems of government entitlements and their solutions. Also has specialized in elementary and secondary education and school choice policies.

Has written and spoken on Social Security, education, health care, criminal justice, tax policy, the environment and other issues for the NCPA.

Prior to joining the NCPA in 1990, Mr. Cordell was a newspaper publisher and an executive of the Associated Press, the world's largest news gathering organization.

A journalism graduate of the University of Kentucky, did graduate study in political science at the universities of North Carolina and Kentucky, and has an MBA from the University of Dallas.

A former adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University.

Coauthor of the book Social Security: Your Taxes, Your Benefits, Some Alternatives, published by the NCPA in 2000. Most recent NCPA study is The Nightmare in Our Future: Elderly Entitlements, coauthored with NCPA President John C. Goodman.