John Ketcham is a fellow and director of cities at the Manhattan Institute. His areas of expertise include housing, local elections, infrastructure, parental rights, and more, particularly in New York City and State. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BS from Fordham University. While in law school, Ketcham spent a summer at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations and was treasurer of the Harvard Federalist Society and managing editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. He has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the American Mind, New York Daily News, New York Post, and City Journal. He was awarded a New York City Leonine Forum Fellow in 2021–22 and the Napa Legal Institute’s Good Counselor Project Fellowship in 2023–24.

A lifelong resident of Astoria, Queens, John serves as the vice president of the Long Island City Lawyers Club, trustee and past Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Colon-Msgr. Higgins Council 309, public relations officer of the Astoria Homeowners, Tenants & Business Civic Association, and treasurer of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy.