James Heaphey is professor emeritus, Graduate School of Public Affairs, State University of New York. In addition to teaching and writing he directed political development programs in Brazil, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Egypt, Lebanon and South Korea from 1961 to 1992, and gave seminars on the politics of developing countries for American military officers stationed in Europe and the Far East from 1968 to 2003.

He has a B.A., summa cum laude, from Western Reserve University, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. He served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1954.

Before the publication of Legerdemain in 2007 and How to Survive in an Organization in 2008, Heaphey had published numerous academic texts.

He now lives in Williamsburg, Virginia with his wife.