Public Policy Forum - March 21, 2020

Bridging generations through Haverford's long-standing commitment to education for ethical action, alumni whose careers intersect with public policy will share insights and experience with Tri-College students interested in making a positive difference through their careers. Students also present policy-related research and have opportunities to dialogue with alumni about their questions and findings. The day includes alumni panel discussions on topics including environmental, higher education, health, immigration, political campaigns, and tax and inequality.

• Register
• Schedule
• Speakers

#haverfordPPF

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Schedule

 Campus Map

Registration and Coffee

9:15 a.m.
KINSC, Zubrow Commons

Opening Remarks

9:30 a.m.
KINSC, Zubrow Commons

Fran Blase, Provost & Associate Professor of Chemistry, Haverford College

Panel Session 1 (Choose one)

9:45–11:00 a.m.

Taxes and Inequality

Hilles 109

Moderator: Carola Binder, Assistant Professor of Economics, Haverford College

Panelists:

• Jane Dokko '98, Assistant Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
• Fritz Kaegi '93, Cook County Assessor, Cook County Assessor's Office
• David Wessel '75, Director, Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Brookings Institution

Immigration

Sharpless Auditorium

Moderator: Anita Isaacs, Benjamin R. Collins Professor Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science, Haverford College

Panelists:

• Caya Simonsen '14, Harvard Law Student
• Elissa Steglich '94, Co-Director & Clinical Professor, Immigration Clinic, The University of Texas School of Law
• Lindsey Sweet, Esq. '03, Founding Partner, Sweet & Paciorek, LLC

Poster Session 1

11:05-11:50 a.m.
KINSC, Zubrow Commons

Lunch (Policy-specific affinity tables)

12:00-12:55 p.m.
KINSC, Zubrow Commons

Panel Session 2 (Choose One)

1:00–2:15 p.m.

Political Campaigns

Hilles 109

Moderator: Marissa Martino Golden, Associate Professor of Political Science on the Joan Coward Chair in Political Economics, Bryn Mawr College

Panelists:

• Elaine Kamarck BMC '72, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
• Leo Sussan '13, Co-Founder & CTO, Reach
• Stephen E. Spaulding '05, Senior Elections Counsel, Committee on House Administration, U.S. House of Representatives

Environmental

Sharpless Auditorium

Moderator: Jonathan Wilson, Associate Professor and Chair of Environmental Studies, Haverford College

Panelists:

• Jim Kapsis '99, Founder, The Ad Hoc Group
• Julie Lawson '00, Director, Mayor's Office of the Clean City, Executive Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser
• Alix Joseph '96, Attorney, Office of General Counsel, Denver Water

Poster Session 2

2:20-3:05 p.m.
KINSC, Zubrow Commons

Panel Session 3 (Choose one)

3:10-4:25 p.m.

Health

Hilles 109

Moderator: Julie Kraut-Becher, Research Associate, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (former Visiting Assistant Professor, Haverford College)

Panelists:

• Joan Alker BMC '85, Executive Director, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families
• Jesse M. Ehrenfeld MD MPH '00, Chair, American Medical Association; Senior Associate Dean, Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW), Medical College of Wisconsin
• Maria P. Lemos PhD MPH '98, Staff Scientist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Higher Education

Sharpless Auditorium

Moderator: Matthew McKeever, Professor and Chair of Sociology, Haverford College

Panelists:

• David Baime '80, Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Policy Analysis, American Association of Community Colleges
• Sandy Baum BMC '72, Senior Fellow, The Urban Institute
• Bob Mong '71, President, University of North Texas at Dallas

Networking Reception

4:25-5:30 p.m.
KINSC, Rotunda

Wine and cheese will be available.

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Speakers

Joan Alker BMC '85

Executive Director, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families

Joan Alker is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF), and a Research Professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. The CCF is an independent, nonpartisan policy and research center founded in 2005 with a mission to support access to high-quality, comprehensive, and affordable health coverage for all of America's children and families.

Alker is a leading national expert on public coverage for children and families including Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program—especially the use of Section 1115 Medicaid waivers which have recently been used to promote work requirements in Medicaid. She is the lead author of the Center's annual report on the number of uninsured children. Other recent projects include a joint initiative with the University of North Carolina on the role of Medicaid in rural America.

Prior to coming to Georgetown, Alker worked in Government Relations for the national consumer health group Families USA and served as the Assistant Director for the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Alker holds a Master of Philosophy in politics from St. Antony's College, Oxford University, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in political science from Bryn Mawr College—she majored at Haverford College and worked with the late Professor Sid Waldman.

David Baime '80

Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Policy Analysis, American Association of Community Colleges

David Baime serves as Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Policy Analysis for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). In this role, he directs the national advocacy efforts for the nation's 1,051 community colleges and their students. Prior to that time he served as Director of Education Funding for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Mr. Baime has also worked as Assistant Director of Government Relations for the Association of American Medical Colleges. Mr. Baime holds a bachelor's degree from Haverford College and a Master's Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Mr. Baime has made a number of radio, television, and web appearances, including on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and National Public Radio, and is frequently quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, Education Week, and other education publications. He is the author of a number of published article and essays, and has co-written a book on community college finance. He also serves as a Trustee of Excelsior College.

Sandy Baum BMC '72

Senior Fellow, The Urban Institute

Sandy Baum is a nonresident senior fellow at the Urban Institute and professor emerita of economics at Skidmore College. Dr. Baum earned her B.A. in sociology at Bryn Mawr College, where she is currently a member of the Board of Trustees, and her Ph.D. in economics at Columbia University. She has written and spoken extensively on issues relating to college access, college pricing, student aid policy, student debt, affordability, and other aspects of higher education finance.

Dr. Baum has co-authored the College Board's annual publications Trends in Student Aid and Trends in College Pricing since 2002. Through the College Board and the Brookings Institution, she has chaired major study groups that released proposals for reforming federal and state student aid. She has published numerous articles on higher education finance in professional journals, books, and the trade press. She is the principle researcher on the Urban Institute's website on college affordability and her recent work includes Urban Institute briefs on Federal Work Study, Parent PLUS loans, and college endowments. She is the author of Student Debt: Rhetoric and Realities of Higher Education Financing (Palgrave Macmillan 2016) and co-author with Harry Holzer of Making College Work: Pathways to Success for Disadvantaged Students (Brookings Institution Press 2017). Dr. Baum publishes frequent blog posts on the Urban Wire.

Jane Dokko '98

Assistant Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Jane Dokko is an assistant vice president in the community development and policy studies division of the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In this role, she leads research and analysis related to the Bank's community development function. During the Obama Administration, Dokko was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Economics at the U.S. Treasury Department and a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. In this work, she was a leader in the development of housing finance policy, the fiduciary rule, and infrastructure policy. She has also worked at the International Monetary Fund, Brookings Institution, and Federal Reserve Board. Dokko is the author of widely-cited academic journal articles, policy briefs, and general interest publications, and her work has been frequently covered in the mainstream media. Her expertise spans housing finance, consumer finance, retirement security, and financial regulation. She received a bachelor's in economics from Haverford College and a master's and PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.

Jesse M. Ehrenfeld MD MPH '00

Chair, American Medical Association; Senior Associate Dean, Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) at the Medical College of Wisconsin

Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, is chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees, a Senior Associate Dean, Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He also is an adjunct Professor of Anesthesiology and Health Policy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Ehrenfeld also has an appointment as an adjunct professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Bethesda, Md.).

Dr. Ehrenfeld's research, which focuses on understanding how information technology can improve patient safety, outcomes, and health equity, has been funded by the NIH, the Department of Defense, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research, and the AMA. The unifying theme of his work has been to comprehend the science behind how technology can change behavior, reduce variability, and facilitate improved health system reliability and performance. His work has led to the presentation of more than 250 abstracts as well as the publication of more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Systems and has co-authored 18 clinical textbooks that have been translated into multiple languages. A consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Ehrenfeld provides technical expertise to the WHO Digital Health Technical Advisory Group. He has also been a participant in the National Academy of Medicine's Systems Engineering for Health Innovation Collaborative and previously served as co-chair of the Navy Surgeon General's Taskforce on Personalized and Digital Medicine and as special advisor to the 20th U.S. Surgeon General. In 2018, he was an inaugural recipient of the NIH Sex and Gender Minority Research Award from the NIH Director.

Dr. Ehrenfeld earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Haverford College in 2000. He received his MD degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 2004 and a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard University School of Public Health (Boston, Mass.) in 2009. From 2004-2005, Dr. Ehrenfeld completed an internship in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Mass.) and a residency in Anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine there from 2005-2008. Dr. Ehrenfeld also completed an informatics research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2008-2010. He is a fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (FASA) and the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA).

Alix Joseph '96

Attorney, Office of General Counsel at Denver Water

Alix Joseph is an attorney with the Office of General Counsel at Denver Water. Alix advises Denver Water on various issues ranging from collection and distribution system management and planning, water and property rights, emergency planning and preparedness, public finance and transparency. Prior to joining Denver Water, Alix was a shareholder at a private law firm in the Denver area, where she represented governmental entities, businesses, developers and individuals in acquiring and managing water rights, from preparing sales and lease contracts, performing due diligence, documenting financing, preparing conveyance documents and protecting water rights by filing and participating in actions in Water Court.

Alix graduated from Haverford College with a B.A. in Geology and received her J.D. from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She lives in Denver with her husband and two very active boys.

Fritz Kaegi '93

Cook County Assessor, Cook County Assessor's Office

Fritz is the Cook County Assessor, leading the second largest property assessment system in the United States, covering Chicago and much of its suburbs, where 5.2million people live. Following a campaign where he beat the head of the vaunted Chicago political machine, he began his administration in December 2018, focusing on building an ethical, transparent, and equitable property tax system through better use of data, modern valuation techniques, and a commitment to stewardship. Previously, Fritz was a global investor in small- and medium sized publicly-traded companies through managing mutual funds (including the $10bn Acorn Fund) at Columbia Wanger Asset Management. Raised in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, he majored in Economics and Political Science at Haverford and was a Watson Fellow. He received his MBA from Stanford Business School in 2001.

Elaine Kamarck (Elaine Ciulla, BMC '72)

Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

Elaine C. Kamarck is a Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies program as well as the Director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. She is an expert on American electoral politics and government innovation and reform in the United States, OECD nations, and developing countries. She focuses her research on the presidential nomination system and American politics and has worked in many American presidential campaigns. Kamarck is the author of Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates and Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again. She is also the author of How Change Happens—or Doesn't: The Politics of US Public Policy and The End of Government-As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work. Kamarck is also a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She started at the Kennedy School in 1997 after a career in politics and government. She has been a member of the Democratic National Committee and the DNC's Rules Committee since 1997. She has participated actively in four presidential campaigns and in ten nominating conventions—including two Republican conventions—and has served as a superdelegate to five Democratic conventions. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders of the New Democrat movement that helped elect Bill Clinton president. She served in the White House from 1993 to 1997, where she created and managed the Clinton Administration's National Performance Review, also known as the “reinventing government initiative.” At the Kennedy School, she served as Director of Visions of Governance for the Twenty-First Century and as Faculty Advisor to the Innovations in American Government Awards Program. In 2000, she took a leave of absence to work as Senior Policy Advisor to the Gore campaign. Kamarck conducts research on 21st century government, the role of the Internet in political campaigns, homeland defense, intelligence reorganization, and governmental reform and innovation. Kamarck makes regular appearances in the media, including segments on: ABC, CBS, NBC, the BBC, CNN, Fox News Now New England Cable News, and National Public Radio. Kamarck received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jim Kapsis '99

Founder, The Ad Hoc Group

Jim Kapsis is the founder of The Ad Hoc Group, an advisory firm that helps climate and urban tech startups succeed in complex, regulated markets. Jim is also the co-host of Technopolis, a podcast on how technology is disrupting, remaking and sometimes overrunning cities.

Jim has been a Senior Advisor to Sidewalk Labs, Alphabet's urban venture, and spent six years building and leading the global regulatory team at Opower, Inc., an energy efficiency software company that went public in 2014 and sold to Oracle in 2016. Before entering the private sector, Jim was a climate negotiator in the Obama Administration where he helped broker the Copenhagen Climate Accord in 2009. Jim has worked in the U.S. Treasury, State, and Defense Departments, and in Congress.

Jim earned a B.A. in Political Science from Haverford College and a M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Jim lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and three daughters. He serves on the Board of the City's Transit Company and was formerly chair of its Environmental Policy Commission.

Julie Lawson '00

Director, Mayor's Office of the Clean City, Executive Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser

Julie Lawson, Director of the Mayor's Office of the Clean City, is a skilled team builder and communicator with more than 15 years of experience as an entrepreneurial advocate, marketing professional, and project manager. She is recognized as an international expert on plastic pollution policy and behavior change, and is a respected leader in engaging diverse communities on the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. She developed multiple local, state, and national coalitions to pass cutting-edge legislation to protect neighborhoods and waterways, from the Anacostia River to the oceans. Her projects to reduce litter in Baltimore connected private, nonprofit, and government stakeholders from an array of environmental, economic development, public health, and political sectors.

Before joining the Bowser Administration, Julie founded and served as Executive Director of Trash Free Maryland, a nonprofit organization working to reduce trash pollution through policy and behavior change. Prior to that Julie was principal for Communication Visual, a graphic design and marketing studio specializing in public service communications.

Julie is passionate about restoring the Anacostia River so that it can be a full recreational, economic, and natural resource for all Washingtonians to enjoy. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in linguistics from Haverford College and lives in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, DC, with her son Owen.

Maria P. Lemos PHD MPH '98

Staff Scientist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Maria P. Lemos has worked since 2008 with the HIV Vaccines Trials Network, a network of laboratories, statisticians and clinical sites that conduct of Phase I (safety and immunogenicity), II (efficacy) vaccine and immune-prophylaxis clinical trials for the prevention of HIV infection. She has contributed to multiple clinical trials that test prevention interventions, including detecting HIV exposures, circumcisions and antibody-mediated protection. Her work focuses on the protection mechanisms acting at the mucosal portals of entry, such as the surfaces exposed during sexual activity. She has conducted HIV prevention studies in Peru, the US, and South Africa.

Bob Mong '71

President, University of North Texas at Dallas

Bob Mong has served as the President of the University of North Texas at Dallas and its College of Law since 2015. During his time at UNT Dallas, the school has experienced record enrollment, retention and graduation growth. It is officially the fastest growing of Texas’ public four-year universities. It also has been recognized as keeping debt low for its graduates. The school serves a primarily urban population that is 85 percent Hispanic and African-American. UNT Dallas is dedicated to closing educational attainment gaps in Dallas and its inner ring suburbs. Bob arrived at UNT Dallas after nearly 40 years in journalism, most of it spent at The Dallas Morning News, where he served as both managing editor and editor-in-chief. During his time in news leadership, the paper won 9 Pulitzer Prizes and was Pulitzer finalist another 16 times. In 2004, Bob was named the national Empathy Award winner by the Volunteers of America, recognizing an individual whose work has improved the communities they serve. He is married to Diane Reischel, a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times. They have a son who graduated from medical school and holds his residency in neurosurgery; and a daughter who received a master's degree from Brite School of Theology and is a middle school special education teacher.

Caya Simonsen '14

Harvard Law Student

Caya Simonsen is a second year law student at Harvard Law School. During law school, Caya has participated in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic as well as the Crimmigration Clinic. During her first summer, Caya interned with Al Otro Lado in Tijuana, Mexico, assisting asylum seekers returned to Mexico under the Remain in Mexico program. Before law school, Caya was the Volunteer Coordinator of the Dilley Pro Bono Project, coordinating volunteers to provide legal services to detained families. She has also been a human rights accompanier with Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, and worked at Annunciation House, a house of hospitality for recently arrived immigrants in El Paso, Texas.

Stephen Spaulding '05

Senior Elections Counsel, Committee on House Administration, U.S. House of Representatives

Stephen Spaulding '05 is the Senior Elections Counsel to the Committee on House Administration (Majority) in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he advises the Committee on election law matters including campaign finance, election administration issues. He has worked on election law matters for the last decade in various roles, including as Special Counsel to Commissioner Ann Ravel of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and in various roles at Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization working to bolster American democracy, including as the organization's Chief of Strategy, Legal Director, and Senior Policy Counsel. Stephen has appeared widely on television and radio and his work has been cited by 60 Minutes, NPR's All Things Considered, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Slate, and many other outlets. He has also worked for the Rackets Bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and in the office of former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. Stephen received his J.D. cum laude from Boston College Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Law and Social Justice (formerly the Third World Law Journal).

Elissa Steglich '94

Co-Director & Clinical Professor, Immigration Clinic, The University of Texas School of Law

Elissa Steglich is Clinical Professor and Co-Director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. In her 20 years advocating for immigrant rights, she has provided direct representation to asylum seekers, immigrant children, and immigrant survivors of violence and human trafficking. Professor Steglich regularly presents at scholarly conferences, public events, and professional trainings.

Professor Steglich previously served as Legal Services Director at the American Friends Service Committee's Immigrant Rights Program in Newark, New Jersey. She worked with the National Immigrant Justice Center and conducted extensive field research on trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean for the International Human Rights Law Initiative of DePaul College of Law. She serves on the advisory committee of the ABA Children's Immigration Law Academy and on the Amicus Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She received a BA in English from Haverford College and was awarded a JD with Honors from the University of Texas School of Law.

Leo Sussan '13

Co-Founder & CTO, Reach

Leo Sussan '13 has spent his career building and delivering results in technology, growth, digital acquisition, and advertising. He is the co-founder & CTO of Reach, an application conceived of, developed and used to great success on the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress campaign in 2018, where he served as Technology Director. Prior to this, Sussan was the Director of Digital for a venture-backed technology startup and helped lead assorted digital efforts for American Express, GoPro, Reckitt-Benckiser, and other Fortune 500 clients.

Lindsey Sweet, Esq. '03

Founding Partner, Sweet & Paciorek, LLC

A native of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, Lindsey has also lived and studied in Veracruz, Mexico. In 2003, Lindsey graduated with degrees in Political Science and Spanish from Haverford College. Lindsey then worked with the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program for 4 years where she provided supplemental education to the children of migrant farm workers in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Later, while in law school at Rutgers University School of Law-Newark, Lindsey provided legal outreach in Spanish to indigent farm workers across Pennsylvania regarding their legal rights as employees and to immigrant day laborers in Newark, New Jersey.

Lindsey has worked defending immigrant legal rights since 2006 and has been licensed to practice law in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 2009. After working in several private firms, in August 2014, Lindsey united with Anna Paciorek to form Sweet & Paciorek, LLC, where she now manages the Avondale office and continues to focus exclusively on Immigration and Nationality Law.

She has performed extensive legal research and drafted briefs and motions to the EOIR and the BIA. She works closely with individual clients and prepare applications and supporting documentation for Family-Based Petitions, Adjustment of Status, Removal of Conditions of Permanent Residency, Cancellation of Removal, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Self-Petitions, U Visa Petitions, T visa Petitions, Asylum and Withholding of Removal, Temporary Protected Status, Naturalization, Employment Authorization, Advance Parole/Travel Document, and various types of Inadmissibility Waivers.

Lindsey has served on multiple liaison committees of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She frequently gives talks and workshops on immigration-related topics of interest to Spanish speaking communities, social service agencies, government agencies, private companies, school districts, and universities in and around Southern Chester County Pennsylvania and Delaware. She is very involved in the community in and around her Avondale office, actively serving on the Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs for the Borough of Kennett Square, Board of the Joseph and Sarah Carter Community Development Corporation in Kennett Square, and the Board of the Maternal and Child Health Consortium of Chester County. Lindsey was named a 2018 Rising Star by Super Lawyers and 2018 Top Lawyer in Immigration Law by Main Line Today Magazine.

David Wessel '75

Director, Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Brookings Institution

David Wessel is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings and director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. He joined Brookings in December 2013 after 30 years on the staff of The Wall Street Journal where, most recently, he was economics editor and wrote the weekly Capital column. He is a contributing correspondent to The Wall Street Journal, appears frequently on NPR's Morning Edition and tweets often. David is the author of two New York Times best-sellers: In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic (2009) and Red Ink: Inside the High Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget (2012.) He has shared two Pulitzer Prizes, one in 1984 for a Boston Globe series on the persistence of racism in Boston and the other in 2003 for Wall Street Journal stories on corporate scandals. A native of New Haven, Conn., and a product of its public schools, David is a 1975 graduate of Haverford College where he majored in economics. He was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism at Columbia University in 1980-81.

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