Rebecca M. Blank

College of Liberal Arts, December 6, 2008

Rebecca M. Blank is a 1976 Summa Cum Laude graduate of the Department of Economics. Currently she serves as the dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Henry Carter Adams Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. She also serves as co-director of the National Poverty Center. From 1997-99, she served as a Member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. During her tenure on the Council under President Clinton, her major contributions included labor market issues such as the minimum wage, immigration policy, and affirmative action, education, child care, welfare reform, teen pregnancy, the Child Health Insurance Program, health coverage for older workers, and the President's Initiative on Race. The impact of her scholarship on American political discourse and public policy has been extraordinary. She is the author of numerous books including It Takes a Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty, The New World of Welfare, and Is the Market Moral? She has also authored, edited or co-edited several other books along with 75 chapters or articles. In addition, she is active on many boards and committees.