Dear RSF,

Our seminar series will resume on Wednesday, April 17, when we welcome guest speaker Rebecca Blank, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, speaking on The Role of Higher Education in Addressing Problems of Growth, inequality and Opportunity.  Black is an internationally-respected economist who also has spent time in Washington, D.C., working in three different administrations. Most recently, she served as deputy secretary and acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Obama. She was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. 

From 1999 to 2008 she was dean and professor of public policy and economics in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.  Blank also has served on the faculty at Northwestern and Princeton Universities, and was a fellow at the Brookings Institution.  In a career spanning more than three decades, she has studied a variety of public policy issues, including poverty reduction, welfare reform, and the low-skill labor market.  Blank is a former RSF grantee and has contributed to or edited eight RSF books.

Blank earned an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Minnesota, and a doctoral degree in economics from MIT.