More Information About Our Moderators and Panelists
Michael S. Barr, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and a law professor at the University of Michigan, is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and recently co-edited Building Inclusive Financial Systems.
Rudy deLeon, a senior vice president at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, was the deputy secretary of defense in the Clinton administration. Rudy also managed the Pentagon transitions in 1993 and 2001.
Tom Donilon, former assistant secretary of state for public affairs under President Bill Clinton, and has held a wide range of White House and presidential campaign advisory positions. Since 1986, he has served as a senior advisor to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Supreme Court nominations.
Mark Green, founder and president of New Democracy Project, author/editor of 19 books, and a commentator, public interest lawyer, former New York City Public Advocate and Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City in 2001, is currently lecturing at New York University and appears weekly on a public affairs television program on NY1 with Ed Koch and Al D'Amato. Mark is also co-editor of Change for America.
Michele Jolin, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, is co-editor of Change for America.
Maria Echaveste, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and co-founder of the Nueva Vista Group, was deputy chief of staff and assistant to President Clinton from 1998-2001. She was also deputy director of personnel during the Clinton-Gore transition in 1992.
Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund working on climate change and energy independence, was a special assistant to Vice President Al Gore and served with the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Dawn Johnsen, former acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, was legal director of NARAL and is a professor at the Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington.
Jeanne Lambrew is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and an associate professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. From 1997 to 2000, she worked on health policy at the White House as the program associate director for health at the Office of Management and Budget and as the senior health analyst at the National Economic Council.
Gayle Smith, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and co-chair of the ENOUGH Project, served as special assistant to the president and senior director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from 1998-2001. She also served as senior advisor to the administrator and chief of staff of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1994-1998.
Jessica Stern, former director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, is the author of two books on terrorism and a lecturer in public policy and faculty affiliate at Harvard.
Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, was special assistant to President Clinton for policy coordination and was the administration’s chief policy aide on political reform. He was also deputy communications director for the Clinton-Gore transition in 1992.
Sarah Wartell, executive vice president for management of American Progress. One of the original architects of American Progress' business plan, she has been responsible for building the institution, overseeing its operations, and strategic planning from its founding. Sarah served in the White House in the Clinton administration, as deputy assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council.
Judith Winston, was general counsel and undersecretary of the Department of Education during the Clinton administration and formerly a law professor at American University. She is founder and principal at Winston, Withers Associates.
