Subject: Re: Equitable Growth Update, Jan. 10, 2014
From: "Daetz, Steve" <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Sandler, Susan" <[email-masked]>, "Sandler, Herbert" <[email-masked]>, "Daetz, Steve" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 05:11:59 +0000

Here's a brief outline of some reactions.  We're happy to engage directly with Heather, but wanted to talk with you first.

1. Need to develop/refresh a short-term business plan -- what are our strategies, priorities, goals for next 12-18 months?  Without that clarity and focus, we run the risk of reacting to wish lists of academic economists, who are not the best arbiters of how to get things done.

2. Overarching questions about Heather's ability to envision, and lead, a bigger initiative that includes many elements outside of her comfort zone.

3. Need for Neera's approval of staff hires.

4. Steering committee composition.

On Jan 13, 2014, at 2:58 PM, "Sandler, Herbert" <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:

John
Hate to bother you, but Steve and I are very troubled by many aspects of Heather’s email and would like to discuss with you before we get back to her.
How did your surgery go today?
Herb

From: Heather Boushey [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2014 1:26 PM
To: Sandler, Herbert; Sandler, Susan; Daetz, Steve
Subject: Equitable Growth Update, Jan. 10, 2014

Hello Herb, Susan, and Steve,

Happy New Year! I hope you're all well.

I wanted to give you a brief 2014 update from really rainy Washington. It would be helpful to set up a call soon as well as I have some questions interspersed below. I'll note that John's been gone a week, but he's already called to give me ideas, which was great. He sounds happy and I got to discuss much of this list with him as well.

Academic engagement

Three staff and I spent last weekend at the ASSA meetings in Philadelphia networking and drumming up interest. A few ASSA take-aways are:

  *   There is a real appetite for visiting scholar program. This was also underscored by Larry Katz/David Autor/Claudia Goldin. A key question here will be space.
  *   We definitely need in-house economists to network/identify the right people. The conference underscored my thinking that younger scholars are the way to go, but to hire one other senior person who can help me with the team.
  *   We want to make a splash at the ASSA next year — I think we should host a reception in a room close to either Berkeley or Harvard for our Research Advisory Board and grantees, to drum up excitement.
  *   Finally, I had a really good chat with Jim Poterba, who runs the NBER. He started off the conversation with his fears about us not paying overhead. I hear you on this, but it now feels like it means setting aside MIT/NBER as places to fund.
On the grant-making, the LOIs are coming in slowly and we sent out another reminder today to a large list. We have some good proposals already, but only a few so far. On the issue of a grant to Harvard/MIT, I had a nice chat with Autor/Goldin/Katz, but they are not biting. David said they were "fully funded," but they perked up at the idea of visiting fellows for their students/recent graduates. For me, it felt like a reversal from our November conversation. I'd like to discuss this with you.

Internal Research/product queue

We are finally settling into sorting out our product queue. I'll have more details on this in the next update, but one thing I know is that we are planning to do an event for Thomas Piketty around his new (big, important) book coming out in March. The event will be April 15, which isn't the best, but it's what he can do. I'm writing reviews for a couple of places and want to make sure that we pull out all the stops to make sure we connect Emmanuel's co-author with DC.

Hiring/staffing:

Economists:

  *   We interviewed about 14 PhD candidates at ASSA, including Saez and Chetty students. One clear take-away is that our idea is attracting very high quality candidates. None of the candidates knew who was on our board, but they seemed excited by the job ad describing our mission. That felt like a good sign. I am playing with offering a title like "Fellow" or "Post-doctoral Fellow" for those who may want to consider going back to academia. This may be good for us/good for them.
  *   I also heard more confirmation that the young economist we've offered a job to (he hasn't accepted yet as he is waiting on his partner's job offers) is an excellent choice, so that felt good.
  *   I have a senior person ready to start as a visiting scholar from June 2014 through the academic year. Robert Lynch focuses on early childhood and immigration and has some nice model lying on how inequality in education affects growth. The topics will be both academically and politically relevant, they may help us connect more with the Russell Sage Foundation (Robert could manage a special issue of their new journal, tapping into our growing network), and he's a good manager and mentor and can help me guide a young team. Further, going this route means that I get some that I know is good and up to the job, without having to make a permanent commitment yet. With so much hiring, that's a bit of a relief since this will be a key position.
Communications/Publications:

  *   I have an excellent candidate for Senior Communications Director, Ed Paisley (and John agrees). Ed founded CAP's Editorial Team and spent a couple of decades as a financial journalist. He knows media, he's an excellent editor who knows how to work with academics, and he's a proven excellent manager. The offer is on Neera's desk and if she says yes, then we'll be able to offer him the position.
Fundraising. Before John went to the WH, he gave me some people to meet — David Beier, Phil Murphy, and Ira Fishman — and I've had time to talk to two so far:

  *   David, who has extensive political and business networks, works a couple blocks from your office and was eager to help. He sent us a check for around $2k, so we now have two funders! He suggested he could perhaps pull together a San Francisco meeting of business leaders. He also said that, at John's urging, he'd like to join the Steering Committee. I'd like to talk this over with you. He says you have met, but I will send over a bio and hopefully we can set up a time to discuss this.
  *   Phil was most recently the Ambassador to Germany and an old friend of John's. He offered to put together a meeting of smart business leaders in NYC and to serve as an informal advisor (he may take a position where he could not sit on any boards). John recommended he play a chair role in his absence and we'll see whether he can actually do that.
On my to do list is to follow up on all the foundation recommendations you sent and I will likely have questions, so let's add that to our call agenda, too. My deadline for that is that I will be in NYC in mid-February and I'll need to start scheduling the round of meetings.

I hope we talk soon and please let me know if you have any comments/concerns/questions.

Best,
Heather
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Heather Boushey
Executive Director and Chief Economist
Washington Center for Equitable Growth
1333 H Street, NW, 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20005

[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
Desk: (202) 741-6247
Twitter: @hboushey