Professor Abraham Receives Presidential Appointment

Professor Katharine G. Abraham, a faculty member in the Department of Economics (ECON) and in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM), has been appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as chair of the recently-established Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking. 

The Commission is charged with making recommendations about how administrative data can be made more accessible to researchers for policy evaluation purposes, as well as how rigorous evaluation can be made a more integral part of the ongoing operations of Federal programs. A central task of the Commission will be to develop a plan for the establishment of an administrative data clearinghouse to support these program evaluation goals.  

Of the 15 Commission members, three including the Chair are to be appointed by the President; the other 12 members, including a co-Chair, are to be appointed by the House and the Senate. The Commission has 15 months to issue a final report. 

Professor Abraham first joined the University of Maryland faculty in 1987. In addition to her work in ECON and JPSM, she directs the Maryland Center for Economics and Policy, and is affiliated with the Maryland Population Research Center.

She served as Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1993 through 2001, a position to which she was appointed by President William J. Clinton, and as a Member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 through 2013.  Professor Abraham also is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Society of Labor Economists. 

“I am confident that these experienced and hardworking individuals will help us tackle the important challenges facing America, and I am grateful for their service. I look forward to working with them,” President Barack Obama said of Professor Abraham and a group of other recent appointees.

Published on Mon, May 23, 2016 - 2:01PM