Expert Type: Guest Author
Claudia Sahm
Claudia Sahm is a senior fellow at the Jain Family Institute. Previously, she was the director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She has policy and research expertise on consumer spending, fiscal stimulus, and the financial well-being of households. She is the author of the “Sahm Rule,” a reliable early signal of recessions that she developed as a way to automatically trigger stimulus payments to individuals in a recession. Sahm was also a section chief in the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board, where she oversaw the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Before that she worked for 10 years in the Division of Research and Statistics on the staff’s macroeconomic forecast. She was a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in 2015–2016. Sahm holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan (2007) and a B.A. in economics, political science, and German from Denison University (1998).
Cyrus C. M. Mody
Cyrus C.M. Mody is an historian of recent science and technology, specifically the applied physical sciences in the United States since 1965. He studies the commercialization of academic research, countercultural science and technology, and the longue durée of responsible research and innovation. For 2020-2025, Prof. Mody is the principal investigator for an NWO (Netherland Organisation for Scientific Research) Vici grant, "Managing Scarcity and Sustainability: The Oil Industry, Environmentalism, and Alternative Energy in the Age of Scarcity." Mody holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from Cornell University in Science and Technology Studies, and a B.A. from Harvard University in Engineering Sciences.
Christopher Witko
Chris Witko holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a MA from SUNY Albany, and BA from SUNY Plattsburgh. Before earning his PhD and becoming a faculty member Witko worked as a transportation analyst in the New York State Senate and as a front-line bureaucrat implementing youth job and training programs for the Suffolk County (NY) Department of Labor.
Christopher F. Jones
Christopher F. Jones is an associate professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. His research examines the historical and social dimensions of energy systems. His first book, Routes of Power (Harvard, 2014) analyzes the causes and consequences of America’s first fossil fuel energy transitions—the rising use of coal, oil, and electricity in the mid-Atlantic region between 1820 and 1930. He is currently working on a project investigating the relationships between economic theories of growth and the consumption of nonrenewable energy resources in twentieth century America. Jones teaches courses on the history of energy transitions and energy and society. He holds a B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University, and an M.A. and a Ph.D in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Carter C. Price
Carter C. Price was a Senior Mathematician focusing on quantitative analysis of U.S. economic policy. Carter left the Washington Center for Equitable Growth in the middle of 2015.
Carmen Ye
Carmen Ye was the Special Assistant for Policy and Academic Programs at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Prior to joining Equitable Growth, Carmen served as the special assistant to the chief human capital officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She also volunteers on the Board of Directors with the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, focused on improving public service leadership opportunities for Asian Pacific Americans. A native of San Francisco, California, Carmen received her bachelor's degree in social welfare and Asian American studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
C. Kirabo Jackson
C. Kirabo Jackson is the Abraham Harris Professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. He is a labor economist who studies education and social policy issues. Jackson holds a B.A. in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Bridget Ansel
Bridget Ansel is an associate at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP. Prior to that she was a policy analyst at Equitable Growth. Her most recent work focused on litigation, white collar defense, bankruptcy and tax matters; she also assisted with a number of pro bono representations, including asylum and tax cases. She holds a B.A from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.
Brian Bell
Brian Bell is a professor of economics in King’s Business School at King’s College London. Bell holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, an M.Phil. in economics from the University of Oxford, an a D.Phil in economics from Nuffield College at the University of Oxford.