WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY? CONFERENCE
Short biographies of presenters: preliminary draft: July 26, 2007
For more information, please contact John de Graaf (jodg@comcast.net / 206-443-6747) or Laura Pacheco
(laurapacheco@comcast.net / 617-694-7998).
Enola Aird is the founder and director of the Motherhood Project, based at the Institute for
American Values in New York, a Visiting Scholar at the Judge Baker Children's Center in
Boston, MA, and a former corporate attorney.
Dan Aronson is Associate Professor of Economics at Raritan Valley Community College and a
Sierra Club activist. He regularly writes newspaper columns on the connection between
environmental progress and work time reduction.
Gar Alperovitz, a professor of political economy at the University of Maryland, was a policy and
legislative director in the US House and Senate for the late Senator Gaylord Nelson and is the
author of many books, including America beyond Capitalism.
Cecile Andrews is the founder of Phinney EcoVillage and the author of Circle of Simplicity and
Slow Is Beautiful.
Dean Baker is the founder and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
and the author of The United States since 1980.
Peter Barnes is the co-founder of Working Assets and the author of Capitalism 3.0.
Steve Bella does outreach for the Commons Project and policy and communications consulting
to several American governors.
David Bennell is the executive director of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Global Fund.
He formerly taught product development process and green design at MIT and worked in
product development for several large corporations.
Jared Bernstein is a senior economist and co-director of the Economic Policy Institute and the
author of All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy.
Fred Block is a professor of sociology at U.C. Davis and a senior fellow at the Longview
Institute. His books include The Mean Season, Postindustrial Possibilities, and The Vampire State.
David Bollier is Editor of OntheCommons.org, co-founder of Public Knowledge, and author
of Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth and Brand Name Bullies: The Quest to Own
and Control Culture.
Heather Boushey is a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Jim Boyce is a professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts and the director of
the environment program at the Political Economy Research Institute. He is the co-editor of
Natural Assets.
B. J. Bullert teaches strategic communication at Antioch University’s Center for Creative
Change in Seattle. She is a filmmaker and author of Public Television: Politics and the Battle over
Documentary Film.
George Cheney is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah,
where he also directs the Tanner Human Rights Center and Peace and Conflict Studies. He is
the author of Values at Work.
Marilyn Clement is the National Coordinator of Health Care Now!, which is working for a
single-payer health system.
Ann Crittenden is a former New York Times reporter, author of The Price of Motherhood, and cofounder of the advocacy group MOTHERS (Mothers Ought To Have Equal Rights).
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-author of The Moral
Measure of the Economy. He co-founded United for a Fair Economy and Responsible Wealth
and coordinates a national effort to preserve the estate tax.
Robert Costanza runs the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of
Vermont. He is the author of Ecological Economics and the founder of the American Society for
Ecological Economics.
John de Graaf is a documentary film-maker, co-author of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic,
and President of the Take Back Your Time campaign.
Brian Derdowski is a professional public affairs and management consultant who spent three
terms fighting urban sprawl as a Republican County Councilman in King County, Washington,
the twelfth largest county in the USA.
Peter Dorman is a professor of economics at the Evergreen State College and the author of
many articles and reports on globalization, trade, and environmental and labor standards. He
recently returned from a year of economic research in Germany.
Michael K. Dorsey is professor of global environmental policy at Dartmouth College. A
member of the US State Department delegation to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and former
member of the Sierra Club Board of Directors, he researches and writes regularly on climate
change and biodiversity issues.
Bob Drago teaches family studies and work-life balance at Penn State University and is the
author of the Work and Family Bill of Rights and the book, Striking a Balance: Work, Family, Life.
Nathan Dungan is a popular speaker, founder of the Share, Save, Spend campaign and author
of Prodigal Sons and Material Girls.
The Eco-Tones are Jimmy Sferes and Jennifer White, a dynamic musical duo performing blues,
roots and rock that is always acoustic and occasionally informative.
Riane Eisler is a world-renowned social scientist and the author of the best-selling The Chalice
and the Blade. Her new book is The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics.
Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, a MacArthur
Award-winner and the author of The Invisible Heart.
Kim Gandy is the President of the National Organization for Women.
Janet Gornick is a professor of sociology and political science at the City University of New
York, and co-author of Families That Work. She is also director of the Luxembourg Income
Study.
Rebecca Gould is professor of religious and environmental studies at Middlebury College and
the author of At Home in Nature.
Alisa Gravitz is the Executive Director of Co-Op America.
Gwendolyn Hallsmith is Director of Planning and Community Development for the City of
Montpelier, Vermont. She has also served as the Deputy Secretary of the Vermont Agency of
Natural Resources and Executive Director of Global Community Initiatives.
Anders Hayden is a Canadian sociologist and the author of Sharing the Work, Sparing the Planet.
Roger Hickey is the co-director of the Take Back America Campaign and the Campaign for
America’s Future and a founder of the Economic Policy Institute.
Richard Hobbs, an attorney, is the Director of Human Relations for Santa Clara County,
California and the founder of Human Agenda, an organization which works on immigration,
diversity, health, and justice issues in the Silicon Valley.
Ted Howard is the Executive Director of the Democracy Collaborative and was the ED of the
National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives. He was Director of Global
Communications for The Hunger Project and the co-author of Entropy.
Anya Kamenetz is a journalist and the author of Generation Debt.
Tim Kasser is a professor of psychology at Knox College in Illinois and the author of The High
Price of Materialism.
Emily Kawano is the director of the Center for Popular Economics, a collective of economists
that works to de-mystify the economy and advance economic justice.
Bruce Kennedy is a professor at the Boston College Carroll School of Management and is coauthor of the book The Health of Nations: Why Inequality is Harmful to Your Health. He formerly
taught at the Harvard School of Public Health..
Ezra Klein is a staff writer at The American Prospect and author of the recent article, The Health of
Nations.
Karen Kornbluh is the policy director for US Senator Barack Obama and former director of the
New American Foundation’s Work and Family Program.
Kristi Laguzza-Boosman is a community outreach consultant researching social indicators as a
tool for social change in her current graduate program.
Celinda Lake is a leading American pollster and author of What Women Really Want.
James Lardner is a former reporter, co-editor and contributor to Inequality Matters: The Growing
Economic Divide in America and its Poisonous Consequences, and a senior fellow at Dēmos.
Anna Lappé, a leading food activist, is the co-author of Hope’s Edge and Grub: Ideas for an Urban
Organic Kitchen and is the co-founder of the Small Planet Institute.
Eric Liu is a former speechwriter and domestic policy adviser for President Clinton. He is
author of Guiding Lights: How to Mentor and Find Life's Purpose, and co-author of The True Patriot, a
new book on how progressives must reclaim patriotism.
Hunter Lovins is a prominent speaker and writer, founder and president of Natural Capitalism
Solutions and co-author of Natural Capitalism.
Michael Maniates is a professor of political science and environmental studies at Allegheny
College and the co-author of Confronting Consumption.
Milenko Matanovic was born in Slovenia and is the founder of the Pomegranate Center and a
community artist and author of Multiple Victories.
Bill McKibben teaches at Middlebury College. He was a founder of the Step It Up campaign
against global warming and is a former editor of The New Yorker. His latest book is Deep Economy.
Jim Merkel is the director of sustainability for Dartmouth College and the author of Radical
Simplicity.
David Moberg is a writer and senior editor at In These Times. He is a former Newsweek reporter
and has taught sociology and anthropology at several universities.
Frances Moore Lappe is the author of the best-selling Diet For a Small Planet. She now runs the
Small Planet Institute in Cambridge, MA and is the author of the new book Getting a Grip.
Dedrick Muhammad is the Senior Organizer and Research Associate for the Inequality and the
Common Good project of the Institute for Policy Studies.
Julie Nelson is an economist with the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts
University and author of Economics for Humans.
Karen Nussbaum is the assistant to the director of the AFL-CIO and former head of the
Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor. She is the founder of 9 to 5, the national
organization for working women.
Cathy O’Keefe is a professor of recreation and leisure studies at the University of South
Alabama.
Laura Pacheco is a producer for the PBS Nova series and director of the documentary The
Motherhood Manifesto.
Nancy Parkes was West Coast press secretary for the Mondale-Ferraro presidential campaign
and for US Congressman Don Bonker. She teaches environmental studies at the Evergreen State
College in Olympia, WA.
Michael Petit was formerly Maine’s commissioner of human services. He is the founder and
director of the Every Child Matters Education Fund and the author of Homeland Insecurity:
American Children at Risk.
Miles Rapoport is President of Dēmos. He served in the Connecticut legislature, and as
Secretary of the State. He was Executive Director and founder of Democracy Works and
Northeast Action, and Executive Director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group.
Jerome Ringo is the President of the Apollo Alliance and Chairman of the Board of the
National Wildlife Federation.
Julie Ristau is the director of the Tomales Bay Institute, a think tank researching the use of
common wealth for the common good.
Vicki Robin is the co-author of the best-seller, Your Money or Your Life, and co-founder of the
New Road Map Foundation, Sustainable Seattle, Conversation Cafes, the Turning Tide
Coalition and the Simplicity Forum.
Dean Robinson is an associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts
and co-author of Health Disparities by Race and Class: Why Both Matter.
Joe Robinson, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, is a life-balance coach and advisor to
corporations, the author of Work to Live, and leader of the Take Back Your Time three-week
paid vacation national campaign.
Jon Rowe is the co-author of Time Dollars, a senior fellow at the Tomales Bay Institute and an
editor of the Washington Monthly.
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner is the co-author of The Motherhood Manifesto and director of
MomsRising.org.
Jim Rubens is an entrepreneur, angel investor, former state senator and photo-finish loser
of the 1998 Republican primary for governor of New Hampshire. He is the author of the
upcoming Oversuccess: Healing the American Obsession.
Hector Saez is a professor of applied economics and environmental studies at the University of
Vermont and the Bainbridge Graduate Institute.
Susan Sechler was director of the Agriculture Transition Team for the Clinton Administration
and has worked as a Program Officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Rockefeller Foundation
and the German Marshall Fund.
John Schmitt is a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the
co-author of “No Vacation Nation.”
Juliet Schor is a professor of sociology at Boston College and the author of The Overworked
American, The Overspent American and Born to Buy.
Michael Schut, formerly of Earth Ministry, is the editor/author of Simpler Living, Compassionate
Life and Food and Faith and is editing a book on faith, money and economics.
Jerome M. Segal, author of Graceful Simplicity is a Senior Research Scholar at the Univ. of
Maryland's Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy. He was a Legislative Assistant to US
Congressman Don Fraser, and is president of The Jewish Peace Lobby.
Nichole Shippen is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Rutgers University. Her research
focuses on the relationship between quantitative and qualitative aspects of time in relation to
production, consumption, and leisure.
Bill Spriggs is the Chairman of the Economics Department at Howard University and a Senior
Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute. He is the former director of the National Urban League
Institute for Opportunity and Equality.
Judith Stadtman Tucker is a writer, activist and the founder and editor of the Mothers
Movement Online in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
John Stauber is the founder and executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy. He
is the author of six books, including 2003's NY Times bestseller Weapons of Mass Deception and
Trust Us We're Experts.
Dianne Stewart is the Director of Public Works: the Demos Center for the Public Sector. She
was Director of the Office of Governmental Affairs at the Texas Department of Human
Services and Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities.
Adam Russell Taylor is Senior Political Director at Sojourners/Call To Renewal and an
Associate Minister at Shiloh Baptist church.
Monique Tilford is the deputy director of the Center for a New American Dream and former
executive director of Carrying Capacity Network and Wild Earth.
Tom Turnipseed is a civil rights and personal injury attorney in Columbia, South Carolina and
a former South Carolina state senator.
Wanda Urbanska is the host of the PBS series Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska and co-author
of Simple Living.
Pamela Velez-Vega, a native of Ecuador, is director of research for the Social Science Library
at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University.
Jay Walljasper is the editor of Ode magazine and former editor of The Utne Reader. He is the
author of The Great Neighborhood Book.
Matt Warning is a professor of economics at the University of Puget Sound and an expert on
Fair Trade coffee.
Mark Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He is the
co-author of Social Security: The Phony Crisis.
Jennifer White is the Executive Director of the Simplicity Forum, the Co-Founder and Director
of Education for the ConservED Project, and a member of the Eco-Tones.