Director of Tax Policy
Urban Institute
Director Tax Policy Center, Urban Institute. Marron previously served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, as acting director of the Congressional Budget Office, and as executive director of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. Before his government service, he taught economics and finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and served as chief financial officer of a health care software start-up. Marron is also a visiting professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.
Senior Economist
Center for American Progress
Heather Boushey is Senior Economist at the Center for American Progress. Her research focuses on employment, social policy, and family economic well-being. Much of her current work focuses on the Great Recession’s impact on workers and their families, as well as policies to promote job creation. She co-edited The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything (Simon & Schuster ebook, 2009) and was a lead author of “Bridging the Gaps,” a 10-state study about how low- and -moderate-income working families are left out of work support programs. Her research has been published in academic journals and has been covered in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and a variety of other media outlets, including The New York Times, where she was called one of the “most vibrant voices in the field.” She also spearheaded a successful campaign to save the Census Bureau&s Survey of Income and Program Participation from devastating budget cuts.
Boushey received her Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research and her B.A. from Hampshire College. She has held an economist position with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Economic Policy Institute, where she was a co-author of their flagship publication, The State of Working America 2002/3. She grew up in a union family in Mukilteo, Washington, and now lives with her husband, Todd Tucker, in Washington, D.C.
Senior Fellow for Government Studies
Heritage Foundation
As senior fellow in government studies at The Heritage Foundation, Brian Darling monitors political developments in the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives and the White House to assess the likely impact on policy decisions of interest to Heritage.
Darling’s comments on matters before Congress are quoted by leading newspapers and websites. He appears as a guest expert on broadcast and cable TV news programs. He has been interviewed hundreds of times on talk radio shows on topics ranging from Senate procedure to the repeal of Obamacare.
A lawyer, Darling began writing a regular column for Human Events in 2008, giving readers of the weekly newspaper and its popular website the lowdown on action or inaction in Congress – as well as the ups and downs of the conservative agenda. He also is a contributor to the websites RedState.com and BigGovernment.com.
Before joining Heritage in 2005, Darling served as counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.). He previously was general counsel to former Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) and, in that capacity, staffed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
While with Smith, Darling was a chief strategist for legislation allowing commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in flight. In January 2000, he accompanied Smith on a visit to the residence where Cuban refugee Elian Gonzales was staying – and later crafted legislation to grant the boy permanent residency.
Darling was co-chairman of the Conservative Working Group, a weekly legislative strategy meeting of staffers from House and Senate offices. He also was an aide to two other former Republican senators, Paul Coverdell of Georgia and Steve Symms of Idaho.
A 1996 graduate of New England School of Law in Boston, Darling was a partner in a Washington lobbying firm for two years. He grew up in Andover, Mass. He and his wife currently reside with their daughter in Washington, D.C.
Economist and Political Strategist
Maricruz MaGowan is an Economist and Political Strategist with three decades of professional experience in the U.S. and Latin America. She dedicated almost all her life to work toward finding ways to reduce poverty and worked in supporting political and governmental policies aimed to that goal. For example, while still in high school, she spent months at a time living in Bolivian Andean mines under the same conditions as the rest of the mining workers and their families.
In order to increase her deep interest in policy and politics and the role played by our Congress, Maricruz also obtained a Graduate Certificate in Legislative Studies from the University of Georgetown. She has been serving as Chair of the Hispanic Advisory Council in her Federal job since 1997, and is very proactive in supporting conservative values and Hispanic goals and dreams. Maricruz is a regular guest in Hispanic media outlets, especially regarding the role that the economy plays in the political arena. She also served as Board Member at the Society of Government Economists.
At present, she is engaged in expanding her knowledge in the area of international trade, an issue strongly supported by the Republican Party. She lives in Bethesda, MD and has two grown-up children.
