Campus & Community

Two named to MacArthur board

4 min read

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has elected Kennedy School of Government (KSG) Research Fellow Mary Graham and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick as members of the foundation’s board of directors.

Mary Graham is a research fellow at both KSG and the Georgetown University Law Center. A frequent contributor to The Atlantic Monthly and other periodicals, she is a policy analyst and lawyer specializing in the assessment of technological, environmental, health, and safety issues.

“Mary Graham’s expertise on a range of issues of importance to the MacArthur Foundation, particularly those relating to the environment, will greatly strengthen our work,” said Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation. “She knows firsthand the powerful role of research-based information and first-rate journalism in shaping public policy choices. Her experience in analyzing and translating complex issues will be a great asset to us.”

Graham is the author of “The Morning After Earth Day: Practical Environmental Politics” (Brookings Press/Governance Institute, 1999). Her next book, scheduled for publication in 2002, is “The New Politics of Information.” It focuses on the public disclosure of information as an instrument of social change. Both books were supported by the Governance Institute of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit research group that seeks to advance the effectiveness of public institutions.

At KSG and the Georgetown University Law Center, Graham has focused on the evolution of environmental policy and on the use of information strategies to improve health, safety, and environmental protection. For the Innovations in American Government Program, she has assessed national, state, and local efforts to reduce social risks by harnessing the power of computers and the Internet. For The Atlantic Monthly she has written about policies requiring corporate disclosure of health and safety information; satellite mapping technology; child health practices in the United States and abroad; and other topics. Earlier in her career she was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and held positions with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Office of Management and Budget.

A graduate of Harvard, Graham has a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

Gorelick is vice chair of Fannie Mae, the nation’s largest source of financing for home mortgages, with over $1 trillion in assets.

“Jamie Gorelick is a national leader on affordable homeownership and related aspects of community development, [which are] important programmatic interests of the MacArthur Foundation,” said Fanton. “Her legal and financial skills, her deep understanding of the importance of multisector collaboration to help all Americans participate in the economy, and her distinguished career in government service will add greatly to the deliberations of the MacArthur Board.”

At the Federal National Mortgage Association, Gorelick is responsible for Fannie Mae’s affordable lending products, community development efforts, and legal and regulatory matters. In addition, as part of the four-person office of the chairman, she shares responsibility for overall management of the company and is a member of its board of directors.

Gorelick is also vice chair of the Fannie Mae Foundation, the nation’s largest private foundation focused on housing, with assets of about $400 million.

Between 1994 and 1997, Gorelick was the U.S. deputy attorney general. Prior to that she was general counsel of the Department of Defense. In 1979 and 1980, Gorelick served with the departments of Energy and Defense.

Her board memberships include United Technologies Corp., Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Local Initiatives Support Corp., and America’s Promise.

A graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Law School (HLS), Gorelick has taught at HLS and KSG. She is a member of the board of overseers of Harvard College.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grant-making institution dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition. The Foundation seeks the development of healthy individuals and effective communities; peace within and among nations; responsible choices about human reproduction; and a global ecosystem capable of supporting healthy human societies. The Foundation pursues this mission by supporting research, policy analysis, dissemination, education and training, and practice. Located in Chicago, the MacArthur Foundation makes grants totaling more than $170 million annually. The chair of the board of directors is John C. Corbally, former president of the University of Illinois, and the vice chair is Elizabeth McCormack, associate of The Rockefeller Family and Associates.