ANN ARBOR ?Rebecca Blank, now serving on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), will be recommended to the University of Michigan Regents at their Blank, on leave from Northwestern University to serve on the CEA, specializes in labor economics and income distribution. Her recent work has investigated the relationship between eligibility for and participation in major U.S. welfare programs, and the effect of changes in the macroeconomy on poverty and income distribution.

“We are all very excited at the prospect of Blank’s appointment,” U-M Provost Nancy Cantor said. “She will provide strong and creative leadership for the School of Public Policy as it continues to grow and evolve.

“Blank is a distinguished scholar and policy analyst and her myriad of experiences will enrich the campus community in multiple ways. We are simply delighted that she has chosen to make Michigan her intellectual home.”

Blank has been a member of the Economics Department at Northwestern since 1989 where she also holds a research position in the Institute for Policy Research formerly the (Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research).

She was director of the Joint Center for Poverty Research for one year and served five years as co-director of the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Poverty, Race and Underclass Issues, a joint program of Northwestern and the University of Chicago.

Prior to joining Northwestern, Blank was a senior staff economist for the CEA for one year and taught for six years at Princeton University, where she held a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

In 1993, Blank received the Richard Kershaw Prize from the Association of Public Policy and Management, presented biannually to a scholar under age 40 whose research has had the most significant impact on the public policy process. Her research has been supported by grants from the Russell Sage Foundation, National Science Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, among others.

In addition to regularly contributing to edited collections and periodicals, Blank is the author of “It Takes a Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty” and “Do Justice: Linking Christian Faith and Modern Economic Life.” She also edited “Social Protection vs. Economic Flexibility: Is There a Tradeoff?”

Blank holds a B.S. degree in economics from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Russell Sage FoundationIt Takes a Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty