Alice Rivlin

Alice Rivlin
Alice Rivlin
Born	Georgianna Alice Mitchell; March 4, 1931 (age 95); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	May 14, 2019 (aged 88); Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation(s)	Economist, public budget official
Years active	1957–2019
Known for	First director of the Congressional Budget Office; Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve; Director of the Office of Management and Budget

Alice Mitchell Rivlin (née Georgianna Alice Mitchell; March 4, 1931 – May 14, 2019) was a prominent American economist and public budget official. She held the position of the 16th vice chair of the Federal Reserve between 1996 and 1999. Prior to this role, Rivlin directed the Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton administration from 1994 until 1996. She was instrumental in founding the Congressional Budget Office, serving as its first director from 1975 to 1983. As a member of the Democratic Party, she was a trailblazer, becoming the first woman to occupy these significant posts.

Beyond her government service, Rivlin was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and held a visiting professorship at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. She was widely regarded as an authority on the U.S. federal budget and macroeconomic strategy, co-leading the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force alongside retired Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM).

Early life and education

Born in Philadelphia, Georgianna Alice Mitchell was the daughter of Georgianna Peck ( Fales) and Allan C. G. Mitchell, and granddaughter of renowned astronomer Samuel Alfred Mitchell. Her upbringing took place in Bloomington, Indiana, where her father was a faculty member at Indiana University. After a brief attendance at University High School, she completed her secondary education at Madeira School and pursued studies at Bryn Mawr College. Initially drawn to history, her academic focus shifted to economics following coursework at Indiana University.

Rivlin obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952, dedicating her senior thesis to the economic unification of Western Europe. Subsequently, she contributed to efforts related to the Marshall Plan in Europe. Despite facing gender-based rejections from graduate public administration programs, she successfully earned a Ph.D. in economics from Radcliffe College affiliated with Harvard University in 1958.

Career

Alice Rivlin’s professional journey included several periods at the Brookings Institution (1957–1966, 1969–1975, 1983–1993, and from 1999 until her passing) alongside a visiting professorship at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. Between 1968 and 1969, she served as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1971, she authored Systematic Thinking for Social Action and was honored as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1973.

As the first director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) from 1975 through 1983, Rivlin was an outspoken critic of Reaganomics. Her establishment of the CBO earned her a prestigious 1983 MacArthur Fellowship. Under President Bill Clinton’s administration, she served as deputy director (1993–1994) before becoming director (1994–1996) of the Office of Management and Budget. Clinton subsequently appointed her as Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve from 1996 to 1999, marking her as the highest-ranking woman in Federal Reserve history up to that point. Additionally, she led the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority between 1998 and 2001.

In recognition of her contributions, Rivlin received a Foremother Award in 2012 from the National Research Center for Women & Families. She also participated on the board of directors for the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD), an organization formed following the 2011 shooting that targeted former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Panels on debt reduction and fiscal oversight in 2010

In early 2010, Rivlin, together with former Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), was named co-chair of a Debt Reduction Task Force established by the Bipartisan Policy Center based in Washington, D.C.

Shortly thereafter, President Obama appointed Rivlin to serve on the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a group of 18 members led by former Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-WY) and ex-White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles (D). Commonly referred to as the Simpson-Bowles Commission, this body also included additional presidential appointees along with six representatives from the House and six Senators. The commission began its work on April 27, 2010, with a mandate to deliver its findings by December of that year. Additionally, Rivlin participated in a panel discussion focusing on health-care as part of the federal and state fiscal challenges, featured on The Diane Rehm Show in June.

Together with former Comptroller General David Walker, Rivlin appeared in a Harlem Shake video produced by The Can Kicks Back, a nonpartisan organization encouraging millennials to press lawmakers to tackle the U.S. national debt, which had reached $16.4 trillion. The video concludes with Rivlin directly addressing young viewers: "There's no dancing around the fact that more needs to be done quickly to put our future debt on a downward track. But our leaders need to hear from you."

Personal life

Rivlin traced her heritage to Cornish origins. In 1955, she wed Lewis Allen Rivlin, an attorney formerly with the Justice Department and member of the Rivlin family; they had three children together before divorcing in 1977. Despite their separation, she continued to use his surname professionally. Later, in 1989, she married economist Sidney G. Winter. Rivlin passed away in Washington, D.C., on May 14, 2019, at the age of 88.

Awards

Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement, awarded in 1987
Recipient of the inaugural Carolyn Shaw Bell Award in 1998
Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize bestowed by the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2008
Foremother Award granted by the National Center for Health Research in 2012
Posthumously inducted as part of the first class into the Government Hall of Fame in 2019

Bibliography

Rivlin, Alice. Systematic Thinking for Social Action. Brookings Institution Press, USA, 1971. ISBN 978-0815774778
Rivlin, Alice. Caring for the Disabled Elderly: Who Will Pay?. Brookings Institution Press, USA, 1988. ISBN 978-0815774983
Rivlin, Alice. Reviving the American Dream: The Economy, the States, and the Federal Government. Brookings Institution Press, USA, 1992. ISBN 978-0815791683

External links