Investing in Resilience: A Conversation with Judith Rodin and Shaun Donovan
Shaun Donovan was sworn in as the 40th Director of the Office of Management and Budget on July 28, 2014. Prior to OMB, Donovan served as the 15th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he managed the Department’s $47 billion budget – helping families buy homes, aiding households in fighting off foreclosure, revitalizing distressed communities and combating homelessness. While at HUD, Donovan made critical investments to speed economic growth, while also offering new savings proposals and ensuring fiscal responsibility.
In December 2012, President Obama signed an Executive Order creating the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force and appointed Donovan as Chair. This appointment built on his experience with disaster-related recovery and rebuilding challenges from a national perspective in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Together with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, he led the President’s Long-Term Disaster Working Group composed of more than 20 federal agencies. The Group worked closely with state and local communities, as well as experts and stakeholders from around the nation, to create the National Disaster Recovery Framework published in 2011.
Prior to his service in the Obama Administration, Secretary Donovan also served in the Clinton administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing at HUD, where he was the primary federal official responsible for privately-owned multifamily housing. He also served as acting FHA Commissioner during the Clinton/Bush presidential transition. Prior to his first service at HUD, he worked at the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) in New York City, a non-profit lender and developer of affordable housing. He also worked at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and as an architect. Donovan holds a B.A. and Masters degrees in Public Administration and Architecture from Harvard.
Judith Rodin is president of The Rockefeller Foundation, one of the world’s leading philanthropic organizations. She was previously president of the University of Pennsylvania, and provost of Yale University. Since joining the Foundation in 2005, Dr. Rodin has recalibrated its focus to meet the challenges of the 21st century and today the Foundation supports and shapes innovations to expand opportunity worldwide and build greater resilience by helping people, communities and institutions prepare for, withstand and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses. The Foundation accomplishes these goals through work that advances health, revalues ecosystems, secures livelihoods and transforms cities.
In November 2012 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo named Dr. Rodin to co-chair the NYS 2100 Commission on long-term resilience following Superstorm Sandy.
A pioneer and innovator throughout her career, Dr. Rodin was the first woman named to lead an Ivy League Institution and is the first woman to serve as The Rockefeller Foundation's president. Dr. Rodin serves as a member of the board for several leading corporations and non-profits. Dr. Rodin is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University.
Sarah Rosen Wartell became the third president of the Urban Institute in February 2012. A public policy executive and housing markets expert, Ms. Wartell was President Bill Clinton's deputy assistant for economic policy and the deputy director of his National Economic Council. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 to 1998, she advised the federal housing commissioner on housing finance, mortgage markets, and consumer protection. In 2012, she was named a “Woman of Influence” by HousingWire.
Ms. Wartell cofounded the Center for American Progress, serving as its first chief operating officer and general counsel. Later, as executive vice president, Ms. Wartell oversaw its policy teams and fellows. Her work focused on the economy and housing markets, and she directed the Mortgage Finance Working Group and "Doing What Works" government performance program. Ms. Wartell practiced law with the Washington, DC, firm of Arnold & Porter and was a consultant to the bipartisan Millennial Housing Commission.
Ms. Wartell has an AB degree with honors in urban affairs from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and holds a JD degree from Yale Law School.