Lael Brainard
Encyclopedia
Lael Brainard is the United States Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs in the administration of President Barack Obama
. She previously was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
from 2001 to 2009, and served as the vice president and director of the Global Economy and Development program from June 2006 to March 16, 2009. Brainard was confirmed by the United States Senate to her current post on April 20, 2010.
class of 1979, a boarding school in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
. Brainard received masters and doctoral degrees in Economics from Harvard University
, where she was a National Science Foundation Fellow. She graduated with highest honors from Wesleyan University
with a degree from the College of Social Studies. She is the recipient of a White House Fellowship
and a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, a Marshall Scholar
elect, and a member of the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees, Council on Foreign Relations
, and Aspen Strategy Group
.
, where her publications made important contributions on the relationship between offshore production, trade, and jobs; the measurement of structural and cyclical unemployment in the US economy; and strategic trade policy. Brainard has also worked at McKinsey & Co. advising corporate clients on strategic challenges and on microenterprise in West Africa.
to the G8
, she helped shape the 2000 G8 Development Summit that for the first time included leaders of the poorest nations and laid the foundations for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. She had been mentioned as a likely U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration.
, whose term had ended with the end of the Bush administration.
On November 18, 2009, the New York Times reported that Senator Charles Grassley, the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, had cleared the way for her Senate confirmation as Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Reuters News Service
reported on December 23, 2009 that the Senate Finance Committee had approved Brainard to become the "Treasury Department's top global diplomat, a job that would give her a key role in the bid to push China toward a flexible currency."
On April 19, 2010, the Senate voted 84-10 for cloture
for Brainard's nomination. The Senate confirmed her in a 78-19 vote on April 20, 2010.
Brainard has since served as the principal policy advisor to Secretary Geithner on international economic matters at the Treasury Department. Treasury describes her role as advancing the Administration’s agenda of strengthening U.S. leadership in the global economy to foster growth, creating economic opportunities for Americans, and addressing transnational economic challenges, including development and climate change. Brainard is the highest-ranking female Treasury official in American history, and plays a critical policy role as the most important financial diplomat in the Administration’s efforts to sustain recovery from the financial crisis and strengthen global growth.
, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
.
Select recent publications include “Services Offshoring, American Jobs, and the Global Economy,” with Robert E. Litan, Perspectives on Work (Winter 2005); “Reassessing National Security,” with Michael O’Hanlon, in Alice Rivlin and Isabel Sawhill, eds., Restoring Fiscal Sanity (2004); “Building Common Ground on Trade Demands More Than a Name Change,” with Hal Shapiro, The George Washington International Law Review, 2003; “Compassionate Conservatism Confronts Global Poverty,” The Washington Quarterly, Spring 2003; “The Implications for the Global Economy of America’s Campaign against Terrorism,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs, July 2002; and “Are U.S. Multinationals Exporting U.S. Jobs?” with David Riker, in David Greenaway and Douglas Nelson, eds., Globalization and Labour Markets (Elgar, 2001).
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. She previously was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
from 2001 to 2009, and served as the vice president and director of the Global Economy and Development program from June 2006 to March 16, 2009. Brainard was confirmed by the United States Senate to her current post on April 20, 2010.
Early life and education
Brainard is an alumna of the George SchoolGeorge School
George School is a private Quaker boarding and day high school located on a rural campus near Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown from a single building to over 20 academic, athletic, and residential buildings...
class of 1979, a boarding school in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Newtown is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,248 at the 2010 census. It is located just west of the Trenton, New Jersey metropolitan area, and is part of the larger Philadelphia metropolitan area. It is entirely surrounded by Newtown Township, from which...
. Brainard received masters and doctoral degrees in Economics from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where she was a National Science Foundation Fellow. She graduated with highest honors from Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
with a degree from the College of Social Studies. She is the recipient of a White House Fellowship
White House Fellows
The White House Fellows program was established by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964. President Johnson articulated that the mission of the program was "to give the Fellows first hand, high-level experience with the workings of the federal government and to increase...
and a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, a Marshall Scholar
Marshall Scholarship
The Marshall Scholarship, a postgraduate scholarships available to Americans, was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom when the Marshall Aid Commemoration Act was passed in 1953. The scholarships serve as a living gift to the United States of America in recognition of the post-World War...
elect, and a member of the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees, Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
, and Aspen Strategy Group
Aspen Strategy Group
The Aspen Strategy Group , founded in 1984, is a program of the Aspen Institute. It is a bipartisan forum composed of current and former politicians, civil servants, academics, journalists and business leaders who discuss issues of key importance in the realms of foreign policy, strategy and...
.
Professional career
Brainard served as Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of ManagementMIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
, where her publications made important contributions on the relationship between offshore production, trade, and jobs; the measurement of structural and cyclical unemployment in the US economy; and strategic trade policy. Brainard has also worked at McKinsey & Co. advising corporate clients on strategic challenges and on microenterprise in West Africa.
Work in Clinton administration
Brainard served as Deputy National Economic Adviser and Chair of the Deputy Secretaries Committee on International Economics during the Clinton Administration. As Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, she helped build a new White House organization to address global economic challenges such as the Asian financial crisis and China's WTO entry. As the US SherpaSherpa (G8)
A sherpa is the personal representative of a head of state of government who prepares an international summit, particularly the annual G8 Summit. Between the G8 summits there are multiple sherpa conferences where possible agreements are laid out. This reduces the amount of time and resources...
to the G8
G8
The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...
, she helped shape the 2000 G8 Development Summit that for the first time included leaders of the poorest nations and laid the foundations for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. She had been mentioned as a likely U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration.
Service in Obama administration
On March 23, 2009, President Obama nominated Brainard to serve as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, to replace David H. McCormickDavid H. McCormick
David H. McCormick is the former Under Secretary for International Affairs within the United States Department of the Treasury and one of the Chief Executive Officer's at Bridgewater Associates. -Education:...
, whose term had ended with the end of the Bush administration.
On November 18, 2009, the New York Times reported that Senator Charles Grassley, the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, had cleared the way for her Senate confirmation as Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Reuters News Service
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
reported on December 23, 2009 that the Senate Finance Committee had approved Brainard to become the "Treasury Department's top global diplomat, a job that would give her a key role in the bid to push China toward a flexible currency."
On April 19, 2010, the Senate voted 84-10 for cloture
Cloture
In parliamentary procedure, cloture is a motion or process aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. It is also called closure or, informally, a guillotine. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. Clôture is French for "ending" or "conclusion"...
for Brainard's nomination. The Senate confirmed her in a 78-19 vote on April 20, 2010.
Brainard has since served as the principal policy advisor to Secretary Geithner on international economic matters at the Treasury Department. Treasury describes her role as advancing the Administration’s agenda of strengthening U.S. leadership in the global economy to foster growth, creating economic opportunities for Americans, and addressing transnational economic challenges, including development and climate change. Brainard is the highest-ranking female Treasury official in American history, and plays a critical policy role as the most important financial diplomat in the Administration’s efforts to sustain recovery from the financial crisis and strengthen global growth.
Personal
Brainard is married to Kurt CampbellKurt M. Campbell
Kurt M. Campbell is an American diplomat and academic, currently serving as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.He was previously the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security , a national security think tank launched in January 2007...
, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs is the head of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs within the United States Department of State. The Assistant Secretary guides operation of the U.S...
.
Publications
Brainard is co-editor of Too Poor For Peace? (2007); co-editor of Offshoring White Collar Work (2006); editor of Transforming the Development Landscape: the Role of the Private Sector (2006) and Security by Other Means: Foreign Assistance, Global Poverty and American Leadership (2006); and coauthor of The Other War: Global Poverty and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (2004). On March 23, 2009 she was nominated as Under-Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs by President Barack Obama.Select recent publications include “Services Offshoring, American Jobs, and the Global Economy,” with Robert E. Litan, Perspectives on Work (Winter 2005); “Reassessing National Security,” with Michael O’Hanlon, in Alice Rivlin and Isabel Sawhill, eds., Restoring Fiscal Sanity (2004); “Building Common Ground on Trade Demands More Than a Name Change,” with Hal Shapiro, The George Washington International Law Review, 2003; “Compassionate Conservatism Confronts Global Poverty,” The Washington Quarterly, Spring 2003; “The Implications for the Global Economy of America’s Campaign against Terrorism,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs, July 2002; and “Are U.S. Multinationals Exporting U.S. Jobs?” with David Riker, in David Greenaway and Douglas Nelson, eds., Globalization and Labour Markets (Elgar, 2001).
External links
- Brainard’s bio at the Treasury Department
- Brainard's expert page at the Brookings Institution
- Brainard's work on Foreign Assistance Reform
- Speech by Brainard on “Assessing the Economic Implications of the Seoul G-20 Summit”
- Remarks by Brainard on “Two Years after the Crisis: The Global Economic Agenda”