The State of the USA

Understanding our nation's progress toward widely accepted goals is imperative in an age where most of us know far too little about the problems and opportunities we face.

Derek Bok, The 300th Anniversary University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University

Board of Governors

The State of the USA is fortunate to have an outstanding group of national leaders as its founding Executive Governors. Their long and impressive careers range across the government, business, nonprofit and academic sectors, with deep roots in scientific and statistical communities. They all share a deep commitment to problem solving and decision-making based on evidence and nonpartisan approaches. SUSA is now actively expanding its board to now include non-executive members to bring a wider and more diverse range of expertise from leading Americans across all sectors of society, from education and environment, to health and security.

Executive Governors

Vincent Barabba – Chair
Christopher (Chris) Hoenig – President and Chief Executive Officer
Janet L. Norwood
Kenneth Prewitt – Vice Chair

Vincent Barabba
Chair

Vincent Barabba is the chairman of Kings County Ventures and MyProductAdvisor.com. His experience includes both public and private sector leadership positions including twice serving as director of the Bureau of the Census, the only director appointed by presidents of different political parties. He served as general manager at General Motors Corporation, and held positions with Xerox Corporation and Eastman Kodak. He is an author and expert in market research, the advancement of theory and practice, and the application of science to the discipline of market research.

Christopher (Chris) Hoenig
President and Chief Executive Officer

Chris Hoenig is a leader with a reputation for defining and solving tough, high-value issues and opportunities. His career is dedicated to producing fundamental innovations in how we understand and improve our collective problem-solving capabilities. Over 25 years, his experience has ranged from transformational leadership to technical innovation; from expert advisor to widely published author; from private enterprise to public service; and from small-scale entrepreneurship to national and global leadership.

Janet L. Norwood

Janet L. Norwood is counselor to the New York Conference Board and chairs two congressionally mandated studies on a National Academy of Sciences review of Title VI and Fulbright-Hays International programs as well as an Academy of Public Administration study on the extent of the off-shoring of employment and its economic and social effects. With appointments from four sitting Presidents, she served in several leadership positions in statistical policy, and labor statistics and market issues, including unemployment compensation, and has received prestigious awards including the National Public Service Award.

Kenneth Prewitt
Vice Chair

Kenneth Prewitt is the Carnegie professor of public affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He previously served as dean of graduate faculty at the New School University in New York, and as director of the United States Census Bureau. He managed Census 2000, often described as the largest peacetime mobilization in history. He joined government service after a career in higher education and private philanthropy.

Derek Bok

Derek Bok is the 300th Anniversary University Research Professor and University President Emeritus of Harvard University. Also former dean of Harvard’s Law School, Bok is the author of numerous books on higher education, labor and the American community, and the costs of executive talent. His research interests include the adequacy of the United States government in coping with domestic problems, and he has chaired several boards including the World Resources Institute, Common Cause, and currently, the Spencer Foundation and the Hauser Center for the study of nonprofit organizations and philanthropy.

Karen Cook

Karen Cook is the Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology and director of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences at Stanford University. Her research focuses on trust in social relations and networks, social justice, power-dependence relations and social exchange theory, and physician-patient trust. She was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1998-99) and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2007.

Jack Connors

Jack Connors is Founding Partner and Chairman Emeritus of Hill, Holliday, Connors, and Cosmopulos, Inc. Founded in 1968, the firm grew from a one-room shop to one of the top 20 advertising firms in the U.S. In 1998, he sold Hill, Holliday to Interpublic Group for more than $115 million, but continued as CEO until June 2007. In 1994, he hired a fellow BC alumnus to form M/C Communications providing continuing education for primary care physicians and marketing opportunities for managed care companies. In 2004, they sold the company to Bain Capital for $450 million. He then started Dovetail Health in Needham, MA, an organization focused on helping those with chronic illnesses to continue living at home while maintaining their health, safety, and independence. The Connors Family Foundation donates an estimated $7 million annually. He serves as Chairman of the Board of the Fellows at Harvard University Medical School and as Chair of Partners HealthCare, one of the nation's leading hospital systems and the largest private employer in Massachusetts. He is the only person to ever serve twice as Chairman of the Board at Boston College, his alma mater.

Jeremiah Eck

Jeremiah Eck is a Partner at Eck / McNeeley Architects, Inc., a firm that over the past 30 years has completed a wide range of academic projects, from teaching facilities and living spaces to administrative buildings. The firm's business design work includes a range of bars/restaurants, retail, resort, office, and institutional work. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and author of The Distinctive Home: A Vision of Timeless Design and The Face of Home: A New Way to Look at the Outside of Your House. A landscape painter, he served as a lecturer at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design where he continues to offer Professional Development Seminars on Houses. He is a frequent speaker on how architects may better serve their clients. He graduated from Colgate in 1967, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and received his Masters in Architecture from Columbia University in 1972.

Ruben King-Shaw

Ruben King-Shaw's career crosses the public and private sectors, with a focus on the health care industry. chairman and CEO of Mansa Equity Partners, Inc., his private equity investors’ portfolios include several health care companies. He has served as COO and deputy administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; senior advisor to the secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. King-Shaw has counseled governors and health ministers in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa on topics of economic development and health care delivery systems.

Clay Johnson, III

Clay Johnson was the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget. The Deputy Director for Management provides government-wide leadership to Executive Branch agencies to improve agency and program performance. Prior to this he was the Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel, responsible for the organization that identifies and recruits approximately 4000 senior officials, middle management personnel and part-time board and commission members. From 1995 to 2000, he worked with Governor George W. Bush in Austin, first as his Appointments Director, then as his Chief of Staff, and then as the Executive Director of the Bush-Cheney Transition.He has been the Chief Operating Officer for the Dallas Museum of Art and the President of the Horchow and Neiman Marcus Mail Order companies. He also has worked for Citicorp, Wilson Sporting Goods and Frito Lay.He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and a Masters degree from MIT's Sloan School of Management. In Austin, he helped create the Texas State History Museum, and was also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas Graduate School of Business. In Dallas, he served as President of the Board of Trustees for St. Marks School of Texas, and as a Board Member of Equitable Bankshares, Goodwill Industries of Dallas, and the Dallas Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization.

Thomas C. Jorling

Thomas C. Jorling, is Visiting Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College. He was director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams from 1972 to 1977. He left to become assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (water and hazardous materials). His other government service includes assistant general counsel for the Smithsonian Institution in 1968 and 1969. From 1969 to 1972, he was minority counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Public Works. He headed New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation and spent 10 years as vice-president for environmental affairs at International Paper, retiring in 2004. He received his B.S. from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in ecology from Washington State University, and an LL.B. from Boston College Law School.

Nicholas Lemann

Nicholas Lemann is dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. He began his journalism career as a 17-year-old writer for an alternative weekly newspaper there, the Vieux Carre Courier. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1976, where he concentrated in American History and Literature and was President of the Harvard Crimson. He has been managing editor, associate editor, national correspondent, and staff writer with The Washington Monthly, Texas Monthly, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New Yorker.

Peter Lynch

Peter Lynch is Vice Chairman of Fidelity Investments. Known for his work with the Magellan Fund, which grew from $18 million to $14 billion in 13 years, his investment strategies have been studied around the world. After working in the paper, chemical, and publishing industries, his first position with Fidelity Investments was in 1969 managing investments in textiles, mining, metals, and chemicals. In 1974, he became director of research and in 1977, he was named head of the Magellan Fund. He wrote several investment books, with co-author John Rothchild including One Up on Wall Street, Beating the Street, and Learn to Earn. He spends much of his time engaged in philanthropic endeavors through the Lynch Foundation, the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, and charitable trusts. The Lynch foundation provides assistance to programs primarily in Massachusetts with an emphasis on education; culture and historic preservation; healthcare and medical research; and religious and educational efforts of the Roman Catholic Church. He received his BA from Boston College in 1965.

Valerie Mosley

Valerie Mosley is Senior Vice President, Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, for Wellington Management. Partner of a 540 billion global money management firm, she manages fixed income portfolios for corporate and public pension funds, endowments, and mutual funds. She chairs the firm's Industry Strategy Group, which examines themes and secular trends and identifies which industries to emphasize and which sectors to avoid. As a member of the Core Bond Strategy Group, she helps set the investment strategy for all core bond mandates. She is also a member of the Corporate Strategy Group, which establishes the style-specific investment parameters that guide corporate only Fixed Income Portfolio Managers. Prior to joining Wellington Management in 1992, she spent two years at P.C. Corbin Asset Management as their Chief Investment Officer (1990 - 1992). She also worked in institutional corporate bond sales at Kidder Peabody (1986 - 1990) and began her career at Chase Manhattan Bank where she was a Commercial Lending Officer for financial institutions (1982 - 1984). She serves on the Board of Overseers for the Museum of Science in Boston, MA and serves on NASP - Boston Board. She served on both the Board of Advisors and the Capital Campaign Advisory Board for Duke University's Trinity College of Arts and Science. Valerie graduated in 1982 with a BA in History from Duke, where she served as President and Vice President of the student body. Valerie received her MBA from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986 and served as President of The Wharton Club of Atlanta. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst. In February, 2006, she was named as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in the country and in October 2008, was identified as one of the Top 75 Blacks on Wall Street by Black Enterprise Magazine.

Stephen Pagliuca

Stephen Pagliuca is a managing partner of the Boston Celtics as well as managing director of Bain Capital, a company he helped build into a leading global private equity firm with over $40 billion capital under management. Pagliuca has numerous philanthropic interests including the prevention of cruelty to children, global efforts to promote children’s health and safety through Olympic athletes, and youth sports in general.

Louis Perlmutter

Louis Perlmutter is a senior advisor to Corporate Partners, a private equity fund, is a retired senior partner of Lazard, and chairman of the Transatlantic Institute. His expertise includes international finance, economics, and foreign policy with a focus on the Middle East. He is a director of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the board of fellows (directors) of Harvard Medical School, the advisory board of Foreign Affairs, and trustee of the Blaustein Institute for Human Rights. He is past chairman of the board of trustees of Brandeis University and the American Jewish Congress, and the past chairman of the executive committee of the United Nations Association of the U.S.A.