April 1, 2009
Two Professors Tapped for D.C. Posts
SPPD's Raphael Bostic and USC Law's Elizabeth Garrett are asked to join the Obama administration.
by Allison Engel and Anna Cearley
Elizabeth Garrett, USC’s vice president for academic planning and budget and a professor at the USC Gould School of Law, and Raphael Bostic, a professor at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, have been asked to join the Obama administration in Washington, D.C.
The White House announced on March 28 that Garrett, the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, Political Science, and Policy, Planning, and Development, is to be nominated as assistant secretary for tax policy at the U.S. Treasury Department.
On March 18, the White House announced that Bostic is to be nominated for the post of assistant secretary for policy development and research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Garrett, who is also the co-director of the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics and on the board of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at USC, has worked in public service on the national level before. In 2005, she was appointed to then-president George W. Bush’s nine-member bipartisan advisory panel on federal tax reform. She also is chair of the finance committee for Common Cause, which she has served as a board member for the past four years.
In her vice president’s role at USC, Garrett is part of the provost’s office. USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias said that he and the university feel “immense pride in Beth and sadness that such an outstanding leader will be taking a leave from USC.
“Her impact at USC has been astonishing. She has brought energy, wisdom and brilliance to her many responsibilities here.”
Robert K. Rasmussen, dean of USC Law, said: “Beth Garrett is a superstar. She excels in everything she does - scholarship, teaching and administration. I am happy for our country that Beth has agreed to take on this challenge.”
Garrett graduated from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Virginia Law School. She clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court and served as legal counsel and legislative assistant for tax, budget and welfare reform issues for U.S. Sen. David L. Boren. Before joining USC in 2003, she was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Her scholarship centers on law and the political process.
Bostic, whose research explores the incentives and market dynamics that shape credit flows and the ability of households and communities to advance economically, also has national governmental experience. Prior to coming to USC in 2001, he worked for six years at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
At HUD, he will oversee the department’s research, program evaluation and policy development activities.
At USC, Bostic was the founding director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast, which tracks and models office, industrial and multifamily apartment markets in Southern California. He also served as director of the Master of Real Estate Development degree program at SPPD.
Bostic has taught classes on affordable housing development, urban economics, real estate finance, policy and planning analysis and public finance. His scholarly work has been published in a number of top academic peer-reviewed journals.
“I know that Dr. Bostic’s national service will represent the very best of USC expertise and character in addressing major policy issues of our cities and neighborhoods,” said Jack H. Knott, dean of SPPD.
Bostic holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.