Alice M. Rivlin has spent much of her professional life working with the Federal budget. She was nominated for her current position as Director of OMB by President Bill Clinton, and was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 7,1994. Prior to becoming Director of OMB, she was the Deputy Director from January 21, 1993.
Ms. Rivlin was the founding Director of the Congressional Budget Office, and served in that post from 1975 to 1983. She was Director of the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution from 1983 to 1987 and was a Senior Fellow in that program from 1987 to 1993. Ms. Rivlin also served as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. From 1992 to 1993, she was First Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University.
Ms. Rivlin's most recent book, Reviving the American Dream: the Economy, the States, and the Federal Government, was published by the Brookings Institution in 1992. She is also the author of Systematic Thinking for Social Action (1971) and The Role of the Federal Government in Financing Higher Education (1961), and coauthor or editor of numerous Brookings books on budget, tax, health care, and related public policy issues. Ms. Rivlin wrote a regular column for the Los Angeles Times, served on the editorial board of The Washington Post, and has been a frequent contributor to many other newspapers, magazines, and journals.
Ms. Rivlin has been President of the American Economic Association and chaired the Commission on Budget and Financial Priorities of the District of Columbia. In 1983 she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Prize fellowship, and she has been a visiting Professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She has served on the Boards of Directors of Union Carbide Corporation and Unisys Corporation, and was Chair of the Governing Council of the Wilderness Society.
Born in Philadelphia in 1931, Ms. Rivlin grew up in Bloomington, Indiana and still considers herself a Hoosier. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1952 and received a Ph.D. in economics from Radcliffe College (Harvard University) in 1958. She is married to Sidney G. Winter and has three children and three grandchildren.