Sperling replaces Summers. Here's a good profile of Sperling.
Gene B. Sperling, Director, National Economic Council
Gene B. Sperling is Counselor to the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner. In that role, Mr. Sperling served as a lead policy advisor for Secretary Geithner on fiscal, budget, tax, job creation and small business issues. Previously, Mr. Sperling served during the Clinton Administration as the Director of the National Economic Council for four years, from 1997 to 2000, and as the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council from 1993 to 1996. In these positions, Mr. Sperling played a lead role in the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act and was a key negotiator for the 1997 bipartisan Balanced Budget Agreement. In addition to his economic work, Mr. Sperling has specialized on education in poor and conflict-affected nations. He was the founder and Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-authored the book What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World. Mr. Sperling was also Senior Fellow for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress, where he authored The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity. He also served as a part-time consultant on corporate citizenship and economic matters for private sector companies. Mr. Sperling holds a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Jason Furman, Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy
Jason Furman is currently a Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. Mr. Furman took leave from the Brookings Institution to become the Economic Policy Director of Obama for America, where he helped develop and communicate the campaign’s policies. He was a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies and Director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings. He began his career in public service during the Clinton administration, as a Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers and subsequently a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council. In addition, he was a Senior Adviser to the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank. Mr. Furman has also worked on research and in academia as a Visiting Scholar at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, as a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Furman earned a Ph.D. in economics and an M.A. in government from Harvard University as well as an M.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics.
Katharine G. Abraham, Nominee for Member, Council of Economic Advisers
Katharine Abraham is a Professor in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology and Faculty Associate in the Population Research Center at the University of Maryland, a position that she has held since 2002. Dr. Abraham served as the Commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the United States Department of Labor from 1993-2001. From 1985-87, she was a research associate at the Brookings Institution. She joined the University of Maryland in 1987, where she served as a professor of economics, and she also taught at MIT's Sloan School of Management from 1980-1985. Dr. Abraham received her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1982 and her B.A. in economics from Iowa State University in 1976.
Heather Higginbottom, Nominee for Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget
Heather Higginbottom is Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. She served as Policy Director for Obama for America, overseeing all aspects of policy development. From 1999 to 2007, Higginbottom worked for Senator John Kerry serving in several capacities including as Legislative Director. She also served as the Deputy National Policy Director for the Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign for the primary and general elections. After the 2004 election, Higginbottom founded and served as Executive Director of the American Security Project, a national security think tank. She started her career as an advocate at the national non-profit organization Communities in Schools. Ms. Higginbottom holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rochester and a Masters degree in Public Policy from the George Washington University.
