Speaker Biographies

Sarah Ducich is vice president for public policy for Sallie Mae. She joined Sallie Mae in August 1998 and is responsible for the development and advancement of the company’s policy goals regarding the federal student loan programs, with a particular emphasis on the effect of federal budget policy on such programs. Prior to joining Sallie Mae, Ms. Ducich consulted on federal budget policy for several national firms, was deputy budget director with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1990–93, was a senior staff member of the Senate Budget Committee from 1987–90, and was a budget examiner with the Office of Management and Budget from 1984-87.

Frederick M. Hess is director of education policy studies at AEI and executive editor of Education Next. He is known for his work on a range of educational issues including entrepreneurship, philanthropy, educational politics and governance, and higher education financing. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including, most recently, Footing the Tuition Bill: The New Student Loan Sector (AEI Press, May 2007). His work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, general interest publications, and popular education periodicals. Mr. Hess is a faculty associate of Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, an adviser for the John F. Kennedy School’s Innovations in American Government awards, and a senior fellow at Education Sector. He also serves on the review board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and on the Research Advisory Board for the National Center for Educational Accountability. Prior to joining AEI, he taught high school in Louisiana and was a professor of education and politics at the University of Virginia.

Lawrence A. Hough is chairman of Stuart Mill Capital, Inc., a capital and management services company he formed in 1997. Before he started Stuart Mill Capital, he spent twenty-five years at Sallie Mae, where, in 1990, he became its second president and chief executive officer. Mr. Hough holds corporate directorships with Geo Eye and Goldleaf Financial Solutions, Inc., is chairman of the board for Community Foundations of America, and is a trustee of the Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Levine School of Music. Mr. Hough served as chairman of SynXis Corporation, as a member on the boards of the Coelacanth Chemical Corporation and Collegiate Funding Services, Inc., and as a trustee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the George Washington University. From 1980 to 1984, he was treasurer of the United States Olympic Committee and served on its board of directors from 1972 to 1984.

Alex J. Pollock has been a resident fellow at AEI since 2004, focusing on financial policy issues, including government-sponsored enterprises, retirement finance, housing finance, corporate governance, accounting standards, and the issues raised by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Previously he spent thirty-five years in banking, including twelve years as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, while also writing numerous articles on financial systems and management. He is a director of Allied Capital Corporation, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, the International Union for Housing Finance, and chairman of the board of the Great Books Foundation.

Thomas H. Stanton is a fellow of the Center for the Study of American Government at the Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches the program’s core course for the MBA/MA in government and various graduate seminars. Mr. Stanton is a member of the board of directors of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and is past chair of the NAPA Standing Panel on Executive Organization and Management. He is a former member of the federal Senior Executive Service. As an attorney in Washington, DC, Mr. Stanton’s practice relates to the capacity of public institutions to deliver services effectively, with specialties relating to organizational and program design, federal credit and benefit programs, government enterprises, and regulatory oversight. He provides legal and policy counsel relating to the design and operation of federal programs to federal, state, local, and international organizations, and to many federal agencies and offices. Mr. Stanton has been an invited witness before many Congressional committees and subcommittees. His writings on government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and the financial markets have appeared in publications including Public Administration Review, The Administrative Law Journal, American Banker, and the Wall Street Journal. His publications include two books on GSEs: Government-Sponsored Enterprises: Mercantilist Companies in the Modern World (AEI Press, 2002) and Privatizing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks: Why and How, coauthored with Peter J. Wallison and Bert Ely (AEI Press, 2004). Mr. Stanton also edited Making Government Manageable: Executive Organization and Management in the 21st Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004) with Benjamin Ginsberg, as well as Effective Government: Blueprints for Responding to the Challenge of September 11 (M. E. Sharpe Publishers, 2006).

Peter J. Wallison joined AEI in January 1999, is currently a senior fellow and co-director of AEI’s program on financial market deregulation, and holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Economic Policy Studies. He previously practiced banking, corporate, and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., and New York. From June 1981 to January 1985, Mr. Wallison was general counsel of the United States Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan administration’s proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry. He also served as general counsel to the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee and participated in the Treasury Department’s efforts to deal with the debt held by less-developed countries. During 1986 and 1987, Mr. Wallison was White House counsel to President Ronald Reagan. Between 1972 and 1976, Mr. Wallison served first as special assistant to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and, subsequently, as counsel to Mr. Rockefeller when he was vice president of the United States.

View Event Details