CRA Appoints New Director Of Government Affairs

CRA has recently made a major new commitment to its government affairs program, appointing its first full-time Director of Government Affairs while retaining the services of Fred W. “Rick” Weingarten, our former Executive Director and Director of Public Policy, as a consultant. We believe these changes will enable CRA to be even more effective in the coming years, as we work on policy issues related to computing research funding, underrepresented groups in the profession, and other policy issues of concern to the computing research community.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Lisa Thompson as CRA’s new Director of Government Affairs. Lisa received a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Southern California and studied science policy at George Washington University. She worked briefly for the Council of Scientific Society Presidents on policy issues before joining the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. There, for the past eight years, she has run the government affairs program, focusing on both research and educational issues for the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (an affiliate society of CRA).

Lisa is thoroughly familiar with the legislative process and players in the science and technology area, and she knows how to communicate effectively with lawmakers and their staffs. She has developed a highly regarded electronic bulletin to apprise researchers in the field of activities in Washington. She has also compiled useful information kits for mathematicians that provide them basic talking points on mathematics policy to use with lawmakers and offers practical advice on topics such as how to write a Congressman. Lisa has also been an active member in the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), which works to obtain increased funding for all areas of science, and she is well known in the Washington science policy community.

Rick’s comments on Lisa’s appointment are as follows: "I have known and worked with Lisa for many years on science policy issues that affected both CRA and the mathematics community. I know that the CRA community will find her to be an incredibly talented and knowledgeable representative for computing research. She will do a great job."

Rick will continue to serve the community by spending about a day a week as a consultant on policy issues to CRA. Rick joined CRA in 1990, serving as the first full-time Executive Director and simultaneously holding the position of Director of Public Policy. He did an extraordinary job at establishing CRA as an important presence in the science policy community in Washington and has been an excellent proponent for computing research. He built up CRA membership, as well as a staff and programs to serve them. With the growth of the organization, it became time in 1995 to separate the senior administrative post from the government affairs directorship. Rick stayed on at CRA half time, serving as the Director of Public Policy, while holding a similar half-time position at the American Library Association (ALA). After three satisfying years in these dual half-time positions, Rick decided it was time for him to throw himself full-time into new efforts. He has accepted a one-year position to recreate ALA’s information technology policy office (ALA’s think-tank). In this role, he will set new policies and priorities for this organization and hire a permanent director. After assisting ALA with this senior management issue, Rick plans to move on to another policy or educational position.

It is CRA’s good fortune to be able to draw on the knowledge and ability of both Lisa and Rick. CRA is looking forward to continuing its the tradition of serving the computing research community with this partnership. z