Isabel V. Sawhill

Isabel V. Sawhill is a senior fellow emeritus in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. She served as vice president and director of the Economic Studies program from 2003 to 2006, and as codirector of the Center on Children and Families from 2007 to 2015. Prior to joining Brookings, Dr. Sawhill was a senior fellow at The Urban Institute. She also served as an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1995, where her responsibilities included all of the human resource programs of the federal government, accounting for one third of the federal budget. 

In addition, she has authored or edited numerous books and articles including most recently “A New Contract with the Middle Class” (with Richard Reeves, 2020), “The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation” (2018), and “Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood Without Marriage” (2014). Her research has spanned a wide array of economic and social issues, including fiscal policy, economic growth, poverty and inequality, welfare reform, the well-being of children, and changes in the family. She is the Frances Perkins Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, a recipient of the Academy’s Moynihan award (2016), past president of the American Association of Public Policy and Management, and a recipient of their Exemplar award (2014). She was also named a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association (2017).

Dr. Sawhill helped to found Power to Decide, formerly known as The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. She has been a visiting professor at Georgetown Law School and director of the National Commission for Employment Policy. She received her Ph.D. from New York University in 1968.  She is currently working on a book about opportunity in America.