Amy Hanauer Executive Director of Policy Matters Ohio

Dear Colleagues:

On top of the elections for statewide office, this year’s Ohio election also includes a major policy question: whether to raise the state minimum wage.

Issue 2 would raise the minimum from $5.15 per hour, to $6.85 per hour. One of the endorsing organizations is Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland area think tank supported by many of the major local foundations to conduct research on economic issues of importance to low- and moderate-income workers in Ohio. On Friday, October 6, Amy Hanauer, Executive Director of Policy Matters Ohio, will join us at the Friday Lunch to explain the case for Issue 2 and discuss the questions that can be raised about the proposal. Since she helped found Policy Matters in January of 2000, the organization has issued over 100 research reports. (For reports on the minimum wage see http://www.policymattersohio.org/room_to_grow_2006.htm).

The public affairs lunch discussion is from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on every Friday on which classes are held during Fall and Spring semesters. It will be meeting during this academic year in the Guilford Lounge, on the first floor of Guilford House. Guilford House is on Bellflower, across from the parking lot for the Cleveland Institute of Art, and just down the street from the Peter B. Lewis building. It’s the yellow building with the nice porch.

The public affairs lunch is open to all. Lunch is brown bag, but beverages are provided courtesy of the Office of University Communications and cookies are provided courtesy of generous souls.

Best regards,
Joe White

More About Our Guest

Amy Hanauer is the founding Executive Director of Policy Matters Ohio, a non-profit, non-partisan policy research institute dedicated to examining issues that matter to working families in Ohio. Since the group started in January of 2000, Policy Matters has produced more than 100 reports, generated more than 1,000 newspaper stories, and begun to change the economic debate in Ohio. Amy has a Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA from Cornell University. She has previously done research and policy work in Wisconsin, Colorado and Washington D.C. For Policy Matters, in addition to running the organization, Amy does research on work, wages, tax policy, energy policy and other issues.

Fall Semester Schedule

Sept 1: Ken Ledford, Associate Professor of History and Law, hosts Jon Entin, Professor of Law and Political Science, to discuss the first year of the Supreme Court with John Roberts as Chief Justice.

Sept 8: Leonard Lynn, Professor and Chair of the Department of Policy and Management at the Weatherhead School of Management, on what U.S. leadership in engineering could mean with the rise of India and China.

Sept 15: Mark Naymik, of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, on this year’s statewide elections in Ohio.

Sept 22: Greg Eastwood, Interim President of Case Western Reserve University, on “The Interim Period: Tasks for Today and Ideas for the Future.”

Sept 29: Alan Weinstein, Professor and Director, Law and Public Policy Program, Cleveland-Marshall College of the Law, “Eminent domain: State Legislative Responses to Kelo vs. New London: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”

Oct 6: Amy Hanauer, Executive Director, PolicyMatters Ohio, on raising the minimum wage

Oct 13: Marty Kress, Executive Director of the National Space Science and Technology Center, University of Alabama at Huntsville, on Organizing NASA for Space Exploration. NOTE: Tentative room change to Mather House 100.

Oct 20: Michael Wager, Vice Chair and Chair Elect of the Port Authority, on its role in local economic development issues.

Oct 27: Pete Moore, Assistant Professor of Political Science, on whatever is happening in the Middle East at the time.

Nov 3: Justin Buchler, Assistant Professor of Political Science, and Andrew Lucker, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science: Midterm Election forecast.

Nov 10: Eric J. Topol MD, Professor of Genetics, on concerns about conflicts of interest in medical research.

Nov 17: Norman Robbins, Emeritus Professor of Neurosciences, on class bias in who gets to vote.

Nov 24: THANKSGIVING BREAK

Dec 1: Jerome Liebman MD, Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, on National Health Insurance

Dec 8: Terry Wolpaw MD, Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs, School of Medicine, on the new demands on or expectations of medical education.