Rivlin, Alice M., 1931–2019, American economist, b. Philadelphia as Georgianna Alice Mitchell, Ph.D. Harvard, 1958. Rivlin was affiliated with the Brookings Institution at various times from 1957 until her death. After working for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1966–69), she was (1975–83) the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and worked to establish it as a reliable nonpartisan analyst of federal spending; her years there made her one of the most widely respected unelected public officials in the capital. In 1990 she headed a commission that addressed the financial crisis in Washington, D.C., which led Congress to set up (1995) a financial control board for the city, and she led the board from 1998 to 2001. She was the first female director of the Office of Management and Budget (1994–96) and vice chairman of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors (1996–99). Rivlin taught at Harvard, Georgetown, and George Mason universities and in 1983 received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. She wrote Systematic Thinking for Social Action (1971, with Donna Shalala), Caring for the Disabled Elderly (1988, with J. Wiener et al.), and Reviving the American Dream (1992).
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