Staff
Maya MacGuineas
Maya MacGuineas is the President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Additionally, she is the Director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank. Maya testifies regularly before Congress, advises the administration and has published broadly, including articles in The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times. Once dubbed “an anti-deficit warrior” by The Wall Street Journal, Maya comments often on broadcast news and is widely cited by the national press. In the spring of 2009 Maya did a stint on The Washington Post editorial board, covering economic and fiscal policy.
Maya has worked at the Brookings Institution and on Wall Street. As a political independent, she has advised numerous candidates for office from both parties, and works regularly with members of Congress on health, economic, tax, and budget policy. She serves on the boards of a number of national, nonpartisan organizations and received her Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Victoria Allred
Victoria Allred is the Research Director for the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. Dr. Allred's previous experience includes over six years at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a budget and policy analyst. While at OMB, she worked on the Administration’s immigration enforcement legislative, regulatory, and budget proposals, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the Emergency Response Fund for the September 11th terrorist attacks. Additionally, Dr. Allred worked at Congressional Quarterly and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Most recently, she served as chief of staff for the chief financial officer at Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security. She has a B.A. in History from the University of Oklahoma and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in European history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Nathan Atlas
Nathan Atlas is a Senior Program Associate for the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. Before coming to CRFB, Nathan served in the Federal Government for over 5 years in various roles at the Department of Labor, the White House, and the Office of Management and Budget. Most recently, he served within the Executive Office of the President as Director of Scheduling and Policy Assistant in the Director's Office of OMB. Nathan attended the George Washington University where he received a BA in Psychology.
Jim Bates
Jim Bates is the Project Director for Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. Jim graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Social Science from Pepperdine University and holds a M.P.P. from The Claremont Graduate School. Jim served as Chief Counsel, Deputy Staff Director, and Staff Director of the Committee on the Budget for the U.S. House of Representatives. While at the Budget Committee, he worked on the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1990, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, in which he led bipartisan negotiations on the budget enforcement procedures, and coordinated negotiations on the Deficit Reduction Act of 2006. More recently Jim served as Associate Director of Natural Resources for the Office of Management and Budget within the Executive Office of the President, managing the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Interior, in addition to the Corps of Engineers, NASA, and EPA.
Marc Goldwein
Marc Goldwein is the Policy Director of the Committee for a Responsible
Federal Budget as well as a Senior Policy Analyst for the Fiscal Policy
Program at the New America Foundation. Marc holds a B.A. in political science from Johns Hopkins
University, and is currently an MA candidate in their applied economics
program.
Marc is also a senior consultant for the World Bank, and has
previous done research for the Government Accountability Office and the
Historian's Office at the Social Security Administration. An Associate
Member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Marc has
undertaken considerable research on the U.S. Social Security system, and is
the recipient of the Julius Turner Award for his honors thesis, Riding
The Third Rail, written on the Politics of Social Security reform.
Elspeth Grindstaff
Elspeth Grindstaff is a Research Assistant for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Previously she worked at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in the Education, Workforce and Income Security issue area. She also has experience working in the nonprofit industry. Ms. Grindstaff has a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.
Daniel Kowalski
Dan Kowalski is a consultant to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. He also currently serves as the founding Director of the Missouri Legislative Budget Office, an independent, non-partisan budget analysis agency serving the Missouri General Assembly. Prior to that February 2007 appointment, he served for 8 years as the Director of Budget Review for the Majority staff of the House Budget Committee. Dan also worked for 4 years at the Congressional Budget Office as a Principal Analyst in the Budget Analysis Division, and for 7 years for the Finance Committee of the New York State Senate as a tax analyst.
Becky Lewis
Becky Lewis is a Policy Analyst for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Prior to coming to New America Foundation, Becky received her Master of Public Policy from the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. While in graduate school, she engaged in a year-long study of the public pension system for state employees in North Carolina. Before getting her M.P.P., she worked for the nonprofit organization OMB Watch as a Budget Policy Analyst, where she did work on budget and tax policy, appropriations, government performance, and social security. Becky graduated cum laude from Occidental College with a B.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy.
Nicole Overley
Nicole Overley is a policy intern for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She is a third-year student at Johns Hopkins University in the prestigious 5-year BA/MA program with the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, specializing in International Policy and Economics. Nicole comes to CRFB with previous experience on Capitol Hill in the office of Representative Tom Price. At Hopkins, Nicole is the founder and President of Sigma Iota Rho, a chapter of the national International Studies honor society, and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, researching the economics behind American megachurches’ spread to Europe. Her preliminary work on this topic has been published in the Hopkins Undergraduate Research Journal, and she has guest lectured at Hopkins on it as well. Additionally, she is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and has made Dean’s List each semester while at JHU.
Naakorkoi Pappoe
Naakorkoi Pappoe is an intern for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Currently, she is pursuing her Masters of Public Affairs at Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. During her first year of graduate school she served as Political Economy director of the Texas Roosevelt Institute, a chapter of the Roosevelt Institute which is a nonpartisan, nonprofit student run think tank. Pappoe graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Economics.
Sean Russell
Sean Russell is a Policy Analyst for the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. Previously, he served as staff in the offices of U.S. Senator John McCain and on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, where he covered issues relating to transportation policy and budget issues. Sean graduated Loyola University Chicago School of Law where he served as an editor of the international law review and a fellow on the Corboy Advocacy Team. Previous to that, Sean attended Boston University where he obtained a B.A. in Russian history.
Philip Sugg
Philip Sugg is a Program Associate for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the New America Foundation. Before coming to New America, he worked as an analyst with the Advisory Board Company, a D.C.-based consulting firm for hospitals and universities, where he did work on healthcare information technology. He is originally from North Carolina, and recently graduated from Duke University with a BA in Philosophy.
Anne Vorce
Anne Vorce is the Project Director of the Committee's Fiscal Roadmap Project and the Policy Director for the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation. Previously she served as a consultant to the education and healthcare associations. Prior to that, she was the in-house expert on the U.S. economy and financial sector for European Commission’s embassy. She has also been an economist at the Congressional Research Service, with specialties in U.S. economic trends and financial sector reform. Ms. Vorce is the current Chairman of the Board of the National Economists Club (NEC) and immediate past NEC President.

