2009 Conference Keynote Speakers

(Note, January 2009: Mr. Murdock has resigned from this position. The new Director will be invited once the appointment has been made, and either he/she or his designee will speak at the conference.)

JERRY FRIEDMAN
Executive Director, American Public Human Services Association

Jerry Friedman was appointed executive director of APHSA in September 2001 after a 31-year-old career in public human services at both the state and local levels. Prior to his selection, Friedman was the executive deputy commissioner of the Texas Department of Human Services. In that capacity, he oversaw operations of a 15,000-person workforce providing services to 2 million Texans in 500 offices statewide with a budget of nearly $4 billion. Before that, he served as assistant secretary of the Economic Services Administration at the Washington state Department of Social and Health Services.

Previously, Friedman also held positions as deputy secretary, Office of Income Maintenance, Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare; director, Bureau of State Children and Youth Programs, Office of Children, Youth and Families, Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare in Harrisburg; and director of Human Services for Dauphin County and Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Friedman began his public service career as a probation and parole officer in 1970. He holds a Bachelor of Social Science degree from Pennsylvania State University.

He currently serves on the board of the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, the board of the Rural Assistance Center of the University of North Dakota, and is a member of the AMA sponsored Health Sector Assembly.

APHSA website, and NAPC's information source for this bio: www.aphsa.org

Blog

HEIDI SHIERHOLZ
Economist, Economic Policy Institute

Areas of expertise
Labor markets - Economic Inequality - Economics of Gender - Poverty

Biography
Heidi Shierholz joined the Economic Policy Institute in August 2007. Her areas of research include income inequality, the gender wage gap, trends in employment and compensation, and the low-wage labor market. She previously worked as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto.

Education
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan
M.A., Economics, University of Michigan
M.S., Statistics, Iowa State University
B.A., Mathematics, Grinnell College

Complete listing of EPI publications by Heidi Shierholz