Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Most Powerful Woman Think Tanker?

ELLE magazine has just published its "ELLE's Women in Washington Power List," and two think tankers made the list: Neera Tanden, President of Center for American Progress (CAP), and Capricia Marshall, Ambassador-in-Residence at Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

ELLE said that Tanden, who has served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, is "the policy whisperer for progressives and was an architect of Obamacare."  In the interview, Tanden says that next on her to-do list is women's economic issues.

As for Marshall, ELLE notes that straight out of law school she started as Hillary Clinton's aide on Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign.  She later became White House social secretary under him and US chief of protocol for President Obama.  ELLE notes that she is a member of Hillary's inner circle.

Others on the ELLE power list include: Tulsi Gabbard, Cheryl Mills, Susan Collins, Illyse Hogue, Penny Pritzker, Cathy Lanier, Kim Kingsley, and Dana Bash.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on women running think tanks.  Last year, Foreign Policy noted that 42 of the top 50 think tanks in the US are run by men.

As head of the current White House's de facto think tank, Tanden is arguably the most powerful think tanker in general (man or woman).

CAP was recently ranked as the 10th best think tank in the United States and the 30th best think tank in the world by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.

Atlantic Council was just ranked as the 16th best think tank in the United States and #7 on the list of "think tanks to watch."