Nada Eissa had quite a first day on the job when she began working on economic policy for the U.S. Department of the Treasury -- her new position began the same day as Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Forced to hit the ground running, Eissa spent her first few months at the department researching, developing and analyzing the economic implications of policies affecting hurricane victims.

"It was exciting and extremely interesting," says Eissa, an associate professor of public policy and economics at Georgetown Public Policy Institute (GPPI). The professor's work covered policies for disaster relief, health care, tax reform and social security.

Now Eissa is focused on evaluating existing social security, school voucher and income tax policies to determine whether they helped those they were implemented to assist. She also wants to understand the ramifications and consequences of these policies, both good and bad.

Evaluation is the key to good public policy, Eissa contends. The professor believes policy makers and advisers need to understand a policy's impact, intended or unintended, and that public policies should be evaluated carefully. She tells students to follow her example by asking the right questions, instead of seeking answers that will support existing points of view.

"In her research, Nada tackles some of the most important social policy issues of the day like the earned income tax credit, which is now the largest cash assistance program in the U.S. for the working poor; and school vouchers, the most controversial issue in the area of education reform," says Harry Holzer, professor of public policy. "Her work is rigorous but sensible, as she brings the best statistical and analytic techniques to the questions of what really works and what doesn't on social policy.

"In an era where inequality has grown so dramatically and gaps in worker skills have enormous consequences for their earnings, it is important to have robust policies to address these issues. But, in an era of very tight public resources, we also want to make sure that our efforts are not wasted."

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, America's first federally funded voucher initiative, is a major research project for Eissa. She says people all over the country want to know if this and similar programs across the country are working.

Through GPPI's School Choice Demonstration Project, Eissa and her colleagues are examining this program and others. Their first report came out last spring; the second will follow in spring 2008 and a final report will be issued in 2009. In its early stages they found higher  parental involvement when families participate in the program. But, they report, increased family earnings could make students ineligible for participation in subsequent years.

"It is still incredibly important to think about how we will help people at the bottom," Eissa says.

Rather than rely on test scores alone, Eissa is considering the entire distribution when evaluating the D.C. voucher program.

"It's important to look at what happens to kids at the ends of the distribution as well as what happens to those not only in the program but also those left behind," she says.

"Nada's [research] stands out for its attention to the full range of policy impacts -- that's why she makes such a difference in the policy world," says Judy Feder, GPPI dean. "Understanding what works and what doesn't is critical to any successful policy initiative."

This lesson of looking at policy critically, of seeking to understand not just the intended outcomes but all effects, is a philosophy that resonates with former students.

"In focusing on policy implications we often find out that policies enacted for the public good have ramifications, both positive and negative, that were unanticipated," says Mike Ingram (G'05), one of Eissa's former students. "By looking beyond anticipated results we may find if public policies delivered on their results."

Eissa's passion for tax policy and economics developed at a young age. The professor remembers her mother, a chemist, attending MBA courses in the 1980s as inflation soared. Talk of business became a staple at home.

"It was 1981 and there was very high inflation, inflation in the double digits," recalls Eissa. "I remember being very interested in the economy, in news about the economy."

That interest grew. And in her third year as a graduate student at Harvard, looking for a new focus to her research, she took a public finance class at MIT with renowned economist James Poterba and lightening struck. She graduated with a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1995.

That "aha!" moment of learning from someone with Poterba's passion and excitement is something she brings to Georgetown in the classroom, with hard work and an open door policy.

"Professor Eissa is the kind of professor that can't hide her passion for public policy issues -- and when you are in a public policy program, trust me, that's the kind of professor that you want to have," says current GPPI student Agustina Paglayan, who will graduate in 2008. "Her classes provide not only a dynamic and enjoyable environment, but also a place to develop critical thinking, so that the discussion about public policy is not merely an exposition of values."

Eissa says her role at the treasury department defined why she wanted to focus on public finance.

"I worked on the very issues that led me to shift from other fields," she explains. "We worked on entitlement reform, which requires explaining why it is that the government should provide for old-age insurance and just as important, how best to do that."

Now, back at Georgetown, she wants students to understand not only the policy process, but how to communicate ideas clearly.

"You can have the best idea in the world, but if you're not able to explain it," she says, "you're not going to sell it."

Source: Blue & Gray