Speaker Biographies

Susan M. Dynarski is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she studies and teaches the economics of education and tax policy. She has a special interest in the interaction of inequality and higher education. Ms. Dynarski has been a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1999 and is a visiting fellow at Princeton University for 2005–06 school year. Dynarski has studied the impact of grants and loans on college attendance, the impact of state policy on college completion rates, and the distributional aspects of college savings incentives. She has testified on her research to the United States Senate and the President's Commission on Tax Reform. Her research has been published in academic and policy journals, as well as featured in the popular media.

Anya Kamenetz is a journalist living in New York City. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, New York Magazine, Salon, Slate, The Nation, and the Village Voice. In 2004, the Voice nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for her work on the series "Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young." In January 2005, the series became a biweekly column. Generation Debt: Why Now Is a Terrible Time to Be Young (Riverhead Books, 2006) is her first book.

Martha D. Lamkin, president and chief executive officer of Lumina Foundation for Education, has extensive leadership experience in business, higher education, and philanthropy. She has served as executive vice president of corporate advancement at USA Group in Indianapolis; president of the Cummins Engine Company Foundation, Columbus, Indiana; executive director of corporate responsibility and government affairs of Cummins Engine Company; and manager of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Indiana office. In addition to her involvement in a wide range of civic, governmental, and social service organizations, Lamkin serves on the board of directors of the Council on Foundations, its Public Policy Committee, and its Advisory Committee for Executive Programs. She also serves as vice chair of Citizens Gas & Coke Utility, Inc., and is a member of the Board of Visitors at the Indiana University School of Law–Indianapolis. Formerly, she served as trustee and chair of the Indianapolis Foundation, the nation’s second oldest and Indiana’s largest community foundation. Lamkin is a co-founder and past chair of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, and she has been a member of the board of visitors of DePauw University and the president’s cabinet of Indiana University. She also served as a board member and chair of the Christian Theological Seminary and as a board member of the Independent Colleges of Indiana.

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