"The Direct Line"- Winter 2008

Rockefeller Center Director Andrew Samwick provides commentary on a variety of issues in the Direct Line, which is published at the start of each term.

Consistent with the mission of the College, the Rockefeller Center seeks to develop students' potential for leadership. With a broad range of programs, we are focused on leadership skills and experiences both in and out of the classroom, on and off campus. One framework we use is asking students to assess their own strengths andweaknesses, moving on to considering how they would work well on a team, and concluding with a discussion of the way teams work within and across organizations. The Rockefeller Center is no different than other organizations in this respect. Its success over the years has been based on the teamwork of many people who have worked here, and its future success depends heavily on maintaining a staff of talented and dedicated people.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge some changes in the Center's administrative team. Early in the fall term, our longtime Associate Director Roxanne Waldner decided to retire from the Center and from Dartmouth to join her daughter, son-in-law, and twin grandsons in Africa. Her cheerful optimism and unmatched dedication have been an inspiration to many at the Center and across campus. For the past three years, it has been wonderful for me to learn from her and work with her to continue to make Dartmouth a better place for students, faculty, and the community. Decades of students and faculty have benefited from her contributions to the Center and the campus, for which we thank her.

After a careful search to select a successor, I am very pleased to announce that Patricia Erwin-Ploog has been hired as the new Associate Director for Administration and External Relations. Most recently, she was an Associate Director at Dartmouth's Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection. Pat holds an undergraduate degree in English and Comparative Literature and a graduate degree in Library and Information Science from Indiana University. In 2001, she returned to school for a second master's degree in Internet Strategies Management from Marlboro College. As the Center's new Associate Director, Pat is responsible for general administration of the Center, including developing and monitoring budgets, overseeing the marketing and communications strategy, and evaluating the performance of Center programs. We are excited and fortunate to have her as the newest member of our team, and invite you to join us in welcoming Pat to the Center at your earliest opportunity.

Andrew A. Samwick is the Director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences, the Sandra L. and Arthur L. Irving '72a, P'10 Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2003 and 2004, he served as chief economist on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. 

Since joining the Dartmouth faculty in 1994, his scholarly work has covered a range of topics, including pensions, saving, taxation, portfolio choice, and executive compensation. Professor Samwick has been published in American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Finance, Journal of Public Economics, and a number of specialized journals and conference volumes. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in economics from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He blogs about economics, politics, and current events.