MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Olivia Katz, a senior at Middlebury College, has been named a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institution, the nation’s first student think tank. Katz is one of just eight students selected for the honor from among more than 6,000 members of the national organization. This is the first year that the Roosevelt Institution has offered senior fellowships, a distinction that will allow scholars such as Katz the opportunity to further pursue and promote their research.
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| Olivia Katz '07 |
“These eight senior fellows will provide analysis and commentary on clean energy, socioeconomic diversity in higher education, and the burdens placed on working families — topics on which the Roosevelt Institution is currently collecting student ideas for distribution to state and federal legislators,” said Executive Director Kai Stinchcombe, referring to the Roosevelt Institution’s newest publication: “25 Ideas” on each of the three aforementioned policy areas. As a result, according to the institution, the ideas produced by the senior fellows will be directly targeted to members of Congress and state and local elected officials this spring and summer. Already, the senior fellows will be writing for the online magazine The Internationalist and contributing to Talking Points Memo, the popular progressive political blog by Joshua Michah Marshall.
A senior majoring in political science, Olivia Katz is from New York City, where she attended the Spence School. She will focus her research on reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. “Olivia has stood out as one of our brightest and most talented fellows. Her dedication to reducing our national dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil is quite apparent,” Stinchcombe said.
Katz has worked for the Roosevelt Institution in various capacities since 2006: as a member of the communications and development teams and most recently as the national policy coordinator for the Energy Challenge. As Energy Challenge coordinator, she works with the national energy steering committee and Roosevelt chapters nationwide to develop innovative policy ideas about how to reduce American dependence on foreign, harmful and unsustainable energy.
In addition to working for the Roosevelt Institution, Katz serves as the director of environmental affairs for Middlebury's student government, and is a member of the Environmental Council and Middlebury's oldest all female a cappella group. the Mischords.
The Roosevelt Institution is a non-profit think tank devoted to bringing students’ ideas to the policy process. Based in Washington, D.C., it was founded in November 2004 at Stanford University and now includes nearly 50 established chapters at colleges across the United States, including Middlebury College.