Richard McGahey

BIO FOR RICK MCGAHEY

  Rick McGahey is a Program Officer in the Economic Development Unit (EDU), with a portfolio on regional economic development.  His proposed initiative concentrates on increasing transparency in development policy, fostering new strategies for creating good jobs, and building stakeholder networks that support equitable regional development, including the private sector, community organizations, and other stakeholders.  He is part of the workforce development team in EDU, which does shared programming on policy and research issues that affect the workforce development field.   He is starting to work on the Program Related Investment (PRI) portfolio as well.   Rick is on the Affirmative Action Committee, a joint initiative of the Vice Presidents that funds research, advocacy, and knowledge development projects on affirmative action that cut across different portfolios.  Along with Miguel Garcia, he co-chairs the Small and Medium Enterprise Committee of the Affinity Group on Development Finance (AGDF), which is focusing this year on the implications of global value chains for SME development and poverty reduction.   Prior to coming to Ford, Rick was a Managing Vice President at Abt Associates, a research and policy evaluation firm, where he directed the practice on education, workforce development, and social welfare.   He has worked in public policy at different levels of government, including serving as Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor under President Clinton, and as Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.  He also served in New York State and New York City government.  He has a Ph.D in Economics from the New School for Social Research.