Elisabeth Hirschhorn Donahue is vice president for communications and public affairs at Brookings. She most recently served as chief of staff and general counsel at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President.
Prior to that she served as the associate dean for public affairs and communications at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), overseeing SPIA’s public affairs programming, communications, publications, and public relations initiatives. Earlier she served as the executive director and associate editor of The Future of Children, a joint project of Princeton and the Brookings Institution, managing production of journal volumes, creating and implementing outreach initiatives, and co-editing several volumes. She also served as a lecturer at SPIA, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on poverty and family policy issues. Before that she was an attorney at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C.
Elisabeth is a lawyer with both federal and state public policy and communications experience. She earned a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and an A.B. from Brown University.
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Past Positions
- Chief of Staff and General Counsel, Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President
- Associate Dean for Public Affairs and Communications, Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA)
- Executive Director, Associate Editor for The Future of Children, Princeton University
- Lecturer, Princeton University
- Counsel/Echoing Green Fellow, National Women’s Law Center
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Education
- J.D., Georgetown University Law Center
- A.B. in English, Brown University