Faculty
Richard McGahey
Director, Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management
Professor of Professional Practice in Public Policy and Economics
Rick McGahey (PhD, Economics, New School for Social Research) is Director
of the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program, and Professor
of Professional Practice in Public Policy and Economics at the Milano School of
International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy. He also is a Faculty Fellow
at the New School’s Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. Rick is a
nationally recognized expert on urban and regional economic development, triple
bottom line investing, program evaluation, retirement policy, and workforce
development who has worked in philanthropy, the private sector, and government
at all levels—federal, state, and local. Rick comes to Milano from the Ford
Foundation, where he was the Director of Impact Assessment, working to develop
and implement assessments to help the Foundation achieve greater impact,
including measuring the impact of triple bottom line investments. Previously,
he was a Program Officer with a focus on workforce development for low-income
groups (including creation of and training for “green jobs”) and regional
economic development that emphasizes equity and community development for
economic, social, and environmental goals.
Rick is the co-editor, with Jennifer Vey, of Retooling for Growth:
Building a 21st Century Economy in America’s Older Industrial Areas (Brookings
Institution Press, 2008). Before joining the Foundation, he was a Managing Vice
President at Abt Associates, a consulting, research and evaluation firm where
he directed work on education, childhood development, social welfare, and
workforce development, responsible for an annual portfolio of over $20 million
in evaluation grants and contracts. Rick also has extensive experience in the
public sector. During President Clinton’s second term, he served as Assistant
Secretary for Policy, and later for Pension and Welfare Benefits, at the U.S.
Department of Labor under Secretary Alexis Herman. He also served as Executive
Director of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and as Economic Policy
Advisor for Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). At the state and local level,
Rick was Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Research for the New York State
Department of Economic Development and Deputy Comptroller for Policy and
Management for the City of New York. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the New
School for Social Research and has taught at New York University, John Jay
College, and the George Washington University.
