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Kent Hughes to Head Global Economy Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center

Washington, D.C.---Lee H. Hamilton, Director of the , announced the appointment of Kent Hughes as director of the Center's new Project on America and the Global Economy.

Prior to this new position, Hughes served as a Public Policy Scholar at the Center, researching and writing a book on how America's search for sustained prosperity has led to new, complementary roles for government and the private sector. "Our hope is that Kent will continue his work on the prospects for American growth while also exploring the changing nature of the global economy," said Hamilton. The Project will have an administrative home in the Center's Division of U.S. Studies.

Before joining the Center, Hughes served as associate deputy secretary at the Department of Commerce; president of the private sector Council on Competitiveness; and in a number of senior positions in the U.S. Congress. Previously, he served as a staff attorney at the Urban Law Institute and as an Internal Legal Center Fellow and Latin American Teaching Fellow in Brazil.

"America has an enormous impact on the global economy and global economic trends are increasingly important for America's economic future," said Hughes. "The American approach to innovation, life-long learning, and foreign economic policy are widely studied in most parts of the world and, at the same time, being shaped by policy successes in other countries. I am extremely excited about becoming a member of the Woodrow Wilson Center staff and hope to help achieve the Center's goal of linking the world of ideas to the world of public policy."

Hughes has spoken and written widely on a variety of economic topics including his 1979 book, Trade, Taxes, and Transnationals: International Economic Decision Making in the Congress. He holds a doctorate in economics from Washington University in St. Louis, an LLB from Harvard Law School, and received his bachelor's degree in political and economic institutions from Yale University. He is a member of the D.C. Bar, the American Bar Association, and the American Economic Association.

In 1968, Congress established the as the official, national memorial to Woodrow Wilson, our 28th president. Commemorating Wilson's service to the nation, the Center is a nonpartisan institution of advanced study-a neutral forum for open, serious, and informed dialogue-that promotes scholarship in public affairs. The Wilson Center convenes the thinkers and doers-scholars and policymakers, journalists and businesspeople-in the confident hope that through shared research and dialogue, better understanding and wiser policy will emerge. The Center supports research in social sciences and humanities, with an emphasis on history, political science, and international relations. Discussions draw on the perspectives of history while promoting inquiry into the future.