Andy Stern has been named a Senior Fellow for the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy, an interdisciplinary academic center jointly administered by Columbia Business School and Columbia Law School. Stern is the former president of the 2.2-million-member Service Employees International Union, the largest union of healthcare, hospital, nursing home, homecare, janitorial, security, childcare, food service, and state workers. He is a leading voice on issues confronting American workers and the US economy and is the author of A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track (Free Press, 2006).
In 2010, Stern was appointed to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Simpson-Bowles) and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ US Trade and Investment Policy Task Force. He has been cited as one of Washington's most influential leaders on healthcare and named by Fortune and Washingtonian magazines as a "Top Power Player." Stern has appeared in numerous publications and on TV news programs, including CNN’s State of the Union with John King, The Colbert Report, Bill Moyers Journal, Charlie Rose, and on the covers of Businessweek and the New York Times magazine.
"Andy will bring a thoughtful perspective and a lifetime of experience and accomplishment to this role while helping to address issues related to business, law, and public policy," said Chris Mayer, the Paul Milstein Professor of Real Estate. "He will help the center pursue solutions to important problems like healthcare, inequality, and workers’ rights in a globally competitive environment."
The Richman Center is co-directed by Dean Glenn Hubbard, Dean David Schizer of Columbia Law School, Mayer, and Edward Morrison, the Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law and Economics. The center connects scholarship with real-world applications, focusing in particular on curriculum development, faculty research projects, and such extracurricular programming as panel discussions and academic or industry conferences.