Oral history interview with Elizabeth "Lisa" M. Brown, 2021
Abstract
Elizabeth "Lisa" Brown reflects on her tenure as assistant to the president and staff secretary in the White House and co-director of agency review for the Obama-Biden transition project. She begins by identifying her experience as deputy counsel to Vice President Al Gore and in the American Constitution Society as the reason she was recruited to the Obama administration in 2008. She details her wo rk on the transition from the Bush administration to the Obama administration and reviewing agencies with the Recovery Act, Iraq, and healthcare reform as priorities. She explains the organization of the West Wing and her role as staff secretary, the first acts of President Obama in January 2009, the digitization of White House communication, the process of advising the president, dynamics within government highlighting changes during President Obama's term, and the process of working with Congress to reorganize governmental agencies after the 2011 Government Reform for Competitiveness and Innovation memorandum. Brown also gives insight into President Obama's relation to the public through letters and the Presidential Citizens Medal, as well as the importance of acquiring support before attempting change and the potential of government to create it
Presidents--United States; Presidents--Transition periods--United States; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Health care reform--United States; Brown, Elizabeth; Obama, Barack; United States; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2021
Physical Description
60 pages
Note (Biographical)
Elizabeth "Lisa" Brown served in several capacities in the Obama administration, including assistant to the president and staff secretary in the White House and acting chief performance officer at the Office of Management and Budget. She also served a s co-director of agency review for the Obama-Biden transition. Prior to joining the Obama transition team, she served as executive director of the American Constitution Society, and before that, as deputy cousel and later counsel for Vice President Al Gore. In 2013, she left the White House to join Georgetown University as vice president and general counsel
Note
Interviewed by by Dov Weinryb Grohsgal on June 17, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Elizabeth "Lisa" M. Brown, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2022