Dan Crippen (born March 18, 1952, in Canistota,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

) was the executive director of the

National Governors Association The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American Politics of the United States, political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 U.S. state, states, Territories of the United States, territories ...

from 2011 to 2015. He now serves as member of the Board of Trustees to the Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc. and a member of the advisory board of the Peterson Center on Healthcare. He is a former director of the

Congressional Budget Office The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the United States Congress, legislative branch of the United States government that provides budget and economic information to Congress. I ...

and assistant to the president for

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

. Crippen served on

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. He graduated from the

University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is t ...

(B.S. 1974) and

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

(M.A. 1976; Ph.D. 1981).

Reagan years

From 1981-1985 Crippen served as chief counsel and economic policy advisor for

Senate Minority Leader The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and people of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as chief spokespersons for their respective political parties, holding the ...

Howard Baker Howard Henry Baker Jr. (November 15, 1925 June 26, 2014) was an American politician, diplomat and photographer who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1967 to 1985. During his tenure, he rose to the rank of Senate Minority Le ...

. When Baker became President Reagan's

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

in 1987, Crippen followed Baker to the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy from 1987-1988 and Domestic Policy Advisor and Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy from 1988-1989. Republicans hoped that Crippen would be a strong proponent of Reagan's appropriations bills and that he could mend relations with

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. After Reagan left office in 1989, Crippen turned to the private sector, as a principal of Washington Counsel (1996-1999), a law and lobbying firm;

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

as an executive director; and The Duberstein Group, a

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

consulting firm, as founder and vice president.

Congressional Budget Office

He was Director of the

from 1999-02-01 to 2003. Republican leaders selected Crippen as a somewhat moderate candidate, drawing the ire of members of both parties, who sought a more ideological director. A 2003 article in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' suggested that he may have lost his chance at reappointment for failing to support dynamic scoring, a practice inspired by

supply-side economics Supply-side economics is a Macroeconomics, macroeconomic theory postulating that economic growth can be most effectively fostered by Tax cuts, lowering taxes, Deregulation, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply- ...

NASA and present day

On July 28, 2004 NASA Administrator

Sean O'Keefe Sean Charles O'Keefe (born January 27, 1956) is a university professor at Syracuse University Maxwell School, former chairman of Airbus Group, Inc., former Secretary of the Navy, former Administrator of NASA, and former chancellor of Louisiana ...

selected him to serve on NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP). He was also a member of the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group, which helped set policies to return the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

to flight after the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster. In February 2005, he was briefly mentioned as a possible NASA Administrator. Crippen still works in the private sector, largely focusing on healthcare issues, and does some public speaking. In a 2005 editorial in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', Crippen called for increased use of technology to reduce healthcare costs, altering the service structure by delegating more services to nurses and other hospital staff, and studying the subset of the Medicare population which uses the majority of the resources. Crippen serves on the board of directors of Eclipsys. In early 2011, Crippen was name
executive director of the National Governors Association
He served in that position until 2015. He also served on the board of directors of the

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) is a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. that addresses United States federal budget, federal budget and fiscal issues. It was founded in 1981 by former United Sta ...

. In 2012 Crippen was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Reagan years

Congressional Budget Office

NASA and present day

Notes or references

Further reading