Heather Higgins

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Heather R. Higgins on Real Time with Bill Maher (21 April 2006)
Heather R. Higgins on Real Time with Bill Maher (21 April 2006)

Heather Richardson Higgins (b. 21 September 1959) is an American businesswoman, political commentator, and non-profit sector executive.

Contents

[edit] Personal background

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Manhattan, Higgins began her undergraduate studies in 1977 at Wellesley College. She graduated cum laude from Wellesley in 1981, earning a B.A. She then moved back to New York City and enrolled in the M.B.A. finance program at New York University's graduate school of business. After leaving NYU for several years, she resumed her studies there in 1986 and was awarded her graduate degree in 1987. She currently lives in Manhattan with her husband James and their three children.

[edit] Journalism and business experience

In the 1980s, Higgins began writing editorial columns for the Wall Street Journal. During this time she also became an assistant editor at Irving Kristol's now-defunct quarterly, The Public Interest.[1]

Before her 1991 entry into the non-profit sector, she worked as a Wall Street portfolio manager for seven years, eventually attaining the position of vice-president of U.S. Trust, a subsidiary of the Charles Schwab Corporation. On 3 February 2006, she was elected to the Board of Directors of UBS's Managed High Yield Plus Fund Inc.[2][3]

[edit] Non-profit roles and policy work

Higgins has been heavily involved with non-profit organizations. She is chairman of the Independent Women's Forum[4] and has been president and director of New York's Randolph Foundation since 1991.[3] She was also the executive director of the Council on Culture & Community[5]

In addition to helming the above organizations, her non-profit experience includes her position on the executive committee of the board of overseers for the Hoover Institution[6][7] and her membership in the Council on Foreign Relations.[8] She is also a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development[9], vice-chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Philanthropy Roundtable, and a member of the W.H. Brady Foundation's board of directors.[10]

Her editorial writing and her work in the non-profit sector have led to appearances on a variety of news/commentary programs, including Hardball, Politically Incorrect,[11] Real Time with Bill Maher,[12] Crossfire, Equal Time, and Good Morning America. With Newt Gingrich, she co-hosted The Progress Report on the now-defunct National Empowerment Television.[13][14] She was co-editor of The Quotable Paul Johnson (1994), a book of collected quotations from the popular historian.[15]

[edit] Higgins' views

Columnist Suzanne Fields, in an article discussing Higgins and IWF co-founder Lisa Schiffren, states that they "are mothers and relate to women who are not ideologically doctrinaire but who are instinctively conservative on war and taxes."[16]

In an interview with the Acton Institute, Higgins expressed her fundamental opposition to government social programs insofar as they compete with or replace private charities, stating,

Government programs pose serious problems for community institutions when they directly compete with those organizations which attempt to provide charity while seeking to assist the individual beyond materialistic ends. Properly performed charity not only feeds you, but keeps your self-respect intact.[5]

In her review of Thomas DiLorenzo and James T. Bennett's book Unhealthy Charities: Hazardous to Your Health and Wealth, which examines the operation of health charities, Higgins argues that,

The problem is not that there are bad people running these organizations; almost anyone sitting on the board of such an organization would do the same thing in this environment. The problem is having centralized government funding in the first place. Reallocate the dollars, disperse the authority, create competing funding sources, and all these problems and false incentives will be instantly mitigated.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Higgins, Heather R. "Unhealthy Charities: Hazardous to Your Health and Wealth. - book review" Public Interest. Spring 1995. [1]
  2. ^ "Annual Report, May 31 2006." Managed High Yield Plus Fund Inc. [2]
  3. ^ a b Managed High Yield Plus proxy statement. EDGAR. [3]
  4. ^ Toto, Christian. "Chao honored for valor." Washington Times. 27 May 2005. [4]
  5. ^ a b "The Time has Come to Reevaluate Strategy for Change." Religion & Liberty. Acton Institute. January/February 1995. [5]
  6. ^ "Board of Overseers." Hoover Institution. [6]
  7. ^ "Twenty Appointed to Hoover Institution Board of Overseers." Business Wire. 3 December 2001. [7]
  8. ^ "2004 Annual Meeting Speaker Bios A—I." Philanthropy Roundtable. [8]
  9. ^ "Trustees 2006." Committee for Economic Development. [9]
  10. ^ "Profile: Philanthropy Roundtable." International Relations Center's Right Web. 1 June 2004. [10]
  11. ^ Transcript: Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. 21 May 1997. [11]
  12. ^ Transcript: "New Rules." Real Time with Bill Maher. HBO.com. 21 April 2006. [12]
  13. ^ Bellafante, Genia. "The Network that Newt Built." Time Magazine. 9 January 1995. [13]
  14. ^ Howell, Leon. "Funding the war of ideas - conservative foundations." The Christian Century. 19 July 1995. [14]
  15. ^ Carolan, Matthew. "The Quotable Paul Johnson - book review." National Review. 31 December 1994. [15]
  16. ^ Fields, Suzanne. "Talking softly, with a big schtick." Jewish World Review. 25 October 2004. [16]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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