Josh Gottheimer

Joshua S. Gottheimer (commonly known as Josh Gottheimer) is an American author, lawyer, speechwriter, motivational speaker, and public affairs policy adviser. He has been long active within the Democratic Party.^[1][2] He currently serves as Senior Counselor to the Chairman at the Federal Communications Commission, where he led the 2011 effort on broadband adoption that featured reduced rates from cable companies for two years of service for certain poor families.^[3] He is also a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Most recently, he was Executive Vice President WorldWide of Burson-Marsteller, a public relations firm.^[4][5]

Early history

Gottheimer was born to Gwenn Feldman of North Caldwell, New Jersey and Donald C. Gottheimer of New York, New York. His mother worked as a kindergarten teacher in South Orange, New Jersey and has since retired. His father owns a cosmetics distributing company in Fairfield, New Jersey. Gottheimer went to University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude. He was also president of the InterFraternity Council. Gottheimer went on to Harvard, where he earned a law degree and was an editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation.^[1] He also studied history at Oxford, where he was a Thouron Fellow. He is a member of the Washington, DC and New York State Bar Associations.^[4]

Career

Gottheimer served as Director of Strategic Communications at Ford Motor Company.^[4] He then became a Special Assistant to the President and Presidential Speechwriter for President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001.^[1] He wrote speeches, op-eds, and other articles for President Clinton. He helped to draft the State of the Union addresses in 1999 and 2000 as well as Clinton's 2000 Democratic National Convention speech.^[4]

He then worked as Senior Advisor at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He went on to become an advisor and speechwriter for former General Wesley Clark during the 2003-2004 Democratic Party primaries. He also served as the traveling speechwriter and senior policy advisor to Senator John Kerry during Kerry's Presidential campaign.^[2]

Writings

Gottheimer edited the compilation Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches. It is a collection of influential speeches made by figures within the civil rights movements of African Americans, Asian Americans, LGBT Americans, Hispanic Americans, and the American women's movement. Gottheimer wrote introductions for each of the speeches.^[2]

Gottheimer recently published "Power in Words: The Stories behind Barack Obama's Speeches, from the State House to the White House" with Mary Frances Berry and a foreword by Ted Sorenson.

Personal life

Gottheimer married Marla Tusk, a trial lawyer in the counterterrorism section of the Justice Department, in December 2006. They had met as students at the University of Pennsylvania.^[1] Josh is an active alumnus Brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi, where he also sits on the Alpha Epsilon Pi Foundation's Board of Directors.

References