Rebecca M. Blank delivered the Second Annual Bazzani Lecture on Oct. 12, 2004 in Chicago. Blank is Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Henry Carter Adams Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, and Professor of Economics.

She is also the co-director of the National Poverty Center at the Ford School, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to promote poverty-related research. Prior to coming to Michigan, she served as a Member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1997-1999. She has been Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, served as the first Director of the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.

Professor Blank's research has focused on the interaction between the macroeconomy, government anti-poverty programs, and the behavior and well-being of low-income families. Her book, It Takes A Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty, was published by Princeton University Press in 1997 and won the Richard A. Lester Prize for the Outstanding Book in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations.