Skip to main content

Next Week: Interview with RAND's Michael D. Rich

Support Provided By

Back when this blog was getting started, in October of 2008, TTLA headed over to Santa Monica in order to visit with Michael D. Rich and a few of his colleagues at the RAND Corporation.

Rich is the executive vice president of RAND. That's the #2 position in the orginization, behind president and CEO James A. Thompson, at this preeminent public policy institution that's ranked among the nation's leaders in areas such as international development, health policy, public policy research programs, domestic economy policy, security and international affairs, and environmental policy.

Also as part of his job, Rich travels a half-dozen times or so a year to Qatar, where he co-chairs the Board of Overseers of the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute with Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Nasser Al-Misnad

Rand is located on the key civic block of Santa Monica, within sight of the ocean. While Rich's corner office was larger than those of various staff members, his space was far from ostentatious. Crowded with books and papers and divided into a sort of desk area and a conference table area, the room brimmed with photos and knickknacks gathered during a RAND career that began in the mid-1970s. Rich has been exec v.p. since 1993.

During the past year, TTLA has teased drips of the conversation with Rich -- here, for example. All next week, at long last, we'll present the larger interview. The Q&A has been edited for clarity. Also, to break up some of Rich's longer answers, occasional TTLA questions have been inserted into the text, after the fact. Next week's interview topic schedule:

Friday: Introduction

Monday: A Brief History of RAND

Tuesday: Is RAND a Think Tank?

Wednesday: Complex Problems & Measuring Success

Thursday: From Santa Monica to Qatar

Friday: Success, Shareholders, and Wrestlers

As a primer, here's RAND's "Sixty Ways RAND Has Made a Difference."

And also RAND-related: R.I.P.Samuel Genensky

File photo of RAND courtyard copyright and courtesy Brett Van Ort, 2008

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.