Angelise Schrader

Moving from Hawaii to Washington, D.C. could be quite a difficult adjustment for anyone. However, Angelise Schrader’s passion for the conservative movement led her to make this transition eight years ago, and she hasn’t looked back.

“Hawaii is so different,” Schrader says. “The people there are very laid back. I have really enjoyed being in D.C. where everyone is busy working hard for what they believe in.”

Schrader originally moved to the mainland to attend Patrick Henry College, a conservative school outside of the nation’s capital. Before joining The Heritage Foundation, Schrader worked with Star Parker at the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, an organization that addresses issues of race and poverty with principles of freedom and personal responsibility.

Schrader currently works with Heritage’s Young Leaders Program, an initiative that promotes the conservative mission to the next generation through a variety of programs and opportunities for both students and young professionals. Continue Reading »

Heritage's Israel Ortega, right, leads Heritage's efforts to educate Hispanic Americans about the importance of conservative ideas.

Israel Ortega has made a career out of his two passions:  promoting conservative ideas and celebrating his Hispanic heritage.

As The Heritage Foundation’s chief spokesman to Spanish-language news media, Ortega is involved with communicating The Heritage Foundation’s message to America’s fastest-growing minority.

“This is a very impressionable demographic,” says Ortega. “If we don’t reach out to them, they are likely to become open to bigger government. We must focus on this group to advance the conservative movement.” Continue Reading »

Candace Porter

When it comes to customer service, The Heritage Foundation’s Candace Porter is an expert. She is well known in the office for her warm, friendly smile and is always willing to help someone in any way that she can.

In addition to her work overseeing mail with Heritage’s nearly 700,000 members, Porter manages our customer service operations. Her goal, she says, is “to bring Heritage’s customer service to an elite status ranking.” It’s no wonder that she is so successful in the membership department, where she serves our members with a smile.

How important is smiling to her? Continue Reading »

Heritage Vice President Mike Gonzalez. Photo: Chas Geer

Remembering his childhood in communist-run Cuba, Heritage Foundation Vice President Mike Gonzalez describes very personal experiences with the terrors of government gone wrong.

“It’s funny because I learned the values of small government by seeing government out of control,” he says.

Sitting at his desk on a Wednesday afternoon, Gonzalez, who oversees Heritage’s communications efforts, explains what it was like growing up in Cuba and how it shaped his life and outlook on politics. He speaks about why he is a conservative, what makes him passionate about working at Heritage, the country he so dearly loves and the need to explain conservative policy to all audiences. Continue Reading »

Heritage distinguished fellow Ernest Istook.

A piece of wisdom from The Heritage Foundation’s Ernest Istook–“that which does not destroy us only makes us stronger”–is a great reminder that hard work truly does pay off.

A distinguished fellow at Heritage and a retired seven-term Congressman from Oklahoma, Istook says his upbringing helped shape him.

As a young man, he worked 50 hour weeks even while taking a full course load in law school and starting a family at the same time. “It gave me a strong foundation of appreciating hard work, doing what it took to make it, and prioritizing the family.”

Istook began his political career when he ran for the Oklahoma State Senate as a Democrat. He lost. “I swore off politics after that,” Istook chuckles. Continue Reading »

Vern McHargue, Controller for Finance and Operations.

“The quality of people associated with Heritage is very high,” The Heritage Foundation’s Vern McHargue says. “Everyone understands and is committed to advancing the same principles.”

As Heritage’s Controller for Finance and Operations, McHargue helps Heritage be a good steward of our members’ contributions. He ensures we have the right people and processes in place to ensure money is spent effectively and that Heritage is here for generations to come. Continue Reading »

William Beach directs Heritage's Center for Data Analysis.

“I’m convinced that freedom actually works and that it works for everyone,” The Heritage Foundation’s William Beach says. “And the freer we are, the better the economy and society works. I just don’t believe that free people are bound to fail.”

Beach directs Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis, which he helped start in 1998.

Heritage established CDA, Beach says, to win the “numbers battle” and back up conservative policy ideas with sound economic analysis. Established groups like the Congressional Budget Office often used outdated tools that scored conservative proposals badly, giving liberals an advantage in policy debates. CDA aimed to change that dynamic–and has. Continue Reading »

Diane Katz

“I enjoy challenging conventional wisdom,” Heritage Foundation scholar Diane Katz says.

And she does that by exposing how big-government regulations and red tape intrude in our lives and stifle the economy. She tracks rules and laws that have significant effects, like Obamacare, and analyzes their effects on the economy and our freedoms.

As she puts it:

A large part of what we do is educating the public and lawmakers. Regulation is not really understood, and it has such an enormous impact. I believe it is important to reveal and expose the role of regulation in the economy and in our lives. It is not just an economic issue but an issue of liberty.

My work is focused on improving regulatory policy. Agencies and bureaucrats wield too much discretionary power while Congress dodges accountability for the poorly drafted statutes that set the agencies loose.

Under the Obama administration, Katz has remained busy. In the past few months, she has exposed the explosion of costly new regulations in the last three years and explained the dangers of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

But she started out in politics on what she calls “another side.”

“I was pretty radical in terms of leftist politics when I was a teen and young adult,” she explains. “As got older I came to realize the idealistic policies that I had espoused didn’t really work and in fact they produced negative consequences.”

After digging deeper into the issues, Katz grins, “my political thinking really changed.”

Katz explains that she has lived a couple of different lives. She studied philosophy, got involved with social work, and then went back to school to receive her master’s in journalism. However, it was not until she started editorial writing that she found her true calling.

“I love to write. It comes from being a reader,” Katz comments. “The two are closely aligned and reading a wide array of books motivated me to write.”

“I am really lucky to have a job that I love,” Katz concludes. “I wish everyone could have a job that they feel connected to and passionate about, and work with people who help drive that passion.”

Kathy Rowan

“When I’ve seen how we’ve grown, it just amazes me,” says The Heritage Foundation’s Kathy Rowan. “It all has gone very fast, and I have had the privilege of watching incredible things happen here.”

A native of Washington, DC, Rowan is the executive assistant to Heritage President Ed Feulner and the assistant secretary for Heritage’s Board of Trustees. She has been with Heritage for 35 years as of April 1st.

Rowan first met Feulner when he interviewed her for a staff position on Capitol Hill. She remembers joking during that interview about the bumper stickers each of them had on their cars. What began as a simple interview turned into life-long friendship and working partnership. Continue Reading »

John Hilboldt introduces a lecture at Heritage. Photo: Chas Geer

Every year, The Heritage Foundation’s hosts more than 180 public events, featuring authors, lawmakers, outside analysts and Heritage experts.

These events are all coordinated by one man: John Hilboldt.

Hilboldt, Heritage’s director of lectures and seminars, aims to keep the event topics and speakers as varied as the issues Heritage works on. This month alone, Heritage has hosted events on topics ranging from education reform, maritime security, Obamacare, how America is viewed in the world, Cuba, and the federal budget, to name a few. Continue Reading »