Our Senior Fellows
Northeast-Midwest Institute Senior Fellows have decades of experience in the research and analysis of federal fiscal and monetary policies and practices of importance to the Frostbelt states of the Northeast and Midwest as their public and private sector economies emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, currently including the policy areas of: Environmental Policy, Energy Policy, Intergovernmental Public Finance, and Transportation Finance.
Thomas H. Cochran
Senior Fellow Intergovernmental Public Finance Policy
Tom Cochran has 45 years’ experience as a public finance policy analyst, investment banker and financial advisor focused on mobilizing capital for essential public purposes in the US and emerging markets around the world. He has advised the US Department of Energy’s Office of Loan Programs on renewable energy project transactions and program designs and has also advised USAID, USDTDA and multi-lateral financial institution clients including the World Bank, IFC, and the Global Green Growth Fund, among others. From 1997 – 2005, he led MBIA’s surveillance, remediation, and successful restructuring of high profile PPP infrastructure bond and bank debt transactions in Asia, Latin America, and the US. Prior to joining MBIA, Mr. Cochran advised on emerging market infrastructure and general sub-sovereign finance as Executive Vice President of the Resources Development Foundation where he led the International Public Finance Program.
Previously, he had managed the North Atlantic region for Lehman Brothers Public Finance investment banking department; and was as an education and healthcare finance policy advisor to New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne and a New York City Urban Fellow in Mayor John Lindsay’s office and the New York City Board of Education. Mr. Cochran served the Northeast-Midwest Institute as its founding Executive Director from 1977 – 1982 and as Board Chairman in the 2000’s.
He received his B.A. from Beloit College and his Master of Public Affairs (M.P.A.) degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Jack Wells
Senior Fellow Transportation Policy
Senior Fellow, Transportation Policy
Jack Wells has over 30 years’ experience as a transportation economist and public policy analyst, including academic teaching and service in both the congressional and executive branches of the federal government. He has conducted research, drafted legislation, advised senior policymakers and international bankers, and developed policy on every mode of transportation, with particular expertise in the benefit-cost analysis of safety regulations and transportation infrastructure investment, strategies to reduce congestion, and airline and railroad competition.
He served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Transportation (2004 – 2014) and at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2001 – 2004), and as Deputy Administrator at the Federal Railroad Administration (2000 – 2001). From 1993 to 2000 he served as a subcommittee staff director on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and previously conducted research on transportation economics and policy at the U.S. General Accounting Office. He has advised the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the European Investment Bank.
His academic work has included teaching economics at George Mason University (where he is currently a guest lecturer), editing the Journal of Transportation and Statistics, and serving on the boards of the Transportation Research Forum (TRF) and the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis (SBCA). He has a B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Yale, both in Economics.
Arthur Rypinski
Senior Fellow, Energy Policy
Arthur Rypinski has participated in policy analysis, development, and implementation in the intersecting fields of economic, energy, environment, and transportation policy across four U.S. Administrations. He served as the senior energy policy staffer in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation (2004-2016) and earlier as an economist in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Policy (1998-2004). Among the areas where he has made contributions:
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Economics of petroleum markets and prospects for crude oil-by-rail;
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Fuel economy and pipeline safety rulemakings;
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Climate impacts on transportation for the National Climate Assessment;
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Evaluation of competitive transportation grant applications under the TIGER program;
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Federal response to hurricanes and other energy-related emergencies;
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Participated in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations as an agency specialist;
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Development and elaboration of rules for voluntary greenhouse gas reporting.
Before joining the Department of Energy’s Policy Office, he served as an economist and team leader at the Energy Information Administration (1989-1998), were he led a team responsible for reporting on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and collecting voluntary reports of greenhouse gas emissions and reductions. He participated in the development of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s guidelines for greenhouse gas emissions inventories, and reviewed the national inventories of participating foreign governments. Other special projects included participating in the development of the Bush Administration’s National Energy Strategy and a special study on energy subsidies.
Mr. Rypinski has also worked in the private sector advising clients in the Sultanate of Oman, Turkey, and Pakistan on development planning, petroleum and electric power development, solar energy, energy planning, and energy modeling, and taught classes on greenhouse gas emissions estimation in the Philippines for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Mr. Rypinski holds a B.S. in Economics and International Studies from the American University, and a M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Dan Dozier
Senior Fellow Environmental Policy
Senior Fellow, Transportation Policy
Dan Dozier has over 40 years of experience as an attorney and mediator of complex environmental and public policy matters. He has been appointed by United States District Courts from around the Nation to mediate complex environmental cases.
As an attorney specializing in the mediation of complex civil litigation and environmental disputes, Mr. Dozier is an expert in environmental policy issues including CERCLA and RCRA hazardous waste matters and Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act cases. Mr. Dozier has also served as an expert witness on cost allocation issues in several court cases.
Mr. Dozier has been affiliated with the law firm of Press Dozier & Hamelburg, LLC from 2006 to the present as a partner and currently as Of Counsel to the firm. Previously Mr. Dozier served as Director of the Washington DC Office, CDR Associates, Director of Consensus and Dispute Resolution at SRA International, Inc.; Vice President, TLI Systems, Inc.; and as Senior Mediator and Project Manager at Clean Sites, Inc.
Mr. Dozier was chief legal official for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Agency; a Liaison Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States; Director of the Congressional Liaison Office at the (then) Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; Executive Assistant to the Mayor, City of Detroit; and as Assistant General Counsel, International Union, United Automobile Workers (UAW).
Mr. Dozier was awarded his J.D. by Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, Michigan in 1971 and was a recipient of the University’s Center for Urban Studies Fellowship. He received a B.A. degree in history at Wayne State University in 1968. He has been admitted to the practice of law in Michigan, the District of Columbia, and Maryland and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Maryland State Bar. Mr. Dozier was an adjunct professor at the Vermont Law School where he taught Environmental Dispute Resolution from 1989 to 2000.