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Susan Hattan to Join NAICU Staff

April 17, 2003

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Susan K. Hattan, former staff director for the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, has been named to the government relations staff at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU).

Hattan will serve as Senior Consultant, taking on much of the work currently being handled by Jon Fuller, who will retire in mid-June. She is expected to join the NAICU staff on July 1. Among her responsibilities will be policy development and oversight on higher education accountability matters, including consumer information and reporting requirements, accreditation, student privacy, and institutional eligibility and certification. She already has served as a consultant to NAICU in preparation for the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

“Susan is a highly experienced and capable expert in higher education policy,” said NAICU President David L. Warren. “ We are delighted with the work she has already done for us on issues of importance to our nation’s private colleges and look forward to her joining our staff in this new capacity. We are truly honored she is able to now work with us full-time.”

Hattan retired from the federal government in 2001, after a 27-year career in the U.S. Senate. She served on the staff of Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) for 18 years, where she rose steadily from legislative assistant in Kassebaum’s personal office to staff director of the full Labor and Human Resources Committee (renamed Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee) during Kassebaum’s tenure as committee chair from 1995 to 1997.

The Labor Committee is one of the principal domestic policy committees in the Senate, developing and overseeing the federal government’s efforts in education, child care, labor, drug prevention, and pension law. As staff director, the highest staff position on the committee, Hattan supervised a staff of 30, and also developed and implemented all committee functions including hearings, mark-ups, floor debate, and conference negotiations.

When Kassebaum retired in 1997, Hattan assumed the deputy staff director position for Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. She also worked for Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas from 1973 to 1977.

While Hattan’s expertise spans the domestic policy spectrum, she established her reputation in education policy as minority staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities from 1989 to 1992. During her tenure, she was the principal Republican staffer for the 1992 rewrite of the Higher Education Act. Hattan also was a lead Republican staffer for Sen. Jeffords during the Higher Education Amendments of 1998.
Hattan is a graduate of Washburn University in Topeka, Kan., and holds a master’s degree from American University in Washington. D.C.

Contact

• Tony Pals
  (202) 785-8866
  tony@naicu.edu