Media Contact:
Lisa Kaiser
(414-270-2999; lkaiser@communityadvocates.net)
Milwaukee—Community Advocates Public Policy Institute Senior Fellow David Riemer received the Herb Kohl Helping Hand Award from the Wisconsin Community Action Program (WISCAP) for his commitment to addressing the needs of low-income individuals.
Riemer received the award at WISCAP’s 2017 Poverty Matters! conference in Stevens Point on Wednesday, September 13.
“We are so glad that WISCAP is recognizing David for his decades of work advocating for Wisconsinites who need a helping hand,” said Community Advocates Chief Executive Officer Andi Elliott. “He has always focused on innovative ways to alleviate poverty through work and ensure that all Wisconsinites have access to affordable, quality health care.”
Riemer played a major role in enacting the state’s supplemental Earned Income Tax Credit; W-2 welfare reform; the state’s mental health parity act; the BadgerCare health insurance program for low-income Wisconsinites and children; the Chapter 220 program, the state’s voluntary school integration law; and the state Public Defender law.
More recently, as part of the Public Policy Institute, he helped to realize the state’s Transitional Jobs Demonstration Project and led the effort to design the Working Our Way Out of Poverty policy package, which the Urban Institute estimated would cut poverty in Wisconsin by over 50%.
“David is a brilliant, original thinker who has been able to implement his ideas through policies that make a real difference in people’s lives,” said Kari Lerch, Deputy Director of the Public Policy Institute.
Riemer is currently a semi-retired Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute; he previously served as Director. He has had a long, prolific career in government, including serving in the administrations of Governor Patrick Lucey, Governor Jim Doyle, and Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist. He also served as legal counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy’s Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research. Outside of government, Riemer co-founded the New Hope Project and its parent organization, Congress for a Working America, and he served as the Director of the Wisconsin Health Project. He is the author of The Prisoners of Welfare: Liberating America’s Poor from Unemployment and Low Wages and numerous articles on poverty, health, and government.
When presenting the award to Riemer, Public Policy Institute Research and Program Coordinator Mike Bare noted Riemer’s work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, saying, “David has used those positions to hold out a helping hand in the spirit of this award to actually accomplish things while working with others.”
Riemer earned an AB degree from Harvard University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.
He lives in Milwaukee with his wife, Ellie Graan. They are parents of two sons, State Representative Daniel Riemer and Joseph Riemer.
