Cara Griffith
President and CEO, Tax Analysts

Cara provides strategic oversight for the direction of Tax Analysts. She has been instrumental in developing strategies to improve the Tax Notes suite of products and to aggressively pursue transparency in the administration of tax systems. Previously, Cara managed the editorial department, including the flagship daily news publications and weekly magazines. Griffith has written for a broad range of tax policy publications, including Tax Notes State, The Tax Adviser, The Hedge Fund Law Report, and The Hill. She regularly speaks at tax conferences and other events on tax issues, on a variety of technical tax issues as well as the need for transparency in tax administration.

Griffith has a BA in political science and a BA in international studies from the University of Evansville and a JD from the George Washington University Law School.

Martin A. Sullivan
Chief Economist and Contributing Editor, Tax Notes

Martin A. Sullivan, chief economist and contributing editor for Tax Analysts’ daily and weekly publications and blog, is an expert on federal tax reform. Sullivan has written over 500 economic analyses for Tax Analysts’ publications and is the author of two books on tax reform, including the recent Corporate Tax Reform: Taxing Profits in the 21st Century. He has testified before Congress on numerous occasions. Previously, Sullivan taught economics at Rutgers University and served as a staff economist at the U.S. Treasury Department and later at the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. Sullivan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received a PhD in economics from Northwestern University.

Lisa Zarlenga
Partner, Steptoe & Johnson, LLP

Lisa Zarlenga is a partner at Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, where her practice focuses on corporate transactional and planning matters as well as tax policy issues. She advises clients on structuring tax-free and taxable acquisitions and dispositions, tax-free spin-offs, and internal restructurings, including the special rules governing consolidated groups. She also helps clients advocate for and resolve tax policy issues before the Treasury Department and IRS involving proposed and pending regulations and other administrative guidance, and before Congress involving legislation. Lisa has combined her policy and transactional backgrounds to advise clients on certain specialized tax issues, such as qualified opportunity zones and blockchain and digital currency. Lisa previously served as Tax Legislative Counsel at the Department of Treasury.

Alan D. Viard
Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

Alan D. Viard is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies federal tax and budget policy. Prior to joining AEI, he was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University. He has also been a visiting scholar at the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis, a senior economist at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, and a staff economist at the Joint Committee on Taxation of the US Congress. During the spring 2015 semester, Viard is cohosting the NYU Law School tax policy colloquium. While at AEI, Viard has also taught public finance at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute. Earlier in his career, Viard spent time in Japan as a visiting scholar at Osaka University’s Institute of Social and Economic Research.