Thomas W. Washburne is director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. From 1995 to 2005, Washburne worked in Washington, D.C., serving at different times as counsel and chief of staff for two members of Congress. From 1998 to 2000, he was an Abraham Lincoln Fellow in Constitutional Government at the Claremont Institute (a nonresident position). He has also served as a federal law clerk for the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, an instructor at Vincennes University, and a regular guest lecturer at Indiana University and the Defense Department’s National Defense University. He also has practiced law privately.

Washburne’s numerous articles and Op-Eds have been published in a variety of newspapers, including The Washington Times, The Detroit News, and the Lansing State Journal. Washburne holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Purdue University and a law degree from Indiana University-Indianapolis. Licensed to practice law in Michigan and Indiana, he lives in Midland, Mich., with his wife, Lynne, and their five children.

Michael D. Jahr is the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s director of communications. He joined the Center’s staff in September 2005 after working 10 years in Washington, D.C., as communications director for a member of Congress. In that capacity, he served as the congressman’s spokesman and wrote Op-Eds, press releases and speeches. Prior to that, Jahr worked for a variety of media outlets, including National Geographic, The Ann Arbor News and a newswire covering the Middle East. Jahr holds a degree in journalism from Eastern Michigan University. He lives in Midland, Mich., with his wife, Patricia, and their three children.