With the State of the USA, Americans will now have a source of reliable, objective information about our increasingly complex society, which they can assimilate, find meaning in and act on to improve the country.
Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York
Executive Officers
As a newly established nonprofit organization, the State of the USA is still in the process of recruiting its full leadership team. That process has started with hiring a President/CEO and an Executive Vice-President. Christopher Hoenig, SUSA’s first President and CEO, has played a leadership role in the initiative since its inception four years ago. Executive hiring over the next few months will include two more Vice-Presidents: Chief Content and Creative Officer and Chief Product and Technology Officer.
- Christopher (Chris) Hoenig – President and Chief Executive Officer
- Jerilyn (Jeri) Asher – Executive Vice President
Christopher (Chris) Hoenig
President and Chief Executive Officer
Chris Hoenig is a leader with a reputation for defining and solving tough, high-value issues and opportunities. His career is dedicated to producing fundamental innovations in how we understand and improve our collective problem-solving capabilities.
Over 25 years, his experience has ranged from transformational leadership to technical innovation; from expert advisor to widely published author; from private enterprise to public service; and from small-scale entrepreneurship to national and global leadership.
Currently, he is serving as president and CEO of The State of The USA, Inc. This is a new nonprofit endeavor, developed under the auspices of The National Academy of Sciences. Its mission is to use quality information and advanced technology to educate the American people on the status and progress of the United States. The initiative is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett, Rockefeller, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, F.B. Heron and Carnegie Corporation of New York foundations.
Mr. Hoenig has worked with leading organizations in the private and public sectors—first as a consultant with McKinsey & Co., then as a managing director at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and most recently as a Vice-President of Strategy at IBM. These jobs catalyzed an ongoing body of research and theoretical development, first published in The Problem Solving Journey (recently translated into Korean and Chinese).
Mr. Hoenig has helped to define the major issues facing society in the 21st century. This began with work for the U.S. Congress defining challenges for the United States, which led to the creation of The State of the USA. He also conceived and helped lead the Global Project on Measuring Societal Progress with the OECD. This resulted in the Istanbul Declaration at the 2007 World Forum, attended by delegates from 120 nations.
In the arena of innovation, he created one of the world’s first commercial online information services, Transpotel. This was followed by the Solution System technology developed at Exolve, Inc. He recently led the development of Societal Intelligence at IBM. And he is currently collaborating to improve large-scale Social Reasoning.
His formal education includes undergraduate work (BA) in history from Yale University and two graduate degrees in International Politics, Law and Economics from Cambridge University (M.Phil.) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (M.A.L.D.).
Jerilyn (Jeri) Asher
Executive Vice President
Jerilyn Asher is the executive vice-president of The State of the USA (SUSA), responsible for strategic planning, organizational development, communications, legislative initiatives, finance and partnership development. Her background as a CEO and leader in both the public and private sectors has provided her with a unique combination of experience in organizational development, strategy, business development, operations and hands-on execution.
Prior to joining SUSA, Ms. Asher was a senior level consultant to the IBM Corporation, working in the health care, education and government sectors. Prior leadership positions include: president and board director of Abbey Healthcare Group, Inc. (now Apria), a billion dollar, publicly traded, home health care company, as well as founder and former chief executive officer of Protocare, Inc., a leading home infusion therapy company. She was also founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Physicians Quality Care, Inc., a physician practice management company and founder and chairman of the board of deNovis, Inc. an innovative software company whose platform architecture was selected for use by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS).
She is a well-respected health care industry advisor on national and international healthcare policy and business issues, including work at the Cabinet level, with U.S. Senators and Corporate CEOs. Ms. Asher has extensive experience in guiding and supporting legislative reform including her work with the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Health, Children’s Health Insurance, Child Advocacy Legislation, The Architectural Barriers Act and most recently, the Health Care IT Modernization Act, which became the Tax Relief and Heath Care Modernization Act—the only federal legislation to pass Congress unanimously in the current administration.
She spent seven years as executive director of United Cerebral Palsy, where she created Valley Infant Development: the first integrated, multidisciplinary early intervention and health care delivery system for high-risk neonates and infants. The trans-disciplinary approach she developed at UCP became a national model. This required working closely with corporations, community health professionals, legislators and international organizations.
Ms. Asher blends private and public sector leadership roles with deep experience in policy formulation and implementation. She was the co-chair of the Lincoln Trust, (co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara), the first American anti-apartheid centrist organization and a board director and the first chairperson of the African American Institute’s Annual Campaign—leading to the first comprehensive congressional delegation traveling to South Africa. After the fall of the USSR, Ms. Asher led the first business mission to Chernobyl, Russia, with Fortune 500 executives, legislators, and relevant specialists, bringing rapid, bi-partisan, humanitarian support to that region.
Ms. Asher has lectured at Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management and Tufts University on areas ranging from health, to public policy and entrepreneurship. She is a member of the board of advisors of Exactcost, a health care software company, and WellCoaches, the first health care coaching institute jointly created with Harvard Medical School, as well as a Board director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the oldest and largest child advocacy and direct service agency in the nation. Ms. Asher attended Smith College and received her master's degree from Harvard University.