In this episode of The Center for USA Lending’s The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we’re joined by Joanna Mikulski, founder of Mikulski Strategies and former policy advisor at the Biden White House Domestic Policy Council, for a conversation that bridges the worlds of federal credit, workforce development, and economic policy. Drawing on her time at OMB, the White House, and years working in international development, Joanna brings a rare ground-level perspective on what happens when well-intentioned federal programs collide with the realities facing states, localities, and the people they serve.
She makes the case that federal student loans — at over $85 billion a year — are the most consequential workforce financing tool the government has, gives that system a frank C grade, and explains why the fragmentation of credit, grant, and workforce programs at the federal level creates compounding problems on the ground. She also weighs in on the urgent need to onshore pharmaceutical manufacturing, the promise of lending.gov as a central portal for federal credit programs, and why good policy outcomes require both the right technology and human navigators to make it all work.