Board of Scholars

Brian Bishop became a student of environmental policy in the wake of the regulatory reform movement that swept the country during the Reagan era and the changing Congressional landscape of the 1990s.

Beginning as a ‘back to the earth’ experiential environmentalist who ran afoul of the bureaucracies created by his fellows in the youth movement, Mr. Bishop has augmented hands on environmental management with an encyclopedic understanding of law and policy in this arena. His studies serve partly as a self-defense mechanism and partly to further his beliefs that crafting common sense approaches to environmental problems is the only way to insure they will be solved. Most specifically this includes contextualizing risk and weighing the costs and benefits of remediation so as to insure that common sense informs the necessary preliminary inquiry into whether certain environmental indicators actually represent problems in the first place.

Bran has served in numerous formal and informal environmental negotiations as well as analyzing and commenting in the administrative process on rulemaking and implementation pertaining to environmental laws. This included a novel study of ozone trends in Rhode Island: Jumping to Inconclusions pertaining to the implementation of the previous State Implementation Plan for conformance with the Clean Air Act and its 1990 amendments recently updated on its tenth anniversary. He was extensively involved in comments and research surrounding the setting of the ozone and small particulate standards a decade ago and was the co-author of a brief for the U.S. Supreme Court in the resulting.

Born and raised in the Elmhurst section of Providence, Father Capoverdi is a graduate of LaSalle Academy and Rhode Island College, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics. He attended seminary at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he studied Theology and obtained a Masters of Divinity degree in 1996. Before entering the seminary, Father Capoverdi worked as an assistant to the Rhode Island State Legislature as a page to the House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987 and as an Administrative Assistant for two Mayors of Providence from 1987 to 1991.
 
Father Capoverdi was ordained a priest in 1997 and is currently the assistant pastor of St. Joan of Arc Church in Cumberland, RI. He is also a director with the Washington, D.C. based "Pro-Life Action Center" and hosts a national weekly Internet radio show at www.nationalproliferadio.com called "Keeping The Faith."

William Felkner first gained national attention as a conservative student in a progressive community organizing school and went on to become the founder of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute,Rhode Islands free market think tank, and serves as its Director of Policy and Organizing.. He is the chair of the Center-Right Coalition meeting held monthly by the Institute and president of the Rhode Island Association of Scholars. Mr. Felkner also helped created the online investigative news site, The Hummel Report. He was a board member for Heritage of Rhode Island, and member of the Chariho Regional School Committee and the Hopkinton Town Council.

In 1999 Mr. Felkner left a 15 year career, that culminated with a patented product on the shelve of Wal-Mart, to acquire a Batchelor's degree in Psychology summa cum laude from Rhode Island College. He then went on to a Master's Degree in a study of policy advocacy and grassroot organizing, traditionally known as Community Organizing. During that time Mr. Felkner conducted research as an intern in Governor Carcieri's policy office developing recommendations which, during OSPRI's first year of operation, became law of the land and the reason Rhode Island has reduced its welfare dependency at a greater rate than any other state since 2007. Mr. Felkner's unique combination of experience in marketing and political organizing brings a pragmatic and effective direction to the Institute.

A retired businessman, Thomas Linehan writes on the impact of public policy on small business.

Linehan spent his early career with Creamer Dickson Basford, the national public relations firm, from 1974 to 1993 becoming an executive vice president. He worked on behalf of corporate clients throughout New England assisting their communications, marketing, and investor relations.

In 1993, he bought a majority interest in a small manufacturing firm located in an historic mill in Thompson, CT. He managed and grew the business, selling it in 2000 intending to retire early. Within eighteen months, Linehan recognized that early retirement had been ill-considered. He took a position in 2001 handling environmental, health, and safety compliance for three manufacturing businesses in Providence and Cranston. He retired from this position in 2009.

Mr. Linehan earned a BA in History and Economics from Rockford College and holds an MBA from Bryant University.

Ken Malloy was formerly the CEO of the Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets (CAEM), which he founded in 1999. CAEM promoted competition in electricity markets. Ken was named by Public Utilities Fortnightly as one of five “Energy Innovators: Ringing in an Age of Enlightenment.”

He is internationally recognized as a bold visionary on energy policy and competitive markets, having been featured on CNN, PBS’s Nightly Business Report, Time Magazine, MSNBC, Business Week, US News and World Report, National Public Radio, National Review, the Washington Post, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. He has given 600+ energetic, provocative, and entertaining presentations over the last two decades to every sector of the energy industry, including the US Senate and House and numerous state commissions. 

He was the U.S. Department of Energy’s lead career official on policies relating to competition, regulatory reform, and industry restructuring over three Administrations (1987 to 1996). A lawyer by training, he has held positions in the areas of natural gas, electricity and oil policy. 

He was Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the Illinois Commerce Commission, Director and Assistant Director of the predecessor of FERC's Office of Economic Policy, and staff attorney in FERC's Office of General Counsel. During his FERC and DOE tenure, he worked on regulations that encouraged a revolution in policies relating to natural gas markets. One high point was his advocacy of a controversial interpretation of the Natural Gas Policy Act, which was reversed by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals but upheld by a unanimous US Supreme Court.

Prior to FERC, Ken was a law professor at Western New England College School of Law, teaching in the area of federal economic regulation of industry.

Ken graduated with honors from Boston College Law School in 1978, where he was an author and editor of the Boston College Law Review.

Scott Moody has worked as a Tax Policy Economist for over 12 years. He is the author, co-author and editor of over 100 studies and books. He has testified twice before the House Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. Congress. He has been interviewed by countless newspapers and radio and television stations.

His work has appeared in Forbes, CNN Money, State Tax Notes, The New York Sun, Portland Press Herald, Hartford Courant, The Oklahoman and Albuquerque Journal. Mr. Moody is currently on the Board of Directors of The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER, formerly ACCRA) and on the editorial board of the Journal for Applied Research in Economic Development co-published by the University of Southern Mississippi and C2ER.

Scott received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wingate University (Wingate, N.C.). He received his Master of Arts in Economics from George Mason University (Fairfax, VA).

Mr. Moody resides with his wife and four children in Haverhill, New Hampshire where he no longer deals with the hassles of a state or local income tax, state or local sales tax or local zoning ordinances.

Major policy contributions include: Developed policy program for SPN think tank as former Vice President of Policy. Developed the Tax Foundation’s first Federal Individual Income Tax Micro-Simulation Model. Developed framework for state-level Individual Income Tax Micro-Simulation Models. Co-developer of the Tax Foundation’s “State Business Tax Climate Index.” Operationalized the Tax Foundation’s statistically matched database between IRS and CPS data—results published in the “Putting a Face on America’s Tax Returns” report series. Author of the Tax Foundation’s “Tax Freedom Day” for five years. Editor of the Tax Foundation’s “Facts and Figures on Government Finance” for four years. biography in Staff section below.

Steve Moses has directed numerous national and state-level studies for the federal government, state governments, and private think tanks on Medicaid nursing home eligibility, asset transfers, estate recoveries and long-term care financing.

Mr. Moses influenced the content and passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which discouraged Medicaid planning abuses and unleashed the LTC Partnership programs. He is credited with having “forged the framework” for the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which closed many Medicaid eligibility loopholes.

Moses has testified before Congress and most of America’s state legislatures. He frequently addresses professional conferences in the fields of law, aging and insurance. His recommendations are quoted often in the national media including the “CBS Evening News,” PBS’s “Frontline” and “The Financial Advisors,” CNN, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, USA Today, Forbes, The New Republic, Smart Money, National Journal, and Jane Bryant Quinn’s syndicated column. He appeared in a public television documentary titled “The Aging of America: The Dilemma of Long-Term Care.”

Senior Market Advisor magazine put Steve Moses in its top-ten LTC insurance "Power List" and his picture on its cover. McKnight’s Long-Term Care NEWS said Moses is “one of the 100 most influential people in long-term care.” Nursing Homes magazine reported “there is probably no more articulate spokesperson for privately financed long term care than Stephen Moses.”

Mr. Moses’ articles have appeared often in distinguished publications like The Gerontologist, The Journal of Accountancy, The Journal of Financial Planning, Contemporary Long-Term Care, Best’s Review, National Underwriter, Assisted Living Today and Nursing Homes magazine. He is the author of chapters in several books including “Health and Long-Term Care Insurance” in Clark Boardman Callaghan’s legal treatise Advising the Elderly Client, the chapter on long-term care financing in "Age Wave" author Ken Dychtwald's Toward Healthy Aging anthology, and a critique of the long-term care partnerships in a volume which reviews that program. He is also the author of Aging America's Achilles' Heel: Medicaid Long-Term Care which was published for the Cato Institute.

Moses received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Highest Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, at the University of California, Davis (1967) and his Master of Arts in Political Science, High Honors, at the University of Maryland, College Park (1971).

Sean was previously vice president for external affairs at The Heartland Institute, a free market think tank in Chicago. His primary responsibility for Heartland was fundraising. At Heartland, Sean also spent time researching, writing, and speaking on public policy issues - specifically health care reform. He wrote Congressional testimony and numerous articles and op-eds. He also authored two research papers for the Texas Public Policy Foundation and briefed public officials and trade groups on policy issues. Prior to joining Heartland, Sean worked on political campaigns in Iowa. He managed a successful congressional campaign and served as finance director for a U.S. Senate race. Sean received an economics degree from Drake University and is currently the president of the Center for Competitive Politics.