On October 9th, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala met with a group of graduate students to share her experiences working in the Clinton White House, as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, and as the President of the Clinton Foundation. During a lively rountable discussion, students learned about the ways is which empirical evidene is -- and is not -- used in the policy process. At the end of our hour together, Secretary Shalala encouraged us all to read An American Sickness, by Elisabeth Rosenthal. The New York Times Book Review calls this "[an] important book. . . . Rosenthal told an interviewer her goal was to “start a very loud conversation” that will be 'difficult politically to ignore.' We need such a conversation – not just about how the market fails, but about how we can change the political realities that stand in the way of fixing it.”