John C. Weicher is Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Weicher on May 1, 2001, and the U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment on May 24, 2001. On June 1, 2001, Dr. Weicher was sworn in by HUD Secretary Mel Martinez. Prior to this appointment, he was Director of Urban Policy Studies at the Hudson Institute.

Dr. Weicher held policy positions at HUD in two previous administrations. He was Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research under Secretary Jack Kemp in the administration of President George H.W. Bush and Chief Economist for Secretary Carla Hills in the administration of President Gerald Ford. Dr. Weicher also served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for Director James C. Miller III in the administration of President Ronald Reagan.

Congress appointed Dr. Weicher to the Millennial Housing Commission in September 2000. He participated in three previous housing commissions, including the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing in 1990-1991, the President's Commission on Housing in 1981 and the National Housing Policy Review in 1973.

At the Hudson Institute, Dr. Weicher directed the Michigan Urban Policy Initiative, creating a state framework to promote urban homeownership, which was enacted with overwhelming bipartisan support in the legislature and signed by Governor John Engler in July 1999. He was also a senior participant in Hudson's Wisconsin Welfare Reform Project, working with the state to create Wisconsin's pioneering welfare reform program, Wisconsin Works (W-2), which was enacted in 1996.

Dr. Weicher holds an A.B. from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. He is the author of 12 books and numerous scholarly and popular articles on housing and urban issues. He was a professor of economics at The Ohio State University. He held the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Chair in Public Policy Research at the American Enterprise Institute and was Director of the Housing Markets Division at the Urban Institute. Dr. Weicher served as President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, the major academic organization for real estate economists; in 1993 he received the Association's award for career achievement. He was a member of the Committee on Urban Policy of the National Academy of Sciences and the Advisory Committee on Population Statistics of the U.S. Census Bureau.

A native of Chicago, Dr. Weicher now lives in Washington, D.C. He is married and the father of two children.