Romina Boccia

Romina Boccia, a leading fiscal and economic expert at The Heritage Foundation, focuses on government spending and the national debt. She is Heritage’s Grover M. Hermann research fellow in federal budgetary affairs and deputy director of the think tank’s Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. 

Boccia’s research and writing centers on controlling government spending and waste, eliminating corporate welfare and reforming Social Security.

She frequently is invited to speak in front of a variety of audiences, having made a name for herself as an energetic speaker who conveys complex, number-heavy subjects in an engaging style. She has been introduced more than once as “an economist who speaks English.”

Boccia often advises members of Congress and their staffs on fiscal policy issues, and has testified before congressional committees.

Boccia is widely published and quoted in newspapers, magazines and digital outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Washington Times, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Signal, the German publication Die Welt and The National Interest, among others. She is a regular guest expert on national and international television, including Fox News, NBC, PBS and SkyNews.

Since joining Heritage in 2011 as a research coordinator, Boccia has risen briskly through the research and management ranks of the think tank, widely considered to be one of the world’s most influential public policy research organizations.  

Before assuming the role of deputy director of the Roe Institute, Heritage’s economic policy shop, Boccia was its assistant director and then research manager. Her own research on fiscal and economic issues catapulted her from senior policy analyst to research fellow.

She previously was a policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum, covering regulatory issues involving labor, the Internet and energy policy. She also was a fellow in the “Writing Across the Curriculum” program of the Writing Center at George Mason University, rated one of the top 20 such programs in America.

Boccia received her master’s degree in economics from George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Va. She also holds a bachelor of science degree in economics from GMU, with a concentration in data analysis.

Boccia serves on the Foundation for Economic Education Alumni Board and is a founding member and former president of Liberty Toastmasters.

Originally from Augsburg, Germany, Boccia currently resides with her husband in Clinton, Md. In her spare time, she is an avid hiker and rock climber.

Episode Appearances