Annette Nellen is a professor in the department of accounting and finance at San José State University, where she teaches graduate-level tax courses. She speaks and writes frequently on tax policy matters, tax reform, tax accounting, and high-technology tax issues. In 2000, she served on the academic panel that advised the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation for the tax law simplification study submitted to Congress in 2001, which included her paper on simplifying the earned income tax credit. In 2003, she provided technical and drafting assistance to the California Commission on Tax Policy in the New Economy. Ms. Nellen is a graduate of California State University-Northridge, Pepperdine University, and Loyola Law School. During her term as a California-based Fellow at the New America Foundation, Ms. Nellen explored where and why problems exist in our tax systems—at all levels, but with an emphasis on the California tax system. Her fellowship concluded in the summer of 2008.