It was there that she met her husband, of 18 years Randy E. Hartnett ’74, who is an Internet entrepreneur.

The two live in Virginia with their 9-year-old son.

Mann says that she and her friends from WHRB would often go out for late-night “feeds” after the late news, around midnight.

“On occasion, this involved driving to Junior Cheesecake in New York City, or sometimes Provincetown, or depending on how late it was, to the North End to get fresh bread a Bova’s bakery,” she says.

Mann also fondly recalls her job working in the stacks of Widener Library.

“I had my own carrel on the side opposite J. August’s, two flights down,” she says. “I just loved being in the library.”

Mann, who concentrated in economics, was placed in Matthews South as a first-year, lived in Eliot House for two years and then spent one year in North House.

She says that two of her professors—Rachel McCulloch and Janet Yellen—are now her “close colleagues.”

“[Mann] is smart, assertive, energetic, organized and hard-working. Those are qualities that go far in determining professional success,” McCulloch, now a professor at Brandeis, says. “I also think she has been rather adventurous in following a career track that is not typical of MIT PhDs in economics.”

Mann says that she continues to reap the benefits of her Harvard education.

“The network and pedigree get more important later in life,” she says.

Taking Stock of Her Options

In addition to making and researching economic policy, Mann has made her mark on the academic community as a professor and author.

She has co-authored several books, including The New Economy and APEC and Global Electronic Commerce: A Policy Primer.