Diane Bast

Diane Bast is Executive Editor of the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think tank with more than 1,600 individual, corporate, and foundation donors.

Bast is responsible for Heartland’s serial publications—Budget & Tax News, Environment & Climate News, Health Care News, InfoTech & Telecom News, School Reform News,The Heartlander, and Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly. She also edits and oversees the production of all books, policy studies, newsletters, and other publications produced by Heartland.

Bast has edited or written more than 120 studies and 15 books on state and local public policy, including Why We Spend Too Much on Health Care (1993), Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism (1994), Antitrust after Microsoft: The Obsolescence of Antitrust in the Digital Era (2001), and Emerging Issues 2007 (2007).

Since September 1998, Bast has managed The Heartland Institute Web site, overseeing regular redesigns, improvements to its functionality, and marketing and optimization.

Bast is also Heartland’s bookkeeper, managing the organization’s $7.2 million budget, working with Heartland’s outside accountant on the annual audit, and helping to draft the organization’s annual budget. She is also Heartland's chief compliance officer.

Prior to joining The Heartland Institute in February 1987, Bast was coeditor of the bimonthly magazine Nomos. She received her Bachelor’s of Science degree in criminal justice and constitutional law from the University of Wisconsin. Her husband is Joseph Bast, president of Heartland.

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