Tamar Jacoby is president and CEO of ImmigrationWorks USA, a national federation of employers working to advance better immigration law. She’s a widely-read journalist and author, and the leading center-right advocate for immigration reform. Find out more about her below.

Q. What is your favorite word?

A. Thoughtful.

Q. What inspires you?

A. Something hard.

Q. What is your favorite way to procrastinate?

A. Read the newspaper.

Q. What music have you heard today?

A. They were playing “The Magic Flute” on the radio in the taxi.

Q. What is your favorite cocktail?

A. Grey goose, light rocks.

Q. If you could live in any other time, when would it be and why?

A. It’s hard to answer as a woman, because the times were such. But the middle of the Enlightenment, or the American Revolution, or ancient Athens would be fun.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?

A. Travel.

Q. If you could make only one more journey, where would you go?

A. I’m dying to go to India.

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A. A writer.

Q. What teacher or professor changed your life?

A. My high school history teacher.

*Photo by Allison Glenn.