Robert “Bob” Borosage is the founder and president of the Institute for America’s Future and co-director of its sister organization, the Campaign for America’s Future. The organizations were launched by 100 prominent Americans to develop the policies and issue campaigns to help forge an enduring majority for progressive change in America. Mr. Borosage writes regularly on political, economic and national security issues. He is a contributing editor at The Nation magazine, and a regular blogger on the Huffington Post. His articles have appeared in the American Prospect, Washington Post, New York Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer. He edits the Campaign’s “Making Sense” issue guides, and is co-editor of Taking Back America (with Katrina Vanden Huevel) and The Next Agenda (with Roger Hickey).
Jim Carr is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a housing finance, banking, and urban policy consultant. He is also a distinguished scholar with The Opportunity Agenda. Previously, he served as chief business officer for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition where he launched and managed minority- and women-owned business centers that assisted their clients to access more than $1.8 billion in capital and $350 million in federal contracts during his tenure. Jim also served as senior vice president for financial innovation, planning, and research for the Fannie Mae Foundation; vice president for housing research at Fannie Mae; assistant director for tax policy and federal credit with the U.S. Senate Budget Committee; and research associate at the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University. Mr. Carr has served as a visiting professor at Columbia University, an executive committee member of Americans for Financial Reform, and on research advisory boards at Harvard University, University of California-Berkeley, and University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Carr has been an advisor to the OECD Urban Affairs Project Group in Paris, France, and has consulted on financial modernization and housing finance to China, Mexico, Turkey, and South Africa. He has testified on numerous occasions before Congress and has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Fox News, and PBS, as well as a variety of radio networks across the nation including NPR. Mr. Carr holds a bachelor of architecture degree with honors from Hampton University, a master of urban planning degree from Columbia University, and a master of city and regional planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Through research, teaching, and public service, Dr. Estes has devoted her career to improving the health and economic security of vulnerable and underserved populations, with special attention to women, older persons, and minorities. She is a leading scholar and educator in policy on aging, geriatrics, Social Security, Medicare, and long term care. Dr. Estes is engaged in research, writing, and post-doctoral training at the UCSF Institute for Health & Aging, which she founded in 1985. She has chaired and served as professor in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing. She has authored, co-authored, and co-edited more than 20 books. Her co-edited texts, including The Nation’s Health and Health Policy, have been adopted in 400 Schools of Medicine and Nursing. Dr. Estes received UCSF’s highest research awards and those of multiple professional societies including the American Public Health Association and The Gerontological Society of America. A distinguished scholar at the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne in Paris, Dr. Estes received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. from Southern Methodist University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, She has received an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from the Russell Sage College.
Dr. Abreu-Hernandez currently serves as the director of research and development of programs for the 1199SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Training & Upgrading Fund in New York City. Prior to this position, she was the executive director of the Puerto Rico Council on Higher Education (PRCHE), the governmental agency in charge of developing higher education policy on the Island. In this position, she issued licenses to higher education institutions to operate as such, developed research about relevant issues in higher education, and developed initiatives to improve the performance of higher education institutions to achieve better student success. She also served as the associate director of the Division of Licensing and Accreditation, a position that focused on the quality, access, affordability, and accountability of higher education in Puerto Rico and the United States, without overlooking the diverse developments and changes in education in Europe and Latin America.
Andricus Hutcherson is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Social Work at Indiana University. Prior to returning to academia, Mr. Hutcherson served at the Associate Director of Research and Planning at Chicago’s Kennedy-King College where he led the accreditation efforts and quality improvement initiatives for the college. Prior to that, he worked as the Development Coordinator at the Global Center for International Development at the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSP) where he supported the efforts of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to solve economic, social, and environmental problems in developing countries. Mr. Hutcherson has also served as a strategic planner at the Illinois Department of Employment Security where he developed policies to support the implementation of workforce development programs. A consummate program manager, Mr. Hutcherson fostered partnerships with nongovernmental organizations, private-sector companies, government agencies, and other groups to cultivate involvement in international development projects. His other experiences—as a legislative aide for U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and a research analyst in the World Bank’s urban development division—furthered his interest in community development and led him ultimately to international development.
Dr. Kilolo Kijakazi is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and a former program officer in the Financial Assets and Economic Security Unit of the Asset Building and Community Development Program at the Ford Foundation. In her role at the foundation, Dr. Kijakazi focused on the “Building Economic Security Over a Lifetime” initiative, which promotes public support for the creation of universal savings accounts from birth through retirement, and Social Security reform that improves benefits for low-wage workers. This approach incorporates the expertise of people of color into all aspects of the work, including research, policy, and practice. Before joining the Ford Foundation in 2003, Dr. Kijakazi was a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where she specialized in Social Security. She wrote and presented research and policy papers, testified before Congress, and served as a panelist at the White House Conference on Social Security during the Clinton Administration. She previously worked as a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, where she designed and monitored evaluations of the Food Stamp Program and demonstrations of noncustodial parent programs. She also worked at the National Urban League’s Washington, DC office as a policy analyst where she focused on welfare reform, employment and education. Dr. Kijakazi received a Ph.D. in public policy from George Washington University, and her dissertation was published as the book African-American Economic Development and Small Business Ownership (Garland, 1997). She also holds an M.S.W. with a specialty in community development from Howard University, and a B.A. from Binghamton University.
Dr. Maya Rockeymoore is the founder and president of Global Policy Solutions, a Washington, DC-based policy firm dedicated to making policy work for people and their environments. A former Adjunct Professor in the Women in Politics Institute at American University, Dr. Rockeymoore has also served as the Vice President of Research and Programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), Senior Resident Scholar at the National Urban League, Chief Of Staff to Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), Professional Staff on the House Ways and Means Committee, and as a CBCF Legislative Fellow in the office of Congressman Melvin Watt (D-NC) among other positions. Dr. Rockeymoore’s areas of expertise include health, social insurance, income security, education, women’s issues and youth civic participation. She is the author of The Political Action Handbook: A How to Guide for the Hip-Hop Generation and co-editor of Strengthening Community: Social Insurance in a Diverse America among many other articles and chapters. Dr. Rockeymoore serves on the boards of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the National Association of Counties Financial Service Corporation, and the Campaign for America’s Future. She is also a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.
