Lael Brainard is the 14th Director of the National Economic Council. Prior to this role, she served as the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. She was also Vice President at the Brookings Institution. Brainard received her Masters and PhD in Economics from Harvard and was an Associate Professor of Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Alí R. Bustamante is the deputy director of the worker power and economic security program at Roosevelt, where he specializes on how public policy can structure markets around both economic and social value and empower Americans through the provision of public goods and stronger labor protections. Dr. Bustamante is an expert on labor, economics, and public policy and a native Spanish speaker. His research and analysis have been featured on The New York Times, USA Today, NPR, CNN, Forbes, Charities USA, and other media outlets.

Prior to joining Roosevelt, he served as chief economist at the Louisiana Workforce Commission, senior research associate at the Southern Economic Advancement Project, and as faculty at Florida International University, the University of New Orleans, and Loyola University New Orleans. Dr. Bustamante earned a BA and PhD from the University of Miami, specializing in political economy. Born in Masaya, Nicaragua and raised in Miami, he now lives in New Orleans.

Elisabeth Jacobs is a senior fellow in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute, focusing on issues related to family economic security and economic mobility. Her previous roles include founding senior director at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, fellow at the Brookings Institution, and senior policy adviser positions with the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the US Joint Economic Committee. Jacobs is a nationally recognized expert on family income and earnings instability, low-wage employment and job quality, and intergenerational mobility and opportunity, as well as a wide range of related policies including social insurance, labor market regulations, and safety net policies. She is a go-to source for media and policymakers looking for clear, concise, and relevant explanations of how research can inform policy debates and agenda setting. Jacobs is an elected member of the National Academy for Social Insurance and a founding member of the American Enterprise Institute–Brookings Paid Family Leave Working Group.

Jacobs holds a BA from Yale University, where she served on the board of trustees for the Dwight Hall Center for Public Service and Social Justice, and a PhD from Harvard University, where she was a fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy.

Madeline Janis is the co-founder and executive director of Jobs to Move America. For over 35 years, Madeline has been on the inside and outside of local and state government, working to create high road, equitable economic development, and strong industrial policy. She serves as an appointee of Speaker Robert Rivas to the California Competes Tax Credit Committee, which awards tens of millions in state tax credits to California businesses each year. Madeline has written opinion pieces for a variety of publications including Forbes.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Huffington Post and has been cited as an expert in dozens of publications across the country. She has extensive experience leading nonprofits, working on urban economic and industrial development, women’s rights, immigrant rights, and racial justice. She helped to negotiate the first community benefits agreements in the U.S. and co-authored a book on the subject. Madeline was previously the founding executive director of the non-profit the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which she led from 1993 to 2012. Madeline also served as a commissioner on the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency from 2002 until 2012. She has received many honors, including being a Durfee Foundation Stanton Fellow (2014-15), a Senior Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, the recipient of the UCLA Law School’s Antonia Hernandez Public Interest Award, and commendations from the Los Angeles City Council and the California Assembly and Senate. She received degrees from UCLA Law School and Amherst College in Massachusetts and was granted an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Amherst College in 2013. She is also the proud mother of 3 children and 2 stepchildren and happily married to fellow activist and non-profit leader, Donald Cohen.

Davante Lewis, born and raised in Lake Charles, LA, is a social justice activist who has dedicated his life to building people power throughout civic participation. Davante graduated from McNeese State University with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Communications. 

Taking his advocacy beyond the classroom, Davante joined the Louisiana Budget Project as Director of Public Affairs and Outreach, where he focuses on higher education policy, consumer protection policies, monitoring legislative developments and working with advocacy groups and coalition partners to forge a common agenda and action plan for advancing policies that benefit Louisianans with low and moderate incomes. At LBP, Davante has become a leading voice in Louisiana for economic and racial justice, consumer protections, equity in education, and financial aid & student loans reforms for students. 

Davante was elected in 2022 to serve as Public Service Commissioner for Louisiana’s Third District, representing constituents from 10 Louisiana parishes, including the Baton Rouge and New Orleans greater metropolitan areas. He resides in Baton Rouge with his beloved dog Sera Harper.

Josh Eidelson covers the workplace for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek, where his work has exposed government choices that narrowed workers’ rights, corporate practices that exacerbated the Covid-19 pandemic, and labor leaders’ sexual misconduct. His work is frequently cited by lawmakers and scholars, and has been honored by groups including UCLA Anderson’s Loeb Foundation; the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW); the Sidney Hillman Foundation; the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA); the New York Labor History Association; the San Francisco Press Club; and the Northern California, Western Washington, and New York chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists.