Roosevelt Institute Welcomes New Class of Think Tank Fellows

New York, NY—Today, the Roosevelt Institute announced its winter 2026 cohort of think tank fellows—a group of scholars, policymakers, and public intellectuals whose work collectively advances a democratic vision for the American economy. As part of the fellowship, this cohort becomes part of the broader Roosevelt Society, engaging with intergenerational, values-aligned leaders across policy, advocacy, and civic life. Over the course of their fellowships, the cohort will tackle pressing challenges—from financial regulation and taxation to labor protections and media policy—and develop solutions that confront the affordability crisis, defend democratic governance, and expand access to economic power and prosperity.

“As millions of Americans face rising costs for housing, health care, and basic necessities, we need economic thinking that confronts how power is concentrated in our markets and governing institutions,” said Hannah Groch-Begley, managing director of Roosevelt’s think tank. “These additional think tank fellows bring the rigor and imagination needed to advance policies that make the economy work for working people.”

Introducing the 2026 winter Roosevelt Institute think tank fellows:

Patrick Blanchfield is a journalist, critic, podcaster, and associate faculty member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research (BISR). He is a columnist at n+1 and a contributing editor at Parapraxis Magazine, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, The New Republic, Bookforum, Dissent, Foreign Policy, The Intercept, Business Insider, Foreign Policy, Esquire, and many other venues. Together with Abby Kluchin, he cohosts Ordinary Unhappiness, a podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. He holds a PhD in comparative literature from Emory University and an AB from Harvard College. He is also a graduate of the Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute’s four-year clinical training program.

Virginia Doellgast is the Anne Evans Estabrook professor of employment relations and dispute resolution in the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the comparative political economy of labor markets and labor unions, inequality, precarity, and democracy at work. She is currently studying the impact of digitalization and AI on job quality in the telecommunications and game development industries. She is author of Exit, Voice, and Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2022) and Disintegrating Democracy at Work (Cornell University Press, 2012), coeditor of International and Comparative Employment Relations (Sage, 2021) and Reconstructing Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2018), and coeditor of the ILR Review. Doellgast works with international universities and research institutes, policy organizations, and labor unions in her research, teaching, and outreach. She is a senior research fellow at the WSI-Hans Böckler Stiftung in Germany and was previously a faculty member at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at King’s College London in the UK. She was president of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) in 2024–25.

Andrew Elmore is a professor and Barreca Labor Relations Scholar at Boston University School of Law. His research focuses on the failure of the state to effectively regulate low-wage workplaces and the efforts of worker movements to generate new legal frameworks to protect workers’ rights and reduce bargaining power inequality. Before becoming a professor, Elmore practiced law for over a decade, beginning at the Legal Aid Society in New York City, where he developed an employment law practice representing immigrant, low-wage workers. Later, as a section chief in the New York Office of the Attorney General, he led and supervised investigations of systemic violations of employment and employment discrimination laws. Elmore holds a JD from UCLA and a BA from Swarthmore College.

Samarth Gupta most recently served at the US Department of the Treasury from 2022 to 2025, as a special assistant for Russia/Ukraine in the Office of Economic Policy, and as a policy advisor to the deputy secretary. Prior to joining the Treasury, he served at the Office of Management and Budget working under the chief economist to craft the president’s Billionaire Minimum Tax. He worked on the economic policy teams for the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign and transition. He holds an AB in economics from Harvard College where he was a Truman Scholar, an MPhil in comparative social policy from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a JD from Yale Law School. He was born in New Delhi and raised in Acton, Massachusetts.

Jeremy Kress is an associate professor of business law at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. His research focuses on bank regulation, systemic risk, and financial stability. Before entering academia, Kress was an attorney at the Federal Reserve Board, where he drafted rules to implement the Dodd-Frank Act and advised the board on the legal permissibility of bank mergers and acquisitions. In 2023, Kress served as counsel to the assistant attorney general for antitrust at the US Department of Justice, focusing on bank merger policy. Kress has testified before Congress and served as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Education and Industry Forum on Financial Services Culture. The Financial Times has recognized Kress’ work as “highly commended” academic research with real-world impact. Kress graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Presidential Scholar. He holds a BBA from Michigan Ross.

Zorka Milin is the policy director at the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, where she leads on international tax policy and other transparency priorities. She has testified on these issues before the US Senate and has been profiled in Forbes. She has also taught at Georgetown and Yale universities and practiced tax law with two major global law firms. Originally from Serbia, she holds degrees in international relations from Yale, international and comparative law from Cornell, and mathematics from Grinnell College.

Chastity C. Murphy is a policy strategist and technologist whose work spans AI governance, digital public money, financial privacy, and equitable financial infrastructure. She is a Leadership in Government Fellow at the Open Society Foundations, where she focuses on data surveillance, civil liberties, and inclusive digital payment rails. She also serves as a visiting research fellow at the University of Manchester’s Law & Technology Initiative, leading research on privacy-preserving digital payments and public financial infrastructure design. Murphy formerly served as senior advisor to the assistant secretary for financial institutions at the US Treasury, advancing policy across artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and digital assets, consumer protection, and financial inclusion. She played a central role in standing up Treasury’s Office of Racial Equity, led the department’s early work on digital benefit transfers, and contributed to shaping the American Rescue Plan, including the design of state and local fiscal recovery programs. Before joining Treasury, Murphy served as senior economic policy advisor to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, where she led legislative efforts on e-cash, stablecoins, digital assets, and financial reform, while driving agendas centered on racial equity and economic inclusion. Her earlier experience includes work with former Rep. and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge and policy analysis at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Her contributions to digital cash, AI-adjacent financial policy, and economic inclusion have been featured twice in Forbes (2020 and 2024). She has also been quoted in Politico and CoinDesk for her expertise on financial privacy, digital payments, and inclusive financial regulation. Murphy holds a BA in political science and economics from South Carolina State University. Across her portfolio, she champions a future where AI, finance, and public systems are designed with accountability, equity, and human dignity at the center.

Victor Pickard is the C. Edwin Baker professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, where he codirects the Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center. Before teaching at Penn, he taught at New York University and the University of Virginia and has held visiting appointments at Cornell, Goldsmiths, and the London School of Economics. Previously, he worked on media policy in Washington, DC, as a senior research fellow at New America and as a policy fellow for Rep. Diane Watson. Pickard chairs the Board of Directors for the media reform organization Free Press and codirects the annual Consortium on Media Policy Studies (COMPASS) program in Washington, DC. His research on the politics of media policy, the history and future of journalism, and the role of public media in a democratic society has been published in dozens of scholarly journals and anthologies, and he often writes op-eds and essays for popular venues such as The Guardian, the Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, Harvard Business Review, Jacobin, The Nation, and The Atlantic. He has been interviewed widely for media organizations such as NPR, Pacifica, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, C-SPAN, PBS News Hour, and the New York Times. Pickard has authored or edited six books, including the award-winning monographs Democracy Without Journalism? and America’s Battle for Media Democracy.

Anisha Steephen is a nationally recognized expert in domestic economic policy and mission-driven investing, with more than 15 years of experience advancing public policies to address structural inequality. They served as the first senior policy advisor for racial equity at the US Department of the Treasury under Secretary Janet Yellen, helping to ensure that the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act delivered benefits to economically underserved people, businesses, and regions. Their work examines how public investment and economic policy can expand opportunity and correct structural inequality, particularly in communities historically excluded from prosperity.

This exceptional class of fellows will build on more than 20 years of rigorous, people-centered Roosevelt Institute policy research surfacing bold ideas to ensure all Americans lead good lives.

“Across the country, families are paying more for the basics while too many markets and institutions are still designed to reward concentrated power and wealth,” said Suzanne Kahn, senior vice president of Roosevelt’s think tank. “These new think tank fellows bring the clarity and ambition we need to move beyond an outdated policy consensus and advance solutions that make the economy more democratic, accountable, and responsive to the challenges people face right now.”

About the Roosevelt Institute:

The Roosevelt Institute is a think tank and student network working to rebalance power in the economy and democracy. As the nonprofit partner to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, we carry forward the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by producing ideas that shape public debate and investing in the next generation of leaders. In 2026, through our good life agenda, the think tank will develop research and policy solutions on corporate and public power, labor and wages, and the economics of race and gender inequality. The Roosevelt Society (TRS) advances this work by bringing together the people behind these ideas—researchers, organizers, policymakers, and practitioners—to learn from one another and put them into action. TRS is an intergenerational community of more than 2,000 members, including Roosevelt Institute think tank fellows, working across sectors to drive change.