Programs

Christian Flores is a joint JD and master in public affairs candidate at Harvard Law School and Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where he works as a graduate research associate at the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance. Flores was previously an economist with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, prior to which he served as a special adviser to the chief economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where he managed industrial strategy and macroeconomic initiatives.

Erin Lockwood is an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine, where she has taught since 2017. Her work focuses on global financial markets and the international political economy of inequality.

Ethan Struby is an assistant professor of economics at Carleton College, where he has taught since 2017. His research spans macroeconomics and monetary economics, with a focus on macrofinance, Treasury markets, and applied macroeconometrics. He received his PhD in economics from Boston College, where his dissertation examined the role of information in macroeconomics and finance.

Tyler Bond is a senior fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance. He previously served as the research director at the National Institute on Retirement Security and as program manager at the National Public Pension Coalition. Bond has more than a decade of experience directing national research efforts and a proven track record of translating complex social policy evidence into action for policymakers, advocates, and the public.

Jonathan Schwabish is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and founder of PolicyViz, a firm specializing in data visualization and presentation skills. At Urban, he works as a researcher in the Tax and Income Supports Division and works on data visualization on the Communication team. His research focuses on nutrition and disability policy, and he is widely recognized for advancing accessible and effective policy communication. Schwabish earned a PhD and MA in economics from Syracuse University and an MA in economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Lena Simet is a senior advisor on social and economic policy at Human Rights Watch, where she leads work on social security and broader social protection systems. With more than 15 years of experience, she researches benefit adequacy, gender disparities in lifetime earnings, and the financing of social protection in the context of labor market transformation and inequality. She has authored numerous reports on retirement insecurity and labor precarity, and regularly consults on economic policy and global poverty reduction. She has a PhD in public and urban policy from The New School.

Nicole Adrian is a doctoral candidate in history at University of Pennsylvania, where she studies twentieth-century U.S. political economy. Her dissertation examines how federal agricultural credit programs and farm debt reshaped inequality, land ownership, cooperative finance, and environmental outcomes across the twentieth century. By tracing the institutional and financial foundations of modern agriculture, her work illuminates the long-term consequences of public policy for rural communities and ecological systems.

Nicole is committed to understanding how historical policy decisions structure present-day inequalities. Before beginning her Ph.D., she worked for the Wisconsin state government and later served as a public sector consultant to the U.S. federal government.

Sarah Hastings is a Ph.D. student in History at Boston University studying early twentieth-century agriculture and forestry in the United States, with research examining how natural resource use and economic power shaped land-use governance and environmental policy. Her work draws on years of professional experience working alongside ecologists, as well as in housing policy and farming, combining historical analysis with on-the-ground knowledge of environmental governance and rural landscapes. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Sarah contributed to interdisciplinary work on environmental inequity, zoning law, and historical geography.

Alongside her research, Sarah has spent more than a decade working in agriculture, managing farms, coordinating community-supported agriculture programs, and leading food-access initiatives across Massachusetts. Her work is driven by a commitment to understanding how historical decisions shape contemporary environmental outcomes and by a belief that effective policy must be grounded in lived experience as well as rigorous research.

Charly Carter is a seasoned political strategist, advocate, and organizer with nearly three decades of experience driving change at the local, state, and national levels. A fierce advocate for democracy and economic advancement, Carter has dedicated her career to uplifting working families and communities of color. In 2018, Carter founded Step Up Maryland and Step Up to Lead, civics literacy and leadership development organizations.

Wisdom O. Cole serves as the Senior National Director of Advocacy for the NAACP, leading efforts to advance civil rights through strategic campaigns, youth leadership development, and grassroots organizing. Previously, as National Director for the NAACP Youth & College Division, he oversaw over 700 youth councils and chapters nationwide, championing initiatives to empower young Black leaders in the fight for justice.

Mara Heneghan is Associate Director of the Health and Political Economy Project at the New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, where she supports policy and programs to build an economy that enables health and dignity for all. As a Reimagine America Fellow, Heneghan will focus on elevating health as a pillar of a more just economic paradigm and exploring local government’s role in doing so.

Luke Herrine is an Assistant Professor at Alabama Law. His research focuses on household debt and how law does (and does not) police asymmetries of power through market governance. His work has influenced policymakers at the Department of Education, the FTC, the CFPB, the USDA, and beyond. He is a co-founder of the Debt Collective and former Managing Editor of the Law and Political Economy Blog.

Reshma Ramachandran, MD, MPP, MHS is a family physician, health services researcher, and Assistant Professor within the Section of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Yale University. She has published several peer-reviewed research articles and commentaries on the realignment of incentives for healthcare stakeholders— including pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and universities towards prioritizing equitable patient access to safe, effective health technologies.

Rebecca Riddell is a human rights lawyer and the senior policy lead for economic and racial justice at Oxfam America. Riddell’s work focuses on addressing extreme inequality and advancing human rights and fiscal justice, in the US and globally

Alan Smith is the Manager of Community Leadership at Consumer Reports (CR), building consumer power by distributing leadership and investing in CR’s members as educators, organizers, storytellers and testers in their own right.

Alistair Stephenson is Chief Strategy and Impact Officer of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, an organization working to win respect, recognition, and rights for the estimated 2.2 million domestic workers living in the U.S. He is a strategist in social impact and builder of progressive institutions with extensive strategy, people operations and communications experience.