Team / Advisory Council

Spotlight is managed in partnership with Freedman Consulting, LLC and The Hatcher Group. For general and/or media inquiries, please contact Adam Bradley at adam@thehatchergroup.com. To submit a commentary, please contact Luke Freedman at commentary@spotlightonpoverty.org.

Spotlight Advisory Council Members

Spotlight is advised by a bi-partisan group of stakeholders from the research, advocacy, philanthropy, policymaking and journalism communities, including:

  • Melissa Boteach, Poverty to Prosperity Program, Center for American Progress
  • Camille Busette, The Brookings Institution
  • John Carr, Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, Georgetown University
  • Garnesha Crawford, Oath
  • Sean Gibbons, Communications Network
  • Tamar Jacoby, Opportunity America
  • Andrea Levere, Prosperity Now
  • Angela Rachidi, Mathematica Policy Research
  • Monique Rizer, Urban Alliance D.C.
  • Mark Rodgers, The Clapham Group
  • David Rousseau, Kaiser Family Foundation
  • Doug Steiger, Concordis: Strategy and Analytics

Former Advisory Council Members

In 2007, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity launched with a focus on asking presidential candidates what they would do about reducing poverty and promoting opportunity. This effort was supported by a bipartisan Advisory Council of respected and distinguished national figures that endorsed Spotlight’s call for a substantive debate on poverty. We thank those original Advisory Council members for their support in establishing Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. Former Advisory Council members include:

Rebecca M. Blank:
Under Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Department of Commerce; former Robert S. Kerr senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and former co-director of the National Poverty Center and dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan

Geoffrey Canada:
Author and CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone

William S. Cohen:
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Cohen Group and former Secretary of Defense and Senator

Michael Gerson:
Op-ed Columnist, The Washington Post, and former top Policy Aide and Speechwriter to President George W. Bush

Mark Greenberg:
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; former Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; and Director, Georgetown University Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy

Ron Haskins:
Senior Scholar and Co-director, Center on Children and Families, the Brookings Institution, former Staff Director, Subcommittee on Human Resources, House Ways and Means Committee and former Special Advisor to the President

Nancy L. Johnson:
Senior Public Policy Advisor, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell and Berkowitz, PC and former Member of Congress

Otis Johnson:
Former Mayor of Savannah, Georgia

Jack Kemp (1935-2009):
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Representative, Vice Presidential Candidate, and Founding Chairman of Kemp Partners

George Mitchell:
Partner, DLA Piper, Chairman of the Global Board and Co-Chair of the Government Controversies Practice Group and former U. S. Senator

Hilary Pennington:
Vice President, Education, Creativity and Free Expression, Ford Foundation

Jeanne Shaheen:
U.S. Senator and former Governor of New Hampshire

E. Clay Shaw Jr.:
Former Member of Congress

Wellington E. Webb:
Founder, Webb Group International, and Managing Director, Webb Development Group and former Mayor of Denver, Colorado

Affiliations listed for identification purposes only.