For more information on how to contact Demos fellows, please click here.
Fellows
David Callahan
Demos Co-Founder & Senior Fellow
David Callahan is author of seven books, including The Moral Center (Hartcourt), published in 2006, which examines some of our most polarized conflicts and presents unexpected solutions that lay out a new road map to the American center (Learn more about the book.) His previous book, The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead looks at ethics in America in an era of rising inequality, growing bottom-line pressures, and changing values. (Learn more about the book.) David's articles have been published in such places as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The American Prospect. He is also a regular commentator for Marketplace and a frequent public speaker. At Demos, which he co-founded in 1999, David is involved in developing several new projects and also works in the Fellows Program. He has also written Demos reports on election reform, poverty, and economic opportunity. David received his B.A. at Hampshire College and his Ph.D in Politics at Princeton University.
Sasha Abramsky
Senior Fellow
Sasha is a freelance magazine and newspaper op-ed writer and book author. His most recent book American Furies: Crime, Punishment and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment was published by Beacon Press in 2007. Earlier books include Hard Time Blues, published by St. Martin's Press in 2002 and Conned, published by the New Press in March 2006. His work has been published in the New York Times, L.A. Times, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, American Prospect, the Nation, Village Voice, Los Angeles Weekly, London Independent and many others. In 2002, he was a media fellow at the Center for Crime, Communities and Culture of the Open Society Institute. Sasha was born in England and grew up in London. He attended Balliol College, Oxford University where he earned a B.A. in politics, philosophy and economics. Sasha earned a Master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He currently lives in Sacramento, California with his wife and daughter.
Benjamin Barber
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Benjamin R. Barber, the internationally renowned political theorist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. As President of CivWorld (at Demos), the international NGO that sponsors Interdependence Day and the Paradigm Project, Barber was Walt Whitman Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University for 32 years, and then Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society at The University of Maryland. Dr. Barber brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, culture and education in America and abroad. He consults regularly with political and civic leaders in the United States and around the world, and for five years served as an informal consultant to President Bill Clinton.
Benjamin Barber's 17 books include the classic Strong Democracy (1984), reissued in 2004 in a twentieth anniversary edition; the recent international best-seller Jihad vs. McWorld (1995 with a post-9/11 edition in 2001, translated into twenty-seven languages) and Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, published in 2007 by W.W. Norton in the United States and in seven foreign editions. The paperback will be published in March 2008. Columbia University Press will also publish a new paperback edition of The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House in 2008.
Barber's honors include a knighthood (Palmes Academiques/Chevalier) from the French Government (2001), the Berlin Prize of the American Academy of Berlin (2001) and the John Dewey Award (2003). He has also been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Grinnell College, Monmouth University and Connecticut College, and has held the chair of American Civilization at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris.
Barber is a regular commentator for National Public Radio's Marketplace and his blog can be found on The Huffington Post. He has written for Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, The American Prospect, Le Nouvel Observateur, Die Zeit, La Repubblica, El Pais and many other scholarly and popular publications in America and abroad. He was a founding editor and for ten years editor-in-chief of the distinguished international quarterly Political Theory. He holds a certificate from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an M.A. and Doctorate from Harvard University.
Rich Benjamin
Senior Fellow
Rich Benjamin's background is in media, politics and academia. He has lectured on youth, media and American politics in the US and Europe. His social and political commentary is featured in newspapers nationwide, NPR, Fox Radio, the blogosphere, and many scholarly venues. This scholarship earned professional support from Brown University and the National Endowment for the Humanities. From 2001-2, he was Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Law School.
Rich's public service includes operating as a senior advisor to Why Tuesday?, a bi-partisan grassroots campaign to increase civic participation, chaired by Jack Kemp, Bill Bradley, and Andrew Young. He also serves on the Advisory Board of The Roosevelt Institution.
Rich holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, a professional certificate from the New York Film Academy, and a PhD from Stanford University.
He is currently working on a book about boomtowns and exurbs to be published by Hyperion Books.
Shari Cohen
Senior Fellow
Shari Cohen writes about leadership and social innovation. She is working on a book that shines the spotlight on the need to shift our culture of public policy problem-solving, which she argues is stuck--in short term thinking, polarization, and other dysfunctions--whether with respect to healthcare, climate change, or national security. Her first book, Politics Without a Past (Duke University Press, 1999) is about leadership and civil society in post-communist political transitions. She has also written on long term thinking, social problem solving, and public scholarship for publications such as the Boston Globe and the Forward.
At Demos, she is working on a project on the long term future of social provision, and has consulted on a variety of other projects including developing the fellows program. She has also consulted for the World Bank, Carnegie Corporation, Charney Research, and SHARE doing scenario planning, leadership development and policy analysis. She was the founding director of the Jewish Public Forum, the think tank wing of CLAL (National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership), a leadership training institute where she built an interdisciplinary seminar and research program on the future of religion, ethnicity, civic engagement and social change.
She has a BA from Cornell University, a PhD in political science from University of California, Berkeley and was an assistant professor of political science at Wellesley College.
Jonathan Cohn
Senior Fellow
Jonathan Cohn is a senior editor at The New Republic, where he has been since 1997 and served previously as executive editor. Jonathan's writing on domestic policy and politics--particularly health care--have appeared in the Boston Globe, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Washington Monthly, and the Washington Post. His book on the U.S. health care system, Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis, will be published by HarperCollins in 2007. Prior to joining The New Republic, he worked for The American Prospect, where he remains a contributing editor. He is also a former media fellow with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. A graduate of Harvard University, where he was president of the Harvard Crimson, Jonathan spent his summers writing local news articles for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Miami Herald. He now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife and two children.
Lew Daly
Senior Fellow
Lew Daly writes on religion, morality, and American political thought. Lew's first book, God and the Welfare State (Boston Review Books/The MIT Press, 2006), investigates the historical and philosophical lineage of "faith-based initiatives" in U.S. welfare policy, and was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, America, Public Justice Report, and elsewhere. Lew has published articles, reviews, and commentary in many publications, including The Boston Review, The Journal of Markets & Morality, Sightings, and Church & Society, and he has lectured widely on religion and American political development. He is currently completing two books, The Gift of the Past (with Gar Alperovitz), a study of distributive justice in the emerging knowledge economy, and Godless Economy (University of Chicago Press), a comparative study of religion, welfare governance, and theories of the state in the U.S. and Europe.
Prior to joining Demos, he was a fellow of the Schumann Center for Media & Democracy, where he worked closely with then-president Bill Moyers. He formerly worked as a research consultant with the Democracy Collaborative of the University of Maryland, and as a researcher and strategist on challenges from the religious right, conducting the first major studies of conservative renewal movements in the mainline Protestant churches. In the mid-1990s, he did pastoral work in a federal prison as well as community organizing. Lew holds degrees from Oberlin College (B.A.), Brown University (M.A.), Union Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and SUNY Buffalo (Ph.D.). Lew lives in upper Manhattan with his family.
Allison H. Fine
Senior Fellow
Allison Fine's work at Demos focuses on unleashing broad participation in our democracy. Her first book, Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, was published in Fall 2006 by Wiley & Sons. Allison's writing focuses on the use of social media, interactive digital tools, for positive social change. Social media enhances the connections between people and citizen self-organizing into strong communities. She is a frequent speaker and commentator and has been published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Foundation News & Commentary, been quoted in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, National Public Radio. Allison was the Founder of Innovation Network, Inc. (InnoNet) and served as Executive Director and President from 1992-2004. InnoNet is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping nonprofits better plan and evaluate their services and programs. Allison served as the C.E.O. of The E-Volve Foundation in 2004-2005. The mission of E-Volve is to support and promote open source technology efforts aimed at increasing citizen participation. Efforts including online voter registration websites and virtual phone banks.
Robert Frank
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Robert Frank's work with Demos focuses on the impact of economic inequality on American society. He is author of the forthcoming book, Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class, which will be published in July 2007 by UC Press. He is a monthly contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times. His eight previous books include Luxury Fever: Money and Happiness in an Age of Excess and The Winner-Take-All Society (with Philip J. Cook). His numerous articles have been published in both scholarly journals and leading opinion magazines. He is the H.J. Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. He holds a BS in mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MA in statistics from UC Berkeley and a PhD in economics, also from UC Berkeley.
Nicole Kazee
Fellow
Nicole Kazee is a PhD candidate in political science at Yale University. Her work largely focuses on the role of business in American social and economic policy. Her dissertation, entitled "Wal-Mart Welfare," examines the role of employers in state work support policies (including Medicaid/SCHIP, minimum wages, and earned income tax credits). The project aims to explain why state governments choose (or don't choose) particular antipoverty policies to support low-income workers, and to identify the conditions under which employers will shape these choices. Nicole is also a fellow at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Prior to joining Demos, Nicole was a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She holds a B.A. from Wake Forest University and an M.A. from Yale, both in political science.
Robert Kuttner
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. He writes regularly for the magazine on political and economic issues. Bob has just completed a book, to be published in 2007, on the connection between political and economic inequality and systemic risks facing the economy. He is pursuing these issues as a distinguished senior fellow at Demos. Bob is the author of six previous books: Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets (1997); The End of Laissez-Faire (1991); The Life of the Party (1987); The Economic Illusion (1984); Revolt of the Haves (1980); and Family Re-union (2002), co-authored with his late wife, Sharland Trotter. His syndicated weekly editorial column originates in The Boston Globe and appears Mondays on the Prospect website. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Dissent, and Harvard Business Review. He has been a John F. Kennedy Fellow at Harvard, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Radcliffe Public Policy Fellow.
Jim Lardner
Senior Fellow
James Lardner is the co-editor with Chuck Collins of Inequality.org, an online research center for journalists, teachers and concerned citizens. He is also co-editor and one of the authors of Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences. As a journalist, he has written for the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the Nation, and other publications. He is the author of Fast Forward: A Machine and the Commotion It Caused, and the co-author, with Thomas Reppetto, of NYPD: A City and Its Police.
Lorraine C. Minnite
Senior Fellow
Lorraine C. Minnite has taught American and urban politics at Barnard College since 2000. Prior to that she was the Associate Director of the Center for Urban Research and Policy at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Her research is concerned with issues of equality, social and racial justice, political conflict and institutional change. Prof. Minnite has consulted with various labor, advocacy, and governmental organizations, and political campaigns which have relied on her expertise in public policy and demographic patterns in New York City. An experienced survey researcher, she has published on various aspects of political participation, immigration, voting behavior and urban politics. She is currently working on a book on the politics of electoral rules called The Myth of Voter Fraud. Prof. Minnite holds a B.A. in History from Boston University, and an M.A and Ph.D. in Political Science from the City University of New York.
Keesha Middlemass
Senior Fellow
Keesha Middlemass' research and writing is at the intersection of race, institutions and public policy. She is currently working on a book project examining the consequences of a felony conviction in five public policy areas - political, housing, education, employment and health care - and the role institutions play in confining former felons to the margins of society. Keesha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Rutgers University-Newark where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American Politics and Public Policy. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for SOULS: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society and is a board member of Change the Cycle a non-profit focused on teaching financial literacy to student-athletes. Keesha was a Mellon Post Doctoral Fellow on Race, Crime and Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice and is a former APSA Congressional Fellow. She holds a B.A. from Wichita State University and M.A. (American Politics) and Ph.D. (Public Policy and American Politics) from the University of Georgia.
Nomi Prins
Senior Fellow
Nomi Prins is a journalist and author. Nomi's work focuses on corporate governance, economic policy, Wall Street and the political/regulatory environment. Her book, Jacked: How "Conservatives" are Picking your Pocket (whether you voted for them or not) (2006, PoliPoint Press) recounts her travels across America and issues that impact our wallets. Her last book, Other People's Money was chosen as a Best Book of 2004 by The Economist, Barron's, and Library Journal. Before becoming a journalist, she served as a managing director for Goldman Sachs in New York and ran the analytics group at Bear Stearns in London. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, Fortune Magazine, and The Guardian. She is a television commentator on CNBC and the BBC, and frequent guest on Marketplace Radio, Air America, and many NPR affiliates. Visit Nomi's website.
John Schwarz
Distinguished Senior Fellow
John Schwarz's work at Demos focuses on developing a new vision for a more democratic and fairer America based on the value of freedom, the argument in his book, Freedom Reclaimed: Rediscovering the American Vision (2005). He is currently professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at University of Arizona, where he has been since 1970. He has published five books and articles of his have appeared in every major professional journal in political science as well as many outlets for the general public, including the Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. His prior book, Illusions of Opportunity: The American Dream in Question, was entered in nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Two of his other books, America's Hidden Success and The Forgotten Americans, have been placed on lists of the best fifty books on American economic and social policy written during the past half century. In 1984, America's Hidden Success was named through the American Political Science Association as the best book of the year on public policy. It was named by The Washington Monthly in 1984 as one of the best five books of the year. He has a BA from Oberlin College and a PhD from Indiana University. He also was educated at The London School of Economics and Political Science and L'Institut d'Études Politiques at the University of Paris.
Linda Tarr-Whelan
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Hon. Linda Tarr-Whelan, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow on Women's Leadership is currently writing a book on the topic. Ms. Tarr-Whelan has had a varied career as a nurse, management consultant, advocate, non-profit leader, communicator, union negotiator and government official at the state, national and international levels.
She served as Ambassador to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in the Clinton Administration and as Deputy Assistant for Women's Concerns in the Carter White House. She was the first nurse appointed to these positions. Ladies Home Journal named her as one of the 50 most powerful women in Washington. She is a co-founder of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the Center for Women in Government at SUNY Albany, and Quantum Leaps, Inc.
Her policy experience also included a sub-cabinet appointment in New York State government, director of policy for a large public sector union and chief lobbyist for the National Education Association. As CEO of the Center for Policy Alternatives, the leading progressive policy and leadership center for the 50 states, she focused on women and the economy. She and her husband created a successful international management consultancy that worked with leaders of foundations, non-profits and international organizations.
Linda began her career as a nurse and holds a BSN from Johns Hopkins, an MS from the University of Maryland, and honorary PhDs from Chatham University in Pittsburg and Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. Linda and Keith, who have two adult children and three grandchildren, live on St. Helena Island, SC.
Jennifer Wheary
Senior Fellow
Jennifer Wheary's research and writing focuses on the future middle class, demographic change, educational access, economic opportunity, and the strategic development of human capital for the 21st century. Her articles have appeared in the New York Daily News, Newsday, and other newspapers around the country. Prior to joining Demos, Jennifer worked in the academic, non-profit, and private sectors. She consulted for schools in both Colombia and Brazil, designed and launched a successful online science journal, co-founded an adult literacy program, helped build a new business division at an Internet startup, and headed interactive research for the largest Spanish-language media company in the U.S. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
