Understanding Economic Opportunity / Equality
Join us for the next event in the University of Pittsburgh's All Angles series, an immersive experience that features expert speakers with perspectives across today’s political spectrum. The series will provide students with fresh insight into today’s critical societal issues and help them develop a deeper understanding of contemporary public policy subject matter.
Our featured speakers will be Dr. Darrick Hamilton, Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, The New School Milano and Dr. Scott Winship, Senior Fellow and Director of Poverty Studies, American Enterprise Institute.
Featured Speakers
Darrick Hamilton is a university professor, the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, and the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. Considered one of the nation’s foremost scholars, economists and public intellectuals, Hamilton’s accomplishments include recently being profiled in the New York Times, Mother Jones magazine and the Wall Street Journal and being featured in Politico Magazine’s 2017 50 Ideas Shaping American Politics and the People Behind Them issue. Also, he is a member of the Marguerite Casey Foundation in partnership with the Group Health Foundation’s inaugural class of Freedom Scholars.
Hamilton has been involved in crafting policy proposals, such as Baby Bonds and a Federal Job Guarantee, which have garnered a great deal of media attention and served as inspirations for legislative proposals at the federal, state, and local levels. He has served as a member of the economic committee of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force; he has testified before several senate and house committees, including the Joint Economic Committee on the nation’s potential policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced health and economic crises; he was a surrogate and advisor for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign; and he has advised numerous other leading Members of Congress, as well as various 2020 presidential candidates.
Scott Winship is a senior fellow and the director of poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he researches social mobility and the causes and effects of poverty. He also focuses on economic insecurity and inequality, among other poverty issues.
Before joining AEI, Dr. Winship served as the executive director of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC). During his time at the JEC, under Chairman Mike Lee (R-UT), Dr. Winship created the Social Capital Project, a multiyear research project to investigate the evolving nature of social relationships including families, communities, workplaces, and religious congregations.
Dr. Winship was also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research; a fellow in the economic studies department of the Brookings Institution; and the research manager of the Economic Mobility Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Dr. Winship has a PhD in social policy and a MA in sociology from Harvard University. He holds a BA in sociology and urban studies from Northwestern University.
Moderator
Kevin Kearns is Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), University of Pittsburgh. He was the founding Director of the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership and the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum, two programs that promote ethical leadership in public and nonprofit institutions.
Kearns has published books and articles in leading research journals on topics of interest to government and nonprofit leaders including strategic management, nonprofit governance, revenue strategies, administrative ethics and accountability, and general management and leadership. His articles have appeared in journals such as Public Administration Review, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Nonprofit Policy Forum, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. His third book, Private Sector Strategies for Public Sector Success, was honored with the Terry McAdam Best Book Award by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management. In 2007 Dr. Kearns held a Fulbright Fellowship to teach nonprofit management in the Czech Republic. He has lectured on public and nonprofit management in Taiwan, Indonesia, Macedonia and Brazil.
He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Dayton and received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He is married with two adult children. In his free time he enjoys long-distance cycling and sailing on inland lakes.