Heather McGhee

Heather C. McGhee is  Director of the Washington office of Demos, a New York-based public policy center. Demos blends research, advocacy, and communications in the pursuit of three overarching goals: a more equitable economy with opportunity for all; a more robust democracy in which all Americans are empowered to participate; and a strong public sector that can provide for our common interests and shared needs.
As Director, Heather develops and executes strategy for increasing the organization's impact on federal policy debates concerning issues of democracy reform, economic opportunity and financial regulation, trade and globalization. She is also a frequent commentator in print as well as on radio and television news. In 2010 she became a contributor to Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Current TV.  She is a frequent guest on MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN. Her opinions, writing, and research have appeared in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She is the co-author of a chapter on retirement insecurity in the book Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and its Poisonous Consequences (New Press, 2005).
 
In 2009 Heather co-chaired a task force for Americans for Financial Reform that helped shape key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In 2008 she served as the Deputy Policy Director in charge of Domestic and Economic Policy with the John Edwards for President campaign, helping craft the campaign’s agenda-setting policies to end poverty, halt global climate change, and reform financial services, along with other far-reaching aims.  
 
She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).