Poverty in America: An Anti-Poverty Agenda for the Next President

Date & Time Feb 17 2016 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Speaker(s)
Robert Doar ’83, American Enterprise Institute; Judith M. Gueron, MDRC; Ron Haskins, Brookings Institution; Sheldon Danziger, President, Russell Sage Foundation
Audience Open to the Public

“Poverty in America: An Anti-Poverty Agenda for the Next President,” will be the topic of a free, public panel discussion at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall, Princeton University.

Panelists will discuss the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity report, “Opportunity, Responsibility and Security: A Consensus Plan For Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream.” The report, which is the result of 14 months of work, defines the current environment and proposes a comprehensive plan for addressing poverty and economic mobility in the United States.

Panelists include AEI-Brookings Working Group members Robert Doar ’83, the Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies, AEI; Ron Haskins, senior fellow, economic studies and co-director of the Center on Children and Families, Brookings Institution; and Sheldon Danziger, president of the Russell Sage Foundation. Judith M. Gueron, independent scholar in residence and president emerita at MDRC, also will participate.

Danziger is President of the Russell Sage Foundation and ​the Henry J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at the Ford School​.​ ​He was also director of the National Poverty Center at the Ford School. ​Danziger is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 2008 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, ​t​he 2010 John Kenneth Galbraith fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and director of the Research and Training Program on Poverty and Public Policy. His research focuses on social welfare policies and on the effects of economic, demographic, and public policy changes on trends in poverty and inequality.

Doar studies and evaluates how free enterprise and improved federal policies and programs can reduce poverty and provide opportunities for vulnerable Americans. He focuses on the employment, health, education and community participation of low-income Americans and their children. Prior to joining AEI, Doar was commissioner of New York City’s Human Resources Administration.  He also served as New York State commissioner of social services, where he helped to make New York a model for the implementation of welfare reform.

Gueron joined MDRC as research director at its founding in 1974 and served as president from 1986 through August 2004. At MDRC, Gueron directed many of the largest federal and state evaluations ever undertaken of interventions for low-income adults, young people and families and was a pioneer in developing research methods that have made it possible to base social programs on rigorous evidence of effectiveness. As president, she also guided the organization’s expansion into such areas as support for the working poor, education reforms, child development and community-based initiatives.

Haskins is co-director of the Center on Children and Families and Cabot Family Chair at the Brookings Institution and senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. He served as senior advisor to the president for welfare policy at the White House (Feb. – Dec. 2002). He also spent 14 years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee. Haskins is a senior editor of The Future of Children, a joint publication of the Woodrow Wilson School and the Brookings Institution that addresses policy issues that affect children and families. His areas of expertise include welfare reform, child care, child support, marriage, child protection and budget and deficit issues.