Improving opportunity for black men: The role of economics, culture, and policy

Robert Cherry is the Stern Professor of Economics at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. His recent publications include “Moving Working Families Forward” (New York University Press, 2012), which covers topics including low-income housing, race and gender earnings disparities, immigration, community college training, tax reforms, and strengthening domestic relations. He also recently authored a Journal of Family and Economic Issues paper titled “Labor market conditions and teen birth rates, 2001 to 2009.” Cherry is beginning a new project that will assess the large share of black and Latino students who obtain four-year degrees from less-competitive colleges in the private sector.

Robert Doar is the Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies at AEI, where he studies and evaluates how free enterprise and improved federal policies and programs can reduce poverty and provide opportunities for vulnerable Americans. Before joining AEI, Doar worked for Mayor Michael Bloomberg as commissioner of New York City’s Human Resources Administration, where he administered 12 public assistance programs, including welfare, food assistance, public health insurance, and help for people living with HIV/AIDS. Before joining the Bloomberg administration, Doar was New York State commissioner of social services, helping make New York a model for the implementation of welfare reform.

Kathryn Edin is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Formerly, she was professor of public policy and management at the Harvard Kennedy School and chair of its Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy. Edin is one of the nation’s leading poverty researchers, working in the domains of welfare and low-wage work, family life, and neighborhood contexts. A qualitative and mixed-method researcher, she has tackled key questions about the urban poor that have not been fully answered by quantitative work: How do single mothers possibly survive on welfare? Why don’t more go to work? Why do they end up as single mothers in the first place? Where are the fathers, and why do they disengage from their children’s lives? How have the lives of the single mothers changed as a result of welfare reform?

Orlando Patterson, a historical and cultural sociologist, is John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. His empirical works include the comparative study of ethno-racial inequality, slavery and other forms of domination, and the culture and practice of freedom, democracy, and movements toward equality. He also explores the intersection of culture, poverty, and underdevelopment in the Caribbean and United States, with a recent focus on the cultural achievements and socioeconomic dilemmas of black youth. He is the author of numerous academic papers and five major academic books, including “Slavery and Social Death” (Harvard University Press, 1982), “Freedom in the Making of Western Culture” (Basic Books, 1991), “The Ordeal of Integration” (Counterpoint, 1997), and “Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries” (Basic Civitas Books, 1999). His most recent publication is “The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth” (Harvard University Press, 2015), coedited with Ethan Fosse.

Michael D. Smith manages My Brother’s Keeper, President Obama’s initiative to address persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color and to ensure that all young people can reach their full potential. Before joining the White House team, Smith was an appointee in the Obama administration, serving as director of the Social Innovation Fund, a key White House initiative and program of the Corporation for National and Community Service that combines federal and private investment to help scale and replicate evidence-based solutions to complex social challenges. In 2014, Smith was named one of eight nonprofit leaders to watch by The Chronicle of Philanthropy and was inducted into the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Alumni Hall of Fame, the highest honor bestowed by the organization.