Adding to Our Team of Forward-Thinking, New-Rules-Writing Roosevelt Fellows
October 2, 2019
By Felicia Wong
When it comes to taming the top and empowering the public, Mehrsa Baradaran is leading the way—on many fronts—and we at Roosevelt are proud to announce that she is joining our team of outstanding fellows.
As a professor of law, author, and forward-thinking game changer, Baradaran’s work covers key issues, including banking law, financial inclusion, inequality, and the racial wealth gap. Her May 2019 report for the Great Democracy Initiative (GDI), A Homestead Act for the 21st Century, was used as the template for 2020 hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s housing policy proposal and is driving Sen. Bernie Sanders’s initiative to expand sustainable home ownership. “It’s time to think of creative ways that the government can help in these situations,” said Baradaran. “Prior to now, it’s all been private incentives, and it’s just not working.”
From her books How the Other Half Banks and The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap to her bold and informative online presence, it’s clear that Baradaran can help us push forward the Roosevelt Institute’s one-two punch worldview, as well as work to strengthen FDR’s legacy and rectify its shortcomings. We are thrilled to have Baradaran join us and to play a small part in all of the big work she’ll do next.