Advisory Council

A bipartisan Advisory Council of respected and distinguished national figures endorses Spotlight’s call for a substantive debate on poverty:

Geoffrey Canada:
Author and CEO, Harlem Children's Zone

William S. Cohen:
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Cohen Group and former Secretary of Defense and Senator

Michael Gerson:
Op-ed Columnist, The Washington Post, and former top Policy Aide and Speechwriter to President George W. Bush

Ron Haskins:
Senior Scholar and Co-director, Center on Children and Families, the Brookings Institution, former Staff Director, Subcommittee on Human Resources, House Ways and Means Committee and former Special Advisor to the President

Nancy L. Johnson:
Senior Public Policy Advisor, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell and Berkowitz, PC and former Member of Congress

Otis  Johnson:
Former Mayor of Savannah, Georgia

George Mitchell:
Partner, DLA Piper, Chairman of the Global Board and Co-Chair of the Government Controversies Practice Group and former U. S. Senator

Hilary Pennington:
Director of Education, Postsecondary Success, and Special Initiatives--United States Program, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

E. Clay Shaw Jr.:
Former Member of Congress

Wellington E. Webb:
Founder, Webb Group International, and Managing Director, Webb Development Group and former Mayor of Denver, Colorado

Former Spotlight Advisory Council members include:

Rebecca M. Blank:
Under Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Department of Commerce; former Robert S. Kerr senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and former co-director of the National Poverty Center and dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan

Mark Greenberg:
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; former Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; and Director, Georgetown University Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy

Jack Kemp (1935-2009):
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Representative, Vice Presidential Candidate, and Founding Chairman of Kemp Partners

Jeanne Shaheen:
U.S. Senator and former Governor of New Hampshire