Robert Jensen is a an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas-Austin, where he teaches media law, ethics and politics. He is the author of the 2009 book, All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, which recounts his return to church and his commitment to progressive social activism.

David K. Shipler is the author of The Working Poor: Invisible in America. A journalist, he has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has taught at Princeton University, American University in Washington, D.C., and Dartmouth College. He lives in Chevy Chase, Md. Contact through […]

Paul Polak is founder of Colorado-based nonprofit International Development Enterprises and author of Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (2008). Contact through Carrie Barnes at ELISE Communications.

Jason DeParle is a senior writer at The New York Times and the author of American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare.

Jeffrey Sachs is one of the foremost experts on the economics of poverty. He is director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. He is also special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From 2002-06, Sachs was director of the U.N. Millennium Project and special […]

Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the City University of New York, is an expert on U.S. poverty and welfare policy and the author of several books.

Stephen Pimpare is a professor of american politics and public policy for the politics & society program and social work department at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of A People’s History of Poverty in America (2008) and The New Victorians: Poverty, Politics and Propaganda in Two Gilded Ages. He is working on a book titled A Celluloid […]

Lawrence M. Mead, a politics professor, teaches courses about welfare reform, politics and public policy at New York University. He co-authored Lifting Up the Poor: A Dialogue on Religion, Poverty & Welfare Reform.

Guian McKee is an associate professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia whose expertise includes poverty and civil rights. He is the author of The Problem of Jobs: Liberalism, Race and Deindustrialization in Philadelphia (2008) — which features a War on Poverty-funded job training program that developed out of an African-American church […]