policyincubator.commonfuture.coPolicy Incubator | Common Future

G o b a c k • G o b a c k • G o b a c k G o b a c k • G o b a c k • G o b a c k Completed Policy & Impact Policy Incubator Building a more collaborative (and representative) think and do tank with community-minded, equity-centered leaders. In the Summer of 2022, Common Future launched a policy incubator—an open and collaborative think and do tank—modeling a new way of working and resourcing game-changing economic policy ideas. Major banks, asset management firms, and related think tanks define national economic growth strategies. These groups aren’t incentivized to prioritize what matters to most people: inclusive growth fair markets, and economic security for individuals and families. Leaders in power listen to those who wield it: the well-funded, the well-connected, and every once in a while, the well-organized. We need new, representative leadership to take us forward. The Policy Incubator identifies four action-oriented, community-minded, and equity-centered leaders with a vision for change. These entrepreneurs each design 12-month action plans for their economic policy ideas at local, state, or federal levels. We fund , connect , and incubate the work of these seasoned leaders with bold ideas to significantly transform economic policy. The Common Future Policy Entrepreneurs. Roque Barros Unlocking capital where it can be best put to work. Roque Barros (he/him) has more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit and foundation management. As the first Executive Director for the Imperial Valley Wellness Foundation (IVWF), Roque is mobilizing resources into the region, amplifying the voices of those historically excluded, and strengthening coalitions and collaboratives. Previously, Roque served as the Executive Director for Los Niños, the Interim President at the Jacobs Family Foundation, and the Director of the Ford Institute for Community Building. Roque adopts a community building approach to support residents wherever he is. He has convened 41 community-building practitioners across the country to learn from each other and develop a Resident-Centered Community Building toolkit, co-created the THRIVE Rural Framework alongside leadership at Aspen, and is a contributing author to a chapter in Investing in Rural Prosperity published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Through this incubator, Roque plans to codify and share his tried and tested practices for participatory decision-making processes, grounded in learning-forward partnerships. Roque firmly believes that communities can lead and guide the change they want to see — policy can only be transformational if it is grounded in people’s experience, informed by those most impacted and implemented in a way that makes sense to the community. Bree Jones Opening ownership opportunities. Bree (she/her) is the founder of Parity, an equitable development company that rehabilitates abandoned properties by the block to create affordable homeownership opportunities. At the core of her work is development without displacement – she aims to revitalize distressed neighborhoods while ensuring that legacy residents are able to participate in and benefit from reinvestment. Prior to founding Parity, Bree had a career in finance and investments including deal structuring, capital raises, conducting due diligence, advanced data analysis, and deal management. Bree has been a lifelong social justice advocate, focused primarily on economic justice, affordable housing, anti-displacement, anti-gentrification, and anti-recidivism. As an advocate, Bree played a pivotal role in the creation of Community Benefits Agreements in her hometown, and advocated for community protections in local legislation and zoning. Through this incubator, Bree plans to create model anti-gentrification overlay zone legislation for vulnerable and historically disinvested neighborhoods to enact at the local level. By leveraging existing tools for deep, systemic change, Bree is challenging existing power structures and opening ownership opportunities for her community and beyond. Keneshia Raymond Opening ownership opportunities. Keneshia (she/her) is the Interim Executive Director of The Tucson Urban League and the Director of Programs and Access to Capital at Startup Tucson. For 13+ years, she has provided education through her current company Blissful Creatives. In 2020, Keneshia completed the Women’s Entrepreneurship Program through Cornell University. Tucson, AZ has few resources for marginalized communities. Still, Keneshia is committed to building a land trust, in collaboration with the city, so that the model can scale across AZ. Through this incubator, Keneshia plans to illuminate why solutions like land trusts are essential in lieu of broken government programs. HUD reforms are essential, and there is immense opportunity for greater partnerships between leaders like Keneshia and agency leadership. Trevor Smith Enabling fair markets. Trevor Smith (he/him) is a writer, researcher, and strategist focused on topics such as racial inequality, wealth inequality, reparations, and narrative change. He is currently the Director of Narrative Change at Liberation Ventures, a field builder fueling the movement for Black-led racial repair, where he is launching the Reparations Narrative Lab, a space dedicated to building narrative power around the topic of reparations. As more cities and states create reparations commissions and related universal basic income experiments, Trevor’s work through Liberation Ventures will connect and weave new economic and racial narratives to create the environment for structural policy change. Through this incubator, Trevor, alongside grassroots partners, will build a narrative framework that will support policymakers and related actors to understand why reparative policies are essential and the right messages and stories that can lead to long-term mindset shifts. Policy Incubator Steering Committee. Bulbul Gupta President and CEO of Pacific Community Ventures Bulbul Gupta, MPP, is President & CEO of Pacific Community Ventures, serves as a Lecturer in Impact Investing at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and in 2021 was named one of the Most Influential Women in the Bay Area by the SF Business Times. She recently served as an outside policy advisor to the Biden-Harris campaign on small business, racial equity, and good job creation; and was an Entrepreneurship Policy Advisor to the Clinton Campaign in 2016. Bulbul formerly led Entrepreneurship & Impact Investing at the Clinton Global Initiative, and helped launch the White House National Advisory Board on Impact Investing in 2013. Marcus Haymon Partner at and Co-Lead of the Justice, Equity and Economic Mobility Practice Marcus is Partner at Dalberg and he co-leads the firm’s justice, equity, and economic mobility practice. He supports clients to advance racial equity, boost economic mobility, and build and shift power for communities of color. Marcus has a rich history in advocacy work, including advising the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to identify policy levers to support Black and Latinx owned small businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Marcus has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a BA from Yale University and lives in New York City. Denise Hearn Co-Lead of the Access to Markets Initiative and Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project Denise Hearn is a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project where she co-leads the Access to Markets initiative. She is co-author of the Myth of Capitalism, and writes the Embodied Economics blog. Denise is the Advisory Board Chair of the Predistribution Initiative. Kimber Lanning CEO of Local First AZ Kimber Lanning is an entrepreneur and community development specialist who works to cultivate strong self-reliant communities that enable a higher quality of life for people across Arizona. She is the founder and CEO of...