May / June 2012

  CLOSING THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP INITIATIVE
Experts of Color Network Newsletter

SAVE THE DATE

Please save the date for an exclusive Expert of Color Network Summit, featuring provocative discussions and opportunities to interact with fellow Network members.

The Summit will take place from Monday, December 3rd through Wednesday, December 5th, at the Miami Beach Resort and Spa, Miami Beach, FL.

Stay tuned for more details coming soon!

CRWG INITIATIVE OPPORTUNITY

Program Director - Research and Policy

NEW NETWORK MEMBERS


Please join us in welcoming LeRoy Aragon, Jose Garcia, Omar Khan, and Wanjiku Mwangi to the Experts of Color Network. You can read more about them by clicking on their names.

The CRWG Experts of Color Network Criteria and Responsibilities is now accessible online. If you are not familiar with them, please review at your convenience.

2012 CRWG Thought Leader Fellowship Cohort Announced

Congratulations to the first cohort of CRWG Thought Leader Fellows! This Fellowship was established this year by the CRWG Initiative to dramatically increase the range and quality of voices and ideas in the public sphere and to support Experts of Color in shaping the most critical and significant national conversations on the economy.

CRWG Thought Leader Fellows are currently participating in a comprehensive training conducted by The OpEd Project.  Fellows also receive access to an exclusive monthly conference call with major media insiders, weekly editing support from top journalists, and a year of high-level mentoring.

As a result of the Fellowship, several Fellows have already been published on the front page of outlets such as CNN, the Huffington Post, and NPR:


David Pate - Education vs. The Lure of Pro Basketball; Trying to Call More Attention To Fatherhood (his first piece led to the NPR guest appearance)





Maya Rockeymoore - Are Black Women Obese Because We Want to Be?; Obesity in America (her first piece led to the NPR guest appearance); African-American Women and Fat? Consider Context, Choices.




Saru Jayaraman- Where Are You Taking Your Mom to Eat This Mother's Day?




Mariko Chang- The Government Must Make a Serious Investment in Higher Education



If you would like to be considered for a future CRWG Thought Leader Fellowship cohort,  please email Anand at anands@insightcced.org.

For the full list of 2012 CRWG Thought Leader Fellows, please click here.

New Website: ModernizeSocialSecurity.org

Global Policy Solutions has started a new website to host the Commission to Modernize Social Security report, along with other reports, articles, and videos related to Social Security reform at ModernizeSocialSecurity.org


Tanya Fiddler Featured in White House Summit

Tanya Fiddler was a featured speaker at the White House Summit on Financial Capability and Empowerment, which took place on May 10th. Tanya spoke on the strategies Native American CDFI’s employ to overcome barriers to financial services in Indian Country: 1) training and education tailored to tribal communities; and 2) program funding and resources that increase the number of Native CDFI’s and improves their capacity.

Wilhelmina Leigh named TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow

Wilhelmina Leigh was named to the TIAA-CREF Institute Fellows Program. TIAA-CREF Institute Fellows are prominent researchers, scholars, policy analysts, and senior leaders from higher education and the charitable and public sectors. Fellows work with the Institute to examine strategic issues, conduct objective research and help inform decision-making relevant to the business of higher education and lifelong financial security.

john a. powell to Lead Haas Diversity Research Center

john a. powell was named Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion and will lead UC Berkeley’s Haas Diversity Research Center.  In related news, the new CRWG Initiative blog's latest entry summarizes powell's talk at the 2012 Transforming Race conference.


Merle Lawrence and Benita Melton named 2012 Co-Chairs of Asset Funders Network

Merle Lawrence and Benita Melton were named the 2012 Co-Chairs of the Asset Funders Network and will lead the AFN Steering Committee.

Dorothy Brown wrote an oped for CNN.com, detailing a plan to eliminate the "progressive" income tax and implement a flat tax on all types of income.

Jim Carr on Bloomberg TV

Jim Carr was featured on Bloomberg Television's "Bottom Line," speaking about the President’s recently announced changes to the FHA program to allow streamlined FHA loan refinancing. He also wrote a blog post for the American Constitution Society commenting on a recent study showing biased outcomes against African Americans in filing for bankruptcy protection.

Heather McGhee on Blueprint for Accountability Panel

Heather McGhee appeared on an esteemed panel for the event, "Blueprint for Accountability: The Wall Street-Washington Connection." Watch it here.

Meizhu Lui on Asian American Wealth

Meizhu Lui blogged about whether Asian Americans have really surpassed White Americans in income and wealth and calls for the collection of data that is disaggregated by race and ethnicity, and an analysis of why racial economic disparities persist.

Algernon Austin wrote a supplemental brief detailing how Asian-Americans had the highest share of long-term unemployed workers when compared with white, black, and Hispanic workers—despite having higher education levels than these other racial/ethnic groups. His brief added 2011 data to a prior EPI report on Asian Americans and long-term unemployment from 2007-2010. Algernon also co-authored "The Public Sector Jobs Crisis," which details how women and African Americans are hit hardest by the loss of public sector jobs. Finally, Algernon wrote about the high rate of Black unemployment over the past 50 years for BET.com, "Latinos and The Good Jobs Crisis" for the Huffington Post, and blogged about Latinos and Census categorization.

Building Financial Security in America: A 2020-2030 Vision

Lisa Mensah of the Aspen Institute wrote Building Financial Security in America: A 2020-2030 Vision, describing a vision for the next two decades where low- and moderate-income Americans enjoy a transformed relationship with their money.

The UNC Center for Community Capital, led by Roberto Quercia, released Sense of Community and Informal Social Control Among Lower-Income Households: The Role of Homeownership and Collective Efficacy in Reducing Subjective Neighborhood Crime and Disorder finding that "when coupled with traditional, fixed-rate mortgages, homeownership reduces residents' perception of crime as a key problem for their neighborhood."

Doing Without: Economic Insecurity and Older Americans: Race

WOW released the brief, Doing Without: Economic Insecurity and Older Americans No. 3: Race, which finds that older adults of color are at significantly greater risk for economic insecurity than are white elders. Forty-nine percent of households headed by white adults report household incomes that fall short of economic security, compared to 76% of Hispanic-headed households, 74% of African-American-headed homes and 65% of Asian-headed households.
 

Insight Center Webinar: Building and Preserving Income and Assets Within Diverse Communities in California

Please join the Insight Center, Center for Responsible Lending, EARN, New America Foundation, and the Women's Initiative for Self Employment on Wednesday, June 20th at 10:30 am PDT / 1:30 pm EDT for an engaging discussion to explore the intersection between building and preserving income and assets, the role of race, gender, and age on building economic security, and programmatic and policy opportunities for moving along the economic continuum within California. For more information and to register, please click here.

Insight Center Webinar: 55 and Better: Helping Mature Workers Get Good Jobs

Please join the Insight Center and the National Council on Aging for a free webinar: "55 and Better: Helping Mature Workers Get Good Jobs through an Industry Sector-Focused Approach," taking place on Thursday, June 7th at 11 am PDT / 2 pm EDT.  For more information and to register, please click here.

Webinar: Measuring Economic Mobility and Opportunity in Texas

The Joint Center and Howard University's Center on Race and Wealth are hosting a webinar on Thursday, June 21st at 2 pm EDT, entitled "Measuring Economic Mobility and Opportunity:  Lessons from the Texas Regional Opportunity Index". Presentations will be made by Don Baylor, Senior Policy Analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities (TX), as well as by Ed Sivak, Director of the Mississippi Economic Policy Center.

2012 Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition Conference

The 2012 Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition (ONAC) Conference takes place on June 11, 2012, in Midwest City, OK. The conference will 1) examine the current state of Native asset building in Oklahoma; 2) have opportunities for peer learning; 3) share information about Native asset-building models, funding sources, partnership opportunities, research, training and technical assistance; and 4) learn about ONAC next steps and ways to be involved in the coalition. To register, please click here.

Making Financial Services Work For Consumers: A Global Challenge

Consumers International and the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue invite you to a one day conference on June 6th, 2012 from 10 am to 5 pm at the Federal Trade Commission Satellite Building which will look at financial consumer protection from the international perspective and address the current and upcoming financial services challenges consumers face. (including whether the G20 are doing enough to respond to consumer concerns about financial services).
 
If you are interested in attending this event, please complete this form.
 

OPPORTUNITIES

Executive Director, Green For All

Green For All is seeking a new Executive Director.

Executive Director and Senior Associate, Interaction Institute for Social Change

The Interaction Institute for Social Change is seeking a new Executive Director and a Senior Associate for Counseling and Training.

Executive Director, California Budget Project

The California Budget Project is seeking a new Executive Director.

Executive Director, First Nations Oweesta Corporation

First Nations Oweesta Corporation is seeking a new President and Chief Executive Officer.

Deputy Director, Alliance for Retired Americans

The Alliance for Retired Americans seeks a Deputy Director of Field Mobilization.

Alston Bannerman Fellowship, CSI

For more news, check out our Twitter account (you don't have to be a Twitter user for access).

Read our new blog here.

Read prior network newsletters here.

Please submit any news, reports, events or job opportunities you would like us to feature in the next newsletter to anands@insightcced.org.

THE EXPERTS OF COLOR NETWORK

With a searchable database that contains over 180 of the leading minds on asset-building and the economy, expertise is just a click away. Visit www.expertsofcolor.org.

Anne Price,
Director aprice@insightcced.org

Anand Subramanian, Program Manager anands@insightcced.org
 

The Insight Center for Community Economic Development is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to help people and communities become, and remain, economically secure through innovative employment, early childhood, business development, and asset building programs. Learn more at www.insightcced.org.

Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative

For more information visit: www.racialwealthgap.org | www.expertsofcolor.org | www.insightcced.org |