Renowned Organizer and Social Innovator Ai-jen Poo Joins Next100 Advisory Board
Ai-jen will bring her deep expertise in building social movements and effecting political change to the work of the “think and do tank.”
Next100, a startup think tank built for and by the next generation of policy leaders, today announced the addition of Ai-jen Poo to its Advisory Board. An award-winning organizer, social innovator, and author and a leading voice in the women’s movement, Ai-jen will bring her deep expertise and experience in building social movements and pushing for social and political change to the work of the new “think and do tank.”
“I’m both thrilled and honored to welcome Ai-jen Poo to Next100’s Advisory Board,” said Emma Vadehra, executive director of Next100. “In terms of making meaningful change, there are few leaders as visionary, innovative, and effective as Ai-jen is. She is an expert in all aspects of progressive change—from organizing communities, to developing policy, to shifting public opinion and narrative. She will be an invaluable addition to Next100, to our policy entrepreneurs, and to our work overall in the next two years.”
Ai-jen Poo is the co-founder and Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), a non-profit organization working to bring quality work, dignity, and fairness to the growing numbers of workers who care and clean in our homes. In 12 short years, with the help of more than 70 local affiliate organizations and chapters and more than 200,000 members, the NDWA has helped passed Domestic Worker Bills of Rights in nine states and the city of Seattle, and brought over two million home care workers under minimum wage protections.
Ai-jen is a nationally recognized expert on elder and family care, the future of work, gender equality, immigration, narrative change, and grassroots organizing. In addition to her work with the NDWA, she is Co-Director of Caring Across Generations, Co-Founder of SuperMajority and a Trustee of the Ford Foundation. She has been recognized among Fortune’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders and Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, in addition to being the recipient of countless awards, including a 2014 MacArthur “Genius” Award.
“Next100 understands that for social change to be meaningful and lasting, it must be driven by the people and communities with the most at stake in politics and policy,” said Ai-jen Poo. “We need more organizations that don’t just talk about the next generation, but that center their experiences, perspectives, and needs, and that authentically support their leadership. That’s why Next100 is so exciting, and why I’m honored to be joining the Advisory Board.”
Next100 is a first-of-its-kind “startup” think tank powered by The Century Foundation. The organization officially launched in August, with the announcement of its inaugural class of eight “Policy Entrepreneurs,” selected from a highly competitive pool of more than 740 applicants. These eight rising leaders will spend the next two years researching, developing, and advocating for policy solutions to the issues that matter most to the next generation, focusing in particular on: education, immigration, criminal justice, climate change, economic opportunity, and the intersections between such issues.
The organization is based in New York City and led by Emma Vadehra, former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education under both Secretary John B. King Jr. and Secretary Arne Duncan. Other members of Next100’s advisory board include: Michael Tubbs, 29-year-old mayor of Stockton, California; Svante Myrick, 32-year-old mayor of Ithaca, New York; Cecilia Muñoz, a Vice President at New America and former director of President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council; Melissa Harris-Perry, Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University; Arne Duncan, former U.S. Secretary of Education; Samantha Tweedy, chief partnership and impact officer at the Robin Hood Foundation; Ravi Gupta, co-founder of the Arena; and Max Lubin, founder of Rise.