Executive Team

Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, founded PolicyLink in 1999 and continues to drive its mission of advancing economic and social equity. Under Blackwell’s leadership, PolicyLink has become a leading voice in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of health, housing, transportation, education, and infrastructure.

Prior to founding PolicyLink, Blackwell served as Senior Vice President at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she oversaw the foundation’s Domestic and Cultural divisions. A lawyer by training, she gained national recognition as founder of the Oakland (CA) Urban Strategies Council, where she pioneered new approaches to neighborhood revitalization. From 1977 to 1987, Blackwell was a partner at Public Advocates, a nationally known public interest law firm.

As a leading voice in the movement for equity in America, Blackwell is a frequent commentator for some of the nation’s top news organizations, including the Washington Post, Salon, and the Huffington Post, and has appeared regularly on such shows as public radio’s “Marketplace,” “The Tavis Smiley Show,” “Nightline,” and PBS’s “Now."

Blackwell is the co-author of the forthcoming Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future (W.W. Norton & Co., 2010), and contributed to Ending Poverty in America:  How to Restore the American Dream (The New Press, 2007) and The Covenant with Black America (Third World Press, 2006). Blackwell earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard University, and a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.  She serves on numerous boards and served as co-chair of the task force on poverty for the Center for American Progress. (full bio)

Judith Bell, President, oversees policy development, strategic planning, program implementation, and policy campaigns. She leads projects focused on equitable regional development policy to enhance the income and assets of the poor. Her portfolio includes the fair distribution of affordable housing throughout regions, equity in public investment and land use, and community strategies to reduce health disparities. She has supervised and engaged in extensive research and advocacy, particularly at the statewide level, and edited and written numerous reports on these topics. She is a regular speaker and trainer on advocacy and consults with organizations and leaders about strategy development and implementation. Her advocacy work with PolicyLink has included efforts to improve access to healthy foods, solutions to overcrowding in K-12 schools, and equitable approaches to infrastructure investment. Prior to joining PolicyLink, Bell was director of the West Coast regional office of Consumers Union, where she focused on changing public policies to promote greater access to health care, financial services, and low-cost auto insurance. Bell also developed and co-directed a 32-state project to preserve charitable assets as nonprofit health care institutions converted into for-profit businesses. The project’s work was instrumental in preserving more than $15 billion dollars of charitable funds, creating 125 new health care foundations in 35 states across the country, and changing applicable state laws. (full bio)

Joe Brooks, Vice President for Civic Engagement, works to foster civic engagement by individuals and community organizations, a key component of the PolicyLink mission and goals. As a member of the senior management team, Brooks develops and maintains close working relationships with local, regional, and national organizations. He is also the team leader for the PolicyLink Men and Boys of Color Policy Planning and Advocacy project. Brooks has also served as president of the Emergency Land Fund, Atlanta, Georgia, and was editor of the Review of Black Political Economy. He was formerly program executive for Neighborhood and Community Development at the San Francisco Foundation, where he directed the foundation’s Workforce Development and Interfaith Initiative, FAITHS. Brooks served as the national co-chair of the Neighborhood Funders Group and vice-chair of the Association of Black Foundation Executives. (full bio)

Milly Hawk Daniel, Vice President for Communications, leads the PolicyLink team responsible for strategically using media, online, editorial, and special events efforts to advance economic and social equity.  A speechwriter, editor, and author, Daniel has directed communications activities in several nonprofit organizations and provided consulting services for many others. In its work with partner organizations across the country, PolicyLink helps identify media and web opportunities, plan advocacy efforts, draft opinion pieces and letters to the editor, and produce print materials for successful policy change.  In her work at PolicyLink, Daniel has led communications efforts related to affordable housing, transit oriented development, equitable rebuilding in New Orleans, and revitalizing older core cities.

Tamar Dorfman, Chief Financial Officer, leads the finance, human resources and administration teams and oversees the information technology team at PolicyLink. For more than a decade she has directed finance and operations in non-profit and public sector organizations that promote community development, workforce development, and affordable housing. Her career has focused on developing strong financial strategies and efficient operations so that organizations can maximize impact while ensuring compliance with funder and regulatory requirements. Prior to joining PolicyLink, Dorfman was the Chief Financial Officer for the Mayor’s Offices of Community Investment and Housing in San Francisco. She also served as the Fiscal Manager for the Corporation for Supportive Housing and was a Principal Budget Analyst for the City of Chicago. She holds a BA from Stanford University and an MPP from the University of Chicago.

Josh Kirschenbaum, Vice President for Strategic Direction, one of the original PolicyLink staff members, has led community building and technology projects, and now brings a wealth of organizational knowledge to build diverse alliances and implement strategic initiatives. Prior to joining PolicyLink, Kirschenbaum was the director of special projects at the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development, where he managed a defense conversion research program and fostered partnerships between the university and the City of Oakland to strengthen and revitalize low-income neighborhoods.  He holds a BA from Brown University and an MS in city and regional planning from the University of California-Berkeley.

Victor Rubin, Vice President for Research, leads knowledge-building, evaluation, and qualitative and quantitative analysis activities to build a strong research base for PolicyLink. Recently he has been particularly deeply involved in analyses of equity issues in infrastructure, and in strategies to address health disparities through improvements to the built environment. Rubin previously directed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of University Partnerships, and served as a director of the University-Oakland Metropolitan Forum, a partnership based at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also an adjunct associate professor of city and regional planning. Rubin holds a BA in public affairs from the University of Chicago, and an MCP and PhD in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley. (full bio)

Jennifer Thompson, Associate Director, Administration and Human Resources, is responsible for managing the Oakland facility. Thompson also coordinates staff recruitment and retention programs and administers PolicyLink benefits plans. Previously, she held positions in both finance and fundraising and managed events for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Thompson earned her BA in economics from San Jose State University.