FEATURED GUESTS

Shai Akabas

Shai Akabas is BPC’s director of economic policy. He has conducted research on a variety of economic policy issues, including the federal budget, retirement security, and the financing of higher education. Akabas joined BPC in 2010 and staffed the Domenici-Rivlin Debt Reduction Task Force that year. He also assisted Jerome H. Powell, now Chairman of the Federal Reserve, in his work on the federal debt limit. For the past several years, Akabas has steered BPC’s Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings, co-chaired by former Senator Kent Conrad and the Honorable James B. Lockhart III.

Akabas has been interviewed by publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, and has published op-eds in The Hill and The Christian Science Monitor. He has been featured as an expert guest several times on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.

Prior to joining BPC, Akabas worked as a satellite office director on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign for reelection. Born and raised in New York City, he received his B.A. in economics and history from Cornell University and an M.S. in applied economics from Georgetown University.

Jennifer Glass

Jennifer Glass is the Centennial Commission Professor of Liberal Arts in the Department of Sociology and the Population Research Center of the University of Texas, Austin.  She has published over 60 articles and books on work and family issues, gender stratification in the labor force, mother’s employment and mental health, and religious conservatism and women’s economic attainment, with funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.  She received the Jessie Bernard Award  in 2020 from the American Sociological Association, the Harriet Presser Award in 2019 from the Population Association of America, the 2016 Best Publication Award from the Family Section of the American Sociological Association, the Reuben Hill Award from the National Council on Family Relations in 1986, and has thrice been nominated for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research. Her work has appeared in the Monthly Labor Review, American Sociological Review, Demography, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Social Forces, among others. She is currently the Executive Director of the Council on Contemporary Families, and past Chair of the Social Sciences and Population (B) Study Section at the National Institutes of Health. 

Ira Kalish

Dr. Kalish is the Chief Global Economist of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. He is a specialist in global economic issues as well as the effects of economic, demographic, and social trends on the global business environment. He advises Deloitte clients as well as Deloitte’s leadership on economic issues and their impact on business strategy. In addition, he has given numerous presentations to corporations and trade organizations on topics related to the global economy. He is widely traveled and has given presentations in 47 countries on six continents. He has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and The Financial Times. Dr. Kalish holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Vassar College and a PhD in international economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Nate Wong

Nate Wong leads the day-to-day operations of the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovationat Georgetown University that seeks to scout, surface, and scale promising ecosystem-centered solutions in the impact space. The Center works directly with leading practitioners and students around its two main portfolios centered around making finance more equitable and improving how governments use the tools of data and digital to deliver better services to its residents. Prior to coming to the Center in 2018, Nate helped launch and direct two social impact units at Deloitte Consulting and more recently at Boston Consulting Group’s non-profit, the Centre for Public Impact in the US. He has worked in over 10 different countries, helping partners maximize their social impact. Nate has worked on issues around economic development/ mobility and inclusive entrepreneurship including stints at Obama Foundation, Acumen, Endeavor, and TechnoServe. Nate has an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. When not in a pandemic, you can find him exploring the DC food scene, getting lost in a travel book, throwing ceramics, or improving his boxing technique.

RELATED RESOURCES

• “Taking Stock of the Market: A Conversation With Kim Parker,” Future Fluency podcast (NACD, Nov. 19, 2020).
• “Where the Money Meets the Road: A Conversation With Shai Akabas,” Future Fluency podcast (NACD, Jul 23, 2020).
• “Emerging Workforce Trends: A Conversation With Dr. Jennifer Glass,” Future Fluency podcast (NACD, Aug. 06, 2020).
• "Flattening the Inequity Curve: A Conversation with Nate Wong," Future Fluency podcast (NACD, Sept. 10, 2020).