Angela Glover Blackwell

Angela Glover Blackwell is founder and chief executive officer of PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity. Since its inception in January 1999, PolicyLink has partnered with a cross-section of stakeholders to ensure that equity issues receive the highest priority in addressing major policy questions. Blackwell founded PolicyLink after serving as senior vice president for The Rockefeller Foundation from 1995 to 1998. She directed the foundation's domestic and cultural divisions and developed the Next Generation Leadership and Building Democracy programs, centered on issues of inclusion, race, and policy. In 1987, she founded the Urban Strategies Council in Oakland, California, and received national recognition for pioneering a community building approach to social change through in-depth understanding of local conditions, community-driven systems reform, and an insistence on accountability. For a decade beginning in 1977, Blackwell served as a partner with Public Advocates, a nationally renowned public interest law firm representing the underrepresented. She successfully litigated class action suits and developed innovative non-litigation strategies in the areas of employment, education, health, and consumer affairs. Blackwell earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University, and a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. She co-chairs the Center for American Progress task force on poverty and sits on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Commission to Build a Healthier America. She currently sits on the boards of the Children's Defense Fund, Sojourners, and the Corporation for Enterprise Development.