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Earlier this month, the Joint Center hosted our 2022 Future of Black Communities Summit. This day of dynamic and compelling conversations featured some of our country’s most noted non-profit, government, philanthropic, business, and academic leaders. We were honored to elevate these critical policy conversations and share this content with hundreds of our supporters. Whether you supported our efforts through sponsorship or joined us in-person or virtually, we are grateful you are invested in the social, political, and economic well-being for all Black Americans. Thank you to everyone who attended.
Also, earlier this month, Joint Center President Spencer Overton announced he is stepping down after a decade of leadership. Under Spencer’s leadership, the Joint Center regained fiscal health, and eventually grew its total net assets to over $11 million. He restructured the organization and built programs that focused on the future of Black communities, including racial diversity in congressional staff and federal appointments, Workforce Policy, Economic Policy, and Tech Policy.
We invite you to read more about the Joint Center’s work and impact this past month in Hill Diversity, Economic Policy, and our other focus areas below.
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New Report: Black Americans acutely underrepresented among top staff in the U.S. House of Representatives
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The Joint Center released “Racial Diversity Among Top Staff In the U.S. House Of Representatives,” which crystallized the startling lack of racial diversity among senior staff in the House of Representatives. The data shows that people of color account for 40 percent of the U.S. population, but only 18 percent of all top House staff. Black Americans are 12.4 percent of the U.S. population, but only 5.6 percent of House personal office top staff. This report was exclusively covered by The Hill and was also covered in Roll Call.
The report analyzed diversity among chiefs of staff, legislative directors, and communications directors in the Washington, D.C. personal offices of the U.S. House members; chiefs of staff, policy directors, and communications directors in the top leadership offices of each political party; and staff directors assigned to full committees.
The lack of top staff diversity is a structural challenge for the entire institution rather than a problem attributable to a single member or political party. The lack of racial diversity impairs House members’ ability to understand their constituencies’ diverse perspectives. People of color are underrepresented in various occupations, but a lack of diversity among top House staff warrants special attention because the U.S. House of Representatives’ decisions affect all Americans.
“Right now, people of color are better represented among House members than among their top staffers. Not only should the leaders we elect to represent us reflect the diversity of our nation, but the senior staff who inform their decision-making must as well,” said Dr. LaShonda Brenson, author of this report and senior researcher at the Joint Center. “Last year, we noticed a trend of Black staff leaving Capitol Hill, often due to lack of promotion opportunities to leadership positions, low pay, and lack of a welcoming culture. Despite top House staff being more diverse than in the past, the data is still disheartening. Much work remains to be done.”
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Spencer Overton thanks supporters following 2022 Future of Black Communities Summit
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Joint Center President Spencer Overton thanks our organization’s generous sponsors, board of governors, staff, summit speakers, panelists, as well as our partners, allies, and supporters for making our 2022 Future of Black Communities summit a success. Watch our highlight reel here. We will share full-length videos from the event in the coming weeks.
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Spencer Overton to step down after a decade of Joint Center leadership
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The Joint Center announced that Spencer Overton will step down from his role as president in the spring of 2023 after a decade of leading the organization through an era of incredible transformation and growth.
Under Spencer’s leadership, the Joint Center regained fiscal health, and eventually grew its total net assets to over $11 million. He restructured the organization and built programs that focused on the future of Black communities, including racial diversity in congressional staff and federal appointments, Workforce Policy, Economic Policy, and Tech policy.
“It has been one of the richest experiences of my life to lead the Joint Center during this critical period in its history. When I started, we faced significant challenges, and it is gratifying to have worked together with so many great people to overcome those obstacles and set the Joint Center on a trajectory toward a bright future,” said Spencer. “I’m particularly thankful to my family, former Board Chair Barbara Johnson, our entire board and staff, GW Law School, and many public officials, policy experts, researchers, financial supporters, civil rights leaders, think tank leaders, Joint Center alumni, and other allies and advisors for their consistent engagement and support.”
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Joint Center welcomes new board officers
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The Joint Center is pleased to announce that our board of governors elected new officers. The board elected Paul Thornell as board chair, Paula Boyd as secretary, and Kenneth Jones as treasurer.
“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to serve as board chair and excited about the amazing work to come on behalf of Black communities. I continue to serve because I value being a part of the Joint Center — doing what I can in partnership with this outstanding board to keep moving things forward,” said Joint Center Board Chair Paul Thornell, who joined the board in 2016. “I am proud of the substance of what the Joint Center delivers every day by serving as an essential convener and producing top quality content. I am looking forward to building upon the Joint Center’s legacy and continuing to advance its mission work.”
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Black communities left behind in economic recovery
At 12.1 percent and 10.9 percent, Black men and women have the highest and second-highest unemployment rates respectively of all ethnicities, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. This high unemployment rate is one way Black communities are being left behind in our nation’s economic recovery.
Dr. Alex Camardelle, director of workforce policy at the Joint Center, was quoted in an article in theGrio that discusses Black voter’s outlook on the current economic landscape leading into the 2022 midterm elections.
According to Dr. Camardelle, there is a “deepening economic inequality and basic needs insecurity as costs are increasing. Black workers are being left behind in the nation’s economic recovery. Black communities have the highest unemployment rates and are grappling with stubborn pay inequities.”
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 HILL DIVERSITY
Support our congressional staff diversity work
If you are interested in joining our efforts to increase congressional staff diversity in the 118th Congress, please email Dr. LaShonda Brenson at lashonda@jointcenter.org. Read more about our Hill Diversity program.
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 The Joint Center's Institutional Ties
The Joint Center was initially founded by both the Metropolitan Applied Research Center (MARC) and Howard University in 1970. However, with funding from the Ford Foundation, the Joint Center became an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan institution in October 1976.
Read more about the Joint Center’s history here.
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The Future of Work: Gaining the Requisite Education and Skills to Succeed Post COVID-19 at the CBC Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference
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Economic Equity: What’s In Our Wallets? at the CBC Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference
Joint Center Vice President of Policy Jessica Fulton was a panelist at Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL) and Congressman Steven Horsford’s (D-NV) Congressional Black Conference Foundation’s session, entitled Economic Equity: What’s In Our Wallets? This session, which included Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Wally Adeyemo, featured policy and industry-leading panelists who focused on equity and economic mobility in our country today.
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Corporate Initiatives that Reduce Systemic Bias & Minimize Legal Risks
Spencer joined WilmerHale Partner Ronald C. Machen and Diversity Lab CEO Caren Ulrich Stacy for a Luminate+ conversation on corporate initiatives that reduce systemic bias and minimize legal risks.
Immediately after George Floyd’s death, many Black employees at major companies came to the Joint Center asking for ideas about what their companies could do to advance diversity in hiring, promotion, the C-suite, the boardroom, and retaining third-party vendors. One obstacle they faced was co-workers who were hesitant to take action because they thought that promoting diversity would be “reverse racism” that violated the law. However, the Joint Center and WilmerHale collaborated to create How to Advance Corporate Diversity in Compliance with the Law: A Toolkit, which served as the topic of this conversation.
In this discussion, Spencer states “we measure what matters; metrics and accountability are fundamental business principles. And it’s important to apply this basic management principle to diversity.”
View the recording here.
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Coalition releases Statement on Good Jobs
The Joint Center joined the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, the Families and Workers Fund, and other advocacy groups to sign and release the Statement on Good Jobs. According to the letter, “good jobs are essential to a healthy economy, successful businesses, strong communities, thriving families, and a well-functioning democracy. Yet only 44 percent of working people in the U.S. report having a ‘good job’ … More than 30 percent of the workforce — 53 million people and disproportionately women, people of color, and immigrants — struggle with low wages. Millions more lack adequate benefits, face discrimination and harassment, and cope with other daily challenges that are the consequence of low-quality jobs.” The coalition hopes to work towards good jobs for all. |
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Tracking the Demands of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1960s to Today
Fulton spoke at the EARNCon 2022 conference on the "Tracking the Demands of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1960s to Today" panel. This session informed conference attendees of the policies, strategies, and actions advocated for during the March on Washington and Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Then, participants used these social policy requests as a metric to determine which policies were implemented, which have yet to be realized, and what this means for racial economic justice.
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The Next Big Retirement Savings Innovation Space: Reengineering the Role of the Employer
Fulton was a panelist at the 2022 Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings. The experts for this panel, entitled “The Next Big Retirement Savings Innovation Space: Reengineering the Role of the Employer,” discussed new ways to think about the right role for the employer in retirement savings.
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Joint Center research cited in The Hill
Joint Center research on challenges that Black small-business owners face was included in an op-ed published by The Hill. This opinion piece emphasizes the challenges that entrepreneurs of color regularly face and argues that it is imperative to support entrepreneurs of color, especially at a time of economic recovery. According to the authors, "entrepreneurs of color need and deserve action from policymakers to ensure that people from all backgrounds and ethnicities can start and scale new businesses." To corroborate this point, the author states that "the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that 6 in 10 Black business owners faced challenges securing capital." |
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Villanova on the Hill
Spencer attended the Villanova on the Hill reception. The event celebrated current students, alumni, parents, and friends in the Washington, D.C. area.
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 Joint Center welcomes Claire Meener
The Joint Center welcomes Claire Meener as director of people and operations. Read Claire’s bio here.
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 Joint Center welcomes Kimberly Victor |
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The Joint Center is seeking a director of Platform Regulation and Content Moderation
The director will be an inspirational leader dedicated to leading the Joint Center’s emerging Platform Regulation and Content Moderation program. The Director will be responsible for building the Joint Center’s expertise and influence on key policy issues related to digital platforms affecting Black communities (e.g., disinformation, ad targeting, online anti-Blackness, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act) through research, building, and convening the Joint Center’s network of experts and engaging in public education.
The director will grow the Joint Center’s program on Platform Regulation and Content Moderation policy program to provide leadership in national policy conversations. The director will manage the completion of research, engage with the media, educate policymakers, cultivate donors, and provide input on Joint Center messaging related to platform regulation and content moderation.
Read the full description here.
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The Joint Center is seeking a director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Policy
The director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Policy will be an inspirational leader dedicated to leading the Joint Center’s budding Small Business and Entrepreneurship program. The director will be responsible for building the Joint Center’s expertise and influence on key policy issues affecting Black small-business owners and entrepreneurs through research, building, and convening the Joint Center’s network of experts and engaging in public education on timely issues affecting Black business owners.
Read the full description here.
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