Heather McGhee

Heather Charisse McGhee is a New York Times bestselling author and policy advocate. She is a former president and currently a trustee emeritus of Demos, a non-profit progressive U.S. think tank.[2] McGhee is a regular contributor to NBC News and frequently appears as a guest and panelist on Meet the Press, All In with Chris Hayes, and Real Time with Bill Maher.[3][4][5][6]

Heather McGhee
Born
Heather Charisse McGhee

(1980-06-06) June 6, 1980
Chicago, IL
EducationYale University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (JD)
SpouseCassim Shepard[1]

Early life and education

Heather Charisse McGhee grew up in the South Side, Chicago and is the daughter of Gail C. Christopher and Earl J. McGhee.[5] In seventh grade, McGhee enrolled in The Bement School as a boarding student.[7] graduated from Milton Academy in 1997.[8] McGhee received a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University in 2001.[5] She was initially drawn to theater and creative writing but eventually became interested in economic policy.[5]

McGhee attended the UC Berkeley School of Law, citing how law school could help give her the credentials to change public policy. She graduated with a J.D. in 2009.[3][5][9]

Career

Positions

After graduating from Yale in 2001, she taught English in Barcelona for a short time, but soon after the September 11 attacks she moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in television writing.[10]

After about a year, she moved to New York City and began working with the non-profit think tank, Demos.[5] In 2003, McGhee first connected with Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, on the topic of credit card debt.[5]

She left Demos to pursue a law degree and serve as a Deputy Policy Director for the John Edwards 2008 presidential campaign.

McGhee returned to Demos in 2009 and co-chaired a task force with Americans for Financial Reform which helped develop the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2009.[11] McGhee became the president of Demos in 2014.[5][9][12] In early 2018, she stepped down as president but remained a distinguished senior fellow at Demos.[13]

In December 2019 McGhee became chair of the board of directors of Color of Change.[14]

Appearances and talks

In 2016, McGhee's televised phone conversation with a man named Gary on C-SPAN who admitted racial prejudice ("I'm a White male, and I am prejudiced. The reason it is something I wasn't taught but it's kind of something that I learned.") was widely covered by news media organizations and viewed over a million times.[15][16][17][18] A year later, Gary stated he had taken her advice to heart and his views had changed.[19][20]

In 2019, McGhee presented at a TED (conference) a talk entitled "Racism has a cost for everyone."[21]

In 2021, McGhee was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour on CNN, titled "Why racism hurts everyone, regardless of race."[22]

McGhee has appeared on episodes of Pod Save America and was a guest host for a live recording of the podcast in Boston.[23][24]

In September 2022, McGhee gave a brief interview with NPR's Ari Shapiro to discuss the student debt crisis.[25]

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

In March 2021, her book "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together" debuted at #3 on the New York Times best seller list (for non-fiction). In it she discusses what she calls "drained-pool politics".[26]

The Sum of Us Podcast

In July 2022, McGhee debuted "The Sum of Us Podcast", which expands on her book by the same title.[27]

References
  1. "Heather McGhee, Cassim Shepard". New York Times. October 2, 2016. Retrieved April 9, 2023.
  2. "American Continental Group adds Brady aide". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  3. Leland, John (2015-08-28). "How Heather McGhee, President of Demos, an Advocacy Group, Spends Her Sundays". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  4. ""This is the fight": Demos's Heather McGhee on the upside to Trump's racial politics". Vox. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  5. Cadei, Emily. "A Think Tank Queen Vying for a Seat at DC's Table". OZY. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  6. "What Would Happen If Everyone In America Who Could Vote, Did Vote?". Sky Valley Chronicle. 7 April 2018. Archived from the original on 7 April 2018.
  7. "Q&A with Heather McGhee | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  8. "Fulfilling Dr. King's Dream: A Charge From Alumna Heather McGhee". Milton Academy. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  9. "Powerful Women Leaders: Heather McGhee". College Magazine. 2018-01-25. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  10. "The Inexhaustible Optimist: Meet Heather McGhee, President of Demos | The M Dash". MM.LaFleur. 2017-06-30. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  11. "Heather McGhee". HuffPost. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  12. "Heather McGhee '01: on your left". Yale Alumni Magazine. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  13. Evans, Garrett (2018-02-27). "Lobbying World". The Hill. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  14. "COLOR OF CHANGE ANNOUNCES HEATHER MCGHEE AS NEW CHAIR OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS". Color of Change. December 9, 2021. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  15. Itkowitz, Colby (2016-08-24). "A C-SPAN caller asked a black guest how to stop being prejudiced. Here's how she responded". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  16. Smith, Daniel (2016-12-26). "A Friendship for a More Tolerant America". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  17. Moye, David (2016-08-24). "White Caller Admits He's Prejudiced. C-SPAN Guest Helps Him Do Better". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  18. "A White Man Asked C-Span How to Stop Being Racist. Here's the Fascinating Answer". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  19. Itkowitz, Colby. "A C-Span caller confessed his racism to a black guest. A year later, he says he's changed". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  20. Itkowitz, Colby (2017-08-25). "A C-SPAN caller confessed his racism to a black guest. A year later, he called back to say how he'd changed". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  21. ""Racism has a cost for everyone."". TED. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  22. ""Why racism hurts everyone, regardless of race."". CNN. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  23. McGhee, Heather C. [@hmcghee] (2019-04-11). "I'm in Boston guest hosting on the @PodSaveAmerica live show tonight. These guys have too much fun...pic.twitter.com/zdnXNftGsb" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-01-12 – via Twitter.
  24. ""You can't be a woke Hungarian fascist."". Crooked Media. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  25. "The role of states in contributing to the student debt crisis". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  26. Blake, John (March 5, 2021). "A drained swimming pool shows how racism harms White people, too". Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  27. "Heather McGhee Is Telling Untold Stories About Solidarity in a New Podcast". Vanity Fair. 2022-07-20. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
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