Meet Our New Leaders: SSN Board and Management Team
Today, the Scholars Strategy Network is excited to announce six additions to our leadership team. Please join us in celebrating these exemplary individuals, all of whom will enable SSN to better support researchers in our mission to improve public policy and strengthen democracy.
The SSN Board of Directors sets the strategic direction for the organization, advancing our mission to ensure that research is used wherever policy decisions are made and empowering scholars in the project of strengthening democracy.
Joining SSN's board are: Darrick Hamilton, the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy and the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification, and Political Economy at The New School; Hedwig Lee, a Professor of Sociology, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity at Washington University St. Louis; and Ellen Nissenbaum, the Senior Vice President for Government Affairs for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Leaving SSN's Board of Directors are Jacob Hacker and Lee Wasserman. We thank them for their years of service helping to grow SSN into the organization that it is today.
The SSN management team oversees the day-to-day operation of the organization to help chapters and members across the country connect with policymakers, civic leaders, and journalists.
Joining SSN's management team are: Executive Director, Paola Maynard-Moll; Director of Communications, Dominik Doemer; and Director of Training, Andrew Pope.
Read more about all six of our new leaders below.
Meet the New Board Members
Hamilton has been involved in crafting policy proposals, like Baby Bonds and a Federal Job Guarantee, which have garnered a great deal of attention and served as inspirations for legislative proposals at the federal, state, and local levels. He has served as a member of the economic committee of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force; testified before several Senate and House committees; was a surrogate and advisor for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign; and advised numerous leading Members of Congress, as well as various 2020 presidential candidates.
Lee's research interests include the social determinants and consequences of population health and health disparities, with a focus on race, ethnicity, poverty, race-related stress, and the family. Recent work examines the impact of structurally rooted chronic stressors, like mass incarceration, on health.
Since 1984, Nissenbaum has directed the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' work with federal policymakers and other national organizations to promote equitable and responsible fiscal policies. These efforts encompass a broad range of policy issues, such as federal budget and tax issues, refundable tax credits for low-income working families, Medicaid and health care, and nutrition programs. Her work with policymakers of both parties and their staffs has contributed to major policy improvements that reduce poverty and inequality and promote fiscal responsibility.
Meet the New Management Team
Maynard-Moll is SSN’s new Executive Director. In this role, she manages the work of all SSN staff, the financial direction of the organization, and the long-term strategy of our efforts. Maynard-Moll joined SSN in 2014 on the policy team, then led SSN's chapters program, working closely with the network's 30+ volunteer-led state and regional chapters. In 2019, she transitioned to the role of Managing Director, overseeing the organization’s work with chapters, members, policymakers, civic leaders, and journalists.
Doemer is SSN's new Director of Communications. In this role, he leads SSN's communications team working on everything from helping members and chapters lend their expertise through the media to organizational communications. Joining the Scholars Strategy Network in June 2017 as a Communications Associate and producer for the No Jargon podcast, Doemer has spent the last several years helping university-based scholars become influential players in public policy debates.
Pope is SSN’s new Director of Training. In this role, he works closely with staff and leaders from across the network to develop and deploy trainings that empower scholars to achieve SSN’s mission of using research to improve public policy. Pope has a PhD from the History Department at Harvard University. Before joining SSN, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for African American Urban Studies & the Economy and taught for Harvard University's Committee on Degrees in History & Literature.