As an eighth-generation Texan, Urban’s LBJ connection and its mission to expanding economic opportunity squares perfectly with my history and passion for public policy to make a more perfect Union.
Don Baylor is a senior associate in Urban Institute’s Policy Advisory Group, a team of policy analysts focused on accelerating the adoption and implementation of evidence-based policymaking across Urban’s portfolio. His current projects include Cities of Learning, a multicity, youth digital-badging initiative; an assessment of JPMorgan Chase Foundation’s investments in Detroit and financial capability; and an effort to create a strategic framework for state and local economic development policy in partnership with the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
From 2004 to 2014, Baylor worked at the Austin, Texas-based Center for Public Policy Priorities as a lobbyist, policy analyst, and director of OpportunityTexas, a statewide initiative to increase income and financial stability, create pathways to good jobs, and promote savings. His policy expertise includes asset building, consumer finance, postsecondary education, labor markets, and economic development
Baylor currently serves on the consumer advisory board for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and as a senior adviser to the Insight Center for Community Economic Development and the United Way for Greater Austin. A former board member of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, he is also a founding board member of RAISE Texas and the Texas Match the Promise Foundation.
Baylor holds a BA from Georgetown University and MA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
