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WASHINGTON, DC, June 18, 2024 – The trustees of the Urban Institute have elected seven new leaders to join its board: Margaret Anadu, senior partner and head of real estate at The Vistria Group; Roy Austin, vice president for civil rights and deputy general counsel at Meta; Raphael Bostic, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology; John Goodman, CEO of Accenture Federal Services; Lee Pelton, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation; and Patti Saris, former chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts and former chair of the US Sentencing Commission.

Austin, Givens, Goodman, and Saris will begin their terms immediately. Anadu, Bostic, and Pelton will formally join the board in November.

“The range of experiences these new trustees bring to Urban will add diverse perspectives to Urban’s effort to drive impact through the evidence-based solutions that are our calling card. They will help us improve the lives of people and communities across the nation,” said Jamie Gorelick, Urban’s board chair.

“I am so excited to work with this accomplished and wise group of leaders to chart Urban’s path ahead. Our new trustees will help deepen our capacity to drive change through data and research insights,” said Urban President Sarah Rosen Wartell. “They join a remarkable group of leaders on the board working to create a future where everyone has the opportunity and power to thrive.”

BACKGROUND

Margaret Anadu is a senior partner and head of real estate at The Vistria Group. She is one of the foremost experts on equitable access to capital, having invested more than $10 billion across hundreds of transactions throughout the United States, and was named one of the most influential figures in US commercial real estate by Commercial Observer. Anadu has been a trusted adviser to senior government officials at the federal, state, and local levels on using private capital to create more equitable communities. In April 2022, Margaret was appointed chair of the board of directors of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. She has shared her views on CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and Yahoo! Finance and was named to “40 under 40” lists by Fortune, Black Enterprise, and Crain’s.

Roy L. Austin, Jr. is Meta’s vice president of civil rights and deputy general counsel. Before joining Meta, Austin was a partner with Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP and McDermott Will & Emery, where he primarily practiced criminal defense, civil, and civil rights litigation. He also has experience as an honors trial attorney with the criminal section of the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, where he investigated and prosecuted hate crime and police brutality cases; deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, where he supervised the criminal section and the special litigation section’s law enforcement portfolio; and the White House Domestic Policy Council’s deputy assistant to the president for the Office of Urban Affairs, Justice and Opportunity, where he coauthored a report on Big Data and civil rights, worked with the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, helped develop the Police Data Initiative, worked on the expansion of reentry assistance, and was a member of then-President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force.

Raphael Bostic is the 15th president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He is responsible for all the bank’s activities, including monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and payment services. He also serves on the Federal Reserve’s chief monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee. Previously, Bostic served in the Obama administration as the assistant secretary for policy development and research at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, leading a 150-person interdisciplinary team with broad expertise in housing, community development, and economic development. For 16 years, he was on the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy. At USC Price, Bostic served in many capacities, including as the founding director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast, chair of the Governance, Management and Policy Process department, and chair of the Bedrosian Center on Governance. Bostic’s work has appeared in leading economic, public policy, and planning journals. 

Alexandra Reeve Givens is the CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to protect civil rights and civil liberties in the digital age. She is a frequent public speaker on ways to protect users’ online privacy and access to information and how to ensure emerging technologies advance human rights and democratic values. Reeve Givens previously served as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee covering innovation and consumer protection. Before joining the Center for Democracy and Technology, she served as the founding executive director of Georgetown University's Institute for Technology Law and Policy. Reeve Givens began her career as a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City, and taught for nine years as an adjunct professor at Columbia Law and Georgetown Law.

John Goodman is the CEO of Accenture Federal Services, a leading company serving US federal government clients and a subsidiary of Accenture LLP. Under Goodman’s leadership, Accenture Federal Services has been at the forefront of change, increasing investments in emerging technologies, data, and proven commercial innovation to deliver greater outcomes and meaningful change for the country. Goodman also advanced the company’s talent development, culture, and inclusion and diversity programs and expanded workforce development programs to create more jobs, career pathways, and training for underrepresented communities, veterans, and military spouses. Prior to joining Accenture, Goodman worked in the federal government, serving as deputy under secretary of defense (Industrial Affairs & Installations) and a senior director with the National Economic Council.  He previously was an associate professor at Harvard Business School.

Lee Pelton has served as the president and CEO of the Boston Foundation since June 2021 and previously served as president of Emerson College (2011–2021) and Willamette University (1998–2011). Throughout his 23-year tenure as a college president, he led with the core belief that higher education must serve to deepen students’ appreciation of the humanities. Pelton has positioned the Boston Foundation, one of the nation’s first and most influential community foundations, as an agent for social change by centering equity in its programs, grantmaking, and civic leadership. Pelton began his academic career at Harvard University, where he earned a PhD in English literature with an academic focus on 19th-century British prose and poetry. He served on the Harvard Board of Overseers and as vice chair of its executive committee. Pelton is an adviser to the Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative. He is a recipient of the Harvard Medal and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received several honorary degrees.

Patti Saris is former chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts and former chair of the US Sentencing Commission. She is a graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School. After graduating, she clerked for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. When Sen. Edward M. Kennedy became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sarris moved to Washington, DC, and worked as staff counsel. She then became an assistant US attorney and eventually chief of the Civil Division. Saris later served as a US magistrate judge, associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, and appointee to the US District Court. Saris was on the Harvard Board of Overseers from 2000 to 2006 and became president in 2023. She has served on various Harvard University visiting committees and is a lecturer at Harvard Law School. 

A full list of Urban Institute trustees can be found here.

About the Urban Institute

The Urban Institute is a nonprofit research organization that provides data and evidence to help advance upward mobility and equity. We are a trusted source for changemakers who seek to strengthen decisionmaking, create inclusive economic growth, and improve the well-being of families and communities. For more than 50 years, Urban has delivered facts that inspire solutions—and this remains our charge today.