Rhiana Gunn-Wright is the policy director for New Consensus, a think tank based in Chicago. A Rhodes Scholar, Ms. Gunn-Wright has also worked as a policy analyst for a number of organizations, including the Detroit Health Department and as a policy intern for First Lady Michelle Obama. At New Consensus, she recently co-authored the research paper “The Green New Deal: Mobilizing for a Just, Prosperous, and Sustainable Economy,” which was published in January of this year.

“A lot of people think that the Green New Deal – particularly the second half where we talk about a jobs guarantee and universal health care, education and training – as just sort of this progressive boondoggle. But the truth is those things were chosen because we were trying to think about: what are the labor conditions now? How are families set up? How will that change if ideally you end up with full employment? What is necessary for people to thrive, and how do you structure that equitably? And how can you be thinking about the social safety net in terms of re-investing in communities that have been disinvested in? So, basically, policy has been used to disempower people. How do you use it to empower them?” Rhiana Gunn-Wright, one of the architects of the Green New Deal