Janelle Jones is the vice president of policy and program at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Previously, she was the chief economist and policy director at the Service Employees International Union. Prior, she was the chief economist at the U.S Department of Labor, the first Black woman to serve in that role. Before that, she was an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute working on a variety of labor market topics within EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, and the Economic Analysis and Research Network. She was also a research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, where she worked on topics including racial inequality, unemployment, job quality, and unions, and an economist at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Her research has been cited in The New Yorker, The Economist, Harper’s, The Washington Post, The Review of Black Political Economy, and other publications. Jones holds a B.S. in mathematics from Spelman College and an M.A. in applied economics from Illinois State University.
Expert Type: Staff
Christian Edlagan
Christian Edlagan is the associate director of academic engagement at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. He is responsible for helping Equitable Growth broaden and strengthen its academic network, identifying opportunities and tools to close the gap between academics and policymakers so that research is informative and actionable, and developing and stewarding relationships with Equitable Growth’s advisory bodies and institutional partners. He also manages the development and execution of the organization’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion pathways program and advises the director of academic programs on strategy and metrics of success. Prior to joining Equitable Growth, Edlagan worked in advocacy, outreach, and digital communications roles for the National Endowment for Democracy, Groundswell Clean Energy, and the United Nations Free & Equal campaign. He has also served on the nonprofit boards of KAYA: Filipino Americans for Progress, the DC chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals, and the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership. He has earned an M.Sc. in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a B.A. in political science from Loyola University New Orleans.