Angela Glover Blackwell

Angela Glover Blackwell (born ) is an American attorney, civil rights advocate, and author. In 1999, she founded the research and advocacy nonprofit organization PolicyLink, and after twenty years as president and CEO, became the Founder in Residence. Blackwell has regularly provided expert commentary in a variety of news media and hosts the podcast Radical Imagination.

Early life and education

Blackwell is one of three children born to Philmore and Rose Glover. Her parents were educators; her father was a high school administrator, and her mother a teacher.

In 2005, Blackwell discussed her childhood in St. Louis with Yes! magazine, stating, "For African-American families such as my own, community was the scaffolding that allowed us to achieve our visions in a society where we were locked out of the mainstream. By building strong communities, we were able to create our own pathways to personal fulfillment."

She completed her J.D. at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law in 1977. which included work on class action lawsuits and firm strategy development. which focuses on the needs of children and families with data-driven public policy advocacy and community organizing. In 2011, Blackwell was appointed to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

In 2014, Blackwell was appointed to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

In 2018, Blackwell transitioned from her role as president and CEO to Founder in Residence at PolicyLink. In 2018, she also joined the faculty of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley as a lecturer.

In 2019, Blackwell began her podcast Radical Imagination, which hosts experts for discussions about what Sarah Larson at The New Yorker described as "big ideas, including reparations, housing as a human right, universal basic income, and [...] police abolition."

In April 2020, Blackwell was appointed to the California Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. In 2023, she was discussed in news media as one of several people who might be selected by California Governor Gavin Newsom to serve for the remainder of the term of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Commentary

Blackwell has regularly appeared as a guest on Moyers & Company as a social justice expert, including in 1995, to discuss rebuilding communities, in 2004, to discuss economic and social equity, in 2012, to discuss her optimism, and in 2014, to discuss systemic racism. Blackwell has also regularly appeared on C-SPAN networks, beginning in 1994. Blackwell also appeared on NPR in 2007 to discuss a study from the Pew Charitable Trusts on economic mobility, and on PBS NewsHour in 2014 to discuss progress made after fifty years of the War on Poverty.

In 2009 and 2010, Blackwell wrote commentary about national health policy for The Washington Post. In 2017, Blackwell wrote "The Curb-Cut Effect" in Stanford Social Innovation Review, about how laws and programs designed for vulnerable groups often benefit everyone, followed by "Civil Society and Authentic Engagement in a Diverse Nation" in 2018. Blackwell further expounded on the curb-cut effect in a 2017 opinion article in The New York Times titled "Infrastructure Is Not Just Roads and Bridges."

As founder in residence at PolicyLink, Blackwell has continued to provide expert commentary on economic and social justice issues, including as the keynote speaker at the 2020 "Racism and the Economy" conference series hosted by the presidents of the Atlanta, Boston, and Minneapolis Federal Reserve Banks. In 2020, Blackwell co-authored opinion articles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Mercury News.

Personal life Blackwell is married to Dr. Fred Blackwell, an orthopedic surgeon. She has two children, and several grandchildren. 2017 Peter E. Haas Public Service Award, University of California, Berkeley nominee, 2017 Visionary of the Year award, San Francisco Chronicle and the School of Economics and Business Administration at St. Mary's College

Selected works

Blackwell, A.G., Kwoh, S., Pastor, M. Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. .

Articles